My final report for the year will be the speech I presented at the Annual General Meeting.
On behalf of the teaching team at Elonera I would like to thank the outgoing Committee of Management for the tremendous amount of support, commitment and dedication they have provided to our kindergarten community this year. It has been a pleasure to work with you, to learn from you, and as a collective to lead our community to make Elonera the best that it can be.
I would like to say a huge thank-you to our teaching staff for all of their commitment, dedication and the endless hours they commit to Elonera each year. It is my utmost pleasure to lead this team – they are an amazing group of teachers who have built a commitment to support one another professional and personally, who are able challenge and support one other, are committed to provide quality programs and continually strive for excellence, while also being willing and open to test their own boundaries and become ‘life long learners.’
The concept of play based learning is the cornerstone of the philosophy of Elonera Preschool. Play based programs assist children to develop lifelong learning skills that will stay with them beyond the early learning environment. Engaging in play based learning enables children to use and develop thinking skills such as problem solving, reasoning and lateral thinking. It offers opportunities to interact with others, to develop communication strategies and work in collaboration with peers and adults. It can foster literacy, numeracy and the development of scientific concepts. As children are empowered to make decisions and initiate play, they become confident and motivated learners. This in turn fosters responsibility and self regulation.
For my presentation this evening we will be exploring play based learning in the context of music and movement experiences. Participating in Music and movement experiences benefits a child’s development in many ways. It allows children to participate in a group, develops social skills, encourages children to express emotions, refines listening skills, develops an awareness of movement and body positions, extends creativity and imagination, develops large motor skills, improves balance, coordination, and rhythm, develops small hand muscle strength, builds neural pathways, develops eye tracking skills, and develops bilateral and cross body coordination….to name just a few. And the most important feature is that the children are developing all these skills…..while having fun and being engaged in their play.
So in the spirit of music and movement in a play based learning program – we have some songs and movement experiences to do with you tonight. I will ask you to place all your chairs along the sides of the room and form 2 large circles. (Parents to play 3 different movements games with our Lycra panels – ‘Teddies bounce, Jelly on a Plate, Stretchy Lycra.’)
Thank-you so much for your engagement and participation tonight and we hope that this small exercise has provided you a new understanding of the benefits of a hands-on and child centred play
based learning program. In the words of Bev Bos who was an advocate for developmentally appropriate play-based learning, “If it hasn’t been in the hand and body, it can’t be in the brain.”
Thank-you!
