Early Learning Centre

3-Year-Old Kinder

ELC3 visited the farm on the North Campus this week. Mr Berry and his year 11 class helped the ELC children to safely cross the road and walk to the farm. At the farm, the children were able to see chickens, goats, geese, ducks and rabbits. They could pat the animals, feed the goats, look for eggs and explore the area. The children were interested in the fruit trees and the vegetable garden beds at the farm. The ELC children and the year 11 class played a group game of “What’s the time Mr. Wolf” in the field. 

Mrs Steinbergs visited the ELC with her guitar for music and movement time. She sang “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes”, “Twinkle twinkle little star”, “Baa baa black sheep”, “Say to the Lord I love you”, “Joy is the flag flown high” and “The butterfly song”. The children practised singing the new songs and making the movements to the beat.

Mrs Alyssa Cairns, ELC Teacher

4-Year-Old Kinder

The weeks are flying by this term, and we have a lot of hands-on learning happening at the ELC, from being exposed to worms, learning about composting and fertilisers, understanding that all creations are the handiwork of God, to knowing about bees and their importance.  

We had a wonderful, interactive and meaningful incursion from ‘Friends from Honey Bee.’  Helen brought along a pretend wooden beehive with many bee puppets busily working away inside their colony.  She explained the bee life cycle, how bees make honey and demonstrated the different beekeeping tools she uses and the suit she wears.  Of course, we couldn’t learn about bees without tasting some honey and some freshly picked apples from Helen’s very own farm.  

Following on from the incursion, we have engaged the children in bee making out of crafts and life cycle pasting activities to revisit these newly learnt knowledge and consolidate their scissor cutting skills.  We have reminded the children during our intentional group times talking about how bees help our environment, why they are so important in our food systems, our sustainability and how we should respond around bees in our natural play spaces.   We will be exploring the parts of the bee’s body in more detail and looking at new vocabularies such as the abdomen, wings, the stinger and antennae.  

The children went to the oval to participate in their mini-Olympic games.  There were hurdles, discus throw, sprinting and around the oval races.   Well done to all of them for showing good sportsmanship, for at least going to the oval and attempting these different sports.  

A few of our current goals with the group are focusing on the children’s ability to have self-control, to make good choices, having independence and problem-solving skills where we are encouraging them to give tasks a go and really persevere before asking for help from a friend or a teacher.  Anything from zipping up their jacket or opening a yoghurt pouch to solving a conflict between peers.  We ask families to support your child by giving them the responsibility to make good choices and attempt tasks for themselves as this will not only build upon their self-esteem but will give them a sense of achievement.  

Another big focus this term is looking into each child’s milestones and school readiness as we start the journey of transitioning into prep.  We cannot wait to share more learning with you next time. 

Mrs Amy Hu, ELC Director