Molesworth Street Kindergarten

From Amy Lee, Rosella teacher

Celebrating Our Voices, Cultures and Creativity!

At Molesworth Street Kindergarten, we warmly welcome families to share the celebrations, traditions and special occasions that are meaningful to them. These shared experiences help children understand that every family's story is important and valued in our kinder community.

Over the past few weeks, the Rosella children have enjoyed a wonderful range of experiences celebrating children's voices, creativity and cultural diversity.

Children's Week – Our Kinder, Our Voice

During Children's Week, we celebrated children's rights to express their ideas, share their opinions and have a say in decisions that affect them.

At Molesworth Street Kindergarten, we believe every child's voice matters. We want children to feel listened to, valued and empowered to make choices about their learning and play.

We read the book Say Something! and explored the many different ways we can use our voices. We talked about how we can express ourselves by speaking up, sharing ideas, asking questions, making suggestions, creating, drawing and showing others what is important to us. We also enjoyed singing I Am Me, a song that celebrates our individual identities and reminds us that everyone is unique and special.

To celebrate, we set up a special "Our Kinder, Our Voice!" voting station in our entryway. The voting options were developed from ideas and suggestions the children had shared with us in the lead-up to Children's Week. This made the experience even more meaningful, as children could see their own ideas reflected in our kinder community.

After Children's Week, we will look at the results together with the children and use their ideas to help shape our upcoming program and learning experiences.

A Spooky Halloween Celebration!

The children became curious about Halloween, so we shared stories about its origins and talked about some of its traditions. They were excited to share their ideas about making our kinder a little spooky! Together, we decorated our space with spider webs and little ghosts, made magical potions and worked as a group to create a giant spider web. We then used the web for our game, 'Don't Touch the Spider Web!' The fun continued with Halloween dress-ups and trick-or-treating. The children had a wonderful time getting involved in all the spooky activities!

Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival

We also explored the Mid-Autumn Festival, learning about its traditions and the special mooncakes enjoyed during this celebration. The children had the opportunity to make their own mooncakes and decorate them with spooky Halloween-inspired designs, bringing two celebrations together in a fun and creative way!

Discovering Diwali – The Festival of Lights

We continued our cultural exploration by reading a story about Diwali. The children learned about some of the traditions associated with this special celebration, including lights, colours and decorations. Inspired by the story, they created beautiful Rangoli patterns and colourful lanterns, exploring different designs, shapes and colours through their creativity.

It has been lovely to see the Rosella children's curiosity, excitement and enthusiasm as they share their ideas and discover different celebrations. These experiences remind us that every family has its own special traditions and stories, and that our differences make our kinder community richer.