When we get to days in the calendar like Mothers’ Day, a certain balance is needed to not get carried away with all the “cute” Mothers’ Day craft promoted in the catalogues, on Pinterest and possibly at schools and other local early childhood centres. Children do not need to be trained to regard some “thing” – made without choice and in an assembly line of busyness – as a fitting tribute to their beloved mum. What children think is beautiful will often not match adult ideas – but to promote adult ideas over their’s is to convey a message that the children’s ideas are less adequate and less worthy. In this situation it is very much the thought that counts. We encourage children to do a drawing of their mum and them which they tell us about so we can write it down. We laminate this precious moment in time so that it can become a place mat or a hanging on the wall. There is an opportunity to make a card – just a fold over of sturdy paper, possibly cut into a shape if they wish, and decorated with love. We take every chance we can to promote literacy so we have the words Happy Mothers’ Day printed out. Some children may wish to have a go at writing some other words like Mum, others not. And usually there is some glitter somewhere! We have been doing this for a number of years and the parents do not get sick of it! One child told me today that her sister had given her mum a foot massager and she had given her the drawing and card made at kinder – both were equally valued by both children and mum. what a beautiful insight into that family’s loving relationships.
Category Archives: Rituals & celebrations
it takes a village to raise a child
Each year we have a special morning tea to say thankyou to people in the community who have helped us out in any way. This year it was very quiet, as many had other engagements or were away – but the ones who came were treated to a musical feast of favourite songs by the children, and a culinary treat of delicious morning tea (thanks to the kinder parents) They also got to chat with the children who enjoyed connecting with them. A big thankyou to everyone who helps us in any way – if it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a special community to go out of its way to help a whole preschool.
grandparents and special friends day
At the end of term we had a morning for grandparents and special friends – with the aim of connecting our kinder experiences and the kinder community with the older generation – some are here quite often, picking up their grandchildren, others not so much and some live away. some children aren’t lucky enough to have grandparents living, so our special friends might be Mrs John next door or another child’s grandma. When we strengthen the connections between children and older people, everyone benefits.
Two children were lucky enough to have great grandmas who were able to come – that’s really special!
Mums’ Night
Last week we were busy working on presents for our mums – we gave them at the Mums’ Night.
We used thrifted and donated costume jewellery beads – with plenty of bling! We used the “Skinny Spaghetti” string to thread with – it was good with most of the beads, even some with fairly small holes – and the children could manage everything except tying off the ends by themselves.
The night wasn’t about the presents – just spending time with their mums and coming out to a social function as individuals was an exciting and satisfying experience – but we know that the mums treasure their little gifts…
Thanks to all the mums who were able to come… it’s a special part of our kinder calendar.
Anzac Day
On Monday, Boden’s Grandma, Mrs Hastings, came to tell us about Anzac Day.
She showed us where Vietnam is on the map of the world and she brought Boden’s Poppa’s uniform and medals and some photos of Vietnam. Afterwards, everyone who wanted to was able to try on the uniform.
On Tuesday we made anzac biscuits because they are the special biscuits that the people at home made and sent over to the soldiers for a treat. We all helped to make them.
They were a hit!
We know some of the children will be going to Anzac Day ceremonies – maybe they will be able to tell us what happens on Anzac Day?
On our walk to the Mobile Library next week, we will go to the Vietnam Memorial to see Boden’s Poppa’s name, and to remember all the people who left Ouyen to go to the war.
Our kinder morning tea
Today was the Australian Biggest Morning Tea day to raise funds for the Cancer Council and the Ouyen Kinder had one too.
We have been noticing and using shapes a lot lately so apple triangles were on the menu today.
Cutting up the apple to show how one whole apple could become 4 quarters was the first step. (Using the correct language is important for early maths confidence and understanding) Then it was on to cutting up the apple slices into tiny bits (no special maths words there!)
After cutting the apple it was time to do some maths magic on the pastry sheets.
From a square to a triangle ….
Then into the oven – and they changed from flat white and raw to puffed, brown and cooked (we could smell them cooking! – yum)
Then we had them with some milo at our morning tea – using real teapots and teacups (even teacosies, which the children thought might be teapot beanies or jumpers!)
Everyone tried a taste of the apple triangles – which is all we ever ask of them.
And as Maya proudly said, “We did it all ourselves”.
Harmony Day – Italiano style
Mia is enjoying her spaghetti – but what does pasta have to do with diversity?
Harmony Day is about celebrating diversity – the differences and the similarities that make our community and our country so special.
