Welcome back to Term Three! We hope you all enjoyed having a little extra family time over the school break and that you are ready for another fun filled Kindy term! During the school holidays, Australia celebrated NAIDOC Week (3 – 10 July). “NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth”. https://www.naidoc.org.au/about/naidoc-week
This week in Kindy, we have dedicated a few sessions to learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture. To foster our early understandings of Aboriginal culture we read, ‘How the Birds got their Colours’ by Mary Albert and Pamela Lofts. This story is based on the Aboriginal Dreaming story from the Bardi people of Broome, Western Australia. Sharing this text led to a class discussion about different animal colours and then to the uniqueness of our own skin colours.
We looked at pictures of the Aboriginal flag and discussed what each colour symbolises. We then made our own Aboriginal handprints using black to represent the Aboriginal people, yellow for the sun and red to depict the colour of the earth.
We also read the story, “My Family Likes Bush Tucker” by Mike Ingram. The children were amazed by the variety of food you can find growing/living in the Australian bush. After reading this text, the children planted a few edible native plants in our Kindy Bush Tucker Garden.
