chick pea learning

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Louise under Emergent Curriculum, Enquiry & Discovery, Kids cooking, learning about our community, Uncategorized

One of the sorts of seeds Gareth brought in was chickpeas, grown by his mum and dad on their farm. So we planted them….

and used them for pouring and filling and exploring in the trough … (we found out that they bounce).

and we made hummus with them. Nobody in this group had heard of hummus, although they knew about dip.

We looked at, smelt and discussed each ingredient. Tanner looked at the salt, thought it was sugar, and said “we can’t have that here”!!

We surveyed the responses – out of 17 children present, 9 liked it, 6 didn’t like it and 2 wouldn’t try it – but to balance that there were 4 children who LOVED it – we started off dipping carrot sticks and apple wedges, and when we ran out of those, they used pear wedges and banana pieces. Hummus is simple – a can of chickpeas, a little tahini (Sesame seed paste), a dash olive oil, a clove of garlic, half a lemon juiced, pinch salt and maybe a little water, all whizzed together in the food processor. I kept it very mild, but it was still tasty.

Thanks to the farmers who grew all but one of these ingredients.

the chook report

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Louise under Uncategorized

An update on the chooks – they now have names – we voted (“What’s vote?” asked Adam, so we tried to explain – democracy at work) and the final names are Twinkletoes, Dora and Tom. As we don’t know whether they are hens or roosters, it was a bit of a risk….

The chooks are now learning to come out of the pen and hop into their little cage so they can go onto the grass – they love the green feed but they also love soft fruit. We have some dedicated chook handlers…..

Meilyn asked: “Why do chooks have feathers?”

Together we can be healthy!

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Louise under Early Learning, Kids cooking, Learning through play, music & movement

Last week we received a reply from Captain Carrot to our invitation that he could come to visit us – he was very busy but suggested sending his cousin Casey Carrot instead – and he came on Thursday.

In readiness we thought some more about what’s healthy to eat – and made badges about fruit and vegetables. We have been practicing our Super Me and the Emu song, both about eating fruit and vegies, and made some Captain Carrot puppets to use. And Thursday morning we made apple triangles, finely chopped apple in a triangle of pastry – no sugar!

Casey helped us to recall the important ways we can be healthy – eating healthy food, drinking water and getting lots of exercise.

And he gave us some power wrist bands – so that “Together we can be healthy!”

Thanks Casey!

Reconciliation Week at the kinder

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Louise under Creativity & Imagination, Early Learning, Enquiry & Discovery, Language & Literacy

To mark National Reconciliation Week we had a special visit from Auntie Veronica, a Latje Latje elder, who showed us her possum skin cloak. All the pictures on the back are of her country and the animals, birds and fish that are special to her. Then the children all had a chance to paint a picture of what is special to them about their place – the paintings have been done on wood panels so that they can be put up in the main street outside the Bakery to contribute to the arts project of the Mallee up in Lights. We all had a chance to snuggle up inside the cloak and feel how warm it is. Thanks to Auntie Veronica, Jill Antonie and Christina Brims who also came to kinder and helped us and read us stories. We learnt to say hello in Latje Latje: Delagi-Nowingi

The more we learn about our first people, the more interesting it becomes.

Thanks Auntie Veronica!

Ahoy me hearties

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Louise under Creativity & Imagination, Early Learning, Emergent Curriculum, Maths

Louise reminded Brooklyn about the treasure and the map that she had made last week –
and today Brooklyn made a treasure map for a treasure hunt.
All the children followed her map – and found her treasure buried under
the slide. This gave a couple of other children the idea to draw maps too.

Tyrone, Lucy and Gareth were keen to play pirates, using the boat painted last week and the flags they made today.

The pirate hats and spy glasses helped with the game. Gareth made a map to find some buried treasure.

Tyrone wants to make a sword tomorrow….

Cropping

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Louise under Early Learning, learning about our community, The Natural Environment

Our kinder community is firmly set in the Victorian Mallee, a world where the weather and the seasons, nature and farming activities are vital to everyone’s lives (even if the family gets its income from a shop or service industry). Our families are now all finished cropping, so can spare some time to help us do some cropping at kinder – thanks to Gareth’s mum and dad who brought in a range of seeds that they sow on their farm, for us to sow at kinder. We talked about what foods we get from the different seeds – farmers grow the food we eat! So thanks to all you farmers out there!

Tales from the Sandpit

Language, Literacy and Learning at Kindergarten

Monthly Archives: June 2014