The extended summer at kindy has kept us seeking water play – building and testing boats, exploring what sinks and what floats, creating mud patches, splashy pools and long bamboo water courses that stretch for metres downhill, learning the natural consequences of tipping water on your friend when they didn’t want or expect it……the seasons offer up such diverse learning experiences that are at their richest in the kindy environment. The hardest brain-work of all for a kindy child is to co-operate and get along with a bunch of children their own age, for six hours. No wonder they are tired at the end of the day! But our children are doing amazingly, we are so proud of their enthusiasm, their openness and their growth over the first term. Each morning we gather and say our special welcome, ending in “today I will go with Yindyamarra in my heart”. To go softly and slowly with honour and respect. And we talk about things that we have seen that were Yindymarra: someone helped a friend to dig a big hole. Someone helping a friend put on their shoes. Someone rescuing an ant or giving a friend a hug when they’re sad. To witness very young people becoming active, effective and caring citizens is a privilege and our children are on their way.
Music and story time are really favourite times of the day in both kindy groups this year – when the group time bells ring the children can’t get inside fast enough to come and sit on the mat. Music and stories are intrinsically tied to children’s literacy and numeracy development and are a fun and engaging way to lay the foundations for future reading, writing and arithmetic. Rhythm, rhyme, repetition and call and response are the bones of games like Boa Constrictor, the Pirate Song, the Pony Game, The Bunny Game, My Lovely Lycra and a myriad of songs and poems that we enjoy immensely. We are learning songs in Wiradjuri by Aunty Sharron who will visit us next term. At the moment when we read stories to the children we are subtly but consistently teaching them that text represents speech, that we read from left to right, that books have an author and an illustrator and about the different parts of a book – the cover, title and pages. Our music and stories have had so much influence in the children’s play – there’s been days of wombat stews, bear hunts, recreations and references to bits of Mr McGee’s adventures and impromptu discussions about topics such as bees, boa constrictors, objects that can be used as musical instruments and what it means to be a good friend…. All ideas that have come out of songs and stories. Our children are like sponges and they use their play time fruitfully to explore all the new ideas that kindy life offers up.
We hope you are enjoying the weekly posts on Facebook showing you many of the fabulous projects and happenings we’ve been into so far. We loved our visit from Coach Dave and we’re looking forward to the Evergreen Children’s Theatre Rainforest Experience which is tomorrow for Yellow Kupi Group and next Tuesday for Blue Balimber Group.
We have some wonderful improvement projects in the mix such as partnering with the Kenmore Men’s Shed to build new chairs for the kindy to replace our much loved versions that have given over fifty years of service. We are in the process of applying for a grant from the office of Elizabeth Watson Brown for this. Kenmore Men’s Shed are already building us new possum and bird boxes at no charge to replace our old and dilapidated ones. We are going to replace the top beam on our swing frame and bring some new life to our faithful planks and balancing beams. We would dearly love to situate the SS Minnow outside in the garden permanently and there are some wonderfully handy Dads in our community who may be able to help us achieve this.
Thank you to all the wonderful people who have volunteered to be on the committee, some of whom are already involved in the above projects. We appreciate your time and generosity and look forward to working with each of you over the year.
