balamara preschool Newsletter

MARCH/APRIL 2018 1

OUR PROGRAM Amazing Autumn Well Autumn has taken its time to arrive this year, but finally we are experiencing some crisp mornings! We have set up an Autumn display in our classroom and we invited the children to bring in any Autumn leaves that they could find to add to our table. We discussed the colours of Autumn leaves and we sang “5 Little Leaves”, a subtraction song. Sue brought in some different pumpkin varieties for our table and talked about colour, shape and what we might be able to do with them. The children suggested that we could plant a whole pumpkin, draw a face on the pumpkin, make pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup. We looked inside at the tiny pumpkin seeds and Sue told a story “The big pumpkin” using props. The children created their own artistic representations of pumpkins, looking closely at the shape and the seeds, drawing the details with a marker, then adding colour with paint.

Welcome… We would like to extend a big friendly welcome to both Ashton and Yan Bo who joined us at Balamara recently.

Is there a Doctor in the House? Setting up a hospital in our role play area created opportunities for the children to engage in rich, extended play. The scenarios they created allowed them to build up communication and language skills as they used their existing knowledge to build narratives. They practiced literacy and numeracy skills as they wrote scripts, made doctor’s notes and made appointments. We extended the children’s interest by singing “Dr Knickerbocker” and by looking in detail at the medical equipment like stethoscope and thermometer.

“Pumpkin” by Hannie

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OUR PROGRAM Celebrating Easter We celebrated Easter at preschool through simple ways. We provided inspiration for the children’s art through pretty wooden eggs for the children to observe and paint. The children made little chicks with feathers. They decorated Easter biscuits and they ate warm hot cross buns. They had fun attempting egg and spoon races and of course they were excited to hunt for Easter eggs!

Nature Play Nature Play Week provided a marvellous opportunity to explore how we can embed nature in our curriculum and encourage children to connect with and care for the natural environment. We used nature-based learning experiences to celebrate how much fun we can have by using the resources nature gives us rather than relying on commercial and unsustainable resources. We collected sticks from the playground and added some lengths of wool. The children came up with all sorts of creative uses including making fishing rods, magic wands and coloured decorative sticks. The children always enjoy watering the garden so we discussed how important water is for the plant’s survival. The children collected rocks and used them to make patterns on the ground, to paint with water and to cook stone stew! We collected leaves then used them for counting games. We observed them, noticing the differences in size and shape. We fed the worms then harvested some worm juice to use on the plants to help them grow bigger and stronger. We took the children on a nature treasure hunt, then used the gumnuts, bark samples, leaves, stones and mint leaves for counting, comparing and for creating transient art. We read a beautiful story called “The Forest” and we discussed the role that trees play in keeping our air clean.

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OUR PROGRAM

We found some large Autumn leaves and had a close look at the various shapes – we noticed the veins where the sap passes through. We painted them and used them to decorate our room and we also looked at ways we can keep the natural environment clean by reducing our waste.

Healthy Eating It is always our aim to ensure that the children are aware of how to stay healthy and how to make healthy food choices. Every day at meal-times, we have conversations about the food that children bring to eat. We also plan group times around this topic and recently children have sorted foods into ‘Healthy’ and ‘Sometimes’ categories. We have read stories like Avocado Baby, Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas and Good Kids Eat Healthy Food to reinforce these messages. The children even had the opportunity to make some delicious and nutritious fruit kebabs!

Literacy- Every day Literacy- concepts of reading and writing are best and most effectively learned in context. When children see how functional literacy can be used in their lives to enhance their communication and enrich their play, they are more likely to use and understand it. At preschool, literacy concepts are embedded in everyday experiences like creating signs, making lists, writing letters, noticing print in the environment and reading stories.

Science and Maths- Every day! At preschool, we use all of the curriculum areas to explore science and maths concepts. The science of colour was explored as we had fun mixing paint colours to create new ones. This was extended through an experience of using white paper strips in coloured water to see how, through absorption, new colours could be formed. We classified figurines according to colour, using the mathematical notion of categorising by attribute.

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OUR PROGRAM

Piya explored mass with the children, placing different items on each end of a balanced block to see what would happen. The children even watched sultanas ‘dance’ as they reacted to the gas inside liquid. The role of the educator in these experiences is crucial as they encourage the children to hypothesise, test their theories and use questioning techniques to gauge the children’s understandings.

CONNECTING WITH OUR FAMILIES

Irisa’s mum, Priyanka has shared some enjoyable experiences with the children recently, including some yoga and meditation, dancing and some sunflower craft. She also discussed the importance of healthy eating and how it helps to keep bodies strong and she measured the children’s height.

Mysha’s mum, Shelja has also shared some fun experiences with the children. She challenged the children to balance books on their heads. It was quite tricky, lots of fun and very good for their posture! Shelja also invited the children to sing “The Scarecrow” “This Old Man”, “Here we go around the Mulberry bush” and “Rock a bye Bear“. During another visit, they enjoyed some dancing and playing “Simon Says”.

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CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY

Easter Hat Parade at Waitara Public School We were delighted to be invited to celebrate Easter Hat Parade with Waitara Public School. It was a fun morning as we watched the primary school children parade past in their hats. We were even lucky enough to receive eggs from Easter Bunny!! Many thanks to Josh, Karen, Priyanka, Vinayak and Fei for volunteering to help with supervision.

Harmony Day We love Harmony Day and we celebrated in many ways. We talked about what the word harmony means and we discussed that Australia welcomes people from all over the world and we live together in peace. Many of these people speak different languages and we are lucky to hear many of them at preschool. The children shared the language that they speak at home and we greeted each other in these languages. We looked at the world map and checked where our Balamara families came from. Many children wore their traditional cultural costumes and brought in cultural items to show their friends and many wore the official Harmony Day colour of orange. We also enjoyed many stories around this topic including Just the Way We Are, and I am Australian Too, books that Hugo brought in to share. Piya taught the children a traditional Thai game and we danced along to “People All Around The world”.

CONNECTING WITH OUR FAMILIES

To help us celebrate Nowruz (Persian New Year), Kiana and her mum, Marzieh brought in some special items to share with the children and show them how they celebrate this occasion. A special table decoration including elements starting with S in the Farsi language was shared with the children. It included; Serkeh (Vinegar) which represents Longevity and patience, Senjed (dried fruit) which represents love, Sir (garlic) to protect from illness and evil, Sabezah (Green Wheat sprouts) which represents rebirth and Sib (Apple) to represent beauty and health. Kiana explained that on the 13th day of their New Year, Kiana and her family will go for a drive to the country to welcome in the spring with a picnic. Kiana told her friends that they also celebrate by giving presents.

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CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY

Remembering Anzac Day Learning about ANZAC Day helps young children to understand the life and times of Australia and its people. We used stories and discussions to explore concepts around being safe, resolving conflict and how rules can help to keep us safe. The children also made Anzac biscuits and created art to help develop their understandings of this complex topic.

Student We believe it is very important for us to share our professional knowledge and experience to support upcoming educators. We are currently hosting a student who is undertaking her professional experience for her Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care through Hornsby TAFE. Haibei (Happy) will be with us during May and June and will be gaining valuable experience as she interacts with the children at Balamara and learns from our educators. Please introduce yourselves to Happy and make her feel welcome.

“ANZAC Poppies” by Ashton and Ivy