Being the last week of term, we had familiar activities the children have enjoyed doing with their friends over the term – it is amazing  to see how much the children have developed over the term.

We started to talk about Guide Dogs , as part of discussing jobs dogs can do in the community. The children were very interested, and came up with some very thoughtful questions , e.g. “when the dogs  take their owners shopping – who pays the money? Dogs don’t have hands!) we will continue with this discussion next term, and learn more about it.

Although Easter is right in the middle of the holiday period, we still wanted to do some Easter activities so the children could have fun preparing.

We painted Easter Egg shapes, and we made special little baskets- the children painted the box shapes and then we helped the children make them into baskets, and put some sparkly cellophane inside, The children also painted some little eggs and when they were dry, these went into the baskets which stayed at Kindergarten until Friday. During mat time on Friday , we heard a lot of loud banging and rattling coming from the storeroom- when Margot went to investigate she found a basket of Easter Eggs- enough for everybody. We decided the Easter Bunny must have come early because he knew we were not going to be here next week – great excitement, what a clever Bunny. When we talked about it we were not sure whether we’d seen him go past, so we went outside to look – we searched the playground for footprints and for any holes he may have come through in the fence. The children found some likely holes, and they also found a number of hidden Easter Eggs around the play ground (these had actually been left behind when the Extended Hours children had their Easter hunt) – this added more excitement, as we decided he must have dropped them out of his basket as he was carrying them in for us!  Imagination is a wonderful thing – with a little encouragement  and a few ideas – the children’s imaginations work overtime and a wonderful story develops – this is something we nurture at Kindergarten, and everybody can take part in.

Next term we will be starting our dancing and music sessions, so we will be very busy

Until then – have a very safe and happy holiday!

What will happen next term?

Group A Educators – Margot, Ann and Lisa.

Here it is, the final week of term one and what a term it has been! We are so pleased to see the way the children have grown over this term and look forward to the changes that lay ahead in term two.

With Easter coming up, we decided to create Easter cards for the children’s families. These cards worked on the children’s fine motor skills by encouraging the use of Easter egg halves and cotton wool balls dipped in paint and printed on paper. The children do prefer freedom in art activities and thus asking them to paint something in particular was more difficult. However, this desire for creative freedom is fantastic and one which will be nurtured at kinder this year. It was fantastic to see all of the children engaging in this activity, even those who do not generally paint during our sessions.

Whilst outside, the children have been often engaging in group work to build mountains and sandcastles in the sandpit. In response to this, we did a science experiment to make our own volcano. The ingredients used were bi-carb soda (baking soda) and white vinegar poured in one after the other. The result was, of course, a chemical reaction which saw a lava-like effect take place. The reactions from the children when the volcano “erupted” were fantastic; cries of “Woah!” and “Wow!” and comparing it to lava were heard. Though this is a simple science activity, the purpose of “experimenting” is to teach the children perseverance when something does not work. This is a lesson which will be explored via further science activities throughout the year.

As one child was leaving us for India at the end of term, we had a closer look at our world map. We pointed out where she was going to live and compared that to where we are right now. Though many of the children have been on planes, the concept of another country is difficult to comprehend. We talked about how a long plane flight would be involved and that a plane was the only way to get there. This topic will be revisited throughout the year and we hope to keep in touch with Aarna and her family in India.

Best wishes for a safe and happy Easter break and we look forward to seeing you all again in Term Two!

Jess and Fiona

Wow, we’ve made it to the last week of term one already! We are so pleased with how the children have changed and developed over the term and cannot wait for term two and the learning it will bring.

As Easter is coming up, we have been creating Easter cards for the children to take home to their families. This has been an opportunity for the children to discuss their knowledge of Easter (if any) and what they will be doing during the break. We chose to firstly use cotton wool balls and then egg halves to print onto the paper. Both of these worked on the children’s developing fine motor skills along with encouraging their creativity. The children in this group seem to respond well to a set art task, though we do try to encourage them to use their imagination to create unique art pieces. They could also stick pom poms and feathers on the cards to represent the chickens and rabbits that are commonly associated with Easter. In our mat time discussion, we largely focussed on these aspects of Easter; rabbits, chickens and spending time with family.

During mat time, the children gladly shared where they were going on their Easter break, if anywhere. This tied in well with our discussions of other countries in the world. We had a map and atlas set up in the room with magnifying glasses and flags on it so the children were able to “look up” countries which they may visit or know. This led to many interesting discussions about other children living in these countries and different languages that people speak.

Best wishes for a safe and happy Easter break and we look forward to seeing you all again in Term Two!

Jess and Fiona

We are really enjoying our days together at kinder and it’s good to see so many happy faces in the mornings. A few new activities have been set up to reflect children’s interests, the large cylinder pipes have been elevated on different angles so the children can run cars through them. The children found the higher they elevate the pipes the faster the cars will go; they also had to consider the fact that one pipe is shorter than the other! They are using measurement, gravity, motion and problem solving skills; they realised cars would not run through the pipe when held vertically.

We’ve got lots of little scientists in our midst so we have been conducting our own experiments. Our focus has been on ‘water’ and how we can turn liquids into solids; the children enjoyed watching water turn into ice and then watch it ‘melt’ before their eyes. They found their own body heat fastened the process when we handled the ice ‘we could put it in the oven’ said Daniel or ‘put it in the sun’ suggested Roxy. At group time we have been looking at what objects sink and float, we use s=sink f=float and tally up the ‘results’ so the children can document on paper if they want too. We have used many objects around the room and have noticed some patterns ‘the plastic things are floating’ noticed Leo ‘The coins and keys are heavy and sink’ commented Bea. The children are observing, making predictions and coming to their own conclusions, they are being active and contributing members of the group- confident to share and listen to ideas.

The children have been using small ice trays and eye-droppers to suck up water and disperse into the small compartments.  They are building on their fine-motor and hand-eye co-ordination, it’s also an opportunity to learn about colour mixing with the various coloured water. This week we will look more closely at colour mixing using a colour chart and paints.

We have been wondering ‘does ice or water weigh more’? Our question will be followed up on this week using scales.

-        Thankyou to all the parents who got involved in baking special goodies for our fundraiser or going to the stall to sell them

-        We have noticed some children wearing ‘superhero’ dress up at kinder. Please avoid dressing your children in these (we will have special days for this)

-        This Friday 27th March please bring a special plate to share for our morning tea to celebrate a wonderful Term 1.

Amy, Tracey, Fiona and Helen

Extended Hours team