Nina Marni to all our wonderful little learners and their beautiful families. Welcome to our weekly blog.
On the 20th of February the school and the early learning community commemorated world day of social justice. Empowering inclusion. Reminding us of the importance of achieving inclusivity and developing sustainable goals. Children were able to lead by example by being present and inclusive in their learning spaces supporting one another through multiple learning experiences indoors and outdoors.
We cherish and value each other through diversity and inclusivity.
Learning Intention: 1
To support children’s expression of ideas and identity through mark-making and collaborative art experiences
| why : Mark making simply refers to the creation of different patterns, lines, textures and shapes. Mark-making is not just about early writing; it is a sensory and physical experience which can be enjoyed by all ages and abilities. As well as early writing, mark-making can develop into mathematical representation and creative expression.Making marks enables children to develop their hand eye co-ordination and fine motor skills through practicing to hold a tool, deciding what grip suits them best, which hand feels most natural and through making small, controlled movements using the tool.By giving children, the opportunity to explore different mediums of mark making, it engages them in sensory play and allows them to discover new exciting materials.This helps to enhance a child’s critical thinking, brain development and language development, which gives them the ability to build towards more complex learning tasks in the future. |
‘Scribbles are products of a systematic investigation, rather than haphazard actions’.
Young learners make their mark meaning in all areas of their learning and development. Throughout this week children worked on the importance of creativity and critical thinking. Children have been provided with multiple opportunities indoors and outdoors to explore, share their thoughts and ideas through the imaginative and creative mark making. Lines in the sand and mud, crafting , textures , patterns on the logs , in many shapes built on a sensory and physical experience which are enjoyed by these little minds. A mini beast garden in sensory was scaffolded and nature sprigs were used to further extend on their beautiful markings and investigations.
Learning Intention 2
To continue working towards our goal of embedding consistent daily routines and rituals across our team and learning environment.
| Why Consistency in our learning environment supports children through the provision of a more predictable and secure daily rhythm, communication strategies and predictable educator responses. Some of the practices we seek to embed across (LDC 3 years) also relate specifically to the National Quality Standards. |
Providing , guiding and supporting children with consistent and predictable daily routines , helps our little minds to build their sense of safe security within their learning space as well as within their greater learning community. Putting in place charts with visuals of Now , Next and Then, helps the children develop an understanding of what to expect in their learning throughout the day. Placing such visuals across their learning space and talking to the children about these visuals supports children to be fervently tuned with their learning experiences. Our teachers spoke to us about following our room rules which helps with more focused and exciting learning.
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.
This week our morning group prayer has been a very precious and blessed moment where the children joined in with much joy. Children each held a flower with the candle and a musical instrument constructed with recycled materials and walked into prayer placing the candle on the prayer table and each of their flowers in a pot at the foot of the sacred cross. This was a joyous moment to share as they wanted to offer baby Jesus their gift of a flower with a prayer for their families. At the end of prayer the candle is blown out.
Literacy intentions ( our hopes for their learning)
Children will make a connection to picture books.
This week children have had the opportunity to access picture books of their choice. The teacher’s have been present to read to the children throughout the day and use puppets to make the reading more interesting and engaging for the children. Providing children with a reading nook, for them to share their sense of safe and secure belonging and at the same time helps navigate their concentration and focus to listening, with more verbal communication and interactions.
Numeracy station : We Learn about the different colours (sorting) and counting with a combination of nature and man made materials.
Community visits around the Holy family Catholic school shared spaces :
This week children explored and connected with all of the living beings in the MUDLA
Some specs of gold for this week. construction , crafting, rainbows and a beautiful and relaxing nail salon to end this wonderful week of learning.
Hope you all have a relaxing and restful weekend.