River Room Curriculum

OWelcome to the river room for 2026

What a great start to 2026 and a  lovely first term we have had, with lots of new families, children and an exciting start to the year. Unfortunatley Polin has left Haven, but I would like to welcome Jules to our room, Jules has great passion, lots of experienece and is going to be a wonderful, friendly addition to our room.

Term 1 our focus has been developing the children's sense of belonging and supporting the children with developing a sense of comfort and confidence in their new environments.

We have been building bonds with the children and engaging in meaninful and trusting relationships, singing songs, reading books, playing peek a boo and getting to know them.Its really nice to see how settled the children are and supporting them with their sense of belonging. We have a family photos balloon  display in our room with each of the childrens family photo, this is nice to show them when they are feeling upset. Some of the children are even pointing to some of the photos and naming their peers.

Introducing Mama Lama

We have introduced a new friend to our rooom, Mama Lama is an interactive talking lama, who reads nursery ryhmes, the children have really got to know her and often point and say Mama if she is up on the shelf. The children are so very gentle with her and often give her pats when she down reading to the children. Mama Lama comes everywhere with us, she comes and has a play outside in the frsh air, watches group time with us and has even joined us in the sleep room, the children are really enjoying the nursery ryhmes and know how to turn her on and off by pushing the button on her foot.

 Celebrating the community

We have had a busy start to the year, celebrating many special days, we have had a butterfly incursion where we were lucky enough to have the oppourtunity to go inside the tent with the butterflies, hold onto some sticky sticks and watch them land. The butterflies that we got to see where the Monarch butterfly as they are more resiliant than other butterflies, we also found out that male butterflies are the butterflies that have a black spot on each wing and the females do not have any black spots  African drumming incursion, where we had the oppourtunity to listen to African music, play the drums and talk about African animals and have a dance around. We even had a fire truck come out from the local fire station. We have celebrated Easter where we had a special visit from the Easter bunny who even left the children some yummy treats to enjoy. We have celebrated Persian new year, Holi, St Patricks day and much more with sensory play, painting, pasting and pictures around the room.

Every few weeks we take the children out to the garden to let them explore the environment  and give the plants a drink of water, the children use watering cans, tipping them up and watching as the water flows out on the plants.

All about animals

For term 1 our inquiry theme was all about animals, we have been painting paper plates different colours to represent different animals, reading books, singing animal related songs, exploring animals and their sounds, participating in animal pasting, sensory tubs, setting up a dear zoo experience and pet shop and the children have also brought in pictures of their pets from home. We have had photos and pictures up around the room and our group time program was also anaimal based with reading books, finger puppets and songs. One of the childrens favourite books is Brown bear, Brown bear what do you see?? and we have read this many times over the last month and even decided to do this for our inquiry focus project, where the children painted different colour animals as per the colours of the animals in the book. This will be displayed outside our room over the next few weeks to showcase the childrens artistic and creative side.

Some more photos.......

What to expect for term 2

Show and share book program

In term 2 we will be introducing a show and share book program, all children will have the oppourtunity to bring in a book from home and share it with their peers during grouptime. We will keep you posted on when its your childs day with plenty of time to prepare, we will take photos and place them all into the River rooms show and share book for everyone to have a look at. This is also another great way for the children to develop their sense of belonging, extend their language both verbally and non verbally and continue to develop their confidence in a larger group setting with the support of their peers and educators.

Term 2 Inquiry focus: Everything colours

So for term 2 our inquiry focus is everything colours, the children will participate in art and carft, sensory play, books, experienec set ups, group time, music and movement and much more all related to colours. We will post links to the childrens faouritre songs and the books we will be reading over the term. 

Independence and self help

As the children are already growing way too fast next term we are going to be incouraging independence and self help skills some more, this will just be little tasks like using a spoon at meal times, trying to take off their shoes at rest times, washing their hands before meals and helping pack up around the room.

We look forward to another great term with everyone, getting to them more, watching their personalities begin the blossom and continue supporting them on this learning journey. Please feel free to reach out if they are any questions, concerns or updates about your child. Thank you form all of us in the River room Danni, Nicole, Kayleigh, Chethi, Jules