Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Tuesday. Today we welcomed to new friends to our Kindergarten room, Ariah and Ivy. It is great to see them already settling in well and the children being so welcoming, inviting them into their play. We look forward to getting to know them and their families more.
Outside this morning the children were enjoying engaging in play with their peers. The sand pit was a hive of activity with lots of cooking, baking and digging occurring. As always the bikes, swing and slide were popular among the children. After all this play we ventured inside to refuel our bodies with some delicious morning tea of mini muffins and a selection if fresh fruit. We changed how we served our morning tea today slightly by having a serving plate on each of the tables, which meant children were spending less time waiting to serve their food, were eating more and I found it to be more of a social experience for the children. We will definitely continue to have meal times like this in the future.
Next we moved to our morning group time where we sung our good morning songs along with our fun rhyming rap song. Next we moved on to our book of the week which fits in so well with our theme of rhyming, “Green eggs and ham.” As I read the story to the children I encouraged them to listen out for rhyming words, encouraging them to raise their hand and tell us which rhyming words they heard. It was great to see the children actively engaging with this, doing such a great job at identifying some of the rhyming words. As we moved through the story I encouraged the children to join in with the story finishing of sentences and adding in the rhyming words. Such as, I will not eat them in a ….., I will not eat them with a …….. This is great for children to use their memory recall skills, along with practicing their rhyming words. Maybe you would like to try this at home with books that your child is familiar with. As always if you have any rhyming books at home or a favourite book that your child has we would love to read it with them at kindy. After our story the children transitioned off the mat clapping their name back to me, the children are getting really good at this now. Tomorrow we might try encouraging the children to think of a word that rhymes with their name to transition off into activities.
This morning as the children’s interest in making paper planes has reignited and we are learning about different cultures, the children had the opportunity to practice their skills at origami. I had printed out some simple step by step instructions for the children to follow of three different animals. It was great to see some of the children taking the lead in their learning using the instructions to make the animals independently, they seemed so proud that they had achieved this on their own. As it was quite tricky I did support children one on one breaking down the steps for them encouraging them to follow after me. The children have asked to revisit this tomorrow, as an extension of this I will add some new creations to the table.
Home corner continues to be a favourite area in the room with the children engaging in lots of wonderful collaborative play together. I love watching the children role play what they have seen at the supermarket as they scan the items and tell their peers how much their groceries cost. We have really been noticing the children taking turns with their peers and negotiating independently needing less support from the educators which is fantastic.
On the group mat a group of the children engaged in a rhyming game with me using familiar words that we had been working on last week, a long with the introduction of some new words. This game involved the children using their listening skills, to listen to the word I called out and identify which word/picture it rhymed with and placed it underneath the matching word/sound. There was some wonderful teamwork occurring here as the children supported one another to find the matching word.
Child initiated play included building and constructing with the manipulative blocks, reading books, drawing and doing puzzles.
At our group time before lunch we talked about some rhyming words once again and the children had the opportunity to share what they enjoyed engaging in during the day. Astrid- “Playing with the spray and playing in home corner.” Phoenix- ” I enjoyed playing with my friend Astrid inside and outside.” Layla- ” I liked playing in home corner and I liked doing puzzles.” Austin- “Drawing and paper airplanes.” Ivy- ” I liked drawing and I liked reading wombat stew.” Hamilton- ” Playing in home corner and making the origami.” Elliott- ” I liked playing with Hamilton outside and making the origami.” Ariah- ” I have fun making the gami (origami), and the rhyming game.” Harper ” Drawing and the making the cat and Doggie.” Wynter- ” Playing with Phoenix and Astrid and with Austin and drawing.” Graysen ” Play in home corner and play with Hamilton.”
We hope you have a lovely afternoon
Miss Emma and Miss Octavia