Good afternoon everyone and happy Tuesday.
What a beautiful day it has been so far today. This morning we spent a little bit longer exploring and engaging in experiences as it was such a beautiful morning. The children have really been enjoying the change of having our morning group time up in the outdoor classroom. At group time we continued practicing our good morning song “Hello to all the children of the world”, today lots of children could be heard joining in with the song. After singing the song the children had the opportunity to use their favourite greeting from the song for our roll call. We then moved onto our discussion surrounding our feelings, with this weeks feeling being “When I feel angry.” We started by reading our story called “When I am feeling angry”, followed by the children having the opportunity to share their ideas and thought about what makes them feel angry. It is fantastic to see that the children are feeling confident and comfortable to share their ideas to the group. We then discussed what activities the children would like to engage in this morning when we moved off from group time, lots of children were eager to explore the play dough and express their creativity and imagination through painting. After transitioning off from group time the children asked if they could go down the slide to get down, what a fun way to end our group time.
As our morning exploration time evolved, the Kindergarten room was a hive of activity. For a change today we set up the art easels for painting. This proved popular with the children and I loved seeing all the creative work the children came up with. As to not disrupt the children as they painted I encouraged the children once they had finished to come and tell me about their picture if they wished. This is great for developing the children’s verbal language through developing sentences and descriptive language. As painting was a popular activity and only having two art easels, it provided the children with the opportunity to practice their turn taking skills and demonstrating patience as they waited for their turns.
Puzzles proved very popular among the children this morning, it was great to see the children initiating their puzzle play and finding a space that was suitable. As the children engaged with their puzzles it was great to see the children inviting others into their play who approached them. I am really noticing that the children are very cooperative and inclusive of their peers during their play, which is fantastic. As the children engaged with the puzzles they were engaging with their problem solving skills, memory, using their fine motor skills as they manipulated the puzzle pieces into place, they persisted with difficulty and communicated with their peers.
Currently in the room we are really working on our independence and self help skills. This morning as the children wanted to explore with the play dough, this required them to organise the resources needed for their play. It was great to see that the children are developing the skills to organise the resources needed with minimal support and are open to sharing their ideas with their peers about what they would like to do with the play dough. Today with the play dough the children decided they wanted to use the scissors with the play dough again today. Over the coming weeks we will be continuing to encourage the children to organise the resources and materials required for their desired activities and helping to set up our environment.
We are continuing to see an interest in books emerging within the group, today the children enjoyed doing some quiet reading at various times of the morning as well as joining in shared reading with one another. It is great to see the children retelling their favourite stories and creating their own stories as they read the pictures. 
Over the past week it has been great to see the children showing a sense of responsibility and respect in the classroom environment. As they help pack away at tidy up times and as they finish an experience. What responsible learners the children are developing into.
Have a great afternoon
Miss Emma and Miss Sarah