Gorton House
Toddlers
Story by Educator Russell
The children in Gorton House toddlers have been really enjoying the introduced trips around The Infants’ Home site and the adventures that we’ve been incorporating into our program.
We have been finding that these walks seem to be positively impacting both individual children’s and the groups’ sense of wellbeing. The children are starting to anticipate these walks/adventures and they get quite hyped at the prospect of going out. Word of mouth gets around as whispers amongst the group swirl and pretty soon we have most of the group wanting to go out. We manage this with a calm approach and reassurance that everyone will have a turn at heading out.
A recent trip saw us explore the front cubby house, the bushes behind Robinson House and the Goose Paddock. It was the Goose Paddock that provided the basis for what was to follow. Some of the children decided to use the little cubby up there as an ‘Ice Cream Shop’, with one of them proudly declaring “Ice cream makes me happy Russell!” When I asked the children what else makes you happy, one reply came back, “Sleeping”, while another was “My mummy makes me happy… she goes to yoga”. As it turned out, Julia, the Occupational Therapist who works with our children daily, was planning to conduct a small yoga group with the children. It was interesting to watch the children follow Julia’s lead as she talked and walked them through each basic yoga pose. The balance and control shown, and the way they moved, was quite impressive. The breathing and movements might not have been perfectly synched, but the intent was definitely there and the manner in which the children departed the group suggested that they had derived some degree of calmness from it.
During our original walk, we also fielded a lot of questions from the children about the vegetation and flora that abounds throughout our grounds: “What are those berries on that tree?”, “Why do the flowers fall to the ground?” were just a couple of these questions. They led us to wonder if we might look at questioning where some of our favourite foods are sourced from—do they grow on trees or in the ground? This is possibly something we can discuss in our morning group time. Stay tuned.
Johnson House
Preschool
Story by Centre Director Amy
Last Wednesday 24 May a group of children from Johnson House preschool participated in National Simultaneous Storytime. (NSS). This event is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 23rd successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children’s book that explores age-appropriate themes.
The children from Johnson House were excited to go to the big meeting room near reception and watch this year’s book, ‘The Speedy Sloth’ being read by the author Rebecca Young on live stream from Sydney Zoo. We were told there were 2,357,960 people registered to read this book at the same time! The children enjoyed the story and we finished by colouring a picture of a sloth, who is the book’s main character.
