Nina Marni little learners and their beautiful families. Welcome to our weekly blog.
| 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. |
“Children relish in the sensory and physical experience of mark making”
Patterns , lines , textures and shapes simply refer to the beautiful creation of mark making. Children making their mark are not contained to tools such as the pencil or a colour Texta.. Using hand and finger prints , nature based resources such as sticks , bottle brushes and rosemary sticks are marking tools which children can still use as creative tools to express themselves whilst exploring the world around them. Play dough , sand, flour and water are some mediums where marks and signatures are created to build and develop a child’s writing skills.
Children explored the making of play dough with their teacher where some interesting and interactive verbal communication was captured.
The child’s voice : “What does Play dough feel like to touch”
Olivia : feels like cake
Kaia : its soft
Ellie: its very soft
Bhavish : Soft
Elias : its so soft
Teacher’s had a conversation with the children about the ingredients that was added into the Play dough to bring about the said textures.
The child’s voice was captured during this conversation,
Oil is yellow , Bhavish , Eliyas and Kaia
like water – Ellie and Elias
when the play dough got mixed – the child’s voice was captured yet again.
Olivia : Mixing play dough like chicken mash
| Learning Intention 2: To encourage children’s expression of ideas through collaborative arts-making experiences in Visual Arts and paints. |
| Why Helps a child’s development enhancing creativity, fine motor coordination, self-expression, creates and builds on imagination, cognitive development, sensory and many more skills of social interactive and collaborative engagement and verbal communication. Explorations of a variety of colours and textures helps children develop their confidence, self-esteem and problem-solving skills. This learning intention will be a collaboration with learning intention 1 of mark making. |
“A child equipped with a paint brush creates an amazing sense of wonder”
Promoting curiosity and intrigue and preparing invitational resources helps challenge children’s scope and provides new creative opportunities. Children are able to develop a variety of motor skills allowing them to experiment and express their ideas through modules of pictures and patterns. Creating their own designs and patterns help build their confidence and verbal commuication relaying their thoughts , ideas and storytelling.
Many an artists create wonders through sensory invitations.
| 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 the liturgical calendar welcomes the season of lent. Our prayer table colours have changed with the colour purple being the dominant colour. The colour purple resembles repentance and renewal. The start of the season begins with Ash Wednesday and lasts for 40 days. Receiving ashes on our forehead with the sign of the cross and praying to Jesus to love one another , being kind , gentle and empathetic to the needs of the vulnerable and less fortunate. Fasting and praying is observed during this most venerable season. Children received the sign of the cross on their forehead with the comment ” Jesus Loves you”
Literacy station : Book making , story reading and visits to the library.
Our little learners had a very relaxing walk to the library interacting with one another. Once we reached the library our little explorers were very excited to see all the wonderful books and found a very cozy corner to investigate , relax and pick a book to read.
Numeracy station : “We are now able to sort and count”, Name our colours and use our fine motor skills to scoop and tip.
A daily routine update : Our little learners check into their learning at the beginning of the day. The Now, Next ,and Then chart is followed and updated now by the children themselves.
Dance and movement – Afternoon’s are the best time for some movement to refuel up our energy for the last bit of that exciting learning to end the day.
Community walks around the School shared spaces have been regular and consistent. Walks through the vegetable and fruit garden, visits to the log park , the MUDLA and the fish farm have been very engaging for the children, where they have enjoyed the beautiful sunshine sharing lovely conversations with each other and some wonderful knowledge from their Teacher’s
specs of gold for this week
Hope you all have a restful and relaxing long weekend.