Learning Through Play at Preschool

Clean Up Australia Day 2024

The children were invited to participate in taking extra care with tidying the outdoor environment around our preschool in recognition of 'Clean Up Australia Day', an annual event which takes place nationwide each March. Educators discussed the significance of looking after our environment and the effect pollution has on wildlife, water ways and the natural environment.

With excitement and a sense of responsibility, they explored the school grounds, discovering and collecting litter. This hands-on activity taught the children about taking care of their environment and being responsible community members. Through this simple cleanup, the preschoolers learned valuable lessons about the importance of keeping their surroundings clean and respecting nature.

Fruit and Vegetable Month

Veggie Month is designed to ignite curiosity and make fruit and vegetables fun for children. Our program has been exploring fruit and vegetables, learning about where our food comes from, how it is grown and making healthy choices for our growing bodies. The children have been involved in an array of hands on experiences that explore healthy eating such as making Guacamole. 

Colour Exploration - Children's Interests

 Exploring colour has been a big focus for the program, derived from engaging with two very bright, books from French artist Hervé​ Tullet. 

Where did we go from here ? As a group we discussed what two primary colours mixed together make. We set up the activity on the tables and the children had a great sensory experience mixing the paint colours together with their hands. Other opportunities for colour exploration continue to be provided for the preschoolers to experiment and engage with such as rainbow toast, mixing milk and food colouring together to paint on an unexpected canvas.

Finger Gym Sessions 

Strong finger and hand muscles are important for drawing, writing, building, scissor cutting, dressing ourselves and using cutlery to feed ourselves. Each afternoon, we dedicate 5 minutes for fun ‘finger gyms’ to provide the children with the opportunities to strengthen their finger muscles. Each child was invited to take a tub of playdough and a clip board for the playdough to roll on. Muscle strengthening exercises including: rolling, flattening, poking, stretching, stamping, twisting to create different models (snakes, balls, pancakes, snails etc) with our hands and fingers.