Banksia Group

This term has had a fantastic start in the Banksia group. The children have now formed some close friendships with one another and are working collaboratively in many aspects of their play.  This has resulted in some rich role-plays amongst the children and some fantastic large scale construction. We are continuing to foster the children’s negotiation skills with one another and encouraging them to take on each other's ideas in play.

We recently read the story 'Fill a Bucket: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Young Children' - a book that uses an invisible bucket as a metaphor, explaining that our bucket holds all of our good thoughts and feelings. This book highlights the many ways (kind things) that families and caregivers use to fill the buckets of children but also gives young children simple ideas on how to be a bucket filler as well. To follow on from the story we have a Banksia bucket and at the end of the session we ask the children “Who has filled your bucket today?” The children share with the group a peer who has filled their bucket and that peer then gets to put a pom pom in the bucket to represent their kind deed. This book and experience supports teaching children empathy, nurtures kindness and creates a positive classroom environment.

We have begun to go out and about this term which is very exciting, we will continue to send school streams to let you know of our plans, however these outings are flexible and occasionally due to weather or staffing we may need to postpone for a week.

Lastly we have begun to send out our Show and Share box, each session one child will take the box home and place something from home inside it can be a toy, book, drawing, photo, etc. The children then give their peers clues and then the peers get to guess what is in the box. The child then shares their item with the group and can tell their peers about it. This experience supports children's communications skills, questioning and builds confidence.