Johnson House
Story by Educator Sofia
The Educators in Johnson House have been focusing on a range of experiences which connect with children’s emotional regulation. One of the experiences offered has been ‘musical painting’. Painting to music is a great way for children to interpret and process sensory information, and it allows them to take ownership of the music as they create their own impressions of it. Through this process-art experience, children began to understand that the things we hear or experience can shape our feelings and actions.
Before starting the experience the art table was set up with colourful paint and lots of paper. The concept of musical painting was introduced to the children, and they were supported to listen to the music, and to paint whatever the music made them feel. With music playing in the background, the children were able to focus on painting along with the music’s rhythms, creating works of art that showed how the music made them feel. Some children explained that they started to paint a happy person during the first half of the music, but when the rhythm changed to be more dramatic and fast paced, some children said they were making a storm! The children made comments such as “The music is making me feel sad and a bit angry”, and then when the music changed to softer, more mellow tones, some children described this as making them feel “relaxed”. This experience provided the children with the opportunity to verbalise their thoughts and feelings in a safe, non-threatening space, and to use a medium which was hands-on and open-ended. We will continue to offer such opportunities as they help support children’s emotional regulation in a meaningful and creative way.
Robinson House
Story by Educator Susana
This week in Robinson House we revisited the statement of the ‘Heal County’ theme for this year’s NAIDOC Week.
To learn more about Aboriginal culture we watched a video produced by SBS in which two Aboriginal Elders showed how to find and eat witchetty grubs. The children were very interested and intrigued about the little grubs being found down underground inside sticks or the roots of trees, and they asked to watch the clip twice. We also learnt that there are native honey ants that produce and carry big bubbles of nutritious honey deep in their underground nests, and that Aboriginal Elders know where to dig to find them. We discovered how much Aboriginal Elders know about finding food in the bush.
Inspired by a watching a group of Elders working on painting artworks inspired by the NAIDOC poster and the Land they saw on the video, the children mixed their own colours to make brown, ochre and orange, and light blue for the coastal landscapes.
Family Day Care Sydney Wide
Children and Educators across our Family Day Care Sydney Wide services have celebrated NAIDOC Week with a range of interesting learning experiences.
Story by Educator Nessie
After a recent excursion to Sydney Zoo, we set up a tabletop learning experience where the children could enjoy the sea snake we had bought at the Zoo. As a follow-up to this experience, we took a walk around our local community where the children collected sticks and twigs to make their very own Humpy (a type of temporary shelter, traditionally used by Aboriginal people in the past) and we learned more about Indigenous history.
Story by Educator Nicola
We did a lovely activity yesterday, where we read the story ‘The Rainbow Serpent’ and made our own version of the Rainbow Snake, decorating it with tissue paper and wool. I found a map of Aboriginal nations and languages spoken in NSW, and we learned that we live on Gadigal land and that one of the Indigenous languages spoken in Sydney is ‘Dharug’.
