Hello Parents from the kinder room,
Happy 4th Birthdays go out to Muhammad, James, Nicholas, Ashvin, Asim, Joshua, Emma, Amelia, Inka, Aaron and Claire. We hope that you have enjoyed your special days!
The past month the children have had a visit from Barbara who works at Coburg library. She came and spent time reading stories to the children and also sang songs. To coincide with the duck hatching program, Barbara read stories which involved ducks and chickens. We were also fortunate enough to have some story books left for us and to become members of Coburg library.
The children have been participating in a 10 day duck and chicken hatching program. We were lucky enough to have 5 duck eggs and 2 chicken eggs all hatch. Unfortunately though we weren’t lucky enough to see the hatching process in full. The children have enjoyed watching the ducks move around their special area and we will be sad to see them go.
In the room across from the lockers we have made a family tree. A big thanks to Jo for putting it on the wall. We are asking families to provide a family picture for us to put on the tree. The children visit the Family Tree throughout the day and look at their families and their friend’s families. As a follow on towards the end of Term 1 and beginning of Term 2 we will be asking the children some questions to gather information about themselves such as: Who lives with them? Do they have pets, if so what are they? What do they like to do at home? The children will also draw pictures of what they believe their families look like. These will be displayed in the room for the children to share with you.
Belinda, Julie and Naz attended training on ‘Common sense guides to Behavioural Guidance’ and Belinda and Julie attended the follow on session titled ‘Building Resilience and Self Esteem’. Term 2 will see us working with the children towards building a positive self-esteem and helping children to become resilient. This will be done by encouraging children to do things for themselves i.e. filling up drink bottles, putting their shoes and socks on. Families can help by allowing their children to carry their own bags to kinder, taking their dishes to the sink, picking up their toys, dressing themselves and putting on their shoes and socks. All these will help the children’s self-esteem and ensure they feel good about themselves.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
“When you carry my school bag it makes me feel like I can’t do it myself”
Jo Lange who ran the two training sessions which kinder staff attended, explained that the levels of anxiety in young children has tripled in the past few years from 15% to 45%. This is thought to have increased due to parents/adults doing more and more for the children. When we do things for children we are giving them the message that we believe they are incapable of doing it for themselves.