Early Learning
Happy Easter
We are looking forward to celebrating Easter with children and parents as we finish off the Term with some fun Easter Egg hunts. The Possum group enjoyed making and eating Hot Cross Buns last week, and they have been busy creating their own Easter baskets. Our bread makers again came in handy for our Hot Cross Buns, and we were thankful to have some wonderful parents helping us. In all of our Kinder groups we have been learning about the life of Jesus and have discussed the reason behind our Easter celebrations, that Jesus died on the cross because he loves us so much and wants to be our friend.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16
We pray that all of our Kinder families will know God's love this Easter.
Beth Parker
Head of Early Learning
Sign of the Week
We are excited to introduce a new section of our newsletter, the Sign of the Week!
This week at Kinder we are learning the sign for Easter:
Beth Parker
Head of Early Learning
Clay Fun
At Kinder we love to learn. We are lucky to have Mrs Missen studying at the moment and inspiring us every day with new ways of thinking and doing. Today, all of the educators went down to the riverbed to play with clay. We had not thought of using this natural resource in the natural environment before, but it gave such freedom to the children’s play and exploration. After we had had a play, there was a crowd of children who wanted a turn! They explored the feeling of the clay, adding water to make it more slippery. They noticed the clay left a white residue and used it to paint the playground. Children engaged happily in sensory play and used vocabulary about the temperature and feeling of the clay. There were big smiles and laughter as children enjoyed the mess and open ended nature of playing with clay outside.
Beth Parker
Head of Early Learning
Moving Targets
In the spirit of resilience training being a two-way street, Mrs Holscher and I offered ourselves up as human targets (actually, it was more of a persuasion thing for Mrs Holscher) for the children to hone their aiming skills on. It’s amazing how much more accurately they threw and with way more strength when the object of their aim was a moving screaming Kinder teacher! All in all, it was a fun and joyous way to get those little bodies moving and fine tune those fine and gross motor skills – good times were had in the King’s College Gym! For activity justification purposes, I cite this quote from the Miracle Recreation Blog:
In simpler terms, when exposed to too much stress, kids have a harder time learning and performing throughout their childhood and into adulthood. But, when exposed to joy, they can efficiently take in new information and develop a skill set that will help them later in life.
Judi Missen
Early Learning Teacher
God's Creepy Creation
Nursery Rhymes are always a favourite with our 3-year-old Wombat group, and we set out to locate Incy Wincy in the Kinder yard last Wednesday. The spider hunt involved ladders, waterspouts, webs, a mature educator perched precariously on a ladder whilst obtaining roof top arachnid evidence, and a very life-like plastic specimen provided by Ms Pallister.
Lots of questions were asked about the lifestyle of Incy, and the children involved studiously examined all the facts, and declared that yes, Incy Wincy did indeed climb the water spout, get washed out, and climb the water spout again in the sunshine! I now declare the Wombat Group as bona fide MythBusters! We put together all the photos and video footage into this little hybrid media montage below and will let you be the judge.
Judi Missen
Early Learning Teacher
Echidnas
Easter preparations have been underway in the Echidna group with some fun activities like making Easter headbands and baskets for our Egg Hunt on the final day of term. Eggs remind us of new life and a new beginning offered to us by a loving God. We have been exploring the story of God's creation, what went wrong, and how God had a great plan to give us a new life as His friends.
The Echidna Group continues to explore their interest in ramps, inclines, pipes, gravity and velocity. What began early in the term as car racing down ramps has shifted to making recycled marble runs, train tracks and tunnels down hills, slides for dolls, zip lines, and now connectable pipes with rubber balls. Although speed has been the aim of their game until now, the children have found that the balls are moving slowly down the pipes, despite creating higher drops and slopes. They said this was because the pipes were bumpy (the pipes are ridged and can expand or fold). This was a very good observation, as this is just how speed bumps effectively slow cars down. The Echidna group enjoy experimenting together in STEM play and are beginning to describe thinking activity.
Sian Duggan
Early Learning Teacher
Wombats
The children are excited about Easter approaching and have enjoyed Easter related craft activities at Kinder. They have had the opportunity to decorate chicks and eggs, and create an Easter decoration with the message "He is Risen". At group time we have watched a video clip about the life of Jesus and discussed the reason behind our Easter celebrations - Jesus came to bring new life! The chicks and eggs remind us of the wonderful new life that we can have in Jesus. Yesterday, the last day of term for the Wombat Group, we enjoyed an Easter celebration with families. The children sang a few of their favourite songs before participating in an Easter egg hunt. It was great way to finish the term!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Hayley Pallister
Early Learning Teacher