Early Learning
What I Love About Me
Last week we explored identity through the beautiful book I Love Me by Sally Morgan and Ambelin Kwaymullina. The story encouraged us to think about what makes each of us special and unique. After reading together, the children drew self-portraits and shared something they love about themselves. We heard wonderful reflections such as loving fast legs, strong arms, and clever thinking!
We attached their work to donated twirly decorations that were repurposed for our classroom, modelling how we can reuse materials in creative and meaningful ways. Sustainability is an important value in early childhood, and the children enjoyed seeing how something old could become something new and special.
This experience supported children in developing confidence, self-awareness and a strong sense of belonging. It also helps us as educators learn more about what each child values about themselves, deepening our relationships and guiding future learning.
As Psalm 139:14 reminds us, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” We are helping the children understand that they are wonderfully made - just as they are.
And as a side note, if anyone is proposing anytime soon, we have about 100 of these ‘She Said Yes!’ decorations left! See me if this sounds like you…
Judi Missen
Early Learning Educator
Koalas
The Koala Group of 2026 is off to a strong start, with children quickly settling in to their very first year of Kinder. Now they are showing us just what they're interested in finding out about!
There has been some floating and sinking play as they keep cool with water, so we have followed their lead and provided more opportunities to explore these concepts further.
The children have been active in their investigations, trying out different shaped objects, and different materials. They try out the same kind of objects - but made from different materials - such as spoons made from wood, plastic and metal. This has given them some surprising results, and prompted further guessing as they add objects to water.
We watched a science show about floating, sinking, and density. The children started off by describing floatation as "it goes up" and sinking as "it falls down"; now they are using the terms Float and Sink while they play. They are also beginning to identify materials like wood, plastic and metal, and to predict results with greater accuracy. "Small things sink" George observed. "They float!" Elliana indicated all the flat, round objects she'd selected to try out. There is also a lot of classification going on as they group similar items.
Outcome 4 of the Early Years Learning Framework promotes children as being capable and involved learners, using hypothesis, prediction, trial, error and analysis in their play. This has certainly been evident in the Koala Group this fortnight, who are already loving the process of learning together.
Isaac used some pool noodles as boats for toy ducks, which inspired us to create boats from foil and different containers that we found in our Kinder cupboards. The teddy bear counters had lots of fun riding around in the boats, and were purposefully capsized or sunk! Causing their boats to sink was as informative for the children as seeing them float, as they explored how boats work and don't work.
They counted out how many bears could fit in their boats before they sank, and found that too many bears sitting in the front of their boats caused a few fun shipwrecks. Pamela Allen's classic book Who Sank the Boat? got everybody guessing. As we trialled many different objects we were surprised to see that some submerged objects turned upside down all by themselves, like George's pinecone and Jack's monster trucks.
Buoyancy, stability, gravity and uneven distribution of mass are big concepts for three year-olds perhaps, but as capable and involved learners, the Koala Group are onto it!
Sian Duggan
Early Learning Educator