Holy Family Preschool Reflection- Term 1/Week 11

Niina Marni to our amazing little learners and their beautiful families. Welcome to our weekly blog – the last one for this term.

Learning Intention:

Supporting children to understand the values of Easter

Why?

To support children to develop their understanding of the values of Easter, such as love, forgiveness, hope and new beginnings.
To encouraging them to reflect and practice gratitude.
To promote social skills – Easter activities involve group participation, which helps preschoolers practice sharing, taking turns and working together with their peers
To introduce cultural traditions. Easter is a religious and cultural holiday celebrated in various ways around the world. Engaging preschoolers in easter-themed activities can introduce them to different traditions and foster an appreciation for diversity.

This week, many of the learning activities offered to the children were centered around the Easter theme. The math provocation with Easter eggs encouraged the children to sort the eggs by color. At the sensory table, they had the chance to decorate a cut-out Easter egg using a variety of natural and synthetic materials. These experiences helped foster higher-order thinking skills while also stimulating their creativity and imagination.

Learning Intention:

To support children’s expression of ideas and identity through mark-making and art experiences (continuation from the previous weeks).

Inquiry – bees

Our learning intentions of enhancing mark-making was achieved by providing children the means of decorating and making patterns on paper easter eggs, using cotton buds and paint. The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity, finding it fun to use the cotton buds to paint dots and create intricate designs on the eggs.

As part of our inquiry into bees, we we learned and established that bees live in hives. To bring this concept to life, the children created beehives by stamping hexagon-shaped sponges onto paper. They loved the texture of the sponges and enjoyed seeing the results of their stamping activity.

Learning Intention:

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.
The Sign of the Cross is a prayer to God.
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, we discussed the Easter story with the children, focusing on Jesus’ journey to the cross, His forgiveness, and the importance of showing kindness to everyone around us. We watched a brief video that explained the meaning of Easter in a simple and understandable way for the children. Additionally, we participated in the school’s Holy Thursday Liturgy in the hall, where we took time to reflect on the significant events that took place on that day.

Literacy intention

To build connections to picture books

Why:

Literacy is the capacity, confidence and disposition to use language in all its forms.
Literacy incorporates a range of modes of communication including music, movement, dance, storytelling, visual arts, media and drama, as well as talking, sign, reading and writing.
Building connections to picture books helps to enhance a child’s critical thinking, brain development and language development. Giving them the ability to build towards more complex learning tasks in the future.

We set up a story table featuring Easter-themed books, eggs, and chicks to encourage open-ended play. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience, eagerly creating their own baskets of eggs, cracking them open, and discovering the chicks inside. They also developed their own unique versions of the stories, which sparked their imagination and creativity. This activity not only nurtured storytelling skills but also supported fine motor development, promoted social interaction, and fostered problem-solving as they explored and played together. We also read easter stories during group times and practised our knowledge of phonics.