St Albans West Kindergarten's walking excursion
This month St Albans West Kindergarten went on its first walking excursion. Educators took children on a walk around their local community, going past some of the children’s homes and their grandparent’s homes.
The children had the opportunity to practice road safety skills such as holding hands, being aware of driveways, road signs and traffic lights.
The excursion demonstrated the importance of connecting children with their community to widen the knowledge of their local area and road safety.
Aunty Fay visits Newport Gardens Early Years Centre
On Tuesday 25 August Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir, a Boon Wurrung Elder, spoke with Newport Gardens Early Years Centre (NGEYC)’s educator team about culture and connections to Country at a recent staff meeting.
As NGEYC is on Boon Wurrung country, part of which is shared with the Wurundjeri clan, Fay discussed the local totems: Bundjil the eagle, who is the creator, and Waang the crow, who is the protector of rivers and waterways.
Fay provided ideas for including Aboriginal culture into day to day programming such as:
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Welcoming children with the greeting ‘womindjeka’
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Incorporating photos of native flora and fauna with the local Aboriginal names in discussions and displays
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Drawing Aboriginal symbols and signs onto stones for children and educators to tell stories.
She dispelled some myths about dot painting and hand painting and encouraged the educators to collect yellow and red ochre from their surrounds to use with children.
Inviting Faye to NGEYC’s staff meeting provided a wonderful opportunity to extend the connection made during Reconciliation Week and to continue to develop the educators’ understanding and implementation of Aboriginal culture into the programs.
Science Week at Oakhill Family Centre
Oakhill Family Centre celebrated Science Week on August 15–23. The children participated in a range of activities such as making a volcano, chromatographic butterflies, flowering colouring and more. See some of their work in action below:
Knitting Gran at St Linus Kindergarten
The children of St Linus Kindergarten have decided they won’t be cold this winter and have enlisted the help of ‘Gran’.
Isobel’s great grandmother, Gran, 84, volunteered to help after hearing from the educators that some children were role playing knitting using sticks from the garden.
Gran, who lives just one street away, comes in twice a week and teaches children in the ‘Knitting Corner’. Aside from learning to knit, the children are practicing communicating, listening as well as sharing space, time and materials with each other.
This is a shining example of St Linus Kindergarten living out their philosophy of including all members of the community and beyond. Gran’s visits strengthen the connection between the kindergarten and the community and bring together four generations of a kindergarten family.
Black Rock Preschool's 'Mysteries of underground life' project
Black Rock Preschool’s children were recently taken on a journey through the ‘Mysteries of underground life’ through educator Yayoi’s project-based learning.
The journey spread across the course of Term 3 and began with the children thinking about the creatures that live under the ground. They learnt about worms and how they make plants grow through a worm farm, made underground animals out of clay, discovered that left over foods can help make plants grow and more!
The children transferred all of their new learnings into a project showing the ‘Mysteries of underground life’ and was proudly presented to their families.
The clay animals made by the children will be displayed in the Beaumaris library for the next few weeks.
To read through entire journey of the ‘Mysteries of underground life’ project, click here.
St Helena Preschool's police officer visit and yoga sessions
This month St Helena Preschool received a visit from Senior Constable Jamie from the local police station. The children learnt about various safety issues such as how to recognise a police officer, road safety and the importance of wearing seat belts in the car. The visit was a valuable lesson in teaching children about what police officers do, as many children have been depicting ‘bad cops’ in their role playing.
The children of St Helena Preschool have also taken up yoga! Educators were finding that in the 7.5 hour sessions, children were becoming very tired and lethargic towards the end of the day. In a bid to tackle their fading energy, each week a child will demonstrate a pose while the other children emulate and count quietly to 10. The yoga has been such a hit that some children are asking to do it every day.
Yoga provides many benefits for young children, such as supporting their gross motor development and increasing their ability to focus and concentrate. Search online for a children's yoga class in your local area!
