Early Learning

Warrnambool & District Food Share

The King’s College Kinder has partnered with Warrnambool and District Food Share to conduct a Term 2 Food Drive. Every week suggestions for items to donate are posted on Seesaw, and children get excited about popping something in the family grocery shopping trolley that they can add to the food crates at Kinder!

We emphasise to our Kinder Community that we appreciate donations from those able to give. We also mention that sometimes it’s a great way for a pantry clean out and to pass on food items that will not be used by our families. So far we have collected 129kg of food – that’s "almost as big as an elephant" mused a child during group time!

Warrnambool and District Food Share is an important part of our local community, and families right across our school have benefitted from the service they provide for people in need. Amanda, the CEO of Food Share came and spoke to the children about what it is they do, and how any small contribution made is a big help.

I am reminded of the story of the Widow’s Giving in Mark. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on.” We give what we can, when we can.

Thanks to our Kinder Community for supporting this important community service.

Judi Missen

Early Learning Educator

Koalas

The recent Koala Group topic of how we are feeling at Kinder and learning that our feelings are always changing has been very successful. We had asked God to help us as we grew in confidence and He was only too happy to help! Every child has shown growth in confidence and comfort at Kinder, and we have been a very happy bunch!

Now that we are feeling confident we have moved into a new focus: Friendship. The children have been developing closer friendships with others and are exploring what it means to be a friend. They have had some great questions: How many friends can we have? Can I play with two friends at the same time? If we don't want to do the same thing, are we still friends? So much to find out about! We have been using puppetry and stories to explore some social skills concepts as we learn more about friendship.

The Koala Group has also been interested in letters, especially the letters in their names. They have been copying their Name Recognition Cards to spell out their names. Some ways we have been enjoying this are with play dough letter cutters, arranging shiny letter discs on mirrors, and using alphabet magnets. Children have also been identifying letters in their families' names and sharing these with their teachers and friends.

Lots of the children have shared beautiful autumn leaves with us, which they have collected from around their own gardens and out in the community. We have shared lots of great conversations about colours, shapes and sizes of the leaves. 

The children have been using some comparison in their art and observations of nature: Banks has observed four different colours in one autumn leaf. Isabella shared her Pet Rock craft interest with us; some of her friends went outside to collect rocks of different sizes, shapes, weights and textures. They discussed and compared rocks as they decorated them together. Finley has been drawing centipedes and comparing them by length. Ashlin has been working out how many counters equal the same length as different craft materials.

We have been enjoying the rainy days and finding muddy puddles. The children noticed that some days have not been very rainy at all, and on other days there is a lot of rain. We made a simple water gauge to collect rain in and find out how much it has been raining at Kinder this week. Maths concepts like Comparison and Measurement are so much fun when we use them to explore our interests!

Sian Duggan

Early Learning Educator