KD and KW thoroughly enjoyed sharing in the Dreamtime story How The Birds Got Their Colours. They reflected upon and retold the story, painted their favourite part of the story, looked at Aboriginal artwork and how animal tracks are represented in Aboriginal artwork, followed instructions to make beaks and created colourful plumage to dramatise the story. Take a look at the videos below to see their reenactments of the story. As part of Harmony Day, we have been investigating life in other countries. We learned how to say hello, count to five, looked at food and musical instruments and followed on to do something specific to that country. We read a story called Suki's Kimono about a girl in Japan being different from her friends then painted Kimonos. We looked at Chinese New year dragons and lanterns in China - and the noise and colours associated with them. We then made our own pellet drums. We looked at traditional Indonesian clothing and played traditional Indonesian games - one of which was Semut, Orang, Gajah - a version of paper scissors rock - ask your child to play with you! We listened to a story from Korea via youtube from a friend of Mrs West. The story was all about how we are all different and "Gwen Chan-ah", "that's OK". We then drew our friends being different. We made a sistrum from Egypt (see below). The children gained an understanding that Australia is made up of people from a range of countries and different cultures, who have enriched our country to what it is today. The overall message for Harmony Day is that we all belong... and to be kind! Marhaban (pronounced mer-heb-an) from Egypt! We looked at the environment of Egypt, mummies and of course the pyramids! The children then independently made a version of an Egyptian musical instrument called a Sistrum - check them out - they did a magnificent job!
Our investigations and reflections on Harmony Day culminated in the whole school singing the song "We are Home Here" at the assembly on Thursday. Here are some photos and a link to the video - it was such a wonderful assembly! In keeping with the topic of Harmony Day, our STEM challenge this week was to interweave different strips of paper to make a whole. The strips of paper had to come together, move, bend, and work with each other to create something together. The other criteria was that five different colours had to be used. Yet again, our Kindergarten engineers met the challenge - thinking, problem solving and creating - take a look below! Congratulations to our award winners this week. Nate, Connor and Uriah from KW and Lachlan, Cameron and Nina from KD. All three children from KD will be receiving their Bronze Award at the whole school assembly - congratulations!
KW's nursery rhyme this week was Baa Ba Black Sheep. Not only did we look at black sheep, but white, grey and even rainbow! The children used different fine motor and art techniques to make various sheep, and used Kidpix on the computer to make sheep using ovals and other closed shapes. When it was time to make a grey sheep, the children figured out the two base colours needed to make grey and mixed it themselves, then swirled, dragged and dabbed to finger paint the sheep. "It was tricky, but I kept trying" India "It was hard to stay in the lines" Ella "Black and white made grey!" "It was gooey. I did wiggles on mine" Ivy "It was messy" Jasmyn "It was fun! I did bloppy blobs" Harry "It was fiddly" Elijah "It was crazy" Cooper "The paint felt soft" Martha "I did dabs, swirls, lines and wiggles on mine" Jenson This week, we have been looking at the concept of 'bucket filling' - when you can do something to help someone else feel good about themselves, which in turn, helps you to feel good about yourself :) We watched a video of a lady reading the story "Have you Filled a Bucket Today?". The children then came up with a range of bucket filling ideas: asking someone to play with them; helping someone when they are hurt or sad; sharing a handball or toy; complimenting someone's work; smiling at someone and generally choosing to be kind. For our STEM activity, the children were challenged to make a bucket that had a handle and could hold some love - only using paper and/or aluminium foil. We had 4 different heart shaped rocks that represented love. Most children managed to make a bucket to hold the small piece of love, and many managed to make one strong enough to carry the BIG love stone. The children look forward to these challenges each week and it is wonderful to see such independent, problem solving taking place during these sessions.
Congratulations to Isaac, Ivy, Cooper, Owen and Blake who received merit awards this week. After two merit awards, students will receive a larger award at the 'big' whole school assembly the following Thursday.
|
Authors
Mrs Cathy West, Mrs Clare Dunn and Mrs Natalie Fairweather enjoy sharing learning from the Kindergarten day with you. Please comment so that we know we are reaching you :o) Archives
December 2017
Categories |