Glen Education Orrong Road

Our Visit to the Library for National Simultaneous Storytime

By Glen Education Orrong Road Team

This year we were again invited to participate in the ‘National Simultaneous Story time’ at Elsternwick Library, the yearly event is where lots of kindergartens, schools and libraries around Australia and New Zealand read the same story, on the same day, at the same time.

This years book was “The Truck Cat” by Deborah Frenkel and Danny Snell, The Truck Cat is a story about cats and humans, immigration and identity, and homes lost and found. There is usually a link to watch the story being read online, plus the library provided some craft activities and stickers that we were able to take back to kinder with us. 

As always, any excursion is a very exciting event for our children, and this year we joined both classes from the front room and the back room and went all together to participate in the story time. Before our departure from kinder, we discuss appropriate behaviour while out on our walk and how to be respectful of other people using the library.  

The children had ideas such as ‘no running on the road’, ‘no shouting at the library’, ‘make sure you hold onto your buddy’s hand’, and ‘no jumping on the beanbags at the library’. 

This experience has provided many great learning opportunities for all our children. When we are out walking together in the community there are discussions about road safety and how we need to share the footpath with other people. People out in the community often comment about how wonderful it is to see such a large group of children out together, so it also helps to make us a more visible part of our local community. 

COMMUNITY OUTCOME 2:  Children are connected with and contribute to their world - (EYLDF - Early Years Learning and Development Framework)

Goal 1:  Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active civic participation 

Goal 2:  Children respond to diversity with respect 

Goal 3:  Children become aware of fairness                                                                            Goal 4:  Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment