Forest Room Term 4

Hello Families,

Can you believe after what felt like the longest year we have made it to term 4 and Christmas! It has been such a delight and relief to have moved through a term with no lockdowns, restrictions and uncertainties as just been able to focus on creating a safe and inviting environment for all the children. All I can say is that 2020 was a whirlwind and one we all would have never predicted however I am so grateful to have made it through and received the support this year from the forest room and haven community. Covid-19 affected everyone in different and challenging ways but I do hope we are all able to take out of it a little glimmer of positivity as to how resilient, strong, hopeful and capable we as adults are and also how adaptable and talented children are.

Let’s say it is only onwards and upwards from here and bring on 2021. However, during 2020 we have been blown away with all that your children have learnt, accomplished and the amazing little people they have grown into this year.  As always any questions please do not hesitate to contact me :) Bronwyn 

A Note from the Educators 

Hey it’s Nina! Although this year has been a very crazy year for all of us – I still enjoyed coming to work every day to see the children. I have known the Forest Room children for two years now as I moved up with them from the Sun Room and I can say that the best part of 2020 was to watch these wonderful little humans grow. I have loved these children with every inch of my heart since the moment I first met them and I cannot wait to see what the New Year will bring for them! 

Hey it’s Demmi, wow! what a year it has been for all of us. My favourite part about teaching the forest room children this year has been the introduction of Australian sign language and watching how the children have taken this on board and really enjoyed singing and signing our morning songs everyday. Mine and I think the children’s favourite song has been “I am Australian’. The passion they all show is absolutely beautiful.

Thank-you for sticking by us and supporting us through this wild year, hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with their family and friends. 

Hey it’s Kristyn! I just wanted to say it has been such a pleasure getting to know you all this year and watching your children grow and learn. A highlight of my 2020 was being giving the opportunity to do online/remote learning videos so we could connect with everyone at home. Have a safe new year and enjoy 2021!

Events Celebrated this Term

NAIDOC Week

‘Always was always will be’

NAIDOC week is held to celebrate the culture, history and achievements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. To celebrate this, we incorporated knowledge and diversity into our learning activities, stories, group times and songs. 

A big focus this year has been learning all about the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags. The children re-created their own flags with craft and' were able to recall the meanings behind the colours and symbols on the flags while creating. Also set up included an Australian animal interest table, Aboriginal patterned dominos and symbol cards and reading of the story ‘When the snake bites the sun’ along with cultural song Innay.

Book Week

We love the creativity and theme of book week seeing children dress up In their favourite characters and discuss all their loved stories and movies. For this week we focused on two of our most favourite stories from throughout the year being Nee Naw and There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly reading the stories at group time and re-creating with craft.

Other events included Sports Day, Halloween, Children's Week , Breast Cancer awareness day Diwali and Blue ribbon day which were all celebrated and recognised through activities, group time, art work and dressing up.

Auslan Signing

Learning Auslan signing for songs this year has been a beautiful experience to share with the children and also amazing to see how capable and enthusiastic children are to learn new concepts. This term we focused on the songs You’ve got a friend in me and Miss Polly had a Dolly. These songs were a challenge with many actions and words however this did not stop the children taking it on and learning all the actions becoming confident to sing and sign. Be sure to ask your children to show you the actions to these songs and maybe teach you. We look forward to seeing how much more we can learn in 2021.

Kinder Readiness

A focus for Term 4 has been getting children ready for Kinder in 2021. This has included building their knowledge of the alphabet and numbers 1-20. With this as the focus our afternoon group times included the alphabet song, number song and large group discussions around what letter our name started with, how old we were and seeing our knowledge of the both topics using flash cards. Each fortnight we also had activities set out focusing on literacy and numeracy encompassing the children’s learning through play. Building on our kinder readiness children also began saying ‘good morning everyone’ of a morning group time and continuing to build independence through recognising names, hats and lockers. We wish all the children who are moving up the best in kinder and look forward to continue seeing them learn and thrive. 

Practical Life Skills

This whole year a focus in the forest room has been building children’s fine motor skills, hand eye coordination and resilience level at activities Within the room you will always find an activity that will incorporate these skills and challenge the children to expand their capabilities. This term we focused on practical life skills meaning children building skills and knowledge in situations that will in turn help develop further skills and capabilities. These activities included opening padlocks with keys, twisting nuts onto bolts, using a hole puncher, cutting with scissors, using a screw driver and experimenting with water droppers, manipulating tongs and popping bubble wrap. These activities were all of high interest and provided a great challenge to children however the children showed their persistence and determination at these activities. Experiences such as the listed are so beneficial providing:

• Moments of individual play to celebrate their achievements and build on attention span and resilence at activities
• Build on hand and finger strength and dexerity incorporating hand eye coordination and visual perception
• Expand children’s problem solving , trial and error skills, experimentation and investigation of new experiences and concepts.

 Christmas 

Christmas is one of the most magical times of the year and we were so grateful to be able to spend it all together. While we weren’t able to have external parties we made the most of the festive celebrations with the children in the room with all things artwork, Christmas theme activities, songs and stories. It is amazing to spend Christmas time with children seeing their joy, excitement and passion. Once again we would like to wish all of our families a merry Christmas and a happy new year, stay safe!