Boronia Group

The end of Term 3 has come by in a flash. A busy term it has been. The Boronia children have continued to gain confidence in their abilities to engage in a variety of learning opportunities both inside the kinder room and in the yard during outdoor play. Role play and dramatic play have remained a focus part of our weekly sessions, extending on language development and imaginative play.  Through role play, the children are able to begin to develop skills such as turn taking, sharing, negotiating, sharing ideas and opinions.  The Hairdresser role play area was a hive of activity - many appointments, hairstyles and laughter shared. The beautiful sunny winter weather has allowed for extended periods of play outside in the yard: climbing, investigating, creating in the sandpit & mud kitchen; enjoying the creek, mud pit, science discovery water station and water pump areas. The use of natural and other loose parts has been incorporated into various play and learning space areas. Loose parts foster the development of creative imagination, fine motor learning, numeracy / mathematical language, visual and verbal communication skills. Loose parts and various length blocks and coloured arches provided the children with an opportunity to learn to measure heights, balance uneven blocks, create towers, stacks and various scenes, telling ‘stories’ in their own way. Taking opportunities to celebrate our achievements no matter how big or small. “I did it!”  

The Fruit and Vegetable Shop role play area extended the children’s interest in what we eat, where our food comes from and what happens to our food when we through scrapes away. This has encouraged us to talk about our snacks during mealtimes, playing the lunchbox game and discovering healthy food and sometimes food options.  From this, we read thestory Jack and the Beanstalk and decided to plant our very own beans.  As a group weplanted beans in various containers (soil, cotton wool, water and an empty container) as anexperiment to observe what is needed for plants to grow. The group have been excited towatch them grow. As part of learning what happens to our food, curiosity in the worm farm, what the worms are able to eat and what they are not has begun. From our cooking experiences, we have had the opportunity to expand on our interest and learning how to follow a recipe, talk about ingredients and where these come from and how to create something delicious.

During this term we have also noted that we can have some ‘Big Feelings’ and expressions.  Have you ever had some really big feelings? Happiness, Sadness? Anger Frustration? As a group we are working on our personal space bubbles and starting the conversations about and identifying our emotions. Through reading stories and talking about /acknowledging how we feel, we are beginning to name our feelings.

Book Week Dress-up Day this term was a fun day indeed. The children shared with their peers their favourite stories and some of the outfits that they wore. The Yellow Crayon, TheGruffalo, The Cranky Bear, Superhero’s, Fairy tale characters all joined us at kinder that day.We welcomed some very special guests, who joined us to celebrate Father’s/ SpecialPerson’s Day. The children were excited to have their special visitors come and join them at kinder for the afternoon.

Have a safe and happy holiday break. We look forward to seeing you all again in Term 4.