Before the holidays, our two Kindergarten classes came together at Crystal Creek to celebrate the Spring Festival. We shared songs and dances from our stories about Queen Honey Hum’s Hive, before enjoying a play and a picnic by the creek.
 
The children lovingly sprinkled our garden with a “secret magic potion” (biodynamic preparation), to help Mother Earth nourish her soil and plants, and the sense of joy and wonder was tangible when they returned this term to a bountiful harvest of strawberries, Madagascar beans, cherry tomatoes, multitudes of mulberries and sweet nectarines.
 
Out in the garden, the children are continuing to stretch their limbs and their capabilities, trying new tricks on the monkey bars and building tricky obstacle courses and elaborate cubby houses.
 
In craft, we spent most of last term finger-knitting rainbow balls of wool, and this term the children are very enthusiastically weaving their finger-knitting “over and under, over and under, over and under 1-2-3, pull the wool so very gently”.
 
Throughout this long-term ‘will’ project, the children have discovered the pleasure and satisfaction of making something beautiful, which requires perseverance and thoroughness, as well as wondering what their creations will become.

Kara Mallory
Kindergarten Teacher

Sadly, Rosewood Cottage has had to shut its doors this term, due to COVID-19 restrictions. We were so lucky to have the first five weeks of the term to come together and deepen our connections. It was wonderful to see the children bonding and engaging more with each other in their play. I noticed parents seeking each other’s company more than ever, sharing support, warmth and laughter. We also enjoyed crafting whales, dolphins, kangaroos and brumbies out of the beautiful felt we made.

First thing in the morning, as the children arrive at Playgroup they head straight for the shelves and baskets. Here we see self-initiated play at its best, with its quality of attentiveness and the absence of premeditated purpose or set goals.

Self-initiated play is how the young child makes sense of, and processes experiences from, everyday life. It activates an inner mobility, particularly if we are using ‘open-ended’ toys such as cloth, rocks and sticks. It is deeply satisfying and empowering. Allowing children the time and space to experience the sense of wonder and deep nurturing that quality play can bring, is one of the keys to healthy childhood development, and something that is being lost amid the busyness of modern family life.

In Term 3, the children have been full of spring energy and enjoying exploring their physical strength. Gardener Renate had many helping hands with the mulching (pictured above) and the children had fun with the garden trolley, transporting their friends around the yard. When the billy cart got stuck as it was driving over the bridge, the children discussed how they were going to solve the problem and soon had it back on the road.

We hope to be able to welcome our Playgroup families back to Rosewood Cottage soon.

Carina Halliday
Playgroup Coordinator

This term, at Hummingbee Kindy, we have been immersed in stories, songs and poems about the journey of Wallow Whale and his family, from the icy lands and sea where penguins play, up the coast to Golden Bay… North to where the waters are warm, back to where Wallow Whale was born. The children were very enthusiastic in acting out a puppet show of some of Wallow’s adventures.
 
In craft, the children’s fingers have been busy finger-knitting wool in all the colours of the rainbow for a larger surprise project.
 
In the garden, our bulb babies have sprouted into dancing daffodils, much to the delight of the Kindy children. The children have been enjoying the winter sunshine; making cubbies, building large obstacle courses, engaging in games of push and pull with the big rope, making potion shops, creating elaborate pulley systems, and extending their skills on the monkey bars.
 
Our new guinea pigs, Blueberry and Ginger are settling into their cosy home, and caring for them is a focus every day, with the children picking fresh greens, filling their water bowl, and giving them LOTS of gentle cuddles.
 
On our weekly cooking days after proudly harvesting produce from our Kindy garden, the children have baked delicious sunshine pumpkin cake, spinach rolls, wattle buns and pasta pile ups on rock melon boats.

​We are all happy to be back at Birdsong Kindy. We have been enjoying the wonderful winter sun, tending to our bulb babies and having fun in our garden and sand pit. 
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Many wonderful things are growing in our garden and this week in baking we used our sunshiny lemons to make lemon muffins with a lemon drop on top. Next week we will be making a special surprise with our bounty of silver beet and the delicious feta cheese that Tommy’s mum, Claire is kindly helping us to make. Our taste buds are tingling just thinking about it!

Warm winter wishes from all at Birdsong Kindy,

Kat Barwick
Kindergarten Teacher

​Winter is here in our Kindy garden. We’ve all been enjoying the golden winter sunshine, watching our mandarins and oranges ripen on the trees and looking for stars hidden all around… the children even surprised me by making some star mandalas in the sandpit! We flew kites in the whistling wind, made seed babies and tucked them into their seed pod beds and painted pots ready to plant the daffodil bulb babies who will sleep until the springtime sun dancers wake them up. The children love singing songs of winter, sleeping seeds, Mother Earth’s helpers, crystal caves and starlight.
 
