Jingeri, to all our Kindergarten two friends and family
This morning we had a wonderful morning engaging in play with all our Senior building friends in the playground. The children enjoyed riding on bikes, swinging on the big swing, playing chase with their friends and some of our friends played a game with Mr Andrew in the tree house balancing bean bags.
After our busy morning we moved into our classroom placing our hats into our bags, sitting on the mat awaiting to see what was in store for the day. Today we had a bit of a change in the room with Miss Emma coming in to teach, with the support of Miss Tatyana, while Miss Shannan spent the morning in with Mr Andrew and the Kindergarten 1 class. The children welcomed both educators into the room so warmly and excitedly. Ivy excitedly had brought in a book called “Peppa in space” to share with the group, which we decided to read whilst we waited for morning tea. Before starting the book we talked about the parts of a book such as identifying the front cover, back cover, spine and title of the book. Thank you for bringing this in for us today Ivy. We could see that moring tea was ready so Miss Emma, transitioned the children using the song wibbly, wobbly woo. This was a great opportunity for the children to practice their listening skills, as they needed to listen for a name that sounded like their’s with the first letter of their name being swapped to a w. The children thought this was so funny.
At morning tea time the children showed a sense of agency, independence and the use of their turn taking skills as they used the tongs to select the items they wished for morning tea. The watermelon proved to be a big hit with the children when we asked what their favourite part of morning tea was. Hendrix as we sat at the table called out to Miss Emma “Look I made a circle” pointing to his plate where he had arranged the watermelon skins into a circle shape. Tate joined in on the fun commenting “I made a mouth” what creative learners. Now our tummies were full, we transitioned from the table to the group mat, where we were going to revisit the story “How the birds got their colours.” After we read the story Miss Emma posed a question to the group “Why do you think the crow stayed black?” The children all had the opportunity to share their thoughts. Hendrix ” The Crow didn’t go in the rainbow water.” Riley ” Cos he always stays black.” Luna ” He wanted to stay alone.” Macy ” He wanted to be a bird like Dad.” Tate “Because he was black.” At the time of the story Harper and Ryan were busy at their little big sport lesson. It was wonderful listening to the children’s variety of thoughts and reasoning’s. Before we transitioned from group time the children had the opportunity to share their ideas of what they would like to do today in the room. Miss Emma mentioned to the children she had set up an activity where they has the opportunity to create their names using buttons or pine cones, they could revisit their bird creations from yesterday, and that she had found a giant alphabet puzzle if anyone wished to do that. The children patiently waited their turn with Luna commenting ” I want to do the L with the buttons.”, Millie ” I want to do the i with the buttons because I have a i in my name.” Macy “Buttons”, Ivy ” I like to do puzzles.” Riley ” I want to play dinosaurs.” Hendrix “I want to paint my bird.” and Tate “Play with Hendrix.”
The children then had the opportunity to move off into their chosen activities. Luna and Macy went to explore the name activity, quickly identifying their names and getting to work creating each letter with the buttons. Miss Emma encouraged the children to start with the first letter of their name and working from left to right, just like we do when we read and write. Both Macy and Luna were so proud of their efforts eager to show Miss Emma what they had created. Riley also decided to join the experience commenting confidently to Miss Emma ” I start with R”. I wonder what other materials we could use next time?
The bird creation activity the Hendrix, Millie, Riley and Tate were busy at work creating and adding to their bird creations, adding lots of colour. Miss Emma asked the children if they would like to tell her about the bird they were creating. Hendrix quickly responded ” This is the same bird in the tree I saw”, ” Was that one of the birds in the book?” Miss Emma replied ” Yeah it was in the tree.” Millie also commented ” This is a colourful one it’s the same bird in the tree.” It was great to hear the children were taking inspiration for their pictures from the book, and hooking into their memory recall skills.
The alphabet puzzle was a hive of activity with Ivy, Harper, Ryan and Millie working together to put together the puzzle. Throughout this experience it was great to see the children using their letter identification skills as they identified letters particularly that had significance for them, calling out excitedly as they found them. On completion of the puzzle the children were a little sad as we noticed one of the pieces was missing, we will have to go on a letter hunt to find it. Puzzles are a wonderful way for children to problem solve, persevere with challenges and in this instance work in collaboration with others.
As the children were engaged in their experiences Ella arrived, warmly greeted by her peers. She quickly settled into her day choosing to do some drawing at the table.
What a wonderful morning we had busily engaged in experiences, it was now time to move into the outdoor space to engage in some outdoor play.
We are looking forward to a fun afternoon of laughter, games and fun with our friends.
Miss Emma had a wonderful time with the children today and can’t wait to do it again soon
Have a lovely afternoon
Miss Emma, Miss Shannan and Miss Tatyana