Welcome Kindergarten families to a new week! Let us share with you what we have been doing today.
The morning was a scene of great laughter and joy as more Kindergarten friends were reunited after a long time away. We welcomed back Marshall and Daniel and they immediately joined up with their friends to play some chasing games and dig in the sandpit.
We started our day with a group time singing some songs including our good morning song to familiarise each other with our names as it has been a long time for some children. We changed our calendar as discussed what we did on the weekend. Our first activity for the day was to draw what it is like “growing up in Queensland”. You may have seen the email from the centre about the big survey they are doing about young children and their views of the future at this time. We watched a small video called “Whoever you are” which was about acknowledging that everyone has different situations but things like pain, happiness, love are the same for everyone and no matter where you live or how you grow up you will feel these things at some point. I challenged the children to draw pictures about their families and illustrate what they would like to do when they grow up. It was great to see the children appreciating the small things like playing with their families.
We went outside and practiced some number games like getting into groups of 2, 3, 4 or 5 as quick as we could. We practiced catching and throwing and did the “castle game” when you caught the bean bag you could go to the top of the castle. Making skill games fun and imaginative can help the children learn the skill faster as they are trying to immerse themselves into the game and are motivated to try and win it or succeed with the goal.
We also drew some small characters that we stuck on popsicle sticks. We will place these in a basket so that children can use them at anytime and act out their own stories as they have been doing with the puppets. Hopefully because they have created these ones themselves they are able to be more creative with them and make more elaborate stories. I have found this activity has really improved the verbal language skills of a lot of the children as they have been given a chance to be the leader of their own story and direct the other children how to act in the stories.
After lunch we enjoyed some free play activities such as painting, reading books, home corner and construction work with different blocks. Hopefully the weather holds off so we can enjoy some more outdoor time later in the afternoon as well. Thanks for a great start to the week everyone and see you again soon.
Eva comparing the anoatomy of the tree shark to a real shark in the animal book. There was discussions about what the animal was but we found out it was a shark by the shape of its tail.
Astrid writing down the days of the week on her doctor’s notepad. She said “I come on Monday and Tuesday”
