This Week at The Infants’ Home 15 February to 19 February

Story by Educator Alisa

The children in Johnson House have been exploring a range of Indigenous symbols, and drawing these in trays of coloured sand. Extra provisions such as books have been shared with the children to help extend on their interest. We have been learning how to draw and write the symbols for ‘dingo’, ‘lizard’, ‘koala’, ‘emu’, ‘bird’, ‘witchetty grub’, ‘kangaroo’, and ‘snake’.

The children copied the symbols they were familiar with, which were the contemporary symbols for bird and snake. The witchetty grub symbol resembled a caterpillar, which was easy for the children to re-create, making small circles that lined up one after the other. The children continued to test and explore how the other symbols could be written in the coloured sand. They made a variety of lines, circles and dots to draw the symbols.

Through this experience the children continued to demonstrate curiosity and openness to learning non-verbal ways of making meaning. The children also began to to familiarise themselves with the names of the animals and what the animals look like, and to associate the Indigenous symbols with the anuimals so that they could use these to tell stories.

Story by Educator Jung

This week in Murray House toddlers, Educator Mandy designed a new game for the children. She named it ‘The Five Little Speckled Frogs’ game. This game is intended to support fundamental development by promoting children’s social, language and physical skills.

Educators guide the children to sit along the balancing beam outside in the playground. The children sing Five Little Speckled Frogs while pretending to be the frogs in the song, and when their name is called by the educator, they jump into the imaginary water.

This game has become part of the routine in the toddler’s program. Educators are amazed to see the positive outcomes for children as they learn to listen and follow simple instructions. The children are also learning to share and respect others as they participate in the game.

Story by Centre Director Faye-Maree

The children in Robinson House back room have been working with Aunty Karen in the garden. They have been digging a new garden bed to plant more vegetables and salad plants, and were even lucky enough to harvest some fresh spinach, tomatoes, mint and parsley this week. Gardening teaches the children to be responsible, as they have to care for the plants every day. It also allows the children to build on their self-confidence as they experience a sense of accomplishment when they harvest the plants they have grown themselves.

Story by Educator Amna

‘Always was, Always will be’

Here at North Willoughby Family Day Care, we are constantly striving to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into our program. How do we achieve this? We acknowledge the Cammeraygal people as the traditional custodians of this land on which we work and play every single day with the children. We engage with Aboriginal prints, music, dolls and other related loose parts on a regular basis, with the children having access to these every day. Our routine group times include the Torres Strait Islander children’s song Taba Naba. We look forward to the children growing up and having these perspectives embedded in their learning and understanding.