Banksia Group Term 3, 2022

Banksia Group

Banksia Group Newsletter – Term 3

It is hard to contemplate that we are already in Term 3, and very soon it will be a new chapter for our children. The children have now settled in well, developed friendships and have shown remarkable patience and resilience with staff changes and routines.

This term has seen the children interested in literacy and role play. This has been evident as the children become more settled in the kinder room and are able to communicate more effectively as they grow in confidence, forge more friendships, and develop more vocabulary and confidence.

We have noted the children’s interest in books, and the characters in the stories. With this in mind, we set up a home corner library with a CD player with headphones, and popular audio stories that the children could listen to with another friend, or on their own when they want a quiet space.

Next, with a view to expand on this interest further, and to develop and encourage language, listening skills, social and emotional development and confidence, we acted out stories as a group with each child playing a role if they wanted to, and we also added dress ups to the arch with stories that they also could use to role play independently.

Last week we were also lucky enough to have “Dreamer Puppets visit us, to perform “Dreamer in Space” The children were enthralled to see that the puppets lit up in the dark, and that it was an amusing performance, which made them laugh out loud and discuss the show with their friends.

At the end they were able to see some of the puppets up close and ask questions.

Later, we set up an open-ended activity where they could make puppets of their own using recycled materials such as box art, sticks, felt, etc.

In addition, literacy is further encouraged through visual prompts and activity in the room to encourage fine motors skills, letter formation and recognition, etc.

Another interest for the children this term is volcanoes. Some of our children were making volcanoes with the play dough and the conversation turned to underwater volcanoes. First, we looked up the information on the ipad. We also set up experiences where the children use science to discover colour

mixing, chemical reactions (Making tabletop volcanoes, plus a large volcano in the sandpit which the children really enjoyed).

Additionally, we put stunning pictures of volcanoes on the easel as a provocation to paint as the colours and patterns were a topic of conversation previously.

Every week we also have a cooking day which will continue throughout Term 3. Recently we have made biscuits, bread, and fruit kebabs where each child brought in some fruit from home.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for their donations of fruit.

The children were so proud of their sense of ownership and loved to talk about what they had brought in, before chopping it up and putting it onto the stick ready to eat. (Fine motor skills, sensory, fruit recognition/colours/maths equations, etc)

As you can see, we are only a few weeks into the term, but already very busy. We will continue to extend the children’s interests and fuel a love of learning through engaging activities and enrichment.

Thanks,

Shannyn, Amy, Kath and Tanya