Kinder
Director: Meg Arnold
Waratah: Group: Jacqui Zourkas, Mel Goldsmith, Megan Lebret
Lsiandra Group: Helen Williams, Rhonda Tabe, Eliza Wong
Banksia Group: Naomi Parkin, Helen Williams, Canice Searles O'Connor
Wattle Group: Naomi Parkin, Jacqui Zourkas, Shannon Stackpoole
Lunch Relief: Sarah Wilson (all groups)
Friday 2nd June - Waratah and Wattle Photo Day
Friday 9th June - Waratah Librarian Visit
Monday 12th June – King’s Birthday Public Holiday (Kinder Closed)
Wednesday 14th June - Curriculum Day (Kinder Closed)
Friday 23rd June – Last Day of Term
Monday 17th July - Lasiandra Photo Day
Monday 12th of June is a Public Holiday and we also have a Curriculum day on Wednesday 14th of June. The kinder will be closed on each of these days that week. Staff will be onsite on Wednesday for a day of Professional Development.
Thank you to all the children who dressed in yellow and donated to our Wear it Yellow Day last week in the 3 YO groups.
Wear It Yellow was part of our National Reconciliation Week activities this year. The National Reconciliation Week theme for 2023 is ‘Be a voice for generations.’ This theme encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and play. Both our 3 and 4 YO groups have had vibrant discussions about First Nations culture and history over the course of the week and this will continue throughout the year in carious ways within the programs.
Our Lasiandra group had a visit from the local Librarian last week. They enjoyed reading some stories together and dicussing what they can do in a library. Many of the children have also signed up for a library card. This is a great way to encourage a love of reading for our children.
Waratah will have a visit next week on the 9th of June.
Our 4 YO's were very brave and had a visit from the Dentist! Many of the children had the dentise have a look at their teeth after a chat with the whoile group about how they can look after their teeth. This is a great experience for children who are a little unsure about visits to the dentist, as they are in a known safe environment and can see their peers experiencing the same process.
We were so proud of them all and we are sure all the parents will see some eager teeth brushing morning and night at home.
With sensory play, there’s always much more going on than meets the eye.
Sensory activities, in addition to being fun and interesting for young children, encourage children to explore and investigate. Furthermore, these activities support children to use the ‘scientific method’ of observing, forming a hypothesis, experimenting and making conclusions.
Sensory activities also allow children to refine their thresholds for different sensory information, helping their brain to create stronger connections to sensory information and learn which are useful and which can be filtered out.
For example, a child may find it difficult to play with other children when there is too much going on in their environment with conflicting noises or sights.
Through sensory play, the child can learn to block out the noise which is not important and focus on the play which is occurring with their peer.
Another example is a child who is particularly fussy with eating foods with a wet texture such as spaghetti.
The use of sensory play can assist the child with touching, smelling and playing with the texture in an environment with little expectation. As the child develops trust and understanding of this texture it helps build positive pathways in the brain to say it is safe to engage with this food.
Developmental benefits of sensory play include:
For all the above reason we include sensory play in our programs daily. All products we use at kinder are washable and will come out of clothes, however we ask that you please send your children to kinder in old clothes, that you do not mind getting messy.
We do have smocks, however we do find that often children will choose to not wear them. Stopping and putting on a smock interupts the focus of the child's play and interactions, when they enter the play. The children also do not like putting on a smock that has already been used and may be wet or slimy already from a previous child. So it is easiest to change the child after the play rather than use a smock. The educators will help roll up sleaves as they play. But the children are generally encouraged to interact with the sensory play as they wish to, to ensure maximum benefit from the experience.
