Holy Family Catholic School Early Learning Preschool Blog (Term -3/Week – 6)

Nina Marni, all our little learners and lovely families,

Welcome to our third term & week six preschool blog.

We warmly welcome all new and existing families to our weekly blog as we share some learning experiences from this week.

Learning Intention 1:

To challenge children’s construction skills by providing loose parts and STEM experiences.

Why:
• Children have shown a great interest in construction related activities ( AH, ET, GB, ON, SS, MP)
• STEM education in early childhood allows children to begin to learn and retain a knowledge base that they can build on as they get older.
• Loose Parts play encourages children to make, create, problem solve and hypothesize. Loose parts have no instructions and no predetermined rules.
• The concept of ‘loose parts’ supports children to become critical thinkers as they use these open- ended materials to plan their work and create whatever they want to without an adult telling them what should be done. It helps children to be imaginative.
• Loose parts give children the freedom to arrange and rearrange, essentially using the parts to create their own rules and designs, which allows the focus of the experience to be on the process rather than the product. Fine motor skills are developed and strengthened when children grasp and pick up small objects.

In Construction children enjoyed,

• Construction table – have boxes in different sizes avaibale to children along with natural and human made things like pine cones, bottle lids twigs, popsticks, cardboard tubes, masking tape and sticky tape to construct whatever they desire
• Loose parts construction area – including material, blocks, natural materials etc.

Literacy and Numeracy intentions
Literacy

• To be able to engage with a story table – Smartest Giant in Town
• To engage in Pre-Lit lessons (lesson focus – awareness that speech is made-up of words)
Why?
• Children have shown great joy in reciting rhymes and reading books (AM, AC, EP, IP)
• So many children responded well to the book ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ and engaged in creating clothes for George (ET, AB, HM, AM, IP, RG, EP)
• Activities like storytelling sessions and book discussions encourage children to share their thoughts, feelings, and interpretations of stories, improving their communication skills

Numeracy
• To be able to appreciate and engage in reciting familiar number rhymes using felt figurines
• To be introduced to measurement of height using non-standard units (measuring George’s height)

Why?
• Children have shown great interest in the story ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’, thus, using George’s height as a way of introducing height and measurement to children
• Subitising, the ability to instantly recognize the quantity of small sets of objects without counting, is crucial for developing strong number sense in young children
• By recognizing quantities at a glance, children develop a deeper understanding of numbers and their composition, moving beyond rote counting to a more intuitive grasp of quantity
• Learning measurement is crucial for children as it equips them with essential life skills and lays a foundation for future mathematical understanding.
ILPs – All children

Learning Intention 2:

Understand that the world is a gift from God and God fills the world with love. We can experience God through creation and the love around us (
(continuing from last week)

Doctrinal Insights from the Catholic Tradition that support this Enduring Understanding include:

• The whole world is a gift from God.
• God’s love can be found in families, nature, friends and communities.

ILPs – All children

Children enjoyed the story “God made the world” & children draw on the paper that god created by their own art work.

Presentation “Lord Ganesha”:

Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival in Hinduism celebrating the birth of the elephant-headed deity Ganesha (Ganesh), the god of prosperity, wisdom, and removal of obstacles. The holiday begins on the fourth day (chaturthi) of the month of Bhadrapada (August–September), the sixth month of the Hindu calendar. The festival lasts up to 10 days when, at the culmination of the holiday, statues of Ganesha are immersed in water. Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated both as a small domestic ritual in homes and as a grand public spectacle in community spaces.

Literacy and Numeracy intentions
Literacy

Play dough activity with educator:-

Weekly Cooking Club:

This week children enjoyed to making cup cake activity with friends, educators and cook.

Cooking with children provides numerous benefits, fostering fine motor skills through tasks like stirring and measuring, promoting healthy eating habits as children are more likely to eat what they’ve prepared, and enhancing academic skills by applying math and reading concepts in a real-world context. It also boosts confidence, teaches teamwork and responsibility, encourages creativity, and strengthens the educator-child bond through a fun, shared activity.