We will provide and emergent and responsive curriculum for all children based from the philosophy of the service, provocations of educators and a child’s strength and interests as well as the interest of the group.
We will foster a sense of wonderment of the natural environment and resources as an integral part of children’s learning and support children to become ecologically conscious and to understand the interdependence of all living things.
On Wednesday afternoon a group of our children attended a safety talk with R/1TD and R/1GC in the school titled ‘Living Safely with Pets’.
As we continue to learn through our ‘growth’ inquiry, this talk was a wonderful opportunity for children to learn more about how to take care of living things – themselves and their pets.
We met a beautiful dog called Darcy whose owner taught us how to keep ourselves safe around dogs, including how to approach an unknown dog we would like to pat and what to do when faced with an angry dog.
EARLY YEARS LEARNING FRAMEWORK
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing.
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.
Simon was building 3D shapes with the magnetic shapes
Tarun building with blocks and wooden people
Who’s hiding?
It’s Shruti!
“It’s a magic show”
Imaginative play
Kanish lining up the diggers.
Xavier “I Superman with a mask”
Building a road
Tavae: Stacking the blocks “It’s a rainbow”
Playing hide and seek
Omelia found Frankie
Playing musical statues
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
The wellbeing of our children and their families is a priority. Positive Education brings together the science of Positive Psychology, developed by Professor Martin Seligman with best practice teaching to encourage and support individuals, learning centres and communities to flourish. Flourishing is a combination of ‘feeling good and doing good.’ Positive Education focuses on specific skills that assist children to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness, and encourage a healthy lifestyle.
We have been focusing on developing the following strategies which, help to build positive emotion:
Bucket Filling – encourages positive behaviour as children see how rewarding it is to express daily kindness and gratitude. Bucket filling and dipping are effective metaphors for understanding the effects of our actions and words on the wellbeing of others and ourselves.
Specks of Gold – intentionally looking for, noticing and being grateful for the good things that happen in our day – the ‘specks of gold’.
BUCKET FILLING
The educators and children have been working together to embed the language of bucket filling in our early care and learning centre. We use this language to describe how we are feeling, to describe our actions and to describe the impact our words and actions are having on ourselves and others.
We have a bucket in our centre and each time we do or say something that fills our own or another person’s bucket, we add a stone to our bucket. It’s a visual way for children to identify with the concept of bucket filling. The children feel very proud when they add a stone to the bucket and love seeing it fill up each day with stones which symbolise the kindness they are showing to others.
We have also been reading many stories about bucket filling.
SPECKS OF GOLD
Each day during our afternoon group time, we share our ‘specks of gold’ from the day. The children love sharing the best part of their day both from home and their time at our ELC. Here are our specks of gold for the week so far.
The power of these positive education strategies lies in their language – they give children (and adults) the words to describe their learning, feelings and the complex social interactions they engage in.
You may like to use the language of bucket filling and specks of gold at home too.
If you would like any further information or resources about positive education, please feel free to come and have a chat.
