Early Learning
Welcome to Kinder!
We have had a wonderful start to the year at our Early Learning Centre, welcoming children and families across our five Kinder groups. We have three four-year-old Kinder groups: Possums, Echidnas, and Platypuses, and two three-year-old Kinder groups: Wombats and Koalas.
We have been enjoying beginning to get to know the children and their families, and observing the creative ways children are using spaces and resources. Children who were here last year were surprised to see how tall our sunflowers have grown over the Summer holidays! We have been giving them lots of water to drink.
It has been lovely to see lots of smiles and laughter as children (and educators) discover the unexpected and take delight in their environment and in other people. I am reminded of the phrase repeated in Genesis 1: "And God saw that it was good". It is good to be at Kinder, enjoying the space we have been blessed with, and learning about and exploring God’s world with the children.
Beth Bennett
Head of Early Learning
Possums
The Possum Group have been enjoying exploring with clay at Kinder. Isoa noticed the pictures on the wall which show some clay techniques. He copied the picture to pinch the clay. Ms Bennett used the Seesaw platform to ask Isoa if he would like to make a pinch pot next time he came to kinder - with his Mum's help he replied "yessss!" The next Kinder day, several children were interested in making a pinch pot. They thought of lots of things that could go in them - money, lollies, earrings, flowers!
They took it in turns to sit around the clay table while Mrs Perry went over the technique. They pushed their thumbs or fingers in to make a hole, then used their thumb against the side of their hand to pinch the clay around. They were surprised and impressed with what they were able to make!
The pinch pots look beautiful, and are ready to be painted and decorated on their next kinder day.
Using our hands to manipulate the clay helps to build fine motor skills of strength, endurance, coordination, dexterity and manipulation - all of which will come in handy for writing, but are also valuable in their own right.
As we form and create new things out of clay we have also been learning about God, who made and loves us. We read a book about how God is so great - we can make sandcastles but God made all the sand, we can draw a sun, but God made the sun! It is pretty amazing to know that God is so great, and He loves us.
Beth Bennett
Head of Early Learning
When I Grow Up!
Our new four-year-old group hit the ground (or the kinder yard!) running on Friday and experienced the teaching styles of Mrs Ezzy and myself.
As per our usual Modus Operandi, the children sang and danced their way through a rather robust and physically exhausting (for Mrs Ezzy) first group time. Besides the ukelele and violin, there were so many play based experiences for the children including Playdough, Legos, blocks, loose parts, and so much more, including a plethora of books.
The highlight of our first day is always a ‘First Day at Kinder’ photo, and it brought joy to our hearts, a smile to our faces, and a tear to our eyes as we recorded in real time what these 4 year old children would like to be when they grew up. Some were unsure, a lot wanted to follow in their dad’s footsteps, but our fave of the day was sweet little Matilda, who just wanted to be a ‘Queen.’ We’ll all be holding our breath in anticipation to see if she finds her King in years to come!
Judi Missen
Early Learning Educator