The children have been so busy in their first couple of weeks of preschool. The children have started to make new friendships and connections with their peers and teachers, learning the kinder routine and extending their learning and interests.
The last couple of weeks we have been super busy engaging in-
Art Experiences
- The children have created their Art and Recipe Folio front page
- Wattle Groups friends book- ‘Wattle Group, Wattle Group Who do you see?’- Each child should have their own copy of the Wattle Groups Friends book.
- Easel painting – Last week the children had fun painting a Gingerbread man
- Finger painting- drawing shapes and lines in paint with their fingers and some children had a go writing their name or other words and letters.
- Collage table
The last couple of weeks we have been focusing on the children’s fine motor skills and understanding each child’s individual developmental needs. The children have had the opportunity to engage in drawing and cutting experiences to help the teachers with their observations. The experiences were;
Wattle Group friends book- The children were asked to draw themselves, this provided the opportunity for the teachers to understand the child’s pencil grip stage, hand preference and their drawing ability. The children were also asked to cut around their photo to glue onto the page, this task provided the teachers the opportunity to observe the child’s cutting skills.
Art/recipe book front page- For the front page of the art/recipe book we glued each child’s face onto a piece of paper and then asked each child to draw their body. Again, this experience provided the teachers with the opportunity to observe the child’s pencil grip and drawing stage.
With this information we can provide experiences in the room to continue to develop each child’s individual fine motor developmental needs. Below I have provided an example of the pencil grasp stages, it provides an understanding at what stage your child should be at.
Imaginative and Dramatic play
- Hospital Corner
- Farm yard small world play
- Fairy small world play
- Fire Fighter small world play
- Car mat and wooden car parking garage
- Octonauts play set in small water trays
I have linked a article below about why imaginative and dramatic play is beneficial for children’s development, please have a read.
6 Benefits Of Imaginative Play | Why It’s So Important (discoverybuildingsets.com)
Identity, Community, Wellbeing, Communication
Construction play
- Marble Run
- Police Duplo
- Magna tiles
- Friends Lego
- Block building
Community, wellbeing, learning, communication
Sensory Play/experiences
- Play dough with sea theme resources
- Water trough with buttons and measuring equipment
- Baking Gingerbread man cookies
Community, wellbeing, learning, communication
Outside play
- Small world areas- There were a few small world areas set up outside the last couple of weeks, the children have shown interest in the barbie and babies areas, The my little pony imaginative area and the water trough with the sea animals.
- Trampoline
- Mask making- Thank you to Poppy F for sparking a fun interest outside last week. Poppy wanted to make a mask outside which sparked an interest for some the other children.
- Mud patch- The children turned the mud patch into a farm yard the other week and then last week it was a construction site.
- Monkey bars
- Obstacle course
- Totem tennis
- Ten pin bowling
Identity, Community, Wellbeing, Learning and Communication
Mat time
- Musical Instruments- The children had the opportunity to play and explore with different musical instruments- We listened to the song ‘The biggest band’ where we followed the instructions of what instruments to play and at what tempo. We will continue playing with musical instruments this week. (Communication)
- The three little pigs story telling- We sat around in a circle and told the story of the three little pigs using puppets, the children had the opportunity to contribute to the story telling experience by doing the actions of the big bad wolf huffing and puffing the little pigs houses in. The puppets were then set up in the room for the children to engage in story telling themselves. (Communication- literacy)
- Musical and movement- ‘Fancy Dance,’ ‘Dance Freeze party,’ and ‘Animal Freeze Dance.’ (Community, Communication)
- Bean bag Action songs- The children were able to engage in two bean bag action songs, we love playing the bean bag songs, it provides opportunity for the children to build their spacial awareness, learning the names of different body parts, extending their listening and comprehension skills and gross motor skills.
Birthdays
We have celebrated a couple of birthdays the last couple of weeks
Happy Birthday Corben Happy Birthday Poppy F
Last weeks Photo link
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xcSSdQ3jLM3voDLh8
What’s happening next?
- The next couple of weeks we will be extending the children’s interest in dinosaurs by setting up a dinosaur imaginative area, pretending to be a palaeontologist by studying dinosaur fossils and bones, using our imagination to build a dinosaur world using play dough and other natural materials and building and experimenting with Volcanoes.
- We will be extending the mask making interest by providing different materials to make a mask at the collage table.
- In the water trough we have added droppers and other resources for the children to continue to explore with measurement and volume
- Outside-
- We will be learning more about our worm farm and why we keep our food scraps
- Camping area
- Imaginative play- Babies and Barbies, sea life, my little pony
- Obstacle courses
- Mud patch with construction dress ups
- Mat time-
- Name recognition game- ‘Whose got the bone’
- Musical Instruments
- Friday Yoga
- We will be learning the kindergartens Acknowledgment to country and beginning to build our knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.