St. Emilie's Catholic Primary School

Exploring New Spaces!

August 26, 2022
reed.jane
· Kindy · Kindy Blue · Kindy Gold · Uncategorized

let's play outside! - GoMomGo... Lane County

Time spent in the outdoor environment is an important and integral part of our Kindy program at St Emilie’s. This term the Kindy children have been exploring the Pre-Primary play spaces.

Outdoor experiences provide children with the opportunity to be active, strengthen their fine and gross motor movement skills and explore their physical capabilities in new ways.

The children have loved the big open spaces to run, kick balls and engage in active play and exploration.

The Pre-Primary play equipment provides more challenges in climbing, balancing, coordination and motor planning.

Spending time outside playing has many positive effects on young children’s emotional development and builds their confidence too!

Wild Encounters in Kindy!

August 1, 2022
reed.jane
· Kindy · Kindy Blue · Kindy Gold · Uncategorized

As an introduction to our learning about the bush and Australian native animals, on Friday the Kindy children had an incursion with West Oz Wildlife.

The up close and personal experience with the native animals raised the children’s awareness and enthusiasm for our bush environment, conservation, and our precious endangered species.

We discovered interesting facts about the animal’s features, diets, habitats, and behaviours. We learnt how to keep safe if we see a snake in the bush.

It was a fun and amazing learning experience and has inspired us to learn more!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

June 26, 2022
reed.jane
· Kindy · Kindy Blue · Kindy Gold · Uncategorized

In Kindy, we have been learning about sustainability. The children have been looking at ways they can reduce, reuse and recycle. We have been learning about the types of everyday household/classroom items we can recycle and items we can reuse and turn into something new.

After reading “Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis the children brainstormed different ideas on how we could reuse some large boxes. The children all had the opportunity to vote on what they would like to transform these boxes into. We collected and recorded this data using a picture graph.

Soon after we voted we set to work making our wonderful ideas come to life. This was lots of fun… almost as much fun as playing in the boxes once we had finished constructing, painting and putting on the last final touches.

We have been discussing ways that we can care and look after our world. The children have been exploring the impact of land and water pollution and have been empowered to develop a responsibility to care for our environment.

Our Kindy Garden

May 29, 2022
reed.jane
· Kindy · Kindy Blue · Kindy Gold · Uncategorized

On Friday the Kindy children had a school incursion. Bunnings supported us with our sustainability project and helped us to develop our Kindy vegetable patch and sensory garden.

We recycled milk bottles to plant our seedlings

Learning how to pot our seedlings

Hands on experiences help children to better understand the lifecycle of plants, the process of gardening and where their food comes from.

Undertaking a gardening project teaches responsibility to children, as they learn that it is their job to take care of their seeds and plants each day in order for them to be healthy.

Watering our plants

Thank you Bunnings for educating, assisting and donating to our sustainability project.

We would love you to come and visit our sensory garden and pop into the front office to view our Kindy Garden display.

Fine Motor Development in Kindy

Our Kindy classes have been having fun engaging with fine motor activities in the mornings this term. Fine motor skills involve the small muscles that control the hand, thumb and fingers.

Fine motor skills build gradually as children do activities to help strengthen their muscles and coordination. As children play and explore with activities that build their fine motor skills the more precise their movements will become.

Building strength and control of the hand and fingers supports the development of pincer grip for drawing and handwriting.

Fine motor skill development is vital for everyday tasks such as brushing teeth and tying shoelaces. These activities allow the children to develop hand eye coordination as they build and strengthen the muscle control in their hands.

Plus we are having so much fun!

Fun in the Sun!

To make the most of the cooler weather we have been experiencing recently, the Kindy children have enjoyed some extra time outside in the fresh air! We have learnt how to play new games and have enjoyed exercising, learning, practicing skills and having fun in our outdoor spaces.

The children have enjoyed playing ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’, ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf?’, and ‘Farmer Sam’. On top of having fun, these games help to improve and further develop children’s gross motor, spatial awareness, listening, concentration, turn-taking and early numeracy skills and understandings. Recent studies show a strong link between regular physical activity and improved brain function and emotional wellbeing.

More information regarding the benefits of physical activity can be found on the following website. https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/article?contentid=641&language=english

Our Outdoor Environment

In early childhood we value frequent and regular opportunities to explore and learn in our outdoor environments and natural play spaces. We recognise that young children learn best through physical and sensory experiences – active play.

At Saint Emilie’s we have wonderful outdoor play spaces to enhance our learning. The children have space to explore, discover, experiment and develop their gross and fine motor skills while being active and healthy.

Our natural bushland spaces give children contact with the natural world and unique opportunities to engage with nature, the weather and the seasons. The children learn to understand and respect nature and the interdependence of humans, animals, plants and lifecycles.The outdoor environment offers children opportunities for freedom and movement through physical activity and promotes a sense of well being.Outdoor environments are a platform for creative play and the development of the imagination and problem solving skills. When you take children outside regularly you see the JOY, WONDER and EXCITEMENT that they experience when they engage in learning in their outdoor environment.

Nursery Rhyme Fun in Kindy!

This term in Kindy we have been learning, singing and chanting many nursery rhymes. The repetitive nature and rhythmic patterns found in most nursery rhymes make them easy for young children to remember and repeat themselves during their own play scenarios.

Our hands-on nursery rhyme learning stations have been popular play spaces over the past few weeks with many children using the resources in their play to help them sing/chant and act out their favourite rhymes.

The benefits of teaching and singing nursery rhymes with your child are endless. Nursery rhymes help to further develop young children’s phonemic awareness, helps build memory and articulation, improves their listening skills and understandings of new concepts and can often be the trigger for hours of creative and open-ended play.

Rhymes are fantastic vocabulary boosters as they expose children to new and unfamiliar vocabulary not usually found in everyday spoken language.

Counting rhymes and songs, such as ‘Five Little Ducks’, ‘1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive’, ‘Ten Grey Elephants’ and ‘Ten Fat Sausages’ help to further develop student’s numeracy knowledge and understandings in a way that is fun and interesting to a young child. Through singing their favourite rhymes, children can practice their ability to count forwards and backwards and begin to understand early addition and subtraction skills.

Harmony Week in Kindy

March 19, 2022
reed.jane
· Kindy · Kindy Blue · Kindy Gold · Uncategorized

Harmony Week is an annual event that encourages us to share the message that ‘everyone belongs’.

Communities across Australia are invited to celebrate it in a way that is meaningful to them. It is a time to celebrate our cultural background, it is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for everyone.

Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week. We wore national costumes or the colour orange to show our support for cultural diversity and an inclusive Australia.

In early childhood, BELONGING is central to being and becoming, it shapes who children are and who they can become.

Kindy Here We Come!

February 24, 2022
reed.jane
· Kindy · Kindy Blue · Kindy Gold · Uncategorized

A successful transition to school is much more than a great first day. It is your child feeling, welcome, safe and confident in their new Kindy classroom and school environment. It is your child developing a sense of BELONGING.Our Kindy classes have enjoyed the transition to Term One. Kindy staff have been able to get to know the children in smaller groups and the children are becoming familiar with the daily routines and procedures.

Kindy is an important year, it is the first experience your child has of school – of the wonder of learning, discovery and exploration!

At Kindy we value PLAY – we provide a range of planned indoor and outdoor activities where children can discover, learn, imagine and create through play.Children learn about themselves and others, they develop important social and emotional skills, make friends and grow in confidence day by day.

In the Kindy year children develop the important building blocks for early literacy and numeracy.

Kindy is a great place to BELONG to!