River Room

Within the Service

Welcome to our termly reflection!  As we welcomed the new year after Christmas entered term 1 we finished orientating children up into Sun room and welcoming our new and existing children in the river room. This process worked really well and all children appeared to settle very well too. This was amazing to see as it is a time of mixed emotions seeing children grow and learn but a very positive time too as we know about excitement and growth awaits them.

 During this time we paved the way for our new branding of the service and the exciting opportunities within HAVEN that awaited us 😊 this is only continuing to be evident and we can’t wait to continue seeing the positive outcomes this brings us.                       

Within the room

With the new year came a fresh change for the River room and we decided to move the room around and add a few extra touches. We decided to use the big window as the “feature window” between the reception area and our room! This is our group project we intend to change as different learning and interest emerge throughout the year. We first created a big Sun to celebrate Summer and eventually moved on to a palm tree where the children created monkeys and also butterflies. This explored different aspects such as fine motor skills and the beginning of colour recognition. We usually spend quite some time exploring and creating with the children and encourage them to create at their own pace which is what is so special about group projects. Outdoors as the warmer weather was still upon us we took advantage of the glorious sun and had a lot of water play happening, we saw the children using their senses to play around, feel and explore the beauty of water in all forms. We included cups, bubbles and balls We enjoyed a few wonderful dates with Australia day, Valentines day and Easter throughout this term. We explored and acknowledged each of them and created some wonderful crafts in the process. The Easter bunny visited the service and we enjoyed creating and painting eggs to put up as display and an Easter egg hunt too.

Beat, Beat, Bonkers Beat!

As you are aware throughout the beginning of February we introduced “Bonkers” the baby Monkey to the River room children. At first, the children weren’t too sure what Miss Karla was thinking bringing such a creature into their environment! We received a lot of interesting looks and responses but one response we have all observed reaching the end of Term 1 was their love for him now.

Along with Bonkers was a few songs we introduced which included; “Bonkers beat” and “Where is Bonkers”. For these songs we eventually introduced the bongos and drum sticks which was a big hit! We decided to focus on these two songs for the first 2 months focusing on repetition supporting cognitive develop and verbal and non-verbal communication. One thing we have noticed is how much our children love music and love to move! Music and movement is and I’m sure will only continue to be such a big hit within the River room 😊

Unforeseen circumstances

As we are all aware Covid-19 hit us all in the most unforeseen and hard hitting of ways. Our way of life changed before our eyes and with that came some hard decisions for us all but one positive is that we are all in this together and there will be light!

After some uncertainty and unknown, we are very lucky that we are still able to do what we love which is nurture and teach and provide care to all children. On behalf of myself and the girls within the River room we want you to know we are here for all families-those still attending and those taking a break. We will continue to be here for you every day and upon your return 😊 

We still encourage you all to reach out for any information, ideas and of course photos as a way we can keep connected.

We look forward to sharing with you term 2- until then stay happy and safe!

-Karla, Cate, Jess & Samah