Welcome back to all our families for Term 3! It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through the year, and we look forward to all the new learning experiences we will explore in the coming 6 months.
The initial few weeks of our program will involve supporting the children to settle back into the program with a focus being on extending social interactions with peers and continuing to explore cooperative play. We will also begin to introduce ‘activity captains’ to the children so that there is an assigned ‘captain’ to particular tasks each day and their role is to support their peers who may require any assistance. Each of the children will have the opportunity to take on this leadership role and it is designed to also support and extend their social interactions with peers.
Towards the end of last term we asked the children what they would like to learn at kindergarten as well as any wonderings they may have. This allows the children’s voices to be represented in our program and for areas of personal interest to be explored. As teachers we are also thoughtful as to the language we use and position ‘learning’ at the forefront of the conversation, so the children are more aware that we are at kinder to learn, explore, wonder and play. The children provided us with wonderful ideas and suggestions such as:
- ‘How do you make paper?’
- ‘How dinosaurs got distinct?’
- ‘How fruit grows?’
- ‘How to make puddles?’
- ‘How lava is made?’
We look forward to engaging in experiences with the children that will allow them to explore their questions and discover some answers through this exploration. We will also source the children’s ideas about the best way we can find some answers to our wonderings.
The children have been participating in regular ELLA (Early Learning Languages Australia) Japanese lessons on our tablets. We are beginning to observe the children interacting with the games and practising simple words that they hear as they play. We would love family feedback on this experience so please let us know if your child is sharing this new language with you at home.
A large number of the Possum children demonstrate a particular interest in drawing, emergent writing as well as creation and collage. To support this interest in Term 3 we are going to introduce the children to some long term projects that will continue throughout the term. The children will explore storybooks and fairy tales through familiar stories and explore acting out, role play and puppet play in order to recall and retell the stories. We will also work with the children to create their own individual hand puppet. Through a series of steps (drawing a template, tracing and cutting out this template, sewing with the sewing machine, decorating) the children will be able to see their work evolve over time as they create a puppet they can use in their play. We will also explore creating our own individual books with the children assuming the role of author and illustrator. The children will explore concepts of print, literacy skills as well as creative expression as we work on the task.
During Term 3 the Possum children will begin weekly ‘Playball’ sessions which will extend their active play, large motor and coordination skills. The children will each participate in a half group 30 minute session with a Playball coach and we look forward to participating in this weekly incursion.
The children will also participate in Library every TUESDAY. In order to support the children’s participation in this experience we have created them each an individualised library bag which they can use each week, and it is theirs to keep once library concludes at the end of the year. We look forward to extending the children’s love for stories, language and early literacy skills through this experience.
In Term 3 we will also introduce the children to our take home bears (yet to be named as we will have the children participate in a democratic vote in the first week of term to decide their names). Each child will have the opportunity to take one of our bears home for a week and then share with the whole class what they did together during this time. This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to practice talking in front of a group of peers as well as developing turn taking, sharing and listening skills.
Currently the staff are also busily preparing for Parent Teacher Conversations. These will be held in the first few weeks of Term 3 and are a wonderful opportunity to discuss the progress and learning of your child at kinder this year. It also allows for the family and teachers to create shared goals for your child going forwards in the second half of the year, so please make a time with your teacher to have this valuable discussion.
Thank-you,
Gina