I really want to help the children to respect and appreciate the hidden diversity in our own kinder community, the cultural backgrounds of the people around us that we don’t really know about or just take for granted – and food and language are a wonderful place to start.
(Cooking is also a great science, sensory, fine motor and language activity)
Pasqualina – I hope I got the spelling right! – otherwise known as Pat, one of our mums, has been in to teach us some Italian – Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, so for Harmony Day we asked her to visit and help us make pasta the way she and her mum and other Italian cooks make it – because it didn’t start off being made in a factory!
The recipe is sooooo simple!
3 cups of plain flour.
1 egg
enough water to make a dough.
Then extra flour to stop it from getting too sticky, or extra water to stop it from being too dry.
Then work it with our hands until it’s our turn to use the machine. We explained that if we dropped it on the floor we wouldn’t be able to use that dough – and everyone managed to hang onto their piece.
Turning a handle to make something work is very satisfying.
Did you know that pasta has to dry before it can be cooked?
Liam sat and watched it dry for quite a while!
Then it was into the pot to be cooked and served with a cheese sauce –
Yum!
We sang our surprise song for Pat – Ciao buon giorno, and she read us a book about a magic pasta pot – Strega Nonna by Tomie de Paolo.
The children loved discovering the secret background to the pasta they see in a packet – and they love using Italian words – maybe they will go into the post office and say Ciao or Grazie to Esther and Tony – I hope so!
The last day of the (kinder) year
I wanted to (belatedly) record the happy day we had at the end of our kinder year.
Yes, Santa did come…
and there were presents (traditionally, the committee gives a book to each child)
but the children stayed remarkably calm and no-one opened the presents that the teachers gave them (we had asked that they save them till they got home or even until Christmas!). Thinking about this in contrast to other years, we didn’t have a different or more “mature” group, really, but we adults were more explicit and encouraging about some guidelines for the children – like each child waiting to open Santaa’s present until everyone had received their gift: this helped the children to share the enjoyment and to stay calmer. (Two children even kept Santa’s gift unopened!)
And yes, we did have our concert in the evening – a concert being about 10 minutes of singing some favourite songs – but with an audience watching which made it most children’s first experience of “performance”.
By this time of the year we usually have most children okay with participating, but if they aren’t keen, there’s no pressure – we want them to enjoy sharing their songs.
All the children were happy to join in this year.
And of course we had the usual toddler joining in as well!
Then came the time to give the children their certificates and their journals and the calendars they had made for their families. 
And the toddler came over for a special hug as well.
And then we all shared a family tea.
It was a nice fairly low-key but still special day. as you can see, we don’t make a big thing of either Christmas (sometimes we may have CALD families who don’t celebrate Christmas) or their “graduation” which is not appropriate to a group where most years we have a child or two return for a second year.
But also the children are still too busy doing kinder stuff till the last minute – when we talked about what they would like to do on their last morning, Ruby asked for the hook-ups – and so we did our usual BrainGym exercises.
It’s interesting that learning how to do some coordinated sequences of movements in BrainGym marked the start of our sessions at the beginning of this year, and choosing to do the same activities, now so easily mastered, helped to finish it.
We look forward to seeing them all come back as “big” school kids in another few months!
If you do have a holiday at this time of the year, we hope you have a safe and relaxing break. See you in February!
Louise
Vanilla Slice Day
We are a bit sad that this will be our last Vanilla Slice Day – it’s been a great family and community day, and anything celebrating a piece of true Aussie cuisine has to be a winner. Anyway we have had a good time preparing for the day.
We made window decorations last week -thanks to one of our mums, Julie, for all her hard work putting the decorations together.
including the wonderful castle that we painted…
with the teddies having a vanilla slice picnic….
which we thought looked lovely.
Then we made some vanilla slices this week. We made the easy recipe – custard filling between 2 layers of Sao biscuits and icing on the top.
It was VERY easy…
and delicious!
And we saved 6 to put into the Vanilla Slice competition – so the children can all show their families the ones that we made!
Happy Vanilla Slice Day everyone!
hats off for the Farmers’ Festival
What, you haven’t heard of the Farmers’ Festival? it’s on the first Tuesday in November – it happens to coincide with a race in Melbourne called the Melbourne Cup, which might have more people at it, but our fashions on the field are just as good – especially the kinder hats!
Ricky our Japanese visitor was admiring all our hats.
which we had made in a flurry of creativity for our mums….
Thomas made this one for himself!
Happy Farmers’ Festival everyone!