Hampshire House
Ron Ritchhart Professional Learning Session with Hampshire House
Our Hampshire House Early Childhood Teachers Louise Headon (Rosebud Room) Desie Attana (The Margaret White Room), Lisa Potter (Grey Class) Simone Cooke (Hampshire House Director) and Caroline Glover (Educational Leader) engaged in a valued professional learning opportunity with our Academic in Residence Dr Ron Ritchhart from Project Zero, Harvard University.
Focusing on the thinking routine ‘Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate’ we generated our visual representation of what we as teachers value as key ingredients to creating a classroom that is engaging and thoughtful for our students at Hampshire. This created space for authentic dialogue to reflect on the values that underpin our philosophy demonstrated through our pedagogy and practice and educational programme. Following this we engaged in a ‘Snapshot ‘ observation in the kindergarten classroom. Ms Michelle Pearce Donovan kindly welcomed us to observe the kindergarten students engaging in the thinking routine ‘Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate ' , promoting reflective and critical thinking as the students' sorted objects around the classroom into heavy and light. This provided a rich opportunity for us to see in action the critical thinking skills embedded within the kindergarten students.
As a team we are focusing on the mindset of ‘Questions drive thinking and learning’ and this prompted a discussion around the typology of questions that can be identified in practice. Engaging in reflective dialogue around the types of questions we use with students elevated awareness around how we might adapt our questioning to drive thinking and learning with our Hampshire House students.
We are very grateful for such a wonderful opportunity to work closely with Dr Ron Ritchhart and look forward to future sessions as we continue our journey in creating a Culture of Thinking at Kambala.
Ms Caroline Glover
Hampshire House
Book Week Celebrations in Hampshire House Nursery
Recently Hampshire House celebrated Book Week with great enthusiasm. The children
enjoyed dressing up as their favourite storybook characters and sharing their beloved
books with each other. Our Rosebud Room children had a special treat—a set of
beautifully crafted ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ costumes, made by our wonderful
parents. These costumes added an extra touch of magic to the book parade, which the
children were thrilled to watch!
Sharing books with young children is a fantastic way to foster early literacy skills, such
as language development and letter recognition. Participating in group story readings
not only sparks their imagination but also helps them develop important social skills.
It was so lovely to see how actively engaged our community was in ensuring that literacy
and books remain at the centre of learning for our little ones.
Ms Louise Headon
Core Teacher Nursery – Rose Bud Room
