We have a new helper for a few weeks, Mie. She is sharing some of her Japanese culture with us. This week we made sushi. The seaweed paper, as the children called it, was a new ingredient for our cooking, and a rather different vegetable! Most of the children didn’t know sushi- except for Blythe, who loves sushi! She recommends avocado but we didn’t have that. Some of the taste testers were not t at all keen on it, whilst others were very happy to eat the spares and everybody else’s too!
Category Archives: Health & Wellbeing
Sushi
At last, our carrots
We have been looking after our carrots for months, it was exciting to finally be able to pull them up and enjoy them! We ate carrot sticks and dip (also celery sticks but they were not as popular.)
Every child had at least a taste, and some didn’t even open their own snack box, they were enjoying the kinder produce so much.
We made good use of the carrot tops, feeding them to the worms, and the chooks, and using some of them to do an experiment. We hope it will work.
Adventure play – differentiated risk
Risky play is in the news a lot at present in early childhood, and other, circles. There is increased recognition of the need for a healthy dose of managed risk in early childhood. Our approach is that we try to consider the possible risks, and the benefits in a balanced way. We also involve the children – to help them learn to assess risk for themselves. Children will usually choose the level of risk they feel comfortable with – challenging enough to not be boring, not so dangerous that it is scary.
With big rocks, logs, uneven surfaces (due to much mining and excavation by many groups), trees, climbing equipment and other real work tools such as sharp shovels, hammers, screwdrivers and so on, life at kinder can be challenging but also engaging (and educational!), and the children differentiate the curriculum for themselves by their own “gut feeling” assessment of whether they want to have a go at something. It’s crucial to observe closely, listen and respect their ideas and feelings. We also need to make sure parents are informed and consulted and can see the point of this sort of play -that is their right.
The ambulance visit
With an ongoing interest in emergencies and the ambulance, a visit from the ambulance seemed like a good idea.
Natasha and Sam were the ambulance officers.
They showed us lots of equipment and showed us how some of it works – heart monitor, stethoscope, blood pressure, blood oxygen monitor. We all had a chance to have a tour of the ambulance truck.
Thanks very much to Sam and Natasha for a really interesting visit – we learnt a lot.
Then we got the hospital box out and practised our first aid. Inevitably there was also at least one animal that needed medical attention.
Article 16
” You have the right to privacy” : Article 16 from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Our quiet space is used most days, sometimes by children retreating from the world for a little while, or by children who need that space for their private game. A curtain, even one that is transparent, makes us feel private, and we all sometimes need to be somewhere safe.
Thingletoodle’s visit
Road safety is an all year round concern to highlight and reinforce, but a visit from Thingletoodle is still an exciting way to emphasise the message of Hold Hands – Stop – Look – Listen – Think. These are messages that we have repeated and practiced every time we go out side the kinder, and the play, songs, games, puppets and books have all helped to present the message in a variety of ways. Thanks Thingletoodle!
damper
We made some damper at kinder to cook on our camp fire. When we had to cancel the bush excursion because of the extreme weather, we shaped our pieces and cooked it in the oven. Minus the ash, smoke, dirt and charcoal, still tasted good!
The children really enjoyed using the damper to shape something special – Claire made a frog, and it stayed together well, so we could still tell what it was.
Pumpkin Soup
When Louise was given a HUGE pumpkin recently, she just had to bring it along to kinder – to make pumpkin soup. Several children have said they eat it at home, and that they like it.
One of the children wondered why it wasn’t orange – was it really a pumpkin?
That’s better.
The soup simmered, it was ready at lunchtime – and then only Meilyn liked it! She came back for seconds, and then thirds… I’m not sure why the others weren’t so keen – but the main thing was that most of them had a taste. (and all the adults enjoyed it!)
A visit from Nana Moyne
A new group of kinder children has learnt how to make sausage rolls with Nana Moyne, and have heard her poem from when she was a little girl – the Fairy poem.
As part of our celebration of the older generation, especially our own grandparents if we are lucky enough to still have them with us and if they live close by, we make sausage rolls to offer our special visitors on the last morning of term.
Learning how to make them from another grandma is extra special – especially as she is one of the best cooks in the district!
Thanks once again, Moyne!
chick pea learning
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.