Waratah Group

The children in Waratah group are very settled and are really enjoying engaging in the program.  It has been great meeting with lots of families over the past couple of weeks, to touch base on your child’s development and goals we are supporting your child to work towards in the program. We have many strategies that we use with the group that are embedded in our program. These support children in their all-round development and develop skills in a variety of areas. 

Some of the strategies we use are:

• “Show and share box” - to encourage questioning, listening, confidence building.
• “Group time”- respecting others personal space, listening, engaging in conversations, waiting for their turn.
• “Buddy Time children are paired the children with another child who they may not usually play or interact with. The children need to stay, play and talk with their buddy for at least 10 minutes. This assists the children with their social interactions, building new relationships and to step out of their comfort zone in a supportive environment. 
• "Helper of the session” providing children with the opportunity for autonomy over areas of the program.
• “5-minute Timers” support children to manage situations independently and wait for their turn, persevere and stay at an experience.
• “Calming strategies”- listening to smiling mind, quiet cube, liquid timers, fiddle toys, listen to an audio book.
• "Facilitation” Facilitating conversations between children in a variety of situations-in play, during snack, during conflict, entering existing play.
• “Role modelling” Offering ideas for phrases children could use if they want to join in play, ask someone to stop a particular behaviour, be on their own etc.

Many of these we encourage the children to use independently when appropriate providing them with tools to start to cope independently in a variety of situations.

Term 2 has seen many experiences and interests in the Waratah group. The children have been enjoying cooking which is great for measurement, volume, new vocabulary and enjoying the results!  After a discussion with a couple of children around electrics we introduced electrical circuits. The children have been experimenting with lighting the bulbs, making the motors with fans spin and some have tried a combination of the two. We also made spinners for the motors using different colours and patterns to see what these looked like when spinning. It was fascinating and really encouraged the children to try different designs and mix of colours. We have floor puzzles in the program as these encourage children to work collaboratively and cooperatively. Over the past few weeks we have been introducing more complex puzzles to challenge them.  The Role play area has seen many changes this term. We have had a home corner, cafe, hairdressers, vets and currently we have an office area. 

We look forward to more learning and fun in Term 3.

Louise, Tina and Liz.