Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Welcome back to Term 2

The Pre-school opened last week Tuesday with educators feeling extremely worried and tentative about being back at work after being in isolation for five weeks. It felt very strange and almost surreal to be back. Having staff development day on Monday helped staff to get the spaces and learning areas organised, gave us time to reflect, and discuss how to manage our days safely and also time to plan the online and face to face programs for the children. Staff development day also allowed staff the time to process being back and to begin to slowly feel more comfortable.

We feel extremely grateful for the support we have received from Mr Watt during these uncertain times and for his care and understanding of how we were all feeling about being back at school.

On Tuesday morning, we welcomed back twenty smiling faces of our beautiful little people, who were all eager to be back in the routine of a Pre-school day and also to finally be seeing some of their friends. We were impressed by how well they handled the goodbye transition at the door from their Mum or Dad (only a few tears), and how they stepped back into the classrooms and embraced the “new norm.”

This in fact shows us how resilient our little people are but also at the same time how vulnerable they are and how this has all affected them in different ways.

We think it’s very important to acknowledge these are very different times. For most of us it has been like a crazy roller coaster. So many changes have happened since the Coronavirus started… from schools in lockdowns, to not being able to have play dates, celebrations and visit family and friends, just to name a few. It is important for us (educators and parents) to acknowledge the children’s feelings (fear, grief, disappointment, loneliness, worry, anxiety). The children are dealing with a very different world, yet, still managing to bring joy to this unprecedented situation. Children need clarification and explanation. They need to understand and “make meaning” of their world being affected by the Coronavirus. Of course, this should be done in a child-friendly way. Understanding what’s going on will lessen their anxiety and help them feel safe, secure and ‘more in control’.

With this in mind we did have some insightful conversations during the day about the changes the children have been experiencing and what their knowledge and understanding is:

Etta – The Pre-school has been closed because of Corona virus….Covid 19. It’s germs and you have to wash your hands and use hand sanitiser.
Mili – Can’t touch people. Stay at home.
Etta – We have to stay at home with our family and not go to everybody’s house. Wearing masks and gloves because of the Corona Virus.

What’s different about the Pre-school?

Koben – We’re not touching persons.
Alona – We can’t hug people.
Sam – It’s an oval, not a circle (referring to the way we were sitting as a group).
Koben – I’ll tell you something that’s really bad in China. They got dead. That’s where it started. It (the virus) was made out of wild animals.
Miles – Someone cooked a bat and they didn’t cook it enough and got sick.
Levi – Someone sneezed on a bat and then they thought it was a chicken and they ate it. Then they got sick and everybody got sick.

We wondered what a virus is…

Alona – When you get sick.

We discussed the importance of handwashing…What do you need to do before entering the pre-school?

Zola – Wash your hands!
Sam – There were arrows with sticky tape and also X’s. Because they are pointing to washing your hands.

Where else have you seen “X’s “

Sam – At Bunnings and Big W.
Finn – When we were in a kind of house and when I walked in, it had ‘X’s”.

What are the “X’s” telling us?

Finn – To stand on them.
Neveau – To follow them.
Miles – You have to do social distancing.
Alona – Be far from people.
Ari – They are for lines. If there’s an X, that’s where you need to stand. They are far from each other.

We discussed other changes in their lives…

Rafi – We’re not allowed to go to people’s houses.
Zola – My mummy is working because there’s lots of people’s animals hurt and sick.

Lindi, Amanda and Alex did a couple of role-plays to demonstrate social distancing between adults and children to adults. We reinforced the importance of not touching and using your words when asking for help from the teachers.

Happy 72nd Birthday Israel!

What a wonderful day we had celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Day of Independence. During morning meeting, we wondered about birthdays. We asked the children what they thought birthdays were:

Allegra – It’s when you have treats and you get to play games.
Zola – When you get cupcakes.
Alona – It’s when you get birthday presents.
Koben – They be kind to the person who has the birthday.
Levi – It’s when you get older.
Sam – You get some cake.
Rafi – Instead of shrinking, you’re growing.
Miles – You get older, you get lollies!
Ariel – You get lots of food.
Penny – You get something in the air…a balloon.
Levi – A piñata!
Zola – At my party when I turned five, I got a piñata.
Ethan – I had a birthday yesterday at home. You need a big cake and small cakes.
Etta – I had a birthday because I was three.
Uriel – I am having a birthday after Mumma. After me, Giddy is going to have a birthday. After Giddy it is Aba.

After much discussion and questioning, the children came to realise that a birthday is actually celebrating the day that you were born and growing a year older. However, can a country be born and have a birthday? We explained that Israel became the home for the Jewish people 72 years ago, but in fact, she has always been there, since the Earth was created, and that Jewish people have been living there for thousands of years.

The children engaged in many activities to celebrate Yom Ha-atzmaut. On Wednesday, we all gathered outside on the oval and sang, danced, waved our flags and ate a yummy blue and white cupcake.

Our online program has involved lots of learning about Yom Ha-atzmaut too. We sent home a creative arts pack containing lots of blue and white resources for the children to use at home. We have made an Israeli salad on Zoom, made an aeroplane to fly to Israel on, made paper flags, collected blue and white objects around our house and used them to make patterns, made a Tzedakah box and a Magen David using pop sticks. Thank you also to Morah Martine for her lovely Hebrew online lessons she has shared with us too.