Firstly I would like to begin by congratulating the Committee of Management and staff on an extremely successful Open Day, despite the gloomy and wet weather! It was a fantastic day with lots of new families enjoying our amazing kinder grounds and exploring all the different activities on offer. It was lovely to meet new families who look forward to joining our community in the coming year.  Thank-you to all the members of the committee who volunteered their time to set up, pack up, man the BBQ and enrolment desks. All your hard work was greatly appreciated and highlights what a dedicated and committed committee we have representing Elonera.

Thank-you to our Possum Mum’s and Grandma’s for their participation in our Mother’s Day lunch. It was a wonderful experience for the children to be able to share their first fire pit with you. The children enjoyed cooking and baking for the event and we all enjoyed this special time together.  During our preparations for Mother’s Day the children explored drawing pictures of their Mum’s in black and white and then extending a photocopy of this drawing into both a water colour and a collage artwork. It allowed the children to revisit their initial artwork and add further details as they reflected upon the drawing. We have begun to explore the concept of colour and colour mixing with the children. We have enjoyed reading art themed books such as ‘Mix it up’ and ‘Colours’ and have been exploring how to make new colours by mixing the primary colours. This will be a topic that we continue to work on with the children, particularly encouraging and supporting them to be purposeful in the process they use in order to explore and create.

Through our observations of the children engaged in their play we have noted that a number of children are requiring adult support in their fine motor development, particularly when manipulating scissors and writing materials. In order to support these developmental skills we will continue to incorporate experiences that strengthen the children’s small hand muscle strength (including clay, play dough, small construction pieces, threading, pipette painting). We will also incorporate a variety of cutting experiences that will support in children in learning how to hold and manipulate a pair of scissors correctly. In the coming weeks we will introduce our ‘sign in’ sheet for the children so they can practice independently identifying and writing their name when they arrive at kindergarten each morning.

We will also continue to explore a variety of numeracy based experiences that support and extend the children’s exploration of colour recognition, sorting and sequencing, counting and numeral recognition. During the children’s music and movement exploration we have also introduced a variety of action based songs that support their ability to count forwards and backwards.

We have been enjoying a variety of whole group games and experiences as the children explore cooperation, turn taking and performing in front of one another. The children have loved using the stretchy lycra panel to manipulate their bodies to music and it is a wonderful way for the children to work cooperatively in order to move the material together. The children have also taken turns in small groups to perform the song ‘5 cheeky monkeys’ with puppets, and all the children have actively engaged and participated in front of their peers.

The children are enjoying working on the floorbook together and it documents the experiences we have been exploring and the thoughts and ideas of the children about their learning. We hope you enjoy reading this book as much as the children enjoy creating it. The children’s individual portfolios are also located in the foyer area and you are welcome and encouraged to share these with your child at anytime.

Thank-you,

Gina & Lynne.