From Hien Nguyen, Early Childhood teacher

Building Pro-Social Skills, Self-Regulation, and Strong Friendships in the Rainbow Lorikeet Room

We have had such a wonderful term in the Rainbow Lorikeet group as the children have engaged in rich, hands-on learning experiences designed to support both their creative expression and social-emotional growth.

Self-Regulation: Bringing Our Bodies Down to Play & Learn

Alongside our social skills, we have been focusing on self-regulation. The children are learning how to listen to their bodies and use practical strategies to regulate their energy so they feel calm, grounded, and ready to learn and play:

Breathing Visuals & Techniques: We have introduced visual breathing boards featuring fun, engaging techniques like Bubble Breathing, Bumble Bee Breathing, Box Breathing, Starfish Breathing, and Rainbow Breathing.
Identifying Feelings: Through interactive charts like "How Are You Feeling?" and "A Day of Emotions" (using shapes and emotion cups), children identify feelings like happy, sad, angry, excited, surprised, or scared.
Calming Choices: Children practice choosing positive calming actions when overwhelmed—such as taking 3 deep breaths, using fidgets, counting to 3, going for a short walk, or taking a quiet break.

Building Friendships & Our Classroom Friendship Corner

Exploring what it means to be a good friend and building positive social relationships has been central to our group this term. The children collaborated on a special project to create a dedicated Friendship Corner in our classroom:

Heart & Flower Artworks: The children created vibrant heart and flower artworks filled with photos and bright colours, taking immense pride in decorating our window space.
Our Classroom Kindness Tree: We built a large Rainbow Lorikeet Kindness Tree out of recycled cardboard, paper rolls, and painted hands. The tree displays green leaves representing acts of kindness and positive behaviours noticed around the classroom.

Kindness, Gentle Hands & Pro-Social Skills

We are intentionally supporting our Rainbow Lorikeets in developing essential pro-social skills—including empathy, sharing, and the confidence to express their feelings. It has been incredibly rewarding to see the children actively using these strategies every day during their time at kinder!

Cardboard "Kind and Gentle" Hands: The children loved constructing and painting cardboard hands, providing a tactile, visual reminder to use gentle touch during play.
Kind vs. Unkind Sorting Games: Interactive boards featuring "Kind" (thumbs up) and "Unkind" (thumbs down) cards helped children distinguish positive behaviours from unkind
Prop Puppets & Imaginative Play: Using prop puppets during Storytime sparked wonderful imaginative play where children took on roles and reminded one another: "You should use kind and gentle hands to play, and kind words too!"

Key Social-Emotional Goals We Practice Daily

Through these routine activities and creative experiences, our Rainbow Lorikeets are learning to:

Show Empathy: Recognize how peers feel and offer support, care, or a helping hand.
Express Feelings with Confidence: Name their emotions clearly, state boundaries, and ask for support when needed.
Communicate Respectfully: Use kind words to ask for turns, negotiate play scenarios, and build strong connections with peers.

As Term 3 comes to an end, we hope you all have a wonderful, restful break with your families. Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership, and we look forward to seeing the children refreshed and ready for Term 4!

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