Niina marni preschool children and families and welcome to the end of a very action packed week 4!
Police visit
This week we had a very special visit from SA Police! Thanks to the family who helped organise it, the children absolutely loved it!
The visit started with a discussion about the important role the police play in our society including how to identify a police officer, all the different types of transport they use and the different animals they employ! Fair to say the children absolutely loved it and spent the rest of their day playing ‘police’ and making siren noises!
Some children were feeling a little unsure about the visit and opted to go back to the room (especially when the sirens went off!) but they still got to experience the start of the visit.
The highlights of the visit were the opportunity to try on police uniforms and sit and play in both of the police cars!
Learning Intention 1
To Establish Berry Street Principles within our preschool, focusing on developing self-regulation strategies and positive dispositions
Why
Teachers and some educators undertook training in Berry Street this week, and have had the opportunity to develop deeper understandings of the importance of wellbeing in a child’s learning.
As a team we have established immediate points of action to support our community in their holistic development
Holy Family follows the Berry Street Model, therefore it is important for us to lay the foundations to maximise the opportunities for children throughout their ongoing education.
Some of the Berry Street Principles include:
-Recognise the importance of the mental state and perceptions of the child
-Acknowledge their ability to build social networks of support, feel confident as learners, and manage the challenging emotions that will arise when facing the unknown
-fostering willingness and build self-confidence, enjoyment of learning ad minimise the fears around taking a risk to learn.
-BSEM (Berry Street Education Model) strengthens the art of teaching. It recognises the critical importance of relationships, perception of self and the mental and emotional states of complete engagement.
During morning circle time this week the children have been engaging in discussions about their hopes and desires for the day and concluding the day with specks of gold. It has been a great way to start the day for both the children and educators as it creates a space where everyone can voice what they are looking forward to and establish expectations for the day. This along with our ‘pulse check ins’ using thumbs up/down allows the educators to pinpoint who is having a difficult time and means they can make it a priority to check in again with these children after circle time and throughout the day. These are all strategies we learnt about during our Berry Street training!
Learning intention 2:
Celebrating the creations shared by children and promoting deeper thinking through discussions about the process behind the product.
WHY
-Educators have noticed a strong interest in constructive and creative projects.
-children seek to share their pride with others when they have completed their projects
– We value the process, equally as much as the product and aim to support children in celebrating their achievements
-Facilitating discussions about the process behind projects incorporates numeracy processing including: noticing, wondering, communicating, reasoning and comparing.
-providing a variety of open-ended materials for constructive and creative projects fosters the numeracy indicators: creating and making meaning, communicating and reflecting critically
We have had some very engaged busy children this week as we continue to focus on creating learning environments and provocations using both open and closed materials. We always aim to set up open ended materials and loose parts to allow for the children’s imagination to run wild however we noticed that for some children at certain times of the day this can be overwhelming and lead to a lack of engagement with the experience. So, during rest time each day we are putting out materials for building and constructing that are more closed (but still allow for creativity!) to create a more relaxing and mindful experience that is inclusive for all children.
Specks of gold…
Trajectories:
- Leaders will be having another training session with Lisa Burman on Friday to discuss next steps with bookmaking and to demonstrate some strategies with the children
- Leaning in to our inquiry project to see where the children take it next week with noticings and wonderings about the changes in weather