Good afternoon everyone! We hope you have had a fabulous Wednesday so far. This morning we had lots of fun outside during early morning playtime. Miss Donna filled the blue water trough with water wheels, watering cans and cups, then proceeded to fill it up, “accidentally” wetting children, Miss TJ and herself in the process. The children thought it was hilarious!…especially Ellie, Kaylee and Indi.
We also had lots of fun outdoors during our free trial Soccer class. The children practised placing balls between their feet and trying to jump, having mini running races and jumping/running from plastic marker to marker – so many enthusiastic participants – Marlie, Ellie, Indi, Kaylee, Ella, William, Harvey and Jamal in particular today. All families should find a registration card in their child’s bag. Soccer occurs every Wednesday morning for those that are interested. During indoor activity time, the focus on physical and mental wellbeing continued with Miss Dominique taking the children through a series of Yoga stretches, poses and breathwork before we calmly transitioned onto other interesting play-based experiences. Arlo really enjoys Yoga with Miss Dominique and attempted all the poses and stretches, as did Kaylee, who almost did the splits!
Available for the children to engage in/with today was:
- Peeling and applying stickers of various types onto corresponding scenescapes (such as the ocean, roadworks/trucks, and an airport scene). Ivy, Harley and William were particularly taken with this activity, and showed great persistence in gently peeling the stickers off their backing before positioning them onto a scenescape. Such an activity is fantastic for developing children’s hand/eye coordination, and for strengthening small finger/hand muscles/manual dexterity
- Creating lanterns for out Chinese New Year of the Rat celebrations – Harvey, Ivy, Zander, Indi and Harley concentrated extremely well and spent at least 15 minutes each working on their fabulous lanterns, applying a wide variety of collage pieces onto their bright red or yellow lanterns with glue and a fine paintbrush. By taking part in an activity such as this, children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, creativity, commitment, persistence and imagination
- Constructing train tracks and adding wooden accessories – especially enjoyed by Asher, Zander, William and Jamal, who chose to set up two different railway stations in different room locations
- Playing with loose parts (bits of wood, bobbins, pegs, river stones, coloured stones and farm animals). Ellie, Arlo and Marlie appeared to really enjoy this play, working together on and off to create a farm scene. The value of providing children with loose parts is that it fosters creativity and imagination. Loose parts do not limit/restrict play options, the way that some purpose-built toys may.
- Until tomorrow everyone, take care and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday! Love from Donna and Dominique xx
