Johnson House
Toddlers
Story by Educator Asima
The beautiful moments of sunshine earlier this week allowed us in Johnson House toddlers to set up our playground and plan experiences in the outdoor environment. Most of our children are keenly interested in going for walks and exploring nature by observing and talking about it. Recently, we have noticed that the big tree next to our reception area is very popular amongst our toddlers. To extend on the current interest, easel painting was set up to offer opportunities for the children to observe the trees, plants and flowers and to paint the landscape. We talked about the colours of the leaves and the tree trunk and flowers around the fence.
It was very interesting to see everyone enjoying this flexible art form, creating their landscapes on paper and translating their current interest in natural objects through their creativity into artworks.
Robinson House
Story by Educator Angelica
Last week in Robinson House we continued our deep dive into space! We have been mindful of looking at Aboriginal perspectives on astronomy, as their interpretations and knowledge of the stars would have been one of the first instances of this, and it is especially important to remember this during NAIDOC Week as we celebrate the incredible traditions, cultures and knowledge of this land.
We looked at stories and myths around constellations, bringing out pictures of constellations to create our own images after exploring the existing ones. Lara immediately recognised the dark emu, pointing it out to her friends, recalling our discussion about this last time!
We also looked at the story of the Sun Woman, who lights the fire in the sky in the morning, and spreads red ochre to make the red colour of the sunrise as she makes her way across the sky, which Gemma and Belinda were fascinated by. We took some time to look at a story about a canoe with three boys, fishing for king-fish, and drawing this picture by connecting the stars in Orion’s Belt.
After this, the children took turns using a marker to draw their own constellations, with Ava and Amanda drawing the Earth, Ava choosing to also draw the canoe in our story, Ruby creating a rocket ship, and Belinda making a monster in the stars, using their imagination to create their own stories!
