This will be the final reflection for this year, and what a great year it has been.
 
This week has seen us totally immersed in Christmas preparations, glue and glitter everywhere, decorations to be made to make our room look festive and beautiful, songs to be learnt, and surprises to be finished and hidden away
 
The children were also able to do their favourite Kindergarten activities, sometimes you need a break from Christmas!
We had a visit from “Cleo” Mary’s Guinea Pig, which was very exciting. We received a letter from Dougie and his family who have gone to live in England, we were able to read about his new home and his new School. The children enjoyed their last music and dance sessions with Kylie and Karen, who have instilled an appreciation of music and movement in the children, what great experiences they have had.
 
Drawing has continued to be a favourite activity – the children create wonderful, imaginative, creative, detailed drawings and paintings, which show an awareness of colour, design, and fine muscle control. They are able to draw what they want, able to follow through their ideas.
 
In building, the children have demonstrated an awareness of space, balance, size and distance, creating detailed and involved structures.
 
Physically, the children have developed confidence in themselves and their own abilities.
 
We will measure ourselves again next week, so the children can compare how much they have grown over the year, we have measured them on our Height chart at the end of each term during the year.
 
The children have developed confidence and independence – an awareness of others and being part of a group – all working towards settling into School and growing up in the World.
 
As we look back on a great year, thank you to all our families for your help and support, thank you to Sylvia who has helped us during the year and a special thanks to my co-educators Ann and Lisa, who are so important and wonderful.
 Have a happy and safe holiday. It’s goodbye from me – I wish you all well – I will miss you all.
 
Group A Educators – Margot, Ann and Lisa.

The weeks seem to be getting and busier.

Christmas is coming and we are caught up in the  hustle and bustle of getting ready. The children have been making surprise presents and they are beautiful – if you are at Kindergarten - please try to ignore some of the things that are happening - it’s difficult to hide everything! We are also learning some special songs for our party - so you’ll also have to pretend not to hear as well!! 
​
We are decorating our room to make it look really festive - the children are having fun doing this, and are working very carefully. An army of cheerful Father Christmas figures adorn our wall and make us smile every time we look at them. Each one is individual and has a different personality - the children were given the necessary shapes and necessary bits and pieces and a stapler and black texta – the way they put them together was up to them – the results are wonderful. They also have drawn their own houses  for our window – a mural of Father Christmas in the sky is up on the window, so the children drew their own houses and cut them out and we put these underneath so he would be able see where everybody lived. More decorations (and glitter galore)  to come.

Our Silkworm cycle is now complete – the children are still checking, and there are a few latecomers still hatching. We have followed this up with some activities to do with insect life cycles. With one of the children’s favourite books – The Very Hungry Caterpillar – the children have been reading the story using the book and some felt pieces to tell the story with. The children do this with a friend, this needs the children to read the book carefully, choose the correct items, and  place these onto the felt board in the correct sequence to illustrate the story. This activity also leads to much interaction and discussion and co-operation. Even though the children are not able to read the words of books, "reading" by themselves or with a friend is very valuable and important – the children are able to use their imaginations and reasoning to “tell” the story, and sometimes make up a story – encouraging a love of stories and literature.

Sadly we said goodbye to Ayaan and his family this week as they have gone to India – we will miss  him.

Our sessions with Karen for dancing, and Kylie for music, have shown how the children’s understanding and ability to remember and create have developed over the year. The children have become skilled in interpreting the ideas and instructions that Kylie and Karen give them, and their confidence has increased in their own abilities. Their musical knowledge and understanding is exciting to watch – we really enjoy these sessions.

What will happen next week?

Group A Educators – Margot, Ann and Lisa.   

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!
​
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.