We had a dads’ night at kinder. It was busy!
…with playdough….
….setting up the train set…
…..making things…
…and playing games…
But there was still time to visit the kinder hospital….
or to share a quiet time together.
Our thoughts are with all dads, those who can be with their children, and those who can’t. You are all special.
We were sitting at the lunch table, bragging about how clever our eyes are – especially because we can cross them. So we thought up a challenge – could we follow something that’s moving without moving our heads (the opposite of what owls do).
We found the tracking sticks – if you know about “brain gym” exercises you might know them.They are easy to make with craft sticks and little foam shapes.
It takes a lot of concentration to be the opposite of owls!
Then we got the ribbon sticks out.
This time it was an idea from a kindermusik educator, and one of our grandmas – bells +ribbons on the end of a piece of dowel (attached by a split ring onto a loopy screw thingy)….
…..to shake and wave and follow to the beat of some songs. They are magic – and get the quietest children involved….
The block children love kinder so much that they stay here all the time – even at night-time.
They have fun…
and sometimes adventures…
They tell us about friendships – who wants to play with who, who always likes their block next to someone else’s (or who doesn’t!)
Sometimes they help the kinder children to see things in a different light….
…and the block children tell the kinder children that everyone belongs at kinder….
We were given a long piece of black felt – it’s the river in the jungle.
It’s full of dangerous rocks….and crocodiles….
but the lions still come down to drink….
before they go back to their cubs, where they are all safe…
Around at the sandpit, Jonty and Benjamin were hard at work. They were making a mixture that will turn into dinosaur eggs tonight.
According to Ben “the water gives them energy, and the mud turns into eggs. They hatch out at night, cos they’re nocturnal” (this is one of Benjamin’s faavourite words)
Jonty checked on them – They’re burning!
Ben- Better check the temperature. Oh good, the temperature is normal again now.
Jonty – They melted a little bit.
Ben – That doesn’t matter, water makes them grow.
Jonty was making the food for them – They need dry food now.
Ben -We’ve got to cover them up so they keep warm.
….We’ll have to wait until next kinder day for the next exciting instalment….
We made quick sand today. It was a winner!
So simple – corn flour and water – mix until you get the consistency about right ( a bit hard, a bit runny.) Jade said that it’s right when it starts to feel hard when you push against it. We thought she was spot on with her observation.
We didn’t use a recipe this time, and that means that you have to use your own judgement – and exercise some self control over pouring the water (something that we always need lots of practice in!)
It’s a very strange substance – when you hit it it feels hard, but if you squeeze it, then it will run and even drip.
And it just brushes off your clothes when it dries!
Skippy has come back from Africa!
She and Viv had a fantastic time in Rwanda and Uganda.
Here she is with Viv on safari.
Viv has made a photo album for Skippy, full of snaps of people and animals. We think Skippy liked the gorillas best (that’s what Viv liked best too).
One of the things Viv brought to show us really captured Isaac’s interest…
So he decided to make his own mask. But how to get the holes in for the eyes?
One of the good things about the Making Table is that there is often someone there who can help.
Elliott showed him how.
Then he decorated it…
and then he could wear it.
(Skippy is off to Queensland now with Mrs Bell, to check out the dinosaurs at Winton…)
We are very interested in learning more about Aboriginal culture at kinder, so we really enjoyed a visit fom Jo and Tony today.
Tony played the didgeridoo and Jo played the clapping sticks.
Jo told us about the dreaming – it’s the story that Aboriginal people tell about what they do, what they hunt, where they live, and so on.
Jo showed us how they got the idea for some of the symbols we know – the person sitting down symbol comes from the marks in the dirt when someone has been sitting down.
This dreaming is about people sitting around the fire hole near a big rock and they found an emu egg – they put it in their dillybag.
We made a mural of our dreaming at Ouyen kinder.
The children each chose some symbols that they could make up a story about – sitting down by a waterhole with their dad, or going hunting with a boomerang for emu.
This dreaming was about sitting around a water hole with an emu egg and the dilly bag and a digging stick to find some bush potatoes – we followed the emu tracks to find the egg.
And we pretended to be emus pecking on the ground then stretching out our necks to look around.
We think that our Ouyen Dreaming is pretty special!
Every year we have children with a strong interest in writing and posting letters – so we get out the kinder mail box and set up a letter writing table . We collect and recycle stamps and envelopes….
We have the alphabet strips and posters to help them make the connections between oral and written language…
(Everyone belongs in the kinder alphabet)
though we don’t usually wear it….
and it’s fun to write them secretly and surprise our friend.
When someone does something special for us, we have another reason to write a letter.
We love it when we can hand deliver our mail, and see our friend’s smile……
The girls were on a mission outside today – all two of them! ( the others were all away)
They got the big blocks out and quickly built a boat together.
They started to use the wooden bats as oars but then it became a speed boat, and the bats were the water skis.
Elliott hasn’t gone water skiing before but she knows how it might feel – it’s tricky to keep your balance.
Jade’s done a little bit – she says it’s hard!
Then the girls saw something coming up ahead on their “screens” – they needed to draw what they could see so off they went to the office table outside – and they found out that there were huge waves coming towards them – a storm.
They set up their screens and quickly worked out where to steer the boat to avoid that storm.
Phew…another disaster averted.
