Molesworth Street Kindergarten

From Audrey, Rachel, Amy and Sakoon, Early Childhood teachers

Welcome to Everyone's Cafe!

A little project yet fueled with lots of imagination. A few weeks ago, we transformed our outdoor cubby into a friendly neighbourhood cafe. One of the children suggested calling it  "Everyone's Cafe" because it is open to everyone!

All we needed was plenty of upcycled materials such as cardboard and loose parts such as corks, metal bowls, and some sand. It didn't take long until the Red-capped Robin group were little baristas in action serving up coffee, hot chocolate, and fish and chips to other teachers and their friends from the 3 year old Rainbow Lorikeet room.

We were learning how to practice sharing resources and turn-taking, carrying out the pretend roles, as we realised there couldn't be all of us doing the same job at once. Observing the children navigate collaborative roles, and teachers supporting the children with the appropriate language to use, while also helping them decide 'who does what' was one of the key highlights of this imaginative play experience.

We also loved seeing how much this sparked great conversations about measurement, quantity, and money as the children think through the amounts needed for each serving and how much to charge for each cup. The children decided that coffee costs $2 per cup while fish and chips sold for $1 each, not bad for their first cafe venture!