A Pear Tree

On our way back to Pre School from visiting the Post Office and the Mobile Library on Tuesday we saw a pear tree with lots and lots of fruit. We rang the owner to see if we could pick some pears as the house has no residents at present. The answer was ‘Yes’. So today we set off with our wheelbarrows and plastic bags to try our hand at picking fruit. The children really enjoyed the experience. Now we know that pears grow on trees. To ripen pears we put them between two towels and leave them for a few day. Happy eating families.

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(Please note: I am not sure why my photos are turning side ways – if someone knows how to fix this I would be most grateful!)

Visiting the Hospital Residents

An important part of our program is visiting the residents at the local hospital every month. We played some games when we went on Wednesday. Mr Barnes gave us each a snake from his lolly bag! We like to get out and about in the community.

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Dorothy became acquainted with Jeff (a fox) and Bob (a dog) during our visit!

MATISSE

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Following on from our studies of famous artists in 2016, in 2017 we are studying the ‘Drawing Scissors” work of Henri Matisse. The children were shown a slide show of examples of Matisse’s collage work he called “Drawing with Scissors”. The children didn’t think that his famous “Snail” really looked like a snail at all! To start off our experimentation we used a variety of irregular foam cut pieces (thanks Sharnie!) and water to create transient pieces of art in coloured trays. We talked about regular and irregular shapes. I drew a line that almost joined and asked the children whether it was a shape. They quickly said “No”. When I asked why, they said that it wasn’t joined! How smart are 4 year olds? Matisse uses irregular shapes to make his pictures and sometimes he uses regular shapes as the backgrounds. Stay tuned for more Mattise inspired art next week.

Fire Drill

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We had our fire drill for this term on Thursday. I read the children a story so they understood what a fire drill is all about. When the whistle blew, we all lined up and evacuated the building in an orderly manner. Mrs Gayle rang 000 and Mrs Grant grabbed the first aid kit and the sign in book. When we got to our safe spot we did a roll call. When we knew everyone was accounted for, we went back inside. Our fire drill inspired some fire play with the DUPLO set.

Learning Games

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Learning Games is a part of the 3a Australia Approach to support literacy learning. This weeks game with the four year olds was to make a book filled with magazine clippings of things the children like. This is a one on one activity and it takes a lot of time. The time spent building relationships and getting to know the children is important.

SmallTalk

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Robyn (our Maternal Child Health Nurse) has worked very hard to bring the SmallTalk program to Manangatang Families. We have lots of families participating and it is wonderful to see. The program is being run by Joelle Whiting (Mallee Family Care). Our Pre School Assistant, Jayne is also helping Joelle.

What is SmallTalk?

Supported Playgroupsfunded by the Department are required to deliver smalltalk to all participating families. Supported Playgroup facilitators are responsible for the delivery of smalltalk in Supported Playgroups and, more intensively, through In-Home Support for eligible families.
smalltalk is an evidence-based program that aims to introduce parents to a small number of parenting essentials that lead to optimal child outcomes, help parents become aware of the importance of their interactions with their child and increase the number and type of situations in which they engage in positive interactions. The parent-child interactions are:
• Warm and Gentle
• Tuning into Children
• Following your Child’s Lead
• Listening and Talking More
• Teachable Moments
• Shared Reading
Another important element of smalltalk is the encouragement provided to parents to look after their own health and wellbeing by developing positive social support networks and seeking professional help if stressed and not coping.
Smalltalk is a 10 week program during school term that is delivered one-on-one to eligible playgroup participants (see below).