Holy Family Catholic School Early Learning Blog -(LDC 3years) Term 4/Week 8

Nina Marni little learners and their wonderful families. Welcome to our blog.

Learning Intention 1:

To support children’s emotional wellbeing as they begin their transition process into preschool in the new year.

Why?

As children approach the transition into to preschool, they may be experiencing certain feelings such as fear, uncertainty and nervousness.· Being aware of children’s developmental milestones, particularly emotional and social development, helps educators understand what to expect at different ages and stages in children’s lives.· The importance of a positive transition into the preschool experience has been consistently emphasised in research around the world. A large body of evidence suggests a successful transition helps improve children’s educational and social outcomes

Second week of our LDC 3 year old’s transitions into the preschool learning space. This week the children spent their morning group time, morning tea with a mid day group time and lunch with their Preschool peers. The consistency in routine and smooth transitions have helped our little learners to build interactions with teacher’s their peers and experience a safe and secure belonging in their new learning space. There have been some wonderful and precious moments throughout the day that have been amazing to watch.

Learning Intention 2:

To deepen our understanding of the advent season and celebrate the cultural tradition of Christmas

Why-

Throughout each year we celebrate many cultural traditions of our families to nurture each child’s identity and promote a sense of belonging- -Liturgical advent is a joyous season of preparation. The word itself derives from the Latin word meaning “coming.” During these four weeks, we prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus, with prayer and mindfulness. Celebrating Advent is a meaningful way to prepare our hearts for Christmas-Christmas is a time of celebration, which is meaningful to many children within our community

The weeks to come will see our learners tuned into the season of advent where preparation for the coming of the birth of baby Jesus and the celebrations to follow. Our little people have been very busy crafting lots of seasonal projects. The children have been preparing a special Christmas gift for their families and crafted their own wrapping paper.

Learning Intention 3:

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 blessingsSacred symbols are used in my school/ELC and in church celebrations, prayer and liturgy. (CCC1145)Other faith traditions also have sacred symbols

The Sign of the Cross is a prayer to God.

Doctrinal and Content Elaborations:

Doctrinal Insights from the Catholic Tradition that support this Enduring Understanding include:The Sign of the Cross is a prayer with actions and words.The words remind us that God is called Father, Son and Holy Spirit.The actions represent the symbol of the Cross, and that prayer involves our head, heart and body.

Children have been beginning their day and the week by entering into a worship of prayer and thanksgiving for their beautiful families, their Teacher’s and their peers. Symbolic sacred symbols have helped children remind them that god is close to us and he loves us all. As we welcome the season of Advent our prayer table has changed into the colours of Advent Purple and white, where children have been provided with sacred symbolic figures of the Nativity to be placed by each one of them on the prayer table.

Literacy Intentions (our hopes for their learning)

General sound discrimination and rhyme awareness.
Matching Rhyming words orally.
Reading picture books regularly. Children will enjoy a joyful connection to picture books.
Continue using mark-making tools, such as crayons, texts, pencils, paint, chalk, sand (as they create texts during this process).

Children will build symbolic functioning, sharing something about their writing and stories.

The writer’s workshop has been a continuous learning experience throughout this week being very consistent. Children have had Teacher’s read picture books and the children have been creating their own designs and author texts. Our workshop has been quite mobile where this learning experience has been rolled over on our community visits to the MUDLA where it has been a wonderful learning environment and a unique learning experience for the children to create their stories.

Community walks around our Holy family Catholic school have been consistently maintained throughout this week. Children have been visiting the vegetable and fruit garden as well as the MUDLA and the playground. The tomato tress and the strawberry patch have been of great interest to the children. They have been picking some ripe tomatoes and strawberries to be taken over to the kitchen to be washed and consumed at morning tea and lunch.

Consistent predictable routines within our classrooms have helped children build an understanding of what to expect next in their learning space. Children have been provided with endless opportunities to be guided by the flow chart and pick the visuals that present the Now ,next and then within the chart.

Some specs of gold for this week

Hope you all have a relaxing weekend.

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