Tag Archives: Simon

Exploring our Curriculum – Ecology and Numeracy

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ECOLOGY

We explored some stems of cut sunflowers and sunflower seeds in the beautiful sunshine today. The children weren’t given the name of the flower or any information about it prior to interacting with it. They instinctively smelt the flower and invited me to do the same. They used their sense of touch to feel the petals and the centre of the flower – “it tickles” said Charlotte. They held the sunflower seeds in their hands and then planted them into our garden bed. They have a growing understanding of what plants need to grow – water and sun.

Charlotte: It’s a flower.
Omelia: It needs water.
Sarah: It’s big.
Omelia: And it needs sun
Charlotte: I want a sunflower for my mum.
Sarah: When is my seed growing.? Do you have to wait for it?
Mishka: Wow! You smell it. It a flower (Nicole gave her a seed). It for the birdy. They like it. They eat the seeds.
Will: It’s a yellow flower. It smells.
Tesi: I know what this is, it’s a sunflower. It look like the sun!

NUMERACY

We have begun to create our own shop with cash registers and some empty food and household boxes. Henry, Tarun, Jon and Xavier loved playing the shopkeeper and customer.

At our shop the children were taking the items to the light/dark room and then bringing them back to the cash registers at the table.

They were using greetings as they approached the cashiers – ‘hello!’ The cashiers were making a ‘beeping’ sound as they processed the items through the cash register. The cashiers were pressing numbers on the cash registers and then telling the customer the amount of money the item cost ‘$30 dollars’. The customers were passing money to the cashiers and then then saying ‘thank you, bye’.

Children were developing their oral language, engaging in transactional language, exchanging greetings and using their experiences in context; demonstrating numeracy understanding and concepts including number and money.

BRIANNA’S FAREWELL

The children have begun creating a farewell book for Brianna by creating an artwork for her and sharing what they are grateful for and love most about Brianna.

Tesi: Thank you Brianna for making all the lovely food for us. I like it when Brianna read stories to me.
Deanna: Brianna read me books and she make lovely food.
Simon: Brianna make me happy. She fills my bucket.
Charlotte: Brianna puts glitter in my bucket. She play with me.
Xavier: Brianna read stories to me.
Omelia: Thank you for Brianna being outside. Brianna play with me.
Joel: I like Brianna because she gives me food and does the prayer circle song.
Tavae: Brianna helps me with the blocks.
Will: I like her making lunch for us because I love it a lot.
Sarah: I like the food

PRAYER

During prayer today we read the book ‘Will You Fill My Bucket?’ by Carol McCloud. We then shared ways others have filled our bucket today.

Will: Tavae filled my bucket by playing with the trucks.

Joel: Mum and Dad make me feel nice and filled my bucket and I pat my dogs and that fill their bucket.

Simon: My mum and dad filled my bucket. They make me happy.

SPECKS OF GOLD

Tesi: My speck of gold is seeing all the pictures and seeing myself.
Jon: Playing in the sand and the water and doing the shopping.
Joel: Playing PJ masks and playing with Tesi and Omelia.
Mishka: Doctors.
Simon: Playing my friends.
Omelia: My speck of gold is playing with Tesi and Xavier and Joel and Sarah.
Xavier: Playing with Omelia.

Rainbows and Colour

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Our inquiry learning over the last couple of days has focused on colour and rainbows as per our learning program and intentions.

We have been singing some songs about colours and the rainbow during morning group time.

RAINBOW EXPERIMENT

We also went to Home 2 with some friends from the school set up a rainbow experiment for us to do.  We lined up skittles around a plate, added some water and waited and observed.

Liam: It will make a rainbow because all the colours will come out.

Arielle: It will be rainbow colours because I saw it on my iPad.

Tarvae: It’s a circle.

Alana: It’s yellow.

Krisha: Rainbow

Simon: Rainbow. The colours came out.

COLOUR MIXING AND PAINTING

PRAYER

In prayer, we sang our favourite song ‘Rainbow’ by Michael Chinn. We then shared our own special prayers about rainbows.

