Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Purim

This week we have immersed ourselves in the joyous festival of Purim. The children are enjoying the story with all its colourful characters. The best way for young children to internalise the details of the story is through interactive role playing and bringing the story alive with props and puppets. The story has all the components of a spellbinding saga – there is a villain, a heroine, who is also a beautiful Queen, and a King whose actions ensure a happy ending for all. The mark of a good story is when you see the children re-enacting it later during the day. Purim lends itself to lots of creativity. The themes of the festival can be expressed through making masks, crowns, shakers, Mishloach Manot and through each of the characters, as well as baking delicious Hamentashen. There is a sense of glitz and glamour about Purim, that just begs for sparkle and bright colours. We have had fun dressing up with wigs, hats, masks, beads and glasses. We learnt a delightful song Leitzan katan nechmad (little clown). Wearing a wig, hat and tie we pretended to be the little clown, skipping and dancing around in a circle, then choosing a friend to dance with again, skipping and dancing with lots of laughter and joy.

Purim comments:

Arlo: I like the Hamentashen. They are tasty.
Adam: I like dressing up. I am going to be a skeleton.
Penny: I like eating Hamentashen with chocolate in. I am going to be Rapunzel.
Claudia: I like to eat Hamentashen. I am going to be Rapunzel too.
Bronte: Purim is so much fun. We get to scare away Haman because he is a meanie because he told lies. I like Queen Esther. She wears pink and I like pink.
Noah: I am going to be BINGO the dog.
Adrienne: I like to dance and I am going to be a unicorn.
Dean: I am going to be a dragon and blow smoke out my mouth.

Our festivities culminated in a delightful celebration today. The children all arrived at Pre-school very excited and proud to show off their costumes. What a great variety of characters we had, from princesses, to kings, queens, clowns, builders, pirates, astronauts, policemen, tigers, cats, scuba divers and so much more. The teachers all looked great as the “Pink Ladies”.

Phillip Einfeld, from Puppetoons, entertained the children with a delightful puppet show of exquisite Purim character puppets. The story of Purim, definitely came to life for the children, through this interactive show.

We paraded around the garden and all participated in the mitzvah of exchanging Mishloach Manot bags with a friend. We ate lots of yummy Hamentashen, sang, danced and had a beautiful morning.

Thank you to Mum – Daniella Stein, from Daniella Photography – who came in and took some beautiful Purim photos for us. We are very grateful for her time and expertise.

Thank you to Mrs Amy Friedlander, Mrs Nicola Zurnamer, Mrs Amy Spiro, Mrs Natalie Papert, Mrs Kim Borovik and Mrs Daniella Alhadeff who came in to bake Hamentashen with all the groups. This was a mammoth task over two days and we really appreciated your help. It was lovely to see some parents back in the Pre-school again.

Over this time of Purim, the Kornmehl children have also been involved in the Mitzvah of giving to others and the children, during the course of the week, decorated an extra Mishloach Manot bag, made a card and we filled the bags with yummy goodies, including Hamentashen. The bags were given to the elderly visitors at the Burger Centre on Thursday, to help them celebrate Purim and to wish them all Chag Sameach.

It’s so lovely that the youngest members of our Pre-school community can be involved in Tikkun Olam and know that they are making a difference in someone else’s life.

Play-based learning

The following article was featured in theconversation.com and provides interesting information about play-based research, that aligns itself closely with our philosophy at Kornmehl.

“Research shows that play based learning enhances children’s academic and developmental learning outcomes. Children are naturally motivated to play. A play-based program builds on this motivation, using play as a context for learning. In this context, children can explore, experiment, discover and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. It involves both child-initiated and educator-supported learning. The educator encourages children’s learning and inquiry through interactions that aim to stretch their thinking to higher levels, for example, while children are playing with blocks, an educator can pose questions that encourage problem solving, prediction and hypothesising. They can also bring the child’s awareness towards mathematics, science and literacy concepts, allowing them to engage with such concepts through hands-on learning”.

Play-based early years programs are focused on teaching and learning. In such programs, play can be in the form of free play (activity that is spontaneous and directed by the child), and guided play (also child-directed, but the educator is involved in the activity as a co-player) with intentional teaching. Both have benefits for children’s learning. To capitalise on these benefits, an optimum play-based program will provide opportunities for both free play and guided play.

Educators take an active role in guiding children’s interactions in the play. Children are supported in developing social skills such as cooperation, sharing and responding to ideas, negotiating, and resolving conflicts.

Educators can also use children’s motivation and interests to explore concepts and ideas. In this way, children acquire and practice important academic skills and learning in a playful context. For example, research indicates the increased complexity of language and learning processes used by children in play-based programs is linked to important literacy skills. Research shows play-based programs for young children can provide a strong basis for later success at school. They support the development of socially competent learners, able to face challenges and create solutions.