Nina Marni to all our beautiful little learners and their lovely families. Welcome back to Term 4/week 1
Learning Intention 1: To nurture and deepen each child’ innate sense of agency in decision making and routine/self-help tasks.
Why
· The sense of agency is defined as the sense of oneself as the agent of one’s own actions. This also allows oneself to feel distinct from others, and contributes to the subjective phenomenon of self-consciousness
· In the approved learning frameworks, agency is defined as being able to make choices and decisions to influence events and to have an impact on one’s world. Supporting children’s agency is about recognising that children have a right to make choices and decisions, and are capable of initiating their own learning.
· Children who have opportunities to effectively assess and manage risk at an early age will be better equipped to deal with risk as an adult. It also creates a learning environment where children can identify their limits, seek help when needed, and supports children to explore, experiment and cope with the unexpected
· There are many benefits to children participating in decision making, such as learning to consider the needs of others, developing problem-solving skills and it can increase their commitment to making decisions work
Children have been very excited and agar to be back from holidays for another exciting term of learning and exploring. They have had the opportunity to be nurtured into transitioning back gradually and smoothly into their routines providing each child with a sense of agency in taking resposibility towards one’s own actions and contributing towards their learning and developmental goals.
A much awaited visit from last week had a very warm welcome this morning. Hannah brought in her pet chickens to visit our little learners. The effect that these beautiful little chickens had on our learners were tremendous, bringing back the curiosity enquiry and enthusiasm into their learning as well as continuing to embed sustainability by contributing our own food scraps as food for these beautiful living beings.
Learning Intention: 2
To support children’s engagement, development and self-regulation through strengthening their sensory processing capabilities.
Why?
Sensory processing is a foundational building block for learning. Our senses collect information from the world around us, as well as our interactions within it. This information is then processed in our brain, forming the basis of our learning, wellbeing and secure interactions with others. The brain and body need an abundance of sensory-motor experiences in the first years of life in order to strengthen this partnership and to provide children with lifelong sensory processing capabilities.
Possibilities and Provocations:
- multi-sensory experiences which stimulate children’s sensory systems of touch, taste, sound, sight, smell, vestibular (movement) and proprioception (‘heavy work’). Examples include: crushing herbs (I), playing with cloud dough, transferring flour, hefting/transporting heavy items outdoors, dancing, jumping, rolling (Move to Learn which delivers both vestibular and proprioceptive input) (C/ILP: M.D, H.W, M.G, M.M, T.H, H.K, R.G)
- “Listen, Move” movement youtube video
- Stretchy Lycra with fabric , bear hunt, yoga
- Shoes off time (establish shoe box for easy storage of shoes /socks?)
- embrace our natural landscape, connecting with resources and creatures found in the yard, vegetable garden and flower wall (C)
- cooking experiences, with a focus on what children are seeing, smelling and tasting. Mathematical and scientific processes can be highlighted in our discussions with children during our engagement (concepts such as full, empty, half, whole, number, as well as drawing attention to the chemical and physical changes occurring as ingredients are mixed together or cooked) (E/O)
- Provide a variety of natural materials in home corner to extend play scenarios (C, O)
- Mark Making with a variety of natural materials (E) (JG)
This week children engaged in many sensory experiences with water paint sand and many natural materials. Scissor cutting and box making with the crafts have been some other possibilities that children have ventured upon in processing their many sensory skills.
Book making
Literacy Intentions (Our hopes for their learning)
- Children will develop a joyful connection to picture books.
- Educators reading books and creating imaginative stories,
- Yarning circle story telling with children
Weekly focus
- Starting from scratch, what is a book? What is the purpose? Who reads books? Who writes books? What do they look like? Teachers will use information gained about prior knowledge to decide next steps.
Mentor texts
- Explore a range of Matt Cosgrove books (Llamas in Pyjamas book) during morning/ Afternoon group times (Term 4)
- discussions and questioning to follow.
- Educators to find moments to read to small groups of children and using these moments as an opportunity for self-regulation and grounding
A wonderful start to the term with some book making which the children chose outdoors and indoors to create their own stories through the arts of mark making, chalk boards, white boards texta’s paints and many natural resources and with reading picture books and story telling with teachers and peers.
Learning Intention 3
Sacred symbols
Sacred symbols are special and important.
Why :
Doctrinal Insights from the Catholic Tradition that support this Enduring Understanding include:
- Sacred symbols remind us that God is close to us, and with us.
- In my Catholic learning environment, I can see many sacred symbols.
- Candle flames remind us that God is with us.
- The Bible reminds us of God’s love for us through special stories.
- The Cross reminds us of Jesus.
- Water is used for special blessings
- Sacred symbols are used in my school/ELC and in church celebrations, prayer and liturgy. (CCC1145)
- Other faith traditions also have sacred symbols.
Doctrinal Insights from the Catholic Tradition that support this Enduring Understanding include:
- Sacred symbols remind us that God is close to us, and with us.
- In my Catholic learning environment, I can see many sacred symbols.
- Candle flames remind us that God is with us.
- The Bible reminds us of God’s love for us through special stories.
- The Cross reminds us of Jesus.
- Water is used for special blessings
- Sacred symbols are used in my school/ELC and in church celebrations, prayer and liturgy. (CCC1145)
Our children began their first week of the term with prayer with our sacred symbols tray of the holy family. The children sat in a circle and fervently closed their eyes ready to thank Jesus for all the little blessings that have come their way keeping themselves and their families safe and helping them learn and develop in their own special way.
Our community visits around the Holy Family Catholic school have begun for this term where the children have been exploring and enquiring while moving around our vegetable and fruit patch and paying lots of visits to the MUDLA.
Some specs of gold for this week
Hope you all have a relaxing weekend and looking forward to seeing you all at the school spring fair on Sunday.