Late last week, Bea, Jiya and Mia, along with Anne were studying and discussing the large cranes being used behind Toorak Park which are working away daily. The girls all came up with a few things they would like to learn about the cranes, wrote a short letter to the construction company and sent it through the mail. We were lucky enough to receive a response, and a visit from Chris, who works on the building site. Chris and his builders all got together over morning tea and gave us a written response to the girls inquiries. He also explained to us all about the buildings they are constructing- 3 high rise buildings, one which is going to have 440 apartments in it! He explained to us the big hole in the ground which will eventually become a car park ( and encourages parents to take their children down to peer through the fence in the park to check out the progress of the construction). He also gave us a few safety hints and showed us his work gear which keeps him safe- steel capped boots, gloves, helmet, safety vest. We now know that the construction will continue on for at least 2 more years. After meeting Chris, we thought we would keep up correspondence and send him some pictures of the cranes and the future buildings. We refer to our drawings as the work of “architects”, who plan and design for buildings to be built. 
 
You may have also noticed the “Melbourne Rd Hair Salon” (title copy-write of Olivia pty ltd.) within our dramatic play area. Many stylists have enjoyed honing their skills by practicing on friends, family and teachers. These young apprentices certainly have a successful career ahead in the hairdressing industry, should they choose that path. The accuracy and knowledge in the portrayal of the client/stylist are making for some fantastic (and entertaining) interactions!
 
We are all enjoying hearing about the children’s early experiences of school visits and orientations during this exciting time of transition. Beginning school is an important milestone in life, and we like to take the time to discuss with each child their own feelings about their school. I have left a copy of Kathy Walker’s short book “Ready, set, Go” on the sign in desk. - a short book to help parents in preparing for and managing the transition to school.  You are most welcome to have a peruse or borrow it for a day or two (please let me know first).

Extended Hours Educators,
Laura, Tracey, Helen, and Fiona

Another busy week – the year is flying by!
 
The final stage of the Silkworm Life Cycle is happening now, with new moths hatching, then mating, and now we have so many eggs – it is amazing, the children check daily, and are very excited about their discoveries – it has been a great hands on learning experience for the children. We re-read the Reference Book, and re-visited the story – the children have grasped the concept of the life cycle, so we made a pasting sequence. We provided drawings of each part of the life cycle- eggs, eggs hatching, the tiny caterpillars, caterpillars eating and growing bigger, spinning cocoons, then hatching out as little white moths. The children needed to find the correct pictures, cut out these pictures carefully, paste them into the correct sequence until they had illustrated the complete life cycle. This required the children to understand the sequence, concentrate, remember, use scissors carefully, and deliver the correct sequence – they did a great job
 
The children continue to sign themselves in each morning; their “ signatures” are becoming clearer and neater. We are having activities, which require the children to control the implements carefully – scissors, brushes, paper etc. We experimented with “dribble” paintings which the children made by carefully dribbling patterns onto cardboard to make 3 dimensional art works – they were so beautiful, as are the art works and paintings that adorn the walls in our room – they are so colourful and vibrant, and the children work very carefully and imaginatively to achieve their designs – and are rightly proud of the results. Experimenting with colour, design, pattern, and shape is also a lead up to pre writing activities – the children are learning to carefully control what they do with their implements as they will need to do when they are writing.
 
We set up a Hospital Corner this week – this has been the centre of much activity and imaginative play – the children are using play as a way of learning about what happens in the real world. We have Doctors, Nurses, Patients, even a Receptionist. The equipment includes aprons, bandages (which the children have learnt how to re-roll), a bed, a table to examine doll patients, a collection of various empty medicine bottles, stethoscopes etc. We have pictures about Hospitals, Ambulances, a Helicopter Ambulance, X-Ray equipment, children in plaster casts etc. The children are really engaged in this corner, and are learning and discussing many things we will continue this play, and extend their knowledge in the weeks to come.
 
We continue to have Board Games and activities which require the children to take turns, follow rules, finish what they start, concentrate, be patient, remember, recognise – all important skills.
 
What will happen next week?
 
Group A Educators – Margot, Ann and Lisa.         

What a great fun week we have had!
 
We celebrated  “Divali” – the Indian Festival of Light, with our Mums helping us. Divali is a very important Festival, with families, friends, and sharing playing a very important part in the celebrations – what a great way to celebrate. Ayaan’s Mum – Divya, and Samvrit’s Mum – Manisha, spent the day with us, and explained some of the customs and ways of celebrating to the children. The children learnt that small oil lamps, which create light by burning hot oil, are placed around the houses and gardens to bring light into their lives. Each child then painted their own small oil lamps made out of pottery, which they could take home (of course we did not put oil into these). The children also coloured in some traditional design and patterns – they worked very carefully on these. We also learnt about some small statues of traditional Gods, and traditional garlands, and Manisha made a model of a special God out of our play dough. Both Divya and Manisha wore colourful traditional Saris, which they showed to the children- they looked beautiful. We included some relevant ideas into other areas of discussion and play, such as an elephant table and real peacock feathers to look at.  Then we were treated to some tasty traditional sweets, what a happy celebration it was. It is important that the children learn about other Countries and their customs.
 
We continued to have “The Little Gingerbread Man” story in more languages – Saho’s Dad – Daisuki, read it for us in Japanese. And Jaap’s Mum – Ishpal, read it for us Punjabi. We talked about other languages and many children were able to count to 10 in other languages – we heard – German, French, Dutch, Chinese, Portugese, Hindi, Punjabi, some children were away, so we will add to this experience next week – aren’t we lucky to be able to do this – the children are very clever.
 
Two other exciting things – our strawberry plants provided by Taayten’s Mum – Carissa, have produced strawberries, the children have been watering the plants and watching and waiting, so we picked our first two ripe strawberries, and cut these into tiny slices, so everybody who wanted a taste was able to do so, and there are more growing!
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And – our Silkworm Life Cycle continues, with the first moths hatching out of their cocoons, and vibrating their wings to attract other moths. The children check each day – it is very exciting. These moths will then mate, and lay eggs- the final step in their life cycle. The children have shown great interest and have learnt many facts – real life hands on learning!
 
What will happen next week?
 
Group A Educators – Margot, Ann and Lisa.   

This week was a very short one due to the Melbourne Cup, which many children seemed to enjoy discussing. The children have very much enjoyed browsing, shopping, buying, selling, calculating, exchanging and even donating, into our dramatic play grocery store this week. Thanks to those of you who have been bringing along bits and pieces to fill the shelves of our store!

As a group, we have been exploring Jeannie Baker’s story books “The Hidden Forest” and “Belonging”. Both of which have incredible illustrations within. I have explained to the children Jeannie’s art technique, which involves a construction of collages for each page. Jeannie uses natural and artificial materials in her work, as well as her own illustrations within the collage, and the effect is very engaging and transfixing. The stories and pictures within the books are very unique and we will continue to explore the work of Jeannie. The children have also begun working on their own collage constructions. We truly do have a class full of talented artists! If you come across any materials we could use for collage (natural or artificial) we would love to use them over the coming week.
And lastly a big thank you to Anne for taking over teaching for me for Friday. 

Extended Hours Educators
Laura, Tracey, Helen, and Fiona