Johnson House
Story by Centre Director Amy
The children in Johnson House have recently been enjoying music experiences in the program, and they have been helping to create a playlist of the songs that they have been learning and enjoying. These include the Native Animal Song, Wombat Wobble, Inanay (Yorta Yorta language), Alouette (French) and Mi Cuerpo (Spanish). The children also chose two contemporary songs from movies they are familiar with to include in their playlist.
Through these different songs the children are exploring music tempo (fast/slow), pitch (high/low) and volume (soft/loud). The children were provided with scarves to accompany their dancing to the music, and through the Native Animal Song they are learning different animal movements. As they dance and move to the music, the children are using their body parts to practice their balance and coordination and to perform different dance steps to interpret music. The children are showing enjoyment in listening to the different rhythms and languages used in the multicultural and contemporary songs. Listening to multicultural songs is a great way to experience and explore a variety of cultures and to celebrate diversity. The sound, rhythm and intonation of different languages helps children to learn to discriminate between sounds, which also supports their language acquisition. And just like everyone else, children love to dance, sing and have fun with music!
Murray House
Story by Educator Jung
The children in Murray House love going on excursions outside of their centre into different spaces at The Infants’ Home to play and explore. They enjoy having group time, visiting the community library to read, and playing the piano to make music in these spaces. This week the children loved visiting the ‘big tree’ outside Murray House, and this provided many learning opportunities for the children. This activity enabled the children to climb safely on the tree, practice their gross motor skills and engage in safe ‘risky’ play. The children also enjoyed talking about what they noticed as they played. One child said, “Look! There’s a dark hole,” and another child joined in, “I see it!“, while another said “I want to see it!” All of the children then became intrigued by what they had discovered while playing.
It was lovely to watch the children bond and develop a relationship with the natural environment while having fun at the big tree.
Rigby House
Story by Centre Director Isa
To celebrate Harmony Day in Rigby House this week, the Educators provided the children with a sensory hand printing experience through which they could explore the differences and similarities between all their friends at Rigby House. The children and Educators had fun feeling the paint and then making hand prints on paper. Later we explored the similarities and differences between our hand prints. We discovered that there were differences in the sizes and the shades of our hand prints. The children counted the finger and thumb prints in each hand print and realised that our hands are the same in some ways, despite the differences they had noticed. We talked about all the lovely things our hands can do, including being able to make others feel happy, as we can use our hands to help others, to wave and to give hugs.
Family Day Care Sydney Wide
Story by Educator Support Officer Maureen
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting our registered Family Day Care Educator Nicola’s service, where she truly managed to capture and share the essence of Harmony Day with her thoughtful and well planned learning environments. Nicola embedded the feeling of inclusiveness and belonging for all her families and their children through thoughtfully setting up quality resources to invite discussion and learning. The children experienced real joy as they used these resources to accesses their own learning. Everywhere you looked there were positive, inclusive messages, creating a lovely welcoming feel in the service.
