A Compass

One of the children brought in a compass to show for ‘morning meeting’ today.  We talked about how you use a compass to find your way when you are lost.  It helps you find directions.  We used the direction vocabularly of North, South, East and West.  Mrs Gayle googled ‘compass’ on her iPad and we learnt how to use it.  We will practice at Bush Kinder tomorrow.

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Community Helpers

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Just another example of our great parent community.  This week Donna and Jack came and planted a lemon tree into an unused pot.  Luke noticed as soon as we went outside.  Thank you Donna and Jack – it was hard work, especially bringing all the dirt in as well.

Bush Kinder – Day 3

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Today at Bush Kinder we saw a ‘cross’ or ‘X’ in the sky from jet planes.  We also saw an eagle hovering and circling looking for prey.  Perhaps a small bird or animal like a lizard.

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Then we saw a stumpy-tailed lizard who quickly looked for a place to hide.  He camouflaged himself well in this bush.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe explored a hole in the channel bank.  What could live in there?  The children thought rabbits.  Someone said that foxes eat the rabbits and then live in the holes.  We thought he might be right because there were bird feathers in the hole.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe climbed up and down the steep channel banks and walked on uneven surfaces for at least one kilometre.  This is excellent for our gross-motor skills.

We had some visiting teachers from Balranald at our Bush Kinder today.  It was great to share with them.  Thank you Jayne and Sue.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen we got back to Pre School we drew maps of Bush Kinder.

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You can see the aeroplane, the bus, the cross in the sky, trees, water and roads.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALuke even made a sign on his that ‘says’ Ridley Rd.  This is the road to Bush Kinder.  We are going to make some signs and signals at Pre School next week.

Bush Kinder – Day 2

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAToday we welcomed the children from Ouyen Pre School to Bush Kinder.  They brought lots of parent helpers with them because they had lots of children.

We had a group meeting where we acknowledged the Aboriginal land owners and then we went for a walk around the boundry.  (Did all the adults notice how good the children were with the boundry?)

We had to dimantle and rebuild one of our cubbies because it has been a very windy week in Manangatang and a cubby fell down.

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We also had Willie (Koorie Educator) visit and teach us about the didgerdoo, boomerangs and the coolabah.  Willie is a regular visitor to Bush Kinder.

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And we did some more climbing – because we love climbing!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALilly said, “I’m a koala!” as she hugged a tree.

We also noticed the patterns on our logs that Mr Grant kindly put out for us to sit on.  The children said they had been made by wood worms.  Willie talked to the children about termites.

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Another amazing day!  Thank you to Louise, Bev, Parents and the Ouyen Children for a wonderful play.

A Joey

Today Tao’s Mum brought a joey to Pre School for us to look at.  The joey was in a cloth bag to simulate his mothers pouch.  Tao’s Mum let us pat the joey.  When we had lunch, the joey had lunch.  The joey’s lunch was formula in an eye dropper.  She loved her lunch.  After lunch she had to get out of the pouch to wee and poo.  The joey’s name was Ruby Roo!

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Thank you to Tao and his Mum for this special experience.  We might see some of Ruby’s relatives at Bush Kinder.

‘000’

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In conjunction with our fire drill every term we learn about how to dial ‘000’.  This term we used a website ‘kids.triplezero.gov.au’ to look at games which depict senarios for the children to work through with their parents.  We tried a few – but there are lots.  You might like to try some with your children at home.

Chickens

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Markus’ family have an incubator at their house.  Mrs Gayle gave them some fertilized eggs and they hatched them out.  We learn about the process via photos.

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They set the temperature at 37.5 degrees celcius and the eggs stayed there for 21 days.

chick 2 chic 6 One egg started to hatch.  The chickens use their beak to peck through the egg shell.

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A chicken is hatched.

chic 8Lots more chickens hatched.

Markus brought the chickens to Pre School.  Lilly had a lovely play with her chicken.  She used her ‘magpie catcher’ for the chicken house!

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Bush Kinder

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It is Bush Kinder month at Manangatang Pre School.  Unlike other services we run this program for one session per week of the month of October.  This decision has been made because unlike our city counterparts – Manangatang children spend a lot of time outdoors on farms.

We have been preparing for our visit to Lake Lulla (inland Salt Lake) by reading the Photo Books from previous years and other picture story books.  This year we were also fortunate enough to have a visit from Museum of Victoria and we learnt a lot about the wildlife we might see.

We have learnt what to do if we see a snake and we have practiced this routine.  We have talked about wearing sensible clothing and packing lots of food and water.

We invited last years Pre schoolers to Bush Kinder for our first day.  The aim of this was to improve social opportunities for our small group of children, provide another Transition to School opportunity and lastly for last years group to show this years group the possibilities at Bush Kinder.

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Anders said, “This looks like a good tree to climb.” – on our walk to the lake – so we stopped for a while and we did.

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We walked to the salt lake.  We saw salt – yes it is like the salt you eat and you can taste it!  We played in the mud flats – stinky, but fun.  We saw ‘little rivers’ in the mud flowing into the lake.

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The wild flowers are out and the children picked some to make little decorations in their cubbies.  We fould our cubbies largely intact from last year – and we played in these.

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And we tested our climbing skills to see just how far we felt comfortable going.

Thank you to Mrs MacKenzie, Mr Watson, the Prep/One Class, Ann and Heidi for enjoying the day with us.  Next week our Koorie Educator (Willie) is back and we host Ouyen Pre School at our Bush Kinder.