having a hoopy time

William manages a tricky task

William manages a tricky task

This was a fun way to practise some motor planning skills – the children all had to hold hands and we started some hoops travelling around the circle, they had to move them on without breaking their handhold with their neighbours…for some, the challenge was just to work out how to do it (it did take a little bit of thought for everyone…)

Jade works it out

Jade works it out

for others it was to see how fast they could do it!

 

water music

making our own shakers...

making our own shakers...

Last term we made some shakers, filling recycled bottles with colored water ( pouring the water and using the ever-popular eye droppers for another fine motor skills session) and decorating them with streamers etc. We have just got a new musical instrument – a thunder tube – it makes fantastic reverberating rolling thundery sounds…..so we had to use it today. We sang the old favourite, “I hear thunder” –

Aiden makes thunder

Aiden makes thunder

Everyone had had a turn at creating a thunder sound, but Aiden played it for us in the song while we sang along and shook our water shakers…

We have discovered that water shakers are excellent because they are not really loud, so we could hear the thunder sounds, and our singing really clearly with the shakers just in the background. (They can shake them as vigorously as they like…they help us to get a good strong sense of beat.)

water shaker music

water shaker music

seeing with new eyes

the worms have come inside

the worms have come inside

One of my favourite quotes is from Marcel Proust:

“the true voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new horizons but of seeing with new eyes”.

One of the things I love about this job is that the children are always looking with new eyes…and so I see things afresh as well.

The worms have come inside for us to study them more closely.

We used the new digital microscope to look at them  in detail. I wondered if they would notice the segments – the lack of eyes and ears? not yet, what they saw was the speed or slowness, the way they felt – the sheer mass of them all…..

Tuesday Week 2 Term 2 006Jonty thinks of groups in terms of families – so the tangled mass of worms in his hand is a family, he plays dinosaur families, and the animals are always in families. Jonty is very family-oriented!

 

 

We have had rather too much (say the adults, anyway) of nature lately, with swarms of locusts descending on us…we notice the smell of roasted grasshopper when we stop the car, the bleary yellow smears on our windscreens, the damage done to gardens and new fodder crops, and we think about what might be coming in the spring. For the children, it’s exciting – the “grasshoppers” jump – they fly – they don’t bite – they are in the air around us – you can catch one, if you are quick, and hold it in your hand. Several of the children made homes for their new pets out of recycled yoghurt pots, and took them home…..

Elliott has a new pet.

Elliott has a new pet.

Action stations – it’s the new trike path!

The trikes are out and are pretty poular.

The trikes are out and are pretty poular.

John Cattanach  made our new trike path over the break – and it’s been a big hit. The trikes are always a favourite piece of equipment – and the props like helmets, vests, sign posts and so on, offer the children a chance to extend the play beyond simply the enjoyment of the riding. This group has continued to enjoy the hobby horses as well, and they are weaving them into their play (a constructive way to be involved in the game when it’s not your “day” for the trikes.) The trike path winds around the outskirts of the kinder and goes past the digging patch – linking the workers there with the trike riders and the horse riders.

Tuesday Week 1 Term 2 011

Harmony Day at kinder

handprints poster for Harmony Day

handprints poster for Harmony Day

Harmony Day was the last day of term – we all tried to find something orange to wear – Rhiarnee had it in her hair…

Tobi’s mum came to tell us some stories from Nigeria – she wore her special Nigerian clothes also.

We had made jellied oranges to celebrate and we also made a poster to show that we all belong. It was long when everyone had added their hands – we counted the steps Mrs Bell took to find out how long it was – 22 steps.

Week 8 Term 1 017

The mums or friends came to have lunch with us and we also sang the song that we have been learning with Auslan signing – We are Australian.

We had a happy day to finish off our first term at kinder.

A busy end to first term

setting off for our visit to the bookmobile

setting off for our visit to the bookmobile

 

We had our first excursion, a trip to the bookmobile, on Thursday 18th March. We practised crossing the road safely, we tried a different way to get up into the truck, and we found out about some of what the mobile library has to offer.

We also had a storytelling session with Rosemary, one of the librarians – and we really got into the spirit of the book.

getting actively involved in the story!

getting actively involved in the story!

I’ll have to leave it till next time to tell about Harmony Week.

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