Our Day – Monday 12th August 2019

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Nicole Tropeano

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

Inquiry: Growing from Seed …… Continued

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Nicole Tropeano

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.

: TEs

: Omelia identifying the roots of her seedling

: Omelia observing with care her seedling. She identified the shoot.

: Aicha with her growing snow pea

: Aicha is observing the growth of her seed, using the information from the book.

: Aicha is identifying the different parts of her plant.

: Aicha drew her seedling and identified its various parts.

: Xavier observing his seed’s growth.

: Xavier: Wow! It has grown lots.

: Ellara is interested in how the seed has grown.

: Tesi and Omelia observe how their seeds are growing

: Arabella is using a magnifying glass to inspect the seed’s growth

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.

: Stage 1: Root

: Stage 2: Shoot

: Stage 3: Leaf and Stem growth

: Stage 4: Seedling

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.

: Ellara enjoys caring for our garden.

: Krisha is taking care of the lettuce.

: Max is taking care of our garden by watering the herbs

: Simon and Ellara are watering the plants.

: Simon is taking care of our lettuce plants by watering them.

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

Who Am I? Developing an Identify of Self – Part 1

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Nicole Tropeano

This term, children will be exploring their identities (such as physical, social, emotional, spiritual and cognitive). Our identities are shaped by our experiences and relationships. Therefore, we will be exploring important people, places, family and community in our lives through different provocations, experiences and reflections in order to build a culture of being and belonging in our Early Care and Learning Centre.

This week the children have been drawing their own self portraits. Using the mirrors, they have been looking closely at themselves, particularly their faces and the ways in which their expressions can change from a smile to frown to a silly face! The children identified different parts of themselves such as their clothing and the features on their face such as their eyes, eyebrows, ears and nose. They then drew what they could see. These self portraits are an expression of what our children recognise in and about themselves. What a joy!