Glen Education Glover Street

Creating Stimulating Learning Environments 

Christine Yeghyaian, Early Childhood Educator

It has been a wonderful start to the new year at Glen Glover Street Kindergarten, our ‘getting to know you’ picnic in February was a great opportunity for us as educators and the community at large! We have welcomed all the returning children and of course the new families who have joined us. 

A beautiful summer start to this year offered children the chance to experience the indoor and the outdoor areas, where friendships were forged during fun, educational and engaging activities. The physical environment of the kindergarten space offers children many opportunities to extend on their learning. Educators carefully design play spaces to support children to engage in rich learning experiences which inspire them to take on new challenges, such as climbing or jumping in muddy puddles, or build social skills, such as inviting a peer into the home corner to join an imaginative game.  Throughout the term as educators have built relationships with children  the learning space has evolved and changed.  Educators consistently reflect on children's interests, developmental capabilities and respond to their ideas.  This feedback provides a basis for educators to develop the kindergarten environment to meet the needs of all children.  

Physical movement is an essential part of children’s coordination development and when you’re having the best time helps develop extensive brain circuitry! Outdoor activities include totem tennis hits, the very popular swing set area, the water pump, the mud-pit zone, the outdoor kitchen, relaxing under the sun lounge while having a book read, the chalk board for experimenting with writing and drawing, as well as cooling off on those hot days under the water sprinkler! We are proud of the bike riders who have developed great skills as well as those who just love to create an incredible object of choice at the Craft Corner in the verandah! The possibilities are endless and the resources available at Glen Glover St, offer children the keys to unlocking their intuitive and confident learning capacities.

 In addition to the broad range of tuzzles and puzzles available indoors, board games, wide range of painting mediums to express new ideas on paper we have added beautifully built hexagonal nesting tables. These hold a range of wooden sensory pieces designed for children who prefer quiet areas to concentrate their energy. The building blocks, the baskets full of building materials will always invite the curiously minded and l have seen friends coming together and working cooperatively to build great designs! 

The above image is just one of our vegetable garden beds. Children participated in prepping the soil with sheep manure and compost. Then helped plant seedlings or seeds. We will watch these plants grow while we, ourselves grow a little bit each day at our home away from home.