Hello and welcome to Wednesday everyone!
Yesterday Miss Donna got the children involved in a 24-hour science experiment. She introduced white Chrysanthemums and red and yellow water colours. Different children got a turn to place single flowers into either the red or the yellow colour. We talked about how flowers like to drink water (referred to as “transpiration/water movement through a plant”). Today we checked the results (at the insistence of Ollie and Harvey) and were amazed to see that our flowers had turned shades of pink and yellow overnight. We are hoping that tomorrow they will have deepened in colour even more. Activities such as this really appeal to young children and align with the Early Years Learning Framework – Learning Outcome 4.2, whereby children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem-solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating. Our room is certainly filled with emerging scientists!
During group time, we played some fun new rhyming, clapping and circle games:
- We learnt how to clap our legs and hands with a friend to establish a rhythm, whilst singing the words to the song “Miss Mary Mack”. Lily, Ellie, Ollie and Marlie were particularly captivated with this and made excellent attempts to keep up as we got faster and faster in both clapping actions and in the pace of the song.
- We played a new game where we all joined hands and walked around clockwise in a circle, pretending to be mice whilst a cat lay sleeping in the middle. We repeated a chant/rhyme over and over as we did this. Finally, the “cat” woke up. If anyone was still moving, they were caught by the cat.
This was an incredibly popular game with all our friends, and we played it over and over. These types of games align with the Early Years Learning Framework in the following ways:
Learning Outcome 4.1 Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity cooperation confidence creativity commitment enthusiasm persistence imagination and reflexivity; Learning 5.1 Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
In addition, such activities really encourage a sense of belonging and cooperation amongst each other.
Other activities/children’s interests today included:
- Large Lego construction (suggested by Zander, Asher and Kaylee)
- Building towers with assorted loose parts (Arlo and Ella’s choice)
- Drawing on paper with textas (requested by Lily and Harvey)
- Playing with cars (William and Jamal’s choice)
- Matching assorted coloured shapes to coloured boards (requested by Indi)
Yoga was also enjoyed today in our room by all of our friends. Under Miss Donna’s direction, we tried to hold poses such as the plank, the crescent moon, a chair, a star, the down dog, a boat and a tree. It was so great to see Ivy and Jamal have the confidence to fully participate today and try their hand at all the poses. Well done!
Until tomorrow everyone, enjoy your evening, and your families. Much love, Miss Donna and Miss Livia xxx