Sun Classroom

What a term this has been! So many good moments to share with you. Our Sun Room children amaze us everyday with their ability to learn, explore, create and try new things.

Of course, COVID reared it’s ugly head again and with restrictions in place we have been unable to see many of our Sun Room friends. We look forward to this lockdown ending and being back together again soon and having an awesome Term 4!

This term we welcomed new friends Van, Mariana, Mason and Ariyan. We have loved getting to know you all and look forward to creating more memories with you .

Let’s take a look back at what we did throughout Term 3….

Special Event Days…

These included Pyjama Day, Crazy Hair Day, Red Nose Day, Daffodil Day and R U Ok Day. These days are significant in that they raise awareness for different causes that are meaningful to us. These causes included Foster Care, Cystic Fibrosis, SIDS, Cancer research and promoting awareness for mental health. So you might think, how do we relate this back to two year olds? Fair question. So we weave these themes gently throughout our curriculum. A certain day often has a colour related to it. So here we focus on the colour through our different experiences. We might also include some cooking experiences where we can talk about what we are doing and why. We can participate through having crazy hairstyles or wearing pyjamas and we will relate that into our group time conversations. It’s always a great idea to share in a meaningful way about what’s happening in the world around us. The children know they are safe and supported with us and we relate everything back to our philosophy of being kind and friendly. We appreciate all your help with these special event days.

Tokyo Olympics 2021…

We learnt so much through our focus time on the Olympics.

We were able to have conversations about Tokyo, our Indigenous Olympians, our country, colour recognition with the Olympic Rings, the fun of our torch ceremony, and undoubtedly the highlight of our Olympic journey was getting out in the car park and doing our own Sun Room Mini Olympics and our Medal Ceremony. A huge thank you to Lina for organising these special event days.

So many opportunities for new thoughts, feelings, ideas and our learning to develop and grow.

Chickens at Haven…

For two weeks we had the Henny Penny Hatching Program in our Field Room. Through this amazing program we were able to participate in the life cycle of a chicken! We were able to visit Field Room and see the eggs and then the chickens. Once all the chickens were hatched they were able to come down to Sun Room for a visit. During this time the children had the opportunity to look, touch, and talk about the chickens.

This was a really amazing opportunity for hands on learning and a way to enhance the children’s confidence, listening skills and understanding of gentle hands and soft voices.

Dental Health Week…

We talked about healthy foods and sometimes foods which also tied in nicely with our Sustainability Program. We also spent quite a bit of time having conversations about brushing our teeth, why we do it and how we do it and we had songs, stories and visuals to support this learning. Lesley even set up a dentist play space for us. The children loved telling us what colour their toothbrush was and if they had brushed their teeth!

Book Week, Literacy Day and Indigenous Literacy Day...

Books and sharing stories is such an integral part of our learning. It’s a time where we can come together in big or small groups and just listen, relax and enjoy a moment together. Not only do stories help enhance our communication skills through listening, looking and concentrating, they also help build our confidence with sharing our thoughts, feelings and ideas with others.

We loved seeing all the dress ups throughout Book Week and appreciate all your support. During Book Week we focused on The Rainbow Fish, on Indigenous Literacy Day we were looking at The Rainbow Serpent and Welcome Child and for Literacy Day we wanted to put the choice of stories into the voices of our Sun Room children. Throughout that day we had plenty of different areas set up, both indoors and outdoors for the children to share a story time.

Numeracy...

One of our main focuses this term was on numeracy. We have noticed numbers, counting and patterns are a huge interest of the children. We want to support and extend on this learning in a fun and challenging way.

What this means for us is having an understanding of numbers and how they are used. Through our experiences over this term we looked at concepts such as big and small (size), high and low (height), fast and slow (speed), heavy and light (weight), close and far (distance) and first and last (order and sequence)

Challenging Play…

“Risky” or “Challenging” play is crucial to a child’s development. In order for children to learn, focus, and follow directions as they grow, they need to develop proprioception and vestibular senses by experiencing many physical challenges during childhood.

We want your children to have the freedom to explore new experiences and challenges and have the knowledge to know they are supported.

We know this play helps to:-

• Build resilience
• Enhance balance and coordination
• An awareness of our capabilities and our limits
• Confidence and independence
• Creativity and inventiveness
• Curiosity and wonder
• Problem solving

So, with keeping safety as our priority and offering challenges as a necessity we need to find the right balance…

Over Term 4 we will be encouraging:-

• Climbing
• Jumping
• Spinning
• Chasing
• Hide and seek
• Loose parts play
• Excursions to the park
• Food prep - cutting fruit

We will be there to support and supervise, offering encouragement and guidance but giving the children the opportunity to solve problems and make decisions.

National Science Week…

Wow! Our Sun Room Educators put on their thinking caps and came up with amazing experiences and experiments for our children to choose to participate in. It was a super successful week, with so many new learning opportunities created, confidence promoted and challenges achieved. Our experiences and experiments included :- Volcano eruption, Popcorn popping, Ice melting (solid to liquid), Gravity with balls, Balloon rockets (thrust and force), Play dough (chemical reaction), Germinating seeds in a bag and Magic milk (colour change) Awesome effort Sun Room

Footy Day!

