checking our heart beat

We always appreciate the input that parents and other members of the community can give us with our program and the learning that we are all doing. It makes things real, to hear that the pretend is based on real life – it deepens  understanding and helps the children make links with their own experiences. And it underlines the fact that the children are a part of a larger community than just their family or kinder – this isn’t necessarily something that all the children have a sense of. And it’s wonderful for the kinder child in question, to see their parent contributing to everyone’s learning. It makes them feel very special.

Lillian just happened recently to have both mum and dad help us out with learning about our bodies and how to keep them safe.

Lillian’s mum, Rosey, came into kinder to help us listen to our hearts through the stethoscope. We used one of the kinder stethoscopes and it worked really well. We could all hear our hearts beating and the whoosh of the air as we breathed in and out. (Later on I saw the “doctors” in the emergency department practising what Rosey had modelled, and tap the stethoscope before they used it on their patient.)

Then Lillian’s dad popped by on our farm safety dress up day, and showed us the First Aid kit that he keeps in his ute.We all had a great time dressing up in different ways to be safe.

Seb came back to kinder with a bag of things from the hospital, and as we’ve been learning about farm safety we  set up an emergency department to treat the kinder patients. We had such a busy time treating patients with sore legs, sore tummies, breathing problems and more. Sarah was resting in bed while waiting to be transferred to Adelaide – because “they’ve got more machines over there” according to Seb.

This play has involved literacy – writing signs, taking details of appointments, role play, general knowledge, and some body science  as we have talked about the equipment that a doctor or nurse uses to check us out. I hope we can have a visit from a real nurse soon to help us learn even more!