Johnson House
Waratah Room
Story by Educator Sarah
In Johnson House Waratah room we have had many conversations about looking after the Earth and our country. The children and educators have been reflecting on our acknowledgment of county and how this connects to looking after the land.
We spoke about how we need to respect other humans and creatures as well as the natural environment. We do this by showing care, love respect and empathy. We also reminded ourselves and others, that even animals and other living things have basic needs just like us. We used gestures and body actions to show our basic needs: 1) shelter; 2) water; 3) food; and 4) love/affection/care.
To extend the children’s learning we decided to create an artwork. We spoke about the shapes, colours and objects around us. We even used a recycled board for our artwork. We spoke about what shape the earth is and decided to trace a circle. To show how we take pride in and show respect for our land, we traced our peers’ hands. We decided to show how we as a community have a strong, powerful voice and can make a difference, and we drew images of other people and ourselves.
We also had discussions about how we can be sustainable and thought about how we recycle and reuse items. We considered how we can give back to the land/country as our Indigenous peoples have taught and shown usu. This was a great learning opportunity for the children and a proactive way for the children to think about how to care for our planet.
Murray House
Jacaranda Room
Story by Educator Yi
Over the past few weeks in Murray House Jacaranda room, we have aimed to develop and maintain our toddlers’ emotional health and improve their ability to express their feelings by introducing the book ‘The Colour Monster’, written by Anna Llenas.
The children have practiced expressing their feelings using the ‘Colour Monster’ visual cards while they participated in intentional teaching group activities. The children also had the opportunity to create their own monster by manipulating yellow (happiness) playdough and googly eyes to represent their emotions or their pretended feelings.
Now, most of the children can recognise the colours of each emotional feeling. For example, a child came to me and said, “I am the red monster [angry] today”, which was funny because she was smiling at me as she said this, and another child said today that he was the green monster (calm).
I am so glad to see the children transferring the knowledge gained from the book into their daily lives, and identifying the feelings from the book which are represented by colours.
I will keep using the Colour Monster resources to help the children with their emotional needs and development to support their learning in their shared environment.
Family Day Care Sydney Wide
Story by Educator Support Officer Alix
Gabi’s Kindy in Randwick and Rainbow Family Day Care in Maroubra both commemorated the importance of Anzac Day with their children last week. The beautiful red poppy has been used in creative pieces to help provide the symbolic imagery of remembrance, which will come to be more and more familiar to the children in the years to come as they acknowledge this significant day. Although the full weight and significance of this day is not something that is appropriate for children of this age to grasp just yet, being involved in age-appropriate Anzac Day experiences develops children’s evolving identities and their knowledge of our shared histories. Lest we forget.
