Forest Room
Hello Forest Room Families,
It is a little crazy writing this but we made it through another term and another year! What an interesting year 2021 has been and we say it time after time but I just hope we can say goodbye to lockdowns for good. With the challenges, limited children and uncertainty throughout the year we just wanted to say a big thankyou for sticking by us, supporting us and sharing the good and bad times with us. We truly have an incredible group of children and families in the Forest Room and at Haven Early Learning.
When children returned from lockdown it was so amazing to see them settle right back in, develop deeper relationships with their peers and educators and also see their development from the beginning of 2021 to the end. We loved having our full room of noise, laughter, love and learning back reminding us to enjoy each day that we get to be apart of these children's lives.
Term 4 Favourites
During the term we recognised and celebrated some big events and topics but we also found that children focused and displayed high levels of motivation towards the small moments throughout their weeks. This group of children love being together and learning as a collective, so we wanted to offer many experiences that they could collaborative and explore as a group. Some of the events and activities over term 4 big or small that were absolute favourites included:
-Halloween
Oh what fun we had on Halloween, the children loved learning about all things spooky, creepy crawling and icky. Along with this we had some fabulous dress ups and tasty treats to enjoy.
-Excursions to the park
I have never seen a bunch of children (and adults) so excited to be able to get out of the centre and head to Arcadia Reserve and of course the playground. While at the park we has so much fun kicking balls, chasing each other, using the parachute and also digging in the dirt with sticks and creating camp fires. We spent extended periods of the time at the park watching the groups of children interact with each other and their surroundings to explore nature and develop their social play skills.
-Outdoor play
Building upon the children's love for being outside at the park and with the warmer weather (and the cold weather), we alongside the 4 year old kindergarten have spent a lot of time and effort in improving our outdoor yard. The team have ensured that the children are able to access experiences indoors as awell as outdoors and create learning stations within the yard. Some favourites have bee the block construction, drawing and home corner play.
-Art and craft
This term we have seen a big increase in children's interest and development in their skills in art and craft experiences. Whether this is drawing provided each day, artwork for events such as Remembrance Day, Space Week, Diwali and also painting. Children love to tell us narratives about what they are creating and include their peers in their artwork sharing ideas and new capabilities.
-Christmas
Christmas is such a rewarding time to work alongside children seeing their pure joy, excitement and happiness at this time of year. We love sharing this festive time with children from telling/reading stories, singing Christmas songs, decorating the rooms and giving gifts to our loved ones. We even got to have two special movies days watching 'The Grinch' and 'Arthur Christmas' enjoying some yummy snacks.
This year we have been so lucky to have a special visitor in our room in the form of 'Cheerio the Elf' , each morning we are so excited to see where Cheerio is hiding or what cheeky business he has been up to overnight.
A spotlight on puzzles
As mentioned before the Forest Room loving working together and this was especially seen when it came to completing puzzles and engaging with board and matching games. The benefits of puzzles and board games are extensive for children as individuals and groups and include:
-Development of problem solving skills, concentration and resilience
-Promoting visual perception to be able to see things as small parts and then as a whole
-Social play skills such as turn taking, negotiation and communication in groups
-Improving memory and recognition of patterns, colours, sizes, numbers/letters.
Group times
During our morning group times the focus for Auslan signing were the following songs: Miss Polly had a Dolly and You are My Sunshine. Children loved the challenge of Miss Polly being an upbeat song with many signs and also loved telling us that You are my sunshine is a song many of them sing at home with their families. The children then all loved a dance to a song of their picking (from educational, to radio and Christmas songs), with some of their favourites including:
- I like to move it (Madagascar)
-Every body (Back street boys)
-Cover me in sunshine (Pink)
-Shotgun (George Ezra)
-Santa Clause is coming
-Jingle Bells
Our afternoon group times where we continued focusing on emotions and topics included looking at how we are all different but everyone is equal and respecting alternative ways to do or think about things. Some stories included:
-Some Brains, this book children found fascinating to consider what our brains control and just because our brain works one way doesn't mean that everyone brains work the same
-We are all equal, we loved listening to this story hearing differences but seeing that we all matter the same and are equal
-Construction & Demolition, these two stories more focused on the interest children have in diggers/ bull dozers and machinery seeing the process how something can be smashed, down and then built up and hearing new language in context.
Thank-you
As we come to the end of another year we just wanted to say a big THANK-YOU for 2021 and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We are so grateful to have you trust us with your children's learning, wellbeing and development each day. We adore seeing them grow into independent, confident children across the year ready to take on their next challenge whether this is school, 3 or 4 year old kinder.
From the Forest Room
Bronwyn, Demmi, Kristyn, Lena and Trish.