We had the absolute best time on Footy Day! Thanks to all those that supported the day by dressing in your team colours. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to visit the park. The children are amazing at walking over and even though it’s not too far, it is a big walk for their little legs and we are so proud of all they can do. It’s hard to put into words how much we all get out of our time together at the park, it’s truly a invaluable and rewarding experience for all of us and we plan to visit the park many times throughout term 4.

( Go Blues for 2022!)

Big Chefs help Little Chefs…

We are loving the time we shared with the Field Room children. It’s such an awesome opportunity for developing friendships and special moments, for enhancing role modelling opportunities and for having fun and creating delicious food together!

This term to support our learning on Indonesia we made Lumpia, Indonesian Spring Rolls and they were delicious. A huge thank you to Lina for all her support, enthusiasm and knowledge with this experience.

To support our learning about Germany we made Rumkugeln - easy German rum balls. This was a lot of fun and we enjoyed eating them!

Growing Potatoes ( From Lesley)

Over Term 3 Sun Room has been growing potatoes in our garden.

When we finally dug them up we found they were too little to feed us all, so instead we used them to create art. Cutting them in half and attaching them to paddle pop stick handles, the children used these stamps to print out a range of colourful designs focusing on building up their fine motor skills in a fun new way.

Sustainability (From Caitlyn)

Over the last couple of months and continuing into term 4, I will be heading up our Sustainability Program. With Viktoriya and Lesley, we have been looking at different ways to fix up and recreate our our garden for both vegetables and flowers. We have also had activities set up to enhance exploration of insects that we are finding in our garden. We are also learning about the foods we can and can not feed our worms. We are also looking at recycling and what rubbish goes in what bin, ie, paper into our recycling bin and food scraps into our waste bin.

Our aim throughout this Sustainability Program is to build on the children’s interests and enhance their learning and understanding.

Rainbow Collage Project ( From Eda)

During this term I wanted to contribute to our Sustainability Program by creating a sustainable rainbow collage with our Sun Room children. This collaborative project will allow the children to enhance their fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, colour matching/recognition and understanding of recycling.

I was able to reach out to our families to donate any bottle top lids to help make this project achievable and I really appreciate your involvement and being apart of this creative journey with us.

Our project is still a work in progress. As a result of lockdown it was difficult to source extra supplies that were needed. Due to this we will be working on this throughout Term 4. I can’t wait to see the finished result and share it with you all.

Gardening (From Viktoriya)

In this term we were planning to plant some vegetables in our little garden, but unfortunately due to the lockdown as the shops were closed we couldn’t implement our plans. In term four we want to plant some vegetables such as lettuce, snow peas, carrots and strawberries.

Gardening is very beneficial for the children.

Children can learn new skills, have fun, play and develop self-confidence by digging in the soil, getting dirty, tending to plants and watching them grow. Gardening teaches children responsibility by highlighting the importance of nurturing life. Children will be able to appreciate cause and effect by understanding when we water the plants they will grow, but if we ignore them the plants may die.

Lina’s Sports Program (From Lina)

In Term 3, we started our sports program to support our children’s gross motor development.

At the beginning of the term, we worked on animal movements with the children. These movements included flying like a bird, swimming like a fish, jumping like a kangaroo and walking like a crab.

To enhance our children’s balance skills, l encouraged the children to participate in our balance challenge program. We walked along the balance buckets and the wooden log in our garden and it was amazing how quickly their confidence developed.

We celebrated the Tokyo Olympics by having our own Haven mini Olympics in the carpark. The children were so engaged in all the activities and they just loved getting their first gold medal!

To finish off the term we had our footy day in the park. It was such a great way to enhance our ball skills and enjoy running and being together.

What we will be doing in Term 4…

• Continuing to support you with your child’s toilet training journey. Come and have a chat to us if you need any support in this area of learning. We are here to help and want to work in partnership with you. We need to have a consistent approach and work together to support your child through this new experience. During this time we need to all be patient and encouraging…your child is learning a new skill and it’s often a process of trial and error. Every child is different and will enter this stage of learning in their own time.
• Progressive Meals… we are looking at trying progressive meals and see how the children respond to this. We are wanting to do this because some of our children get hungry and tired earlier than others and some would prefer to play and have a bit more energy. Progressive meal times give an opportunity for children to choose when to eat within a certain timeframe instead of all sitting down to eat at a certain time. This allows children the freedom of continuous play and the choice of when they need to eat. Having smaller groups at mealtimes will also encourage more social and meaningful interactions and a smoother flow throughout the day. It will also help with the children who will be transitioning to Forest Room next year as they do progressive meal times.
• SunSmart Program… Just a reminder that we are coming into the warmer weather and it’s time to be SunSmart. We will provide the children with a sun hat and will apply sunscreen every 2 hours. On sunny days we will most likely be involved in some form of water play. Please ensure you have spare clothes in your child’s bag. Water play is so beneficial for children and we really want to encourage their confidence, exploration and ability to enjoy themselves.

Coming Events...

October - 4-8 - World Space Week

October - 11-15 - Superhero Week

October - 29 - Halloween

November - 4 - Diwali

November - 8-12 - Recycling Week

November - 11 - Remembrance Day

November - 15-19 - Road Safety Week

We are looking forward to an amazing Term 4!

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Ann-Maree, Caitlyn, Charlotte, Danni, Eda, Lesley, Nicole and Viktoriya -