Johnson House
Preschool
Story by Educator Alisa
The children in Johnson House preschool have recently collaborated to make a flag for the centre. This idea stemmed from the children’s conversation at afternoon tea when they noticed The Infants’ Home and Aboriginal flags raised on our flagpole. They wondered why Johnson House preschool does not have their own flag. Before creating the flag, the children discussed what a flag is for and what it has on it. They shared “It’s something that represents something, for instance, an organisation such as The Infants’ Home or a country such as Australia”. They also added “It has colours and shapes that have special meanings“.
For the actual creation of the flag, the children’s drawings represented what resources they have played with, objects they can find or the learning experiences that they have engaged in at Johnson House preschool. They drew the night sky, some children playing, a cubby house, a blue couch, a kite, the beautiful flowers in the front yard, the rock playground and a swirly slide. The children saw that the objects they had drawn are all connected to each other. The children were very proud of the flag that they made, and they showed it our Centre Director Amy and to other educators. They expressed their interest in having the flag printed on cloth so we can also fly it on the flagpole on our lawn.
The children’s ideas and interests are highly regarded by our Educators, and they form an important basis for our curriculum decision-making. This experience allowed the children to present their voices and ideas, and to design a flag that incorporates symbols that represent their group identity and sense of belonging to the Johnson House preschool community.
Community Playgroups
Story by Playgroup Coordinator Rebecca
The Playgroup team welcomes all of our families back to Playgroups for 2023. It was lovely to see everyone again this week and to catch up on our adventures over the break.
At playgroup this week we encouraged the children to paint on the easel. Painting can be done
with paintbrushes, fingers or anything else your child may like to use to create an artwork. We often shy away from activities such as painting because we see them as messy, difficult to control and hard to clean up, but painting has many benefits for our children. It allows children to explore colour, express emotion, convey their ideas, use their senses and develop their hand-eye coordination, while helping them to build their concentration and patience
Most importantly, painting is FUN!!
Throughout this year there will be numerous opportunities for painting and other messy activities at our playgroups, and we can’t wait to share these with you and your children.
We are looking forward to a wonderful 2023!
