Forest Room

Welcome to Term 4! Can you believe we are at the end of the year? It has flown by that's for sure! Term 4 was jam packed full of exciting learning including our first Forest room excursion, a gardening project, a teddy bear picnic, learning all about numbers and of course celebrating Christmas! 

Excursion to Myuna Farm!

In November the Forest room ventured out on their first ever excursion to the wonderful Myuna farm. We travelled there by bus and then participated in the hands of farming program, which saw the children engage in a range of fun activities. 

When we arrived we had some morning tea before all making our way to the farm show, where they had a goat milking demonstration, which the children were then invited to try. After this we broke off into two groups to do the rest of the activities, which were the animal nursery, a walk to feed alpacas and cows, playing on the playground as well as going on an awesome train ride! 

As you can see from the photos the children had a wonderful time, it was a big day and we had some very sleepy children at the end of it, but it was definitely worth it. 

Gardening with Sikha!

This term has seen us participate in a gardening program with Sikha and wow has our garden been in full bloom! We have enjoyed being a part of the whole growing process, we planted all of the vegetables, watered them and when they were ready we harvested and gave them to Julia in the kitchen to add to our lunches, we recently loved having our lettuce and beans added to our pasta dishes and it definitely creates a sense of pride when you grow your own food, so well done to forest room! This was a wonderful way to support the children with connecting with nature and building their understanding of the natural world. I wonder what we will harvest from our garden next? 

Teddy Bear Picnic!

At the end of November we joined the Field room for a Teddy Bear picnic! This was a fantastic session, which saw the children engaging in a range of bear themed activities and providing a transition session for the children who will be going up to Field room next year. 

We iced teddy bear biscuits, played at different activities with our teddy friends, did some teddy bear colouring and also enjoyed as a group the following stories and songs while eating our delicious biscuits with our teddy bears. What a wonderful morning!

• 'We're going on a bear hunt' by Michael Rosin
• 'The very hungry bear' by Nick Bland
• 'Rock-a-bye your bear' by The Wiggles
• 'Teddy bear picnic' by Play School

Numeracy!

This term we shifted our focus to learning all about numbers! To kick start this we introduced a counting song into our morning group time and with it being so catchy the children were getting the hang of it right away, this song saw the children practice counting 1-20 and to help them they would use their fingers to count each number while they were singing! 

We also read a range of counting books such as 'Ten little dinosaurs' and using flashcards up to number 10 to play number games to help with their number recognition. The children also enjoyed exploring a range of number focused tabletop activities to extend their learning further. Well done Forest room!

Christmas!

Our last focus topic for the year has been none other than Christmas! The children have absolutely loved participating in a range of Christmas craft including marble painting candy canes, building a Christmas tree out of handprints, making stockings, making snowmen and gingerbread men and enjoying Christmas stickers! We have also loved getting into the Christmas spirit through learning the words and choreography for 'Santa wear your shorts' with Kristyn, which was filmed and enjoyed by the families. We also loved reading a range of Christmas stories that then encourage beautiful conversations around their own experiences of Christmas.

Speaking of, one of our wonderful families gifted us this beautiful real tree from their Christmas tree farm, which the children beautifully decorated! Definitely check them out and keep them in mind for next year.

https://portschristmastrees.com.au/

That is it from Forest room, thank you all for a wonderful year and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2024!

Kelly, Kristyn, Demmi, Danni and Sikha