Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Clay workshop

Last week the Kornmehl staff were lucky enough to take part in an interactive workshop on how to work with clay and its possibilities.

Rachel Buch, a past Emanuel School student, conducted the workshop, imparting her passion, knowledge and creativity to the teachers. The workshop started with mindfulness exercises using the clay. We know from past experiences that clay has therapeutic properties and can be used to work with children to calm, regulate and reduce anxiety.

The aim of the workshop was to develop an understanding of the multiple stages of working with ceramics and to practise using a wide range of tools. It was also to develop knowledge that clay can be used for creative and educational purposes and to explore different ideas for clay-based projects using mixed media. We learnt about the different types of clay including paper clay, rake clay and terracotta clay and how to knead the material to get the air bubbles out and work with slurry to join pieces together.

We have another two more workshops to follow and are excited to see what we learn and make.

Grandparents Day

We celebrated Grandparents Day on Wednesday and Thursday morning this week. The Seashells delighted their appreciative audience with their cute songs and dances and then enjoyed craft activities and morning tea together with their special guests.

The Dolphins and Starfish sang on the stage in the The Aron Kleinlehrer Performing Arts Centre to a full audience with confidence and enthusiasm. Our special guests joined us for morning tea on the Kornmehl Deck. Our thanks go to the canteen and to all our wonderful parent helpers who assisted with the shopping and setting up, especially Janice Eliovson, who spent all day on Monday baking for both concerts. Your support and help are very much appreciated.

The feedback received from grandparents was very positive and the smiles on their faces during this time together was evident of a very special and beautiful time shared together.

We are privileged to have daily contact with many of our special grandparents. We have grandparents doing pick up and drop offs, coming in to cook, bake and read to the children, and we have grandparents helping with Bush School visits. How lucky we are to be able to share, collaborate and develop relationships with the grandparents in our centre. We recognise and encourage their involvement in our program and know how important they are for the wellbeing and development of the children in our care.

Pasta making

What an amazing cooking experience we had today. Thank you to Janice Eliovson for coming in and showing us all how to make pasta….yes, real pasta. It was certainly a very interactive and hands on experience for all of us. The joy and excitement on the children’s faces and educators too, was priceless.   

Janice had already prepared the pasta dough which was made using flour, egg yolks, oil and a dash of milk.

After kneading the dough, “It’s very hard, it’s hard work,” said Leah, the children were required to flatten it using their hands. This piece was then fed into the pasta making machine.  

The children took on different roles….’The Turner: as the pasta was being fed into the machine one child had to turn the handle. ‘The Catcher’ then had to watch and catch onto the piece of pasta as it was coming through. It was definitely a team effort. This process was repeated a number of times and each time the piece of pasta became thinner and thinner. Aviv likened it to a pancake. Once the sheet of pasta was thin enough, it was then fed into another section which made it into spaghetti or fettuccine. We learnt that fettuccine pieces were wider than spaghetti.

Other comparisons were being made, noticing the pasta becoming longer as it became thinner. And so we moved to the cooking process which was very quick. The pasta was put into a pot of boiling water for a short time. It was then drained and served into bowls. Tomato sauce was available for those who wanted it. As soon as the pasta was served, it was only moments and then it was gone. The children just devoured it.

Burger Centre

The Dolphins and Starfish will be visiting the Burger Centre on Tuesday and Thursday next week to sing and dance for their appreciative audience with their sensitive, moving and caring songs. Taking the children out into the community helps to build relationships and develop a sense of belonging, empathy and respect for others.

Fathers Day Breakfast

We invite all our special dads to join us on Monday 4 September from 8.30 am to 9.30 am for breakfast and a chance to share some special time with your child at Pre-school.

We still need 3 more mums to come in from 7.30 am to 8.30 am to help with the set up for Fathers Day breakfast. Please let me know if you can help.

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to our special educator Claudia. We hope you have a great birthday.