Last week we enjoyed a teddy bears picnic at Grandfather Big Fig Tree. The children finger knitted scarves for their teddy bears to keep them warm while the cold breezes blew.
 
This upcoming winter solstice is an opportunity for us to celebrate our inner light through the quiet darkness of winter. As we start our preparations for our Kindy Winter Festival, the children have been busy making lanterns, plaited star crowns and crystal pouches.
 
Kara Mallory
Hummingbee Kindergarten Teacher

It was a wondrous sight to behold last Monday, as Sunny Sun shone down upon our Kindy with golden autumn light, and the mistlings danced upon Great Grandma Koonyum. The children came running through our kindy gate with glowing smiles and happy hearts. We are all grateful to be back together in our beautiful Kindy.
Our play spaces are busy, inside and out, with children joyful to be once again in each other's company. There is much work to be done and many willing helpers. 

We have been lucky to have Birthday Week this week, celebrating three birthdays and working together to make colourful birthday books with drawings and messages filled with our best love and care.

Our whole class is singing enthusiastically together, filling our room and our hearts with joy. If you happen to hear a happy song on the autumn breeze, it might well be the children and the birds from Birdsong Kindy!

Kat Barwick
Kindergarten Teacher

With the enormous challenge facing us from COVID–19, the Preschool team has been working hard to maintain relationships and connections with our families and their children. With an unknown end in sight, our main focus has been to support our families to establish and maintain a flexible and gentle daily rhythm at home. Predictability and consistency provide security, helping to hold the young child and create calm in a time of turmoil.
 
As a team, we had many long discussions on how we could continue delivery of our program to Preschool-aged children using an online model (a totally unheard of concept for us). We felt that each of the four Preschool groups needed to be offered a range of information and ideas, based on the activities we do with the children when they are physically present. Families have then been able to choose what works best for them at home.  
 
Packages were created and sent home, and support has been given to families via various online platforms. Some of the information and ideas we sent home included; the process of creating a story with or for their child; ideas for being out in nature with their child; art and craft ideas based on the seasonal impulse; an offering of the words of familiar songs and stories; recipes for activities such as baking 'crunchy buns'; as well as the process of following their child’s interests and developing projects and activities based on those interests.
 
The craft activities offered included making a pom-pom chicken, creating a gnome, making a necklace, painting a rolly polly pumpkin, as well as our beeswax favourites, Nibbler Mouse and Slip Slide Snail.
 
We look forward to seeing our Preschool friends soon and sharing everything that autumn has to offer.

Craig d'Arcy
Preschool Coordinator

Our Sunny Sunflowers were standing tall and bright in our Kindy garden to wave the children goodbye as they embarked on their at-home learning journey. But while our Kindy gardens are having a lovely autumn rest, the children have been busy little bees in their own homes.
 
It has been heart-warming to see so many photos of the children doing their Kindy work, and hearing stories of the wonderful family activities that are taking place.
 
Our Kindy stories have been focusing on pumpkins and harvesting the bounties of Mother Earth, noticing the changes in the colours of the leaves as they begin to fall from the trees, and the bright colours of Rainbow Glow as she shines across the sky after a dark and stormy day: Rainbow Glow shines oh so bright, she fills our hearts with love; A warm glow shines within us all when a rainbow shines above.
 
We have suggested that families create their own autumn celebration at home over the holiday weekend, and are looking forward to seeing some photos of family fun! Here are some ideas that Kindy teacher Jane Michaelis suggested in her ‘Autumn Reflections’ message that was sent to our families this week:
 
It is important to note that with young children, the preparation for the celebration is as important as the celebration itself.

• Find a good spot to make a seasonal table with your children, and keep it alive with new treasures found and added after daily walks in nature (or play in the backyard).
• Let your children help prepare a special meal with fruits and vegetables that are in season: pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones or muffins, apple crumble, apple cake, hot cross buns, corn on the cob, corn fritters, homemade bread etc.
• Decorate the family dining table with a special cloth and autumn leaves, flowers in season and seed pods.
• Light a candle and say a verse or sing a song before sharing your special family meal.
• Share seasonal stories, sing, dance, make music or play some games together as a family.
• Go on a seed pod/autumn leaf treasure hunt and make a family mandala out of the collection, or spend the afternoon getting creative and making things out of your treasures. You could sew together autumn leaves for a necklace, make seed pod boats to float, make autumn crowns for the whole family out of vines woven with leaves.
• Last but not least, don’t forget to go out before bedtime and look up at the stars. In autumn time they shine more brightly.

 
Look up, look up, look up to the stars
They shine very high
Their light with love
and if you’re very lucky
And if you’re very quiet
you might see a falling star…. a falling star tonight!
 
Kara Mallory
Hummingbee Kindy Teacher
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