Nina Marni, all our little learners and awsome families,
Welcome to our second term & week one blog.
Learning Intention:1
To re-establish expectations within our community and foster each child’s sense of ownership in being active, respectful, and involved participants in the long daycare-4 program.
Why:
- All children are competent and capable and should have endless opportunities to apply their innate agency.
- We have new members within our community (children, families and educators) who will require support in adapting to our rhythms and rituals.
- 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 recognizing that children have a right to make choices and decisions and are capable of initiate their own learning.
- Each stage with development comes with new interests, capabilities, and requirements. On reflection, educators believe that revisiting our expectations (developed with children in term 1) should be revisited and re-designed collaboratively.
- On reflection, educators have re-designed some learning areas within preschool. Children will require some scaffolding to become familiar with new spaces and materials to ensure that they are maintained and used safely.
ILP’s: All children
We regularly using our Visual reminders for hat, shoe, sunscreen and drink bottle storage. Inclusion of visual cues on staff lanyards and displayed around the room.
Invite children to patriciate in cleaning. (e.g. Wiping tables, sweeping floor). Organized and consistent physical space (Clear storage for activities etc.). Visual schedule displayed each day. Consistent and organized learning spaces. Establishing a sunscreen station. Organize visible water trolly.
- Consistent support and rituals on arrival and departure by educators (unpack bags, water bottle on drink trolly etc.)
- Facilitated discussions around the role we play in self-care practices by Role modelling.
- Facilitated discussions about what children enjoy. Provide opportunities for all children to be the decision makers, driving our learning and experiences. (Choice for Mother’s Day cards & other activities).
- A visual daily routine to be implemented and discussed during group time each day
- Educators will actively discuss what is next in the routine with the children to help set a strong foundation for predictability and support the ease of transitions for children.
- Embedding re-setting routine. Taking children with set space to reset before group times.
- Establishing community helper roles e.g. Ask help for packing and cleaning Indoor/outdoor area.
MOTHER’S DAY ACTIVITY: – Children made Mother’s Day flower with colourful papers and gluestic. This will help children to improve their fine motor skills & eye hand coordination.
HEALTHY EATING:- Children enjoyed his food in dinning room with other friends. Great fun when enjoyed friends birthday outside with banana cake. Children sharing their social emotional skills by sitting together and enjoying their afternoon food.
Learning Intention:2
To encourage children to develop a love and curiosity for our natural world through inquiring about the seasonal changes taking place.
Why:
- Aligning with the 3 Pillars of Holy Family Catholic School, we aim to foster an appreciation and preservation of God’s creations
- Nature plays in our outdoor/extended community
- Natural materials offer open ended opportunities to support children’s engagement, development and self-regulation through strengthening their sensory processing capabilities.
- The brain and body need an abundance of sensory-motor experiences in the first years of life to strengthen this partnership and to provide children with lifelong sensory processing capabilities.
- Facilitating inquiries, provide opportunities for children to become more confident and autonomous problem-solvers and thinkers. Linking this to our natural world supports children to develop respect and love for living things.
ILP’s: All Children.
We provide opportunity to children having a Various natural materials collected from our environment accessible to children for open-ended explorations. Introducing warm colors- visual art. Offered childrenWidening our perspectives through community visits. Materials for deeper investigations (light, magnifying glasses etc)
- Facilitated discussions about the changes in our environment. Use of photos.
- Documenting (iPad Photos) changes within our local environment.
- Group time reading of “Big Rain Coming”.
- Investigating Kaurna seasons-linking to the finding of insects in our outdoor environment.
- Magnetic story table with leaves as provocation.
SENSORY EXPERIENCE:-
Dry/green autumn leaves and sticks offer numerous benefits for children, stimulating their senses, enhancing creativity, and fostering learning through play. They provide opportunities for sensory exploration, like feeling the textures and sounds of leaves, which can boost fine motor skills and tactile sensitivity.Additionally, these natural materials encourage problem-solving and imaginative play, allowing children to build, sort, and create art, all while promoting early literacy and numeracy skills.
NATURE FUN AT OUTSIDE:-
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.
o Candle flames remind us that God is with us.
o The Bible reminds us of God’s love for us through special stories.
o The Cross reminds us of Jesus.
o 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
ILP’s: All Children.
The Sign of the Cross is a prayer to God.
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. T
he actions represent the symbol of the Cross, and that prayer involves our head, heart and body.
God has established prayer as a means for us to communicate with him. Through prayer, we can praise God, ask for forgiveness, thank God for all he’s done, and let our requests be made known to him. Prayer allows us to open our hearts to God and let him know our innermost thoughts and desires.
Playground Fun with friends:-
BIKE RIDING WITH FRIENDS :-
MUDLA VISIT WITH LITTLE FRIENDS :-
LOGPARK VISIT FOR BALANCING ON WOOODEN LOGS:-
SCHOOL VISIT WITH FRIENDS :-
SOME SPEKS OF GOLD FOR SECOND WEEK OF TERM TWO: – 2025. [Long Day Care 4] & OUR HOLY FAMILY CATHOLIC SCHOOL EARLY LEARNING PHILOSOPHY.
Children have opportunities to engage with all seasons. We provide children with oppportunities to explore with all their senses and believe in messy play opportunities.
This week children enjoyed some muddy puddles with all other friends. Playing in muddy puddles is a great sensory experience for children. They can explore how it feels to be stuck in mud and soggy from for the water – this can also develop self care skills as the children learn to change out of any way clothing into dry ones. Puddles are not just fun, they are an open ended source of learning opportunities. They are so many skills and concepts that children can learn just from playing in puddles and they won’t even realise it’s happening. To them, it’s just about joy and isn’t that what childhood is all about. children need physical activity and jumping in puddles is a perfect workout. Jumping, stomping and stamping all help to develop gross motor skills, crucial before children can develop their fine motor skills which are essential before a child can write. It can help improve balance working the vestibular sense: this is the ability to interpret information relating to movement and balance.
Good work children.
We hope all our ELC children and families had a wonderful second week of term two and wishing all of you having happy and relaxing weekend.
Take care everyone & Thank you once again for your great understaning and support as being an amazing parents/carers.
We will see you all Long day care- 4 children on next week.