SPECKS OF GOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Day – Monday 12th August 2019

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We hope all families enjoyed a beautiful weekend. 

SEEDS AND PLANTING

During our morning group time, we explored a variety of seeds using our senses of sight, touch and smell. The seeds were of various shapes, colours and sizes.

This afternoon, Brianna worked with a small group of children to observe and analyse the seeds further.

Omelia: Beans. These are nice. This is pineapple
Joel: (smelt the seeds) cheese, it’s beautiful.
Xavier: pumpkin seeds
Ellara: These feel like sausages, I love sausages!
Omelia: They’re like lemon, lemon pumpkin!
Arabella: Lemon is yellow

This morning we had some friends from year 4 in the school help us plant some strawberry and flower seedlings in pots which we will sell at the Spring Fair in October.

We planted flowers and strawberries as the children decided a few weeks ago that this is what they would like to grow. We will also be growing some carrots from seed.

CONSTRUCTION WITH WOODEN BLOCKS

We have borrowed some construction blocks with pegs from our friends in the school. These blocks enabled some wonderful collaboration and creativity.

Joel, Liam and Will were building with the outdoor construction blocks.

Will: I know what way.

Liam: Well this is the engine right?

Will: What are you making?

Liam: An engine. You put a engine into your car.

Liam was rearranging the blocks, placing them on top, taking them off and manipulating them.

Liam: I don’t need this one.

Joel: Yes, you don’t need this one.

Liam: Come here! (he takes off another block and replaces it with another block).

Liam: A engine, I making a engine.

Joel: I love engine.

Liam: This engine is going to look cool.

Joel: Cool, super, super, cool.

Nicole: How are you going with your engine?

Liam: This engine makes stuff work.

Nicole: Tell me more about how it makes stuff work.

Liam: That’s the turn off button.

Nicole: What does the engine do?

Liam: It turns on and makes this sound ‘pish’.

PRAYER

Our prayer today was about caring for plants.

Children then shared their own special prayers.

 

SPECKS OF GOLD

OUTCOME 1: CHILDREN HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF IDENTITY
• Children feel safe, secure, and supported
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect

OUTCOME 2: CHILDREN ARE CONNECTED WITH AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR WORLD
• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation
• Children become aware of fairness

OUTCOME 4: CHILDREN ARE CONFIDENT AND INVOLVED LEARNERS
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating

• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials

Our Day – Tuesday 6th August and Wednesday 7th August 2019

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COLOUR EXPERIMENTS

We have been exploring colours and the colours of the rainbow. We conducted an experiment using different coloured water to see what colours could be made when mixed together. Paper towel is placed in the coloured water which then transfers into the adjacent cup.

Aicha: There’s yellow and blue and red.

Frankie: It’s (the colour) is going up and down.

Liam: You put yellow and blue make green

Will: Yellow and red make orange.

Ambrose: Red.

Arielle: Orange with yellow and red.

Tesi: Purple is blue and red.

COLOUR MIXING

Children have also been mixing primary colours to make secondary colours of orange, green and purple.

BIRDS AND NESTS

We watched the following video about the life cycle of birds. We had a discussion about this story.

Ellara: I found a bird with one eye with Uncle Mark and Lucy. I put it in my new shoe box
Will: birds to lay their eggs to keep them warm.
who would live in it?
Ellara: Birds when they want to get food they fly and get food
Tesi: they eat worms
Shruti: Birds are fly, in the sky.
Aicha : I had a bird at my old house.

Tesi: They eat worms.
Will: There were 6 eggs.
Joel: Then they hatched.

Tavae: The red bird is the daddy.
Liam: Why do birds lay eggs? How do they make eggs?
Will: Why do they have wings?

Some children have been using clay as a language to express their knowledge, understanding and experience of birds and their lifecycle.

Aicha: I make a worm because I need to feed the bird. I making the bird house. I squish, squish.

