Sun Room
Term 1
It’s the end of Term 1 and what a roller coaster ride of emotions it has been! The children transitioned so beautifully from River Room and it didn’t take long at all for them to settle in and find their way. In Sun Room, we really want the children to have a sense of belonging as we know when they feel safe, secure and supported they grow in confidence to explore, learn and achieve great things.
Obviously, in February, the passing of Claire was a huge loss and it has taken time and will continue to take time for us to find our way again. But with Claire in our hearts and in our thoughts we continue to move forward and give all that we have to the children and their learning.
Just to let you know, outdoor play will still be happening during the colder months ahead so please pack coats/beanies, etc AND please label all your children’s belongings.
Let’s take a look at some of our learning over Term 1…
Chinese New Year
This celebration is all about welcoming in the new and the good. We enjoyed exploring this festival with the children. We danced like dragons, we explored the colour red and learnt about tigers as it is the year of the tiger. We enhanced our fine motor abilities by trying to use chopsticks and we read the story “Happy Chinese New Year Elena”
To continue this learning, Lina is going to help us learn the numbers 1-10 in Chinese and at some stage during Term 2, we are looking forward to Lina helping us make delicious spring rolls and dumplings.
This is ME!
In Sun Room we like to do a mirror image experience with the children. It really helps the children develop a positive self image and have fun seeing who they are. We want the children to feel safe, secure and supported so they can grow in confidence to explore and learn and develop a sense of belonging.
Colours
This term we have been looking at colours and what is our understanding of colours. We did this through everyday learning and conversations, through stories and songs and we extended on this learning through our play experiences. We have found that colour recognition plays an important role in developing children’s descriptive language which in turn encourages clear communication and understanding.
Big Chefs help Little Chefs..
This is our cooking program that will run throughout the year. We collaborate with our Field Room friends to explore foods from different cultures within our world. Not only does this program introduce us to lots of different types of foods, it also offers a mentoring experience as the kinder children get to know our Sun Children and help them through their cooking journey but also become their friend.
Gardening and our Worm Farm
Our garden has just blossomed this year and with the constant care and dedication from our Educators it has become a huge part of our daily practice. The children are very much involved in the weeding, watering and general care and maintenance of our garden. They are learning all about responsibility, respect, teamwork and appreciation for hard work!
The children are also caring for our worm farm. They are learning all about what worms can and can’t eat and the important role that worms play in keeping our garden healthy and beautiful. This year we have been successful in growing strawberries, tomatoes and an eggplant or two and some beautiful flowers as well.
Outdoor Play
We know how important outdoor play is to children. In Sun Room we offer an indoor/outdoor program. What this means is that we support learning that traditionally took place indoors and implement it outside too. Children learn in different ways and we want to support this and reflect it through our program.
We also know when children are outdoors their play is more physical, it’s faster, bigger and can be more challenging or risky. We want to support this too and will set up our area to promote opportunities to explore and develop new skills, work on building self confidence and developing an appreciation for the world around us.
National Kindness Day
On March 2nd, we celebrated National Kindness Day. Our morning tea at the park was a lovely way to come together as a community and remember Claire. Claire’s philosophy in life was to be kind and we are constantly reminded of her through our acts of kindness everyday.
Our children made beautiful sunflowers to help with our tribute to Claire.
Penguin Inquiry Project
We have had so much fun exploring the world of penguins. We will be finishing this project up at the end of term 1 but we will continue the take home penguins until everyone has had a turn. We appreciate all your support with the penguin journal. Perry and Pip Pip have had some amazing adventures and we can’t wait to see what they continue to get up to!
Easter
Happy Easter everyone! We loved talking about Easter…bunnies and chocolate eggs were high on the list of the children’s conversations.
Our afternoon tea was just lovely and we appreciate all that were able to come and join in making this event so special. The children had a wonderful time on our Easter Egg hunt and even got to say hello to the Easter Bunny as he passed through!
I’d just like to share a very heartfelt thank you to all our Educators, families and children of Sun Room. To be honest this term has been hard for me but I have had an amazing journey as Sun Rooms Lead Educator and I’m so grateful for all that I’ve been able to achieve. I’m looking forward to term 2 and working with the children. That is what gives me so much enjoyment and I can’t wait to see what Demmi has in store for us throughout Term 2.
Have a wonderful Easter break everyone from Ann-Maree, Danni, Lesley, Lina, Viktoriya, Caitlyn, Nicole, Demmi & Charlotte