Niina Marni preschool children and families and welcome to week 2!
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 maintained and used safely.
This week the children continued to demonstrate extended and meaningful engagement with the new design of the room and the new resources! Following on from the interest of a number of children in the room with the replenished Lego on offer, a ‘Lego Masters’ station was created. We are hoping to create a ‘work in progress’ area where children can place their creations (not just Lego!) to continue working on the next time they are in – we would also love to start a wall of photos of the children with their hard work to honour to process and their dedication to their work.
The learning environments have been consistently set up with engaging experiences by the amazing Karen! Having this as a part of children’s morning routine has supported children to settle in and transition from home life to early learning. This makes a big difference to the tone of the day and ensures children are entering their individual rooms feeling safe and supported and ready to engage in the day.
There has been a strong interest in mark making this week. The mark making circle in the middle of the room has seen a lot of engagement and excitement! Children have not only been engaging in mark making with pencils and textas but also with our new magnetic letters and whiteboards, showing early pre-writing and literacy skills.
Following Berry Street training on Monday and Tuesday, Laura and Elle decided to implement breathing exercises and yoga to begin rest time each day. Whilst this is optional there were quite a few children who chose to take this opportunity to calm their bodies and minds! We can’t wait to see how this supports children over the coming weeks and hopefully provides them with a tool they can use when they are feeling sad or overwhelmed.
Other areas remained a favourite part of the routine of course! Including the dollhouse, construction room and nuts and bolts experiences!
Learning Intention 2:
To encourage children to develop a love and curiosity for our natural world through inquiring about the seasonal changes taking place.
- 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 week small groups were taken to the MUDLA and on community walks through the school – next week we will continue this and make sure to take iPads! Next week we are aiming to support children to take their own photos and pose wonderings about the seasonal changes. However, this week was very chilly but dry so the children were supported to dress appropriately so they could enjoy the sunshine!
Specks of gold…
Trajectories:
- To continue following the children’s interest in the seasonal changes
- To focus on the process and supporting children to develop a growth mindset about their creations and endeavours
- To implement changes to group times using Berry Street training
- To support staff with language to use when providing active positive responses to children’s work
Thank you and we’ll see you all next week!