Happy Thursday everyone, what fun we have had in the Kindergarten today with all our wonderful friends, Miss Emma, Mr G and our student teacher Miss Emma. It was fantastic to see so many of our friends dressed up today for book week, there was lots of wonderful characters and it was great to see some more books being brought in from home for us to read.
This morning after having a wonderful play outside and enjoying our delicious morning tea we came inside for our morning group time. As usual we sung our song “Hello to the children of the world” and Miss Emma encouraged the children to use one of the greetings from the song, the children seem to really enjoy using Konnichiwa and bonjour as their greeting for roll call. Well done everyone. At group time today I talked to the children about our new emerging topic, as I have noticed the children have been showing an interest in books and stories I thought we could start looking at fairy tales, with the first of these being “The Gingerbread man”. As Miss Emma read the story to the children she encouraged the children to become involved throughout the story as they helped say the words “run, run as fast as you can you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man.” It was wonderful to hear as we got further into the story more children became involved with saying these words and becoming more confident. As we read the story together Miss Emma encouraged the children to think about and share what they thought might happen next and also to use their memory recall skills to recall what animals and characters the Gingerbread man had run away from. Miss Emma could tell that some of the children were very familiar with this story, so this was a great story to start us off on our fairy tale journey.
As the children transitioned off the mat into morning activities the children had a variety of experiences to choose from. As we are beginning our adventure exploring the Gingerbread man, there was a few experiences that had a gingerbread man theme. Firstly our play dough exploration table, the children were encouraged to use their creativity and imagination to create their very own gingerbread men. Initially some of the children commented that they needed a cutter to make the Gingerbread man, but with some encouragement from Miss Emma the children then decided they could make one. As the children created their gingerbread man we incorporated numeracy as we talked about how many arms, legs, eyes, nose , mouth and buttons their gingerbread man was going to have. We were so proud of the way the children problem solved, and persisted with difficulty as they created their gingerbread men and seemed to have a lot of fun.
Yesterday the children had the opportunity to create picture stories which they had asked to revisit again today. As the children created their picture stories some of the children decided that they wanted to create their own twist on the gingerbread man story, whilst some took the opportunity to create using their imagination creating gardens, rainbows and pictures of their families. Once the children had finished their creations they were encouraged to share their stories with their peers or an educator. Through engaging in this experience the children had the opportunity to be expressive, be imaginative, be independent by making choices about their story, using previous experiences to provide inspiration for their stories, exploring the concept of story writing in an age appropriate manner and exploring and expanding language. We will continue to explore this concept incorporating our fairytales and also encouraging children to draw pictures about their weekends.
The children had the opportunity to further strengthen their fine motor skills this morning as they chose between, pegs, clips or tweezers to pick up pom poms, wooden pieces and stones and transfer these into egg carton segments. The children found the clips a little tricky to use as they were a little harder to squeeze open, but it was great to see them persevering as they this. This afternoon the children will have the opportunity to revisit this during their quiet activity time.
Other experiences the children enjoyed exploring were puzzles, which is always a favourite in the room. Tomorrow the children will have the opportunity to make their own gingerbread man puzzle, by firstly cutting the strips of the puzzle and then putting it back together. A small group of children also constructed an amazing ramp using the bamboo shoots with the help of Mr G. They used this to race cars and marbles down.
After we had finished Arakaan we met back together on the mat where the children had the opportunity to share what activities and experiences they enjoyed from the morning. Hamilton commented “Racing the cars and picking up the items and putting them in the egg container.” Hayley commented “The kitchen outside, making the Gingerbread man and drawing the Gingerbread man.” Jaxon commented “Going down the slide and playing racing cars.” Angelina commented “The drawing. I drawed a butterfly and garden and Gingerbread man.” Levii commented “Drawing a tree light with bees on it.” Wynter commented “Drawing a volcano, puzzles.” Layla commented “Home corner.” and Austin commented “Gingerbread man story.” It’s great to have the input of the children to hear what they enjoy and also what they have not enjoyed as it helps for organising their play for the afternoon and for forward planning. Miss Emma also asked the children what they would like to do during quiet time today they commented “Play dough, drawing, racing cars and books.” They will also be having the opportunity to continue making their wonderful gifts.
Have a great afternoon everyone
Miss Emma and Mr G