Banksia Group

Kindness – filling a bucket! 

We read the ‘Filling a bucket’ story recently and we are always talking about kindness at kinder and how it looks, feels and how we show kindness to each other. 

Every day we are supporting children across incidental interactions as they happen and also with intentionally discussions as a group. As we use this more the children will become very familiar with the language and identifying kindness from each other.

Buddy Time

This is a short activity the children do in pairs, with the aim to support cooperation, language and new peer connections. Activities vary across drawing, Lego building, doing puzzles together, or it could be doing a looking find together or a treasure hunt.

Body Safety 

The body safety session this term went well and the children were engaged and showed an understanding about their body and how they are in charge of it. To support the children we continued within the program exploring emotions and talking about feelings and how we use our bodies at kinder and respecting other people’s space. The session also talked about safe people and how our body might feel if we don’t feel safe.

Acknowledgement to Country

This was a process the children worked on as a group. We discussed writing our own acknowledgement to country. This included talking about country, how we look after it, what we look after, and why it’s important. The children did some drawings, and we noted down their voices.  Then we put together the words and then talked about it again, then we actually edited a little bit more. We started using it each day when we come together as a group.  The Banksia group acknowledge the Bunurong People as the traditional owners of the land where we learn and play.We promise to look after the ocean, the land, the people, and the animals, being kind and respectful.

Even in winter the sand pit and mud pit play are always available to children as it is a place for sensory play and heavy work play.  "Heavy work" play refers to physical activities that require children to push, pull, carry, lift, or climb. This type of play activates the proprioceptive system (the sense of body awareness and effort), which sends calming, organizing signals to the brain to help children regulate their emotions, focus better, and improve coordination. Its an important part of learning and play.

Enjoy a safe and happy holidays, and  - we can't wait to get stuck into all the fun Term 3 will bring!