Currambena school blog

Hello everyone,

We hope you all had a fantastic long weekend!

This term is steam rolling ahead, as is this year for that matter, it’s hard to believe we’re 3 week’s away from being half way through the school year! We continue to enjoy this great cohort of children, relishing the time we have together as a preschool community.

After last weeks cold snap we’ve been enjoying  the warmth and light of the sun as well as the opportunities it gives the children to play outdoors. The cubby house is quickly becoming a favourite place for many of the children. It’s wonderful to see children taking responsibility for their actions and after spending the day filling the cubby up with equipment inside preschool, clearing it out and packing it up with teachers only asking once. Hopefully this is flowing through to home life as well.

We’ve spent the end of last week and the beginning of this week completing art works for the upcoming whole school art exhibition. If any families have art works at home that were completed at Currambena, it would be great if you could bring them in so we can include them in the exhibition. To provide the preschool children with some knowledge about what an art exhibition is we’ve planned an excursion to the Lane Cove Art Gallery next Tuesday 18^th June. All families with children not attending on this day are welcome to join us. We plan to arrive at the Gallery at 10:15 am.  We hope to visit Lane Cove Library before the term ends as well, so stay tuned for dates and permission notes.

We’re amazed at how perceptive the children are at learning Spanish. Carolina’s Spanish lessons are fantastic. The Spanish polyglots program on the iPads is very much a highlight of many of the children. Unfortunately one was smashed last week, leaving us with only one working iPad. We’ve recently purchased two new ones that hopefully we’ll be here by the end of this week or early next week.

During group times we’ve been providing opportunities for children to work alongside children they may not have previously spent a great deal of time playing with. It’s lovely to see how effective this had been in assisting children to build relationships with others. We’ve also begun relaxation times at the end of the day, the group seem to be really enjoying this, with many children requesting it each afternoon. We’re providing many opportunities throughout the day for children to engage in group experiences. Cooking seems to always capture the children’s interest and lends itself to team work and cooperation with others.

As always thank you to all the washing fairies. Many thanks also to the Oliver family for the donation of Rainbow Magic books.

Love

Katrina, Michael and Hannah

Hello everyone,

It looks like winter has definitely hit! The arctic breeze has led to some very chilly days we’ve been closing the doors and cranking up the heating which is almost unheard of in preschool.

What a wonderful performance all the preschool children gave at Children’s Voices for Reconciliation last Thursday. Michael, Hannah and I were bursting with pride as they all hit the stage and nailed their performance. A big thank you to Zander, Louie’s Dad for coming along and also carrying our props, also to Jason, Kit’s Dad for also joining us. The children were fantastic in walking carefully to and from the event.

We’ve had some great changes to the outdoor preschool play space this week. Maia’s family very kindly donated a beautiful cubby house that the children have had a wonderful time playing in. Harriet’s family, (Harriet, was in preschool though is now in Jess’s class) fixed up the school’s boat that was just about ready to go in the skip and brought it back looking new. Both have led to lots of great play around preschool. Many thanks to both Harriet’s parents Andrew and Jane as well as Maia’s parents Kevin and Maree for these welcome editions to our play space. Thank you to everyone involved in setting both of these pieces of equipment.

The rain was very much welcomed in preschool this week. Our tan bark was looking very dusty with the rain adding a great texture to it that has elicited lots of interesting cooking experiences in our mud kitchen.

We’ve added an art lesson in the craft room on a Tuesday to our program. The children are enjoying having the opportunity to spend time in the space alongside their peers.

This week we’ve also added a relaxation time to the end of the preschool day on a couple of occasions. This is a great opportunity for children to wind down, relax and reflect on the day they’ve had.

That’s it for this week!

Love

Katrina, Michael and Hannah