Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

The children arrived back for the start of the term very excited and happy to have all their friends back at Pre-school. It’s hard to believe it is already Term 4. We are looking forward to a busy and fun term ahead.

At morning meeting the children shared stories of how they had met up with friends during the holidays. We reflected upon how these interactions made them feel. The consensus was that seeing friends makes us happy. At activity time they drew pictures of friends and play scenarios that they had enjoyed during the holidays. It is clear to us that the children are craving connections with their friends and they are to be commended for their resilience during the last 14 weeks of lockdown.

Orientation visits

As we enter the last term, we begin to reflect and plan on how we can best support our children as they prepare to move into the next stage of their schooling journey. We acknowledge that this is a time of mixed feelings for the children and their families, and we work hard to support them in this transition to Year K.

The Starfish and Dolphins have been lucky enough over the past two weeks to have been given the opportunity by Mrs Milner and her team to visit the Year K classrooms, any day we wanted, until the return of Year K on Monday 18 October 2021.

We snapped up this opportunity to take the children to visit the Primary School spaces and to become familiar with the classrooms and outdoor areas for play. Both the Starfish and Dolphins have been going every day and have engaged in several different experiences, such as sitting at the tables and drawing, playing with some of the toys, reading stories together on the mat, participating in a science experiment, having Shabbat and even morning tea and lunch up at the Year K classrooms. They have also spent time challenging themselves physically on the outdoor climbing equipment and getting to know all the spaces and areas they can play in.

This opportunity to support the children with their transition to school is extremely valuable and being on one campus has allowed us to take advantage of this time. Through these informal school visits, we hope to create a sense of belonging and familiarity to the Primary School and help to allay any fears and uncertainties the children might have.

A successful transition from early childhood learning settings to school is important for all children and has long-lasting benefits. Children who experience a positive transition into their new environment are likely to be happy at school and continue to improve their social and academic skills.

Open-ended materials

A selection of open-ended materials including marbles, pieces of cut bamboo and small wooden blocks were positioned on the floor for the children to engage with, investigate and explore.

Initially, materials are often presented in this way with no set goal in mind. We observe how the children respond and interact with them and with each other. Children in small group experiences often take on different roles, for example one member may be the ideas person, another the problem solver, others are happy to follow what goals the group have set, whilst some are more verbal, and others are quiet.

As this group of architects, builders and engineers worked together they employed knowledge about how the physical and social world works. As they constructed, they were exercising their powers of concentration, social conscience, and muscle control. They were exploring science and maths concepts such as velocity, size, shape, length, and position.

They used expressive language to describe what they saw, and explore and verbalise ideas of what needed to be done:

“We need to stand them there and there.”
“Not tall enough.”
“Now we need a smaller ramp.”
“This part needs to be flat. The slope is too long.”

What was evident, was that not only was this group of engaged and enthusiastic learners exploring and investigating the many properties the materials had to offer, but also using them in new and inventive ways, as well as collaborating and co-operating during this shared experience. Whilst the process of creating structures challenges the physical and cognitive capacities of the constructors, it is often the social and emotional maturity of those engaged in such play that ensures its success.

We observed that co-workers were dependent on other co-constructors. Ideas and suggestions were listened to, heard, and tolerated, individual strengths were appreciated, challenges were solved through joint trial and error.

At Kornmehl, we hold a strong belief that children’s relationships and connections are fundamental to their learning, where learning takes place in a social context. Through this experience, it was lovely to see the special connection that these children have for each other and the respect, genuine care and the unique and special friendships.

Educator: What’s this all about?
Arlo: Pretty much science because maybe this is level and we’re going to experiment.
Adam: No, it’s not. It’s just like building Lego.
Educator: What are you trying to do?
Arlo: I’m trying to see if this is level and obviously it’s not because the ball is rolling evenly into this. Now that it’s almost full, it’s level.
Oliver: Maybe, should we make it longer, so the marbles go a longer way? If you roll a ball down a hill, you’ll get more speed. If you have a light ball, it will go easier because smooth is much better. A heavier ball will actually still go down, but not fast.