Ready, Set, Kinder ! Week 9

In week 9, the preschoolers imagined that they were going on a bear hunt and after reading "We're going on a bear hunt", we discussed what we might take on a bear hunt and all the sounds we might hear. The activities this week involved the children dividing into groups and making the sounds from the story, clapping the rhythm and and dramatising the story. At the end the groups came together to perform for the teachers! The preschoolers certainly are a creative bunch!

Ready,Set,Kinder! Term 3 Week 8

In week 8 the preschoolers read the big book, "Smarty Pants" and we all talked about some of the very clever things that we are able to do. The activities for week 8 included two talking & listening activities where the children used picture cards to say a sentence about what they can do and talked to a partner about what clever things they can do. In the third activity the children were given a large black outline of Smarty Pants and they had to choose coloured clever words to glue onto his pants.
Any activities that the children complete during Ready,Set,Kinder! will be kept and put into a special portfolio which will be presented to the children at the final assembly in Term 4.
Below is the timetable we are following each week in Term 3.
1:15pm - Big book
- children are divided into 3 groups
1:40pm - 1st activity rotation
2:00pm - 2nd activity rotation
2:20pm - Toilet
- Fruit & water snack
2:40pm - 3rd activity rotation
3:00pm - songs, stories

Ready,Set,Kinder! Week 7

This week we read the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" which the children really enjoyed. Our activities were then based around a theme of healthy eating and included sorting healthy and "treat" foods, making a healthy food caterpillar, sequencing the story using picture cards and making a human body caterpillar, focusing on ordinal numbers.

Each day the children attend Ready, Set, Kinder! we spend 15-20 minutes sitting outside eating fruit and having a drink of water. It's great to see a wide variety of fruits and vegetables being eaten as this encourages the children to speak about the different foods they are eating. The preschoolers are certainly getting good at naming all the different types of apples!

We finished our sessions this week with songs such as Dr Knickerbocker & Shimmy Shake by the Wiggles, which saw the children really testing out their dancing skills!

1/2M Book Week Celebrations

1/2M celebrated Book Week 2008 by listening to the story, ‘The Night Garden’ by Elise Hurst. In this story, a little girl draws a garden on her misty window one rainy day when she wishes she could play outside. That night, when the rain is gone, the garden comes alive with many weird and wonderful creatures, yet she feels very safe and secure in her special garden.

The class painted some vivid images of their own ‘night garden’, with spooky eyes peering out to look at us, although they are never really scary!

Many different book characters also visited us for our Book Week assembly! There was the Rainbow Fish (Emily), Princess Charlotte from Prncess Charlotte and the Birthday Ball (Charlotte), Chloe from the Bratz (Clariese), Lord Abrioll from the Golden Compass (Joe), Raymond Martin from the Crusty Demon Team (Jack S), Jessie from Toy Story (Jenna). Hannah Montanna (Grace H.) and finally the Monster from the Monster Shop (Jack R). What star studded line up!

Balloon Rockets Soar in the Science Challenge!

During the recent Science Challenge, students made Balloon Rockets in the 1/2M room. First the children were given a balloon, a straw, string, a clip, a texta and masking tape. The challenge was to make a balloon rocket travel the furthest. The children had to blow up a balloon and decorate it, then they had to attach it to the straw with tape. A clip was used to stop the air coming out. They then threaded the string through the straw. When the children tested their balloon rockets, most worked but some didn’t go as far! A couple of balloons even popped and they had to start again! The winning team worked really well as a team, decorated their balloon and made their rocket travel over 3 metres!

Here are some of the student comments….
We had our Science challenge. We made lots of things. My favourite part was the balloon rocket. (Cassidy)
I made lots of things. I liked it. (Taylor)
Yesterday I made a balloon rocket and it went three metres. It was fun. (Robert)
It was fun making the balloon rocket. (Layten)

A Memorable Canberra & Mt Kosciusko Excursion!

Year 6 students had a great time on their excursion to Canberra last week. Five very busy days saw our students visit the nation’s capital and experience many of the wonderful experiences such a visit offers.

Whilst in Canberra they enjoyed The National Museum, Parliament House (where they met Federal MP for Parkes Mr Mark Coulton), Electoral Education Centre (Old Parliament House), National Art Gallery (where they saw ‘Blue Poles’ and Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’), Questacon, Australian War Memorial, Australian Institute of Sport and Mt Ainslie Lookout. They also loved Ten-Pin Bowling and Laser Tag, which were new experiences for most of them.

They highlight of the trip however was undoubtedly the trip to Mount Kosciusko National Park to spend a day in the snow! After a visit to the Snowy Hydro Visitor Information Centre and a stop at the Ski Hut in Cooma to get their snow gear, they headed off to Smiggins Holes all rugged up and ready for what was to be for nearly all of them their first experience of snow. Fresh snow falls the night before meant a great snow experience, and the next five hours were spent building snowmen, throwing snowballs and sliding down the hill! All in all an excellent day and one we have no doubt the students will remember for many years.