Wattle Group

At the beginning of this term the children's confidence in exploring their social and physical environment took a big leap. More and more of the children were engaging in cooperative play with their peers and building friendships.  The development of peer relationships supports children’s sense of security at kinder and is an important part in their social development. We continue to foster these relationships and support children during times of conflict and negotiation, which often occur in shared play experiences. We also facilitated peers to include others in their play, which can be a challenging social skill for children. We will continue to support them with these skills when face to face learning recommences.

Wattle group have shown an interest in sensory play this term. We were exploring this interest by providing the children with a variety of experiences that engaged all of their sensors. These included water play where we also promoted mathematical and science concepts such as volume, measurement, cause and effect and floating and sinking, manipulative play such as playdough where we added different scents and textures to the dough, Mud pit play, sand play both on a large scale in the outside space and in small scales indoors with kinetic sand and sand trays.

Dramatic play also continued to be a popular choice in the wattle group this term and the children are beginning to work together more in this play and create a narrative to their play for example when we had a shop child took on the role of a customer or a shop keeper.

Construction is a staple part of the kindergarten program and we are fortunate enough to have a variety of building materials at the kindergarten. We noticed that the children’s buildings are becoming more complex and have offered them a range of different building materials to develop their skills, this term they include Knex, zoobs, a variety of wooden building material, water walls, Lego and more. Construction is not only great for children’s motor development but it promotes their creativity. It offers many of the same benefits as art experience and children will often be drawn to one or the other.

The children in wattle group were showing their continued independence in the program as they are requiring less support from us as educators with self-help skill as their confidence in their own abilities and their motor skills have grown. A few ways you can continue to support this develop at home are:  through fine motor experiences such as Lego, drawing, having your children help you peg out washing, using utensil such as tongs, supporting and encourage your children to dress and undress independently, encouraging them to attempt zippers and buttons.  Shoes without laces are also preferable for children at this age to encourage independence as laced shoes can be hard for children to put back on as tying laces themselves is a complex fine motor skills for children.  Practice opening and closing containers, food packaging, lunchboxes and bags also supports your child’s independence.  Once returning to face to face learning it is important for your child to have big enough bag that fits their clothes and lunchboxes with extra room. If their lunchbox fits snugly in their bags, it can often only fit one way which children can find challenging. Having a larger bag not only makes this more achievable but there is also room for kinder craft.  At home you can have your child support you to pack their kinder bag as another way to support their independence.

The adjustment to distance learning has been challenging for everyone and we appreciate your patience with the quickly changing restrictions placed on your child’s education.  Our distance learning program is designed to support families while the kinder is closed but please do as much or as little as suits your family and children. It has been lovely seeing your children’s smiling faces over a computer screen and they have enthusiastically shared aspects of their home. We have noticed that the children have really enjoyed being able to see each other and their educators whilst they are required to stay at home. The children have listened to stories, played games, danced to music, done yoga and gone to the zoo. Next term if the online meetings  continue, we plan on conducting some science experiments for some hands on learning over the screen. The online meetings support your child to stay connected to the kindergarten community which will support their transition back to the kindergarten when restrictions ease. Just a reminder for when you come back to kindergarten please go through your child’s spare clothes in their bags and ensure they are weather appropriate for the new season and are also sun-smart (in particular that their tops and dresses cover their shoulders). We hopefully will see everyone back at kinder soon but until then stay safe. 

Emma, Rex and Anne.