Olivia: Mine is really squishy. I’m a little bird. Birds eats the worms and they actually lay eggs and they fly and play like that stuff and one I’m a little bird, I like being with the other bird’s.

Aicha: And now I’m going to squish and make a house. The nest. Im going to make a lot of eggs inside and then they crash, I look after them. Nicole, you know at my old house I had a bird but it died.

Olivia: I making a cloud because the birds flies to the cloud.

Aicha: Nicole, this (nest) is like this, a circle.

We watched another video, of a bird hatching. We recorded the children’s comments as they watched the bird.

Tavae: It’s making a door to come out
Krisha: It’s a bird
Will: When it’s in its egg it doesn’t have its feathers yet
Frankie: The eggs wobbles
Aicha: The bird is wobbing the egg to go out
Frankie: It’s getting out
Omelia: A crack
Kanal: Crack
Frankie: It’s hatching
Aicha: It’s getting out.
Xavier: It’s getting out.
Ambrose: A egg.
Olivia: It looks like chicken trying to get out the egg

Tavae: The bird is coming out.
Frankie: It’s a girl.
Aicha: The head has come out.
Liam: It try to crack and it used its beak so it can get out the egg.
Frankie: It stuck
Tavae: It like a monster. The bird got a foot.
Will: The bottom still stck
Aicha: It don’t fly
Frankie: And the feathers make it fly.

NAMES

Some children have been working in small groups with Nicole in Home 2 on identifying and writing their names.

PLAY BASED LEARNING

Using their skills of creativity, curiosity and imagination, our children have engaged with different materials and resources in their play.

PRAYER

SPECKS OF GOLD

EARLY YEARS LEARNING FRAMEWORK

OUTCOME 1: CHILDREN HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF IDENTITY
• Children feel safe, secure, and supported
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect

OUTCOME 1: CHILDREN HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF IDENTITY
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect

OUTCOME 2: CHILDREN ARE CONNECTED WITH AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR WORLD
• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation

OUTCOME 2: CHILDREN ARE CONNECTED WITH AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR WORLD
• Children become aware of fairness

OUTCOME 2: CHILDREN ARE CONNECTED WITH AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR WORLD
• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation

OUTCOME THREE: CHILDREN HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF WELLBEING
• Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing

OUTCOME 4: CHILDREN ARE CONFIDENT AND INVOLVED LEARNERS
• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

OUTCOME 4: CHILDREN ARE CONFIDENT AND INVOLVED LEARNERS.

  • Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials

OUTCOME 4: CHILDREN ARE CONFIDENT AND INVOLVED LEARNERS
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating

OUTCOME 5: CHILDREN ARE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media

OUTCOME 5: CHILDREN ARE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS
• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Day – Monday 5th August 2019

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Today we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and engaged in a variety of provocations that have all been designed around children’s interests and curiosities.

BIRD’S NEST PROVOCATION

A few weeks ago, the children found an abandoned bird’s nest in the park adjacent to the ELC (Grevilia Park). This morning, we took some time to observe the nest and share our knowledge, understandings and theories about the it.

What is it?

Liam: Nest

Omelia: Mud

What is it made of?

Joel: Dirt

Will: Sticks and grass and mud and dirt

Tesi: Plastic

Arabella: mud

Arielle: rubbish

What do you think is it used for?

Will: Birds to lay their eggs

Joel: Chickens make eggs and cows make eggs

Is it a bird’s nest?

Liam: Yes

What makes you think so?
Will: I see feathers so it’s a bird’s nest
Tesi: Feathers

What do you think it’s used for?
Will: For eggs to keep them all warm.
Tesi: So they can lay chicks, birdy chicks. So the mama chick put one of the little birdy chick and then she can fly.
Simon: Birds
Xavier: Bird lay the egg

Where do you think the birds are now?
Arabella: Flying
Tesi: In the trees

TARUN – BUILDING WITH BLOCKS

Nicole and Tarun spent lots of time building a garage for Tarun’s cars. He used different length blocks and manipulated them by stacking them and balancing them to build his structure. He also used different coloured window blocks and mirrored blocks. Tarun was able to name the different coloured blocks and shared the blocks with Nicole and gave directions as to where he would like the blocks placed. Tarun did a magnificent job!

