4-Year-Old Kindergarten (Field Room)

Welcome to our Field Room classroom!

They say time flies when you're having fun and well the kinder children have had a lot of fun this term. It’s been a busy term full of laughter, fun and of course learning. 

Let’s see what they got up to:

Literacy:

Throughout term 2 the kindergarten children have been very busy learning all about beginning sounds through Jolly phonics and Cued articulation. 

Fun fact #1: Jolly phonics allows us to teach the children about beginning sounds using a synthetic phonics method which is fun and multi-sensory. 

Fun fact#2: Cued articulation is a set of hand cues that further assist the learning around individual sounds. The hand movements are logical, and each hand sign represents one sounds. The cue gives clues as to how and where each sound of the letter is produced when pronouncing it. 

Fun fact #3: These programs are not a pair in the way they are taught. As teachers we thought it was a practical way to teach the children in a deeper, fun and engaging way around their phonics and pronunciation.

Each week we would have focus letters (2 or 3) that we would take a deep dive into. We learnt their beginning sounds, cued articulation sign, formation of the letters, words beginning with these sounds and pencil grip. All these concepts were there to further support the children in being able to transfer this knowledge into their kinder and home environments.

This was just the start of our literacy focus. Next term we are extending the children’s knowledge further through looking at:

• rhyming
• syllables
• middle sounds
• end sounds
• repetition
• blending sounds
• blending syllables

Body safety:

Here in the kinder room, we want all children to know that they have a right to say no, not only in their decisions but around their bodies as well. Field room have learnt that there are safe people who can help them, given strategies around gaining confidence in speaking up, have deepened their knowledge and understanding around boundaries and identifying private and public places. They explored the human body and learnt the correct terminology for specific body parts. When learning about body safety we really looked at how we may feel in safe and unsafe situations and that when we don’t like something, we can say “stop I don’t like it”. All children have a right to feel safe, and we are passionate about ensuring we can fill their toolboxes with enough knowledge for them to be able to transfer this knowledge into their everyday lives.

Emotional regulation

A very tricky but important skill for all children to learn and gain an understanding around. Over the term we have deepened and extended the children’s knowledge around emotional regulation through:

• Zones of regulation: 

  This concept looks at sensory, emotional and executive functioning. All of these allow the children to learn about how to manage and respond to their environments, feelings, emotional state and cognitive control. It explores emotions through 4 zones (Blue, Green, Yellow and Red) with each representing different feelings and strategies on how to control our emotions to ensure we can safely return to the main zone of green (ready to learn).

• Our brains (Amygdala’s):

  The amygdala is the part of our brains that is responsible for our emotions. We built on the children’s learning through understanding our amygdala’s, that all of our emotions are important, we have strong pathways and pathways we want to build on and how to get our amygdala’s to understand safe and unsafe situations. Learning all about the brain introduces the children to new concepts that will further support them around their emotional regulation skills. Furthermore, the children learnt that we are not all the same but there are ways to manage our emotions as well as helping our brains.

• Bucket filling:

  Are you a bucket filler or bucket dipper? We took a deep dive into understanding that our actions both positive and negative have consequences on ours and our friends' feelings. Using a metaphor or a bucket filler and dipper, the children were able to gain a visual insight into the meaning and supported their understanding. We discussed how we can be either a filler or dipper and encouraged this language within the kindergarten environment. “You’re dipping from my bucket”, “that filled my bucket”.

   

• Kindness, empathy and compassion: Following on from the above we explored how these 3 emotions have a huge impact on us and our friends.

Our fun filled incursions, excursions and Haven events:

• Anzac Day
• Mothers & Special persons event
• Reconciliation week
• Beanies for Brain Cancer awareness 
• NAIDOC week
• Henny Penny - Chicken hatching program
• Kids Roar (Body safety)
• Animals of OZ 
• Dentist Visit
• Didgeridoo Incursion
• Cool Kids - First Aid
• Library visits
• Rowville Primary School Excursion

These experiences allow us to connect with and contribute to our community all whilst strengthening our knowledge around the world in which we live, learn and play!

Rowville Primary School: We walked over to Rowville Primary School to engage in their morning lesson to see what all the fuss is about, as we keep hearing everyone say, “you’re going to school next year”. This was a fun and engaging way to introduce the kinder children to what their next learning chapter will look like for next year.