Early Learning

Ants

The Ant group have been noticing changes to different trees around our Kinder. We have also seen lots of leaves on the ground when we are out and about with our families. We went for a walk to the school to find some really big leaves. We read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, and used the leaves we found at school to make our own leaf people.

We also enjoyed the book Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson and had lots of good discussions and wonderings about the different seasons. Children were able to use their fingers to paint a spring, summer, autumn or winter tree. We’ve also been practicing our fine motor skills with some leaf threadings.

The Ant children delight in God’s creation, whether it’s watching snails, admiring special rocks, or enjoying the changing colours of leaves. One other thing we’ve noticed about our swing tree is that we can’t reach it with our feet anymore, even when we are going really high! I wonder if you know why? 

Bees

The Bee group have continued to explore concepts of force and motion through their play. Children adjust the height of pipes and ramps to change the angles, and observe how this affects the speed of water and cars travelling down them. This week children made catapults and were able to shoot pom-poms very high into the air. When we tried them with marshmallows they didn’t go quite as high. We needed more force because they were heavier than the pom-poms. However they went just high enough to make it (very nearly) into our mouths! 

Children have also been interested in different ways of telling stories. We learned the story of Tiddalik the Frog, and made some puppets. We have also been looking at Indigenous symbols on story stones, and have used them to tell our own Bee group story, which we are turning into a book. Some of the Bee children are drawing Indigenous symbols on shells, to make some story shells. The Bee group are very good storytellers, and can tell stories using many different tools. We thank God for stories that can help us learn things, and for the world we get to discover every day. 

Monday Wombats

The Monday Wombat group have been on a colour exploration! After three friends rolled some paint on bubble wrap and made an amazing discovery about changing colours, they have continued their interest and engagement in this area. Children in the Wombat group each had a turn of mixing two primary colours to create a beautiful Butterfly painting. We also used eye droppers and dye to mix colours together. 

We read the book Mix It Up by Hervé Tullet and noticed we could add white to different colours to make them lighter, and black to make them darker. The Wombats experimented with mixing their own colours, then painted some special shells. Some of the children took their pallets full of new colours to the easel and continued painting there. Children showed excitement at the colours they had created. Teachers shared that God has made us like Him, and just like God created the world, and us, we can be creators too. 

Beth Parker

Head of Early Learning

Wednesday & Friday Wombats

Some of the Kindergarten children have expressed an interest in name recognition and identifying and writing letters within their name. At group times name recognition is promoted through the use of name cards, and an alphabet frieze has been added to the drawing table, allowing children who are keen to explore this interest. The children have had the opportunity to dot paint the first letter of their names and decorate their printed names using glitter. We will continue to explore name and letter recognition through creative activities at Kindergarten. Those children who are beginning to write their own name will be encouraged to label their artwork.

The Friday Wombat Group were recently visited by three baby calves from Brax’s farm. It was quite exciting having farm animals visit us at Kinder. The children had the chance to pat and feed the calves milk from a very big bottle. The newborn calves were only around two weeks old, yet nearly as big as the children! Thank you to Luke and Victoria for arranging this experience for the children.

Hayley Pallister

Early Learning Teacher