Forest Room

Hello everyone and welcome to our first reflection for the year. Can you believe we have already finished Term 1? This end of term has certainly not been one that anyone could have expected and will continue to be a little uncertain for the next few months. We hope that everyone remains safe and healthy and look forward to seeing all of our families back soon. 

Please as always let us know if you have any questions, queries, wishes or suggestions towards our daily practices, programming, activities and your child’s/families goals. We are always here and open for a chat and would love to stay connected during this time. 

With all this going on, it has not stopped our amazing children learning, developing and growing each day. Children are truly amazing no matter what is going in the world they will always approach each day with a smile, an open mind and be ready to take on the next challenge in their development. We will continue to provide the children with a safe, comfortable and secure environment each day and look forward to seeing what we can achieve over the rest of 2020. 

Special Moments/Events

Over the term we have experienced many special moments/ events and experiences these included: 

Let’s go To the Park! 

Finally, we were free (haha) and able to have excursions at Arcadia Park and Reserve. The children loved the chance to run on the reserve, explore the play equipment and engage in our community. We can’t wait to get back out there when it is safe to do so and look forward to creating more adventures for the children. 

Rainbow Messages for Hope 

With the coronavirus pandemic many children across the world are putting out rainbows to send messages of hope, love and support. We are all in this together and we wanted to get involved in creating some rainbows of joy. 

How amazing do they all look on the fence alongside our new signage? 

Easter!

We wanted to make Easter just a special as other years for all the children. All children were involved in some craft making Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies along with our special Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday 9th. 

Group Times Focus Topic of Emotions 

Focus Emotion-Happy

Happy was the first emotion we wanted to focus on as it is the emotion we wish for children to be the most. 

Looking at a poster of a happy boy children were able to state that ‘he is happy’ because: - He is smiling - Happy because he is jumping - He has his hands up in the air happy Asking what makes children happy they were able to respond: - Mum and Dad makes us happy - Playing with friends make us happy - New toys make us happy Reading and singing along to the story NeeNaw children were able to state: - NeeNaw is happy when he puts out fires - NeeNaw has big smile - He helps people which makes him happy and he sings a song 

Focus Emotion-Scared

Looking at the emotion scared it was a bit of a hard one to explain to children.  

Looking at the poster of a scared boy, children were able to state: - His face is open and scared - His hands are up  - His knees are turned in  Asking what makes children scared they stated: - The dark is scary - Monsters, dragons, dinosaurs are scary - When we hurt ourselves can be scary Reading and listening to the story Stink O Saurus children were able to identify the points in which the dinosaur Stan was scared being: - He was covering his eyes  - He was crying  - He was hiding.

Focus Emotion-Sad

Sad was the next emotion we focused on as its very common for children to be sad at moments throughout the day such as drop off or in play with peers. 

Looking at a poster of a sad boy, children were able to state that ‘he is sad’ because: - He is looking down and shoulder/body is down - He isn’t jumping anymore - He has tears - He isn’t smiling Asking what makes children sad and then moving onto what we can do to makes us feel better: Sad when: - Mum and Dad leave - We are hungry or hurt - Friends aren’t playing with me What we can do to feel better: - We can have a hug - We can get a toy or lollipop - We can talk to our mum/dad or teachers Reading and listening to the story Puff the Magic Dragon, Puff is sad when: - His friend goes away - Puff is lying down and his head is down 

 Next, we will be looking at the Emotion Angry. This with our posters focusing on what makes us angry, how we feel when angry and how we can calm down. Along with this reading the story The Very Cranky Bear. 

Group 

Popular experiences

Over the term we have provided the children with many engaging, exciting and challenging experiences. All the experiences within the room change on a fortnightly basis based on the children’s interests and strengths along with being teacher initiated to help develop certain areas of children’s learning. So, with this some of the popular experiences we have enjoyed this term include: 

Fine Motor Experiences

Fine motor muscles are those in our hands and fingers, they in coordination with the brain allow us to perform daily tasks such as holding a pen/ writing, dressing ourselves such as buttons and zippers, cutting and holding small items. Experiences in which children engaged with this term included: - Placing Pegs - Placing Stickers - Screwing Nuts and Bolts - Transferring with Tongs and Water Droppers - Threading and Peg Boards All these experiences encompassed children developing their fine motor skills. All children had a great interest In these activities and showed their strong fine motor capabilities.  

Problem Solving Experiences

Challenging and assorted puzzles - Stacking Babushka dolls  - Construction activities; dominos, blocks, hexagon discs , train tracks and magnets - Balancing golf balls on tees - Tap Tap and making shapes with small tiles/ mosaic tiles 

In providing children with experiences that encompass problem solving skills this not only develops their persistence and motivation in play, it helps to build children’s confidence in trying new challenging activities. Along with this it will help to solve conflicts and problems.