What The Children are Learning

Sapphire Monday/Tuesday group – Week 9

We continued celebrating World Music Day this week as the
children created more instruments from natural and recycled
materials. The children are developing their planning skills,
counting and fine motor when measuring rice for tin can
shakers, stretching rubber bands for tissue box guitars and
learning how to tie a knot when making a jiggle stick.

Fun with prepositions – on, beside, in front, behind.

Next week on Tuesday we will have Pyjama Day. It’s hard to get
out of bed at the moment so why not have some learning fun in our
pyjamas for our last day of term.  We will make Pumpkin Soup with
Ben’s pumpkin, enjoy warm milo and marshmallows, make a sweet
dream catcher, and tell stories.

Emerald Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday group – Week 9

Sapphire Wednesday/Thursday/Friday group – Week 9

Exposing children to different types of music can help create more pathways between the cells in their brains. This week we made heaps of pathways.J A 2016 study at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute found that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate brain development, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills.

Music helps us identify and learn sounds and patterns. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression. Music helps strengthen memory skills. Music ignites all areas of development including intellectual, social-emotional, motor (gross and fine), language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together. Music is a mood lifter, music bring us joy. Miss Karen is running a Music Group each Wednesday. Her program is WONDERFUL! She has the children active and still, singing and dancing, listening and recalling, thinking and joyful!

We each made our own Music Stick. To make the sticks look amazing we had to tie material around them, to make them sound great we had to tie bells on. This was a fine motor workout! Now we have an instrument to accompany our singing. We introduced ‘Kangaroo Rock’ another song from the Aunty Wendy’s Mob CD. We know two songs and sing them like angels. We want to share our talents. The children have been talking about having a concert for a couple of weeks now. We have made plans for our last week of term, next week, we will eat pumpkin soup (we harvested the pumpkins from our garden) around the fire pit on Wednesday. On Thursday we will wear our pyjamas to school, play pyjama sort of games and have warm milo with marshmallows. On Friday we will have an easy, maybe whole time outside day and then at 2pm we will give all a treat! We will sing. As everyone arrives to take their children home for the holidays our angels will present their concert.

Emerald Thursday/Friday group – Week 9

This week we continued to explore how truly special our bodies are! During recent discussions we spoke about the different parts of our body, and some of the children were amazed to discover that they had a skeleton! One comment was, “I have one at Halloween, and it’s scary!” So, we took a closer look this week – exploring through stories, art, play, song, dance and group experiences.

Our art experience was to draw a skeleton self-portrait and think about what our bones like to do… some children said their bones like to dance, while others said their bones like to climb and swing! Educators engage children in experiences, conversations and routines that promote healthy lifestyles and good nutrition, which in turn supports children to increase independence and competence in personal hygiene, care and safety for themselves and others.

This week we continued to look at the delicious fruits and vegetables you find on a farm. The children are discovering there are many different varieties; that some grow on trees, or underground; and they come in many shapes, sizes and colours!