Constable Kenny Koala Visits Kindergarten

Yesterday Constable Kenny Koala taught us about how to stay safe and gave us practical tips on how to 'Stay OK'.

Constable Kenny Koala taught us about the importance of:

• always staying close to our loved ones
• listening to our loved ones
• holding our loved ones hand 
• who to speak to when we feel unsafe

Constable Kenny talked about the importance of knowing loved ones mobile numbers and suggested writing a contact number on your child's arm or shoe when attending events that have a large crowd.  He also mentioned that loved ones may like to have their mobile number engraved onto a piece of jewellery for their child to wear.

Please take the time to teach your child a mobile number as this will help them to 'Stay OK'.

Thank you for your continued support!

Fire Safety in Kindergarten

Last week we had fire fighters talk to us about fire safety.  We met fire fighter Damian (Zoe's Dad) and his team.  It was such an informative and interactive session about fire safety.  We learnt all about the difference between good and bad fires. The children got to practise the action of the 'stop, drop and roll' (in the unfortunate event if our clothes were on fire) and how to get down low and go, go, go.

The firefighters taught us the importance of having smoke detectors in our home and knowing our home address.  We can call the emergency number '000' if there is ever a fire in our home. 

We learned that fire fighters are our friends that help keep us safe. They wear special protective clothing and a mask to keep themselves safe from fire.  Mrs Moo and Mrs Rodda got to dress up in all the protective safety gear! 

The fire fighters even gave us 2 home learning jobs We need to learn our home address (if we don't know it yet) and check if our smoke detectors work.  Fire fighters are able to install detectors in your home if you require assistance.

The most thrilling part was.......the fire truck of course! Lights, climbing through the truck and even getting to spray the giant hose on the thirsty grass.
Thank you to the fire fighters for coming and educating us on fire safety.  We love learning how to be and stay safe!
Check out our fantastic morning!

Happy 100 Days of Getting Smarter

Happy 100 

days of getting 

SMARTER

Last Thursday we celebrated 100 days of getting smarter.  Thank you to everyone who was able to come and help celebrate this milestone. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to dress up and share their learning with you.  

After the learning journey we sang 'Happy Birthday to us'.  Our day was filled with many fun and exciting learning experiences.  Students participated in a writing activity based on the concept 'I wish I had 100...'  Students were awarded with a certificate and took part in a 100 year old parade.  The students had their photo taken in the photo booth and they created a portrait of themselves as a 100 year old.  

The day was so much fun and we would like to thank you all for your heartfelt messages.  The students loved sharing their work with you. Thank you for your continued support. 

 

Letters and Sounds

Thank you to all the loved ones who came to the reading information session on Friday.  We hope you found the session informative and useful.

We have been very busy learning the sounds of many letter shapes.  Here is a list of the sounds that have been explicitly taught this term:
/s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, /c/ and /k/

We teach the sound each letter shape makes and we concentrate on hearing the beginning sound first, then the end sound and finally identifying the middle sounds in words.

When developing a love of reading, please remember, you can never give your child enough praise!

Mrs Wishy-Washy visits Kindergarten!

We love reading books to help us learn the connection between letters and sounds.  To help us learn the /w/ sound we read the book Mrs Wishy-Washy and to our surprise she visited our classroom.  We had a Mrs Wishy-Washy fun day and took part in many learning experiences.  These included a real life experience of walking through mud and Mrs Wishy-Washy washing our feet.  We designed a new title page, made puppets and sequenced the character from the shortest to the tallest.  

The children took their puppets home and they would love to tell you the story using their puppets. 

We had such a fun learning day!

Little Scientists

Last week was very busy in Kindergarten as we begun to learn how to be scientists! We have been investigating through the scientific process of question, guess and test. We explored this process through an experiment with a teabag rocket.

If you would like to try the tea bag rocket at home you can find instructions and a short video here:

http://www.questacon.edu.au/outreach/programs/science-circus/videos/teabag-rocket

In the classroom we have been learning about 5 senses and using them to explore the world around us. We cooked microwave popcorn and used our senses to record what we saw, heard, smelt and felt.

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." - Carl Sagan

Letters and Sounds

Over the last fortnight we have started learning our letters and sounds. Each week we will be learning three new letter shapes and their sounds. Week 5 we explored on /s/, /a/ and /t/. During week 6 we were busy learning /p/, /i/, /n/.  We focus on seeing, hearing, saying and writing these letter shapes. We expose the children to the letter name however, our emphasis is on recalling and identifying the sounds associated with each letter name. We encourage all children to share this learning with you as they explore the sounds around them, particularly when reading stories together.  

We look forward to helping you support your child with their learning journey in English in our upcoming evening information session on Friday 29 March.  A note has gone home, if you have not received it, please see the classroom teacher.

'Tell me and I forget.  Teach me and I remember.  Involve me and I learn.'

Benjamin Franklin

Beautiful Oops!

In Kindergarten we have been inspired by the book, 'Beautiful Oops!' by Barney Saltzberg.  Barney's book is a very important reminder that it's OK to make a mistake.  In fact, hooray for mistakes!  As Barney explains in his book, a perceived mistake is an adventure in creativity.  We took the opportunity to teach the students about the importance of trying their personal best and we are not striving for perfection-we are striving to do better.  Using a range of recycled materials the students created their very own masterpiece.  Please come into our learning environment and check out our 'Beautiful Oops' creations. 

Please remind your child, that trying their personal best, is always worth celebrating!

We can all dance when we find the music we love - Giles Andreae

Welcome to the Kindergarten Tree House

Once upon a time, but not very long ago, deep in the Australian bush lived four coloured possums. They were the:
Green Possums with Mrs Naomi Devlin
Orange Possums with Ms Carly Mooney
Blue Possums with Ms Kylie Rodda
Purple Possums with Ms Jessica Potts

In Kindergarten we make bush magic. We make the children smile and learners think. But the best magic of all is watching the possums develop a sense of wonder and a passion for striving to achieve their personal best.

Our unit is based on the book 'Possum Magic' written by Mem Fox. We are looking forward to a fun year!