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The story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar provides learning opportunities about everyday and sometimes food, numerals and counting and symmetry. Here the children are in the process of making a butterfly by putting blobs of paint on a piece of paper, folding the paper and then giving it a good squish before opening it up again and looking at all the new colours that have been made.
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We are preparing for our concert in December. Part of the preparation involved painting a giant jungle backdrop scene on an old curtain. The children have learnt Jungle Songs and about Jungle Animals. Next on the list is to plan the Jungle Themed invitations and Tea for our families.
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Some good opportunities to improve our core strength and balancing have been happening in the outdoor space this month. The children participated in setting up obstacle courses to make it more fun.
Today we did a dance lesson with a dance teacher from Swan Hill. This was organized by Joelle, our Facilitated Playgroup Leader. We joined in the session with the Playgroup Families. The children enjoyed the loud music. We danced to Rock-a-bye Your Bear, and a Cat and Mouse Song. We went to the local Hall for this activity and it was funded by ‘Use Your Local Hall’ program.
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It is the time of year for transition. The children have begun regular transition visits to school. At school they are becoming familiar with the new environment and the teachers. They are learning where buildings and classrooms are and becoming familiar with have lots of BIG kids around.
Teachers are also working on Transition Statements for families of children enrolled in Four year old Pre School. Thank you to the families for contributing to this process.
And, Lastly – we will be having a transition day for the three year olds for 2019 in December.
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The children are getting very good at writing their names and recognising the letters in their names now. We use a variety of resources to make this repetitive task as interesting as possible.
During Bush Kinder the Bottle Brush and Wattle trees were flowering. Using Wattle and Bottle Brush blooms, the children experimented with representing them using cardboard and pom poms for painting tools. This is a form of printing. The results were amazing.
The teachers have been attending Professional Development session run by Body Safety Australia to learn how to teach the children to keep their body’s safe. Today, Lauren from Body Safety Australia came to Manangatang to teach our children. We had two sessions for the children and parents. Thank you to all the parents who supported this program and for all the great feedback we received.
The children learned the following messages:
“Stop. I don’t like it.”
Parts of our body that are private and public.
Correct terms for body parts like penis, vulva and vagina.
Necessary touch
The difference between a secret and a surprise
Body Autonomy. “My body belongs to me.”
Identifying how emotions ‘feel’ in our bodies.
Identifying our safe adults.
Night Bush Kinder
What an amazing night – Night Bush Kinder was this week. The children got to show their families what we get up to at Bush Kinder and the older siblings had a lovely trip down memory lane as they enjoyed all of the activities. We heard a story about the Boorong people and the stars at Lake Tyrrell. We had a delicious BBQ Tea and toasted marshmallows around the campfire. Then we had a cake to celebrate Early Educators Day. We went for a walk in the old channel by torch light and then the clouds moved so that we could see the stars. We followed the stars on an app called SkyView – Lite. But the best thing about the night was the contributions of all the families. Every family contributed something to the night – without lists, reminders and calls for help. Thank you all so much.
This week at Bush Kinder we walked right along the channel to the road – discovering animal holes, bones and signs. We had fun scrambling up and sliding down the channel bank – great for Gross Motor Skills development. We enjoyed learning about the Aboriginal Culture from Willie – our Aboriginal Educator. We learnt about the tools and weapons Aboriginal people used to help them survive in the bush. We made some cubbies and climbed some trees.