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 preschool 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 recognising that children have a right to make choices and decisions and are capable of initiating 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 maintainedand used safely.
Over the school holiday break, the preschool teachers organised extra resources to invigorate learning environments and spark new inquiry amongst the learning community.
They also came in before Term 2 commenced to completely re-structure the Preschool room! Through reflective discussion and critical thinking we posed questions such as: “What are the children telling us through their actions?”, “Are we seeing much engagement in this area?”, and “Why are the children ferrying resources from this area to that one?”. These questions, along with the new open ended resources meant the old ‘sensory/light room’, became the construction room! When children are continually moving resources to another area, this tells us that this is where they want to engage with them, so – we listened! The new construction room has been an absolute hit and an area with high engagement all day!
Some ideas from the children about how to maintain our spaces and stay safe were:
“No shouting people might be sleeping” – Krishav
“No fighting it hurts people” – Ewan, Liam, Arlo
“Asking to touch peoples bodies”
“Keep toys were they belong and pack away” – Harry
“No toys in your mouth” – Anisa
The numeracy table has now become the STEM table with various inquiry resources available on the shelves for children to experiment and hypothesise with.
The literacy table has become a story/exploration table by the window that provides beautiful natural light.
The home corner has plenty of new resources for dramatic play which has brought over children who previously weren’t often observed engaging there.
There is a basket of sensory materials available in the group time/rest time area to provide children with an opportunity to ground themselves and receive the sensory input they are seeking.
There is even a brand new (rather large!) doll house! This is another area that has seen engagement from such a large group of children! We painted the walls white to allow for children’s imagination to play out without the images of what the room ‘should’ look like and this also provides the chance for the doll house to become something else! Maybe a fire station? A school? A supermarket? We can’t wait to see and listen to the ideas the children have for what it will become next!
The biggest hit so far (other than the construction room) has been the making table! We were offering making in the atelier throughout the day however we felt the children were ready to have these resources available to them at all times as they have demonstrated they are capable of using them safely. Whilst this area will always be supervised, the children have continued to show their abilities with these resources every day this week as they approach the tables and start to bring their creations to life! Children engaged in a teacher led discussion about how to be safe in this area. Some ideas were:
“No cutting hair” – Ewan
“No cutting peoples bodies” – Liam
“Sit down with scissors”
If you have any recyclable materials at home we encourage you to bring them in for making provided they have not contained egg or nuts!
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 play 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 in order 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.
This term the children have begun to explore the terminology and colours of the seasons, particularly Autumn which has followed on from their interests in the natural world and God’s creations. Through discussions and observations from images and videos of Autumn the children have given their ideas about the colours, including green, brown, orange and red. This then led to a child led exploration where they collected fallen leaves from the trees around us and pointed out that “they fell off the tree because they’re not green anymore” (Anisa).
They have engaged in various experiences that supported the children’s emerging ideas and knowledge about the seasons including a story table with Autumn colours and leaf sketching using leaves and charcoals.
Trajectories:
- Following children’s interests with LI2 – possible inquiry project into Ecology?
- Bookmaking – embedding book making station into routine and start new spotlight on illustrations.
- Reflecting on current learning spaces – do any need adjustment for engagement
- Start library visits to source new books and introduce children to new world of literacy
- Berry Street training for some staff (Note: Laura and Elle will be absent next Monday and Tuesday for this)