PLAYING INSTRUMENTS, SINGING AND DANCING

We borrowed a box of instruments from the school including tambourines, castanets, maracas and clapping sticks. Outside, we enjoyed singing songs and learning the ‘1-2’ beat. We played our instruments and enjoyed moving to the music we were making.

PRAYER

During prayer, we set up our prayer circle and sang ‘Come Join the Circle’. We then each chose an instrument and created a ‘rainbow of sound’ as we sung our prayer song ‘Beautiful Rainbow’.

SPECKS OF GOLD

EARLY YEARS LEARNING OUTCOMES

OUTCOME 2: CHILDREN ARE CONNECTED WITH AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR WORLD
• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation

OUTCOME 4: CHILDREN ARE CONFIDENT AND INVOLVED LEARNERS
• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating

OUTCOME 5: CHILDREN ARE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media

 

A Week in the Life – Alive Catholic Early Care and Learning Parafield Gardens

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We have had a wonderful week of fun, adventure, curiosity, friendship and learning.

PLAYGROUND

We moved our bodies and had lots of fun on the playground.

MUSIC AND DANCE

We love to move, dance and sing! This week we have been exploring movement to music through games and improvisation. The children loved playing musical statues, singing nursery rhymes, playing musical chairs and moving like different animals to the music.

PAINTING, DRAWING AND EXPRESSION

Children share lots about their experiences, understandings and interests through drawing, painting and expression. They communicate their understanding of the world and their curiosities. Educators use this knowledge to plan and program provocations that will engage children and contribute to their development as learners and citizens.

SEEDS

Brianna has been saving seeds from different vegetables when cooking. We used our senses to learn more about pumpkin and capsicum seeds. The ELC is contributing to the Spring Fair which will be held at the school in October. We are going to grow some plants to sell at the Spring Fair. We had a discussion about what we should grow and in the end decided on carrots, flowers and strawberries.

SPECKS OF GOLD

Each afternoon, we share our specks of gold. These are the best things about our day. This helps to build an ‘attitude of gratitude’ and a positive mindset.

MINDFULNESS AND PRAYER

During prayer, we have continued to learn the sign of the cross. We have read stories from the bible and prayers from ‘Pray with Me’. We have shared our own prayers of gratitude and sung songs.

In mindfulness, we have continued to practice our ‘rainbow breathing’ and relaxation.

FRIENDSHIP

It is so heart warming to see the many relationships and friendships that are being established between children, thus developing strong emotional and social wellbeing.

COUNTING

Children have been exploring number to 10 this week, including:

  • recognising numbers
  • ordering numbers
  • counting collections of objects
  • matching numerals to collections of objects

Thanks for sharing our learning with us. Please leave a comment for your child if you wish. Happy weekend and we look forward to next week’s learning and wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inquiry: Growing from Seed …… Continued

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This week we have been observing and documenting the growth of the seeds we planted a few weeks ago. The children have been using magnifying glasses to look more closely at the changes and growth in their seed and documenting their observations through drawings.

Through shared reading experiences of non-fiction books such as ‘From Seed to Sunflower’ we have also been learning about the different parts of a plant (such as root, stem, leaf and flower) and stages of seed growth (e.g. root, shoot, seedling, plant).  This has helped children to develop and use the language and terminology to describe plants and their growth.

 

Our children have been in awe of the growth of some of our seeds, particularly the snow pea seeds which are almost ready for planting.

Throughout the week, our children have been taking care of our garden by watering our lettuce and herb plants. They are becoming more aware of the needs of plants such as sunlight and water to grow.

Early Years Learning Framework:

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

  • Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.

  • Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.

  • Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media