​We have had a lovely start to the year as the children settle into our Preschool rhythm. We welcome our new families and welcome back those who are returning to Little Shearwater!

New friendships are developing and established friendships are being strengthened, with very harmonious play both inside and outside. The children have been enjoying sand play and sailing on our boat, the Friendship, caring for the dollies, constructing train tracks and puzzles, playing dress-ups, floor play with blocks and story props, as well as drawing, looking at books, and caring for our Preschool environment by helping with jobs and packing away.

During our circle time we have been hearing stories and singing songs about the Rainbow Horses and all their friends, who live on Farmer Ben’s Farm, as well as Dipple and Dopple the little raindrops. The children are enthusiastically joining in with the songs and gestures, and absorbed in the stories. It is such a delight to see their joyful engagement and to see how the stories and songs flow on into their play.

We have been very fortunate to have some new indoor furniture made over the holidays. Also, you will notice in our outdoor space that we have new shade over our fort, a mud kitchen, new shade sails and some additions to our boat. We also replenished the sand in both sandpits. Our gardens continue to grow and provide a beautiful natural space for the children's play.

Our Preschool team and other staff across the School have contributed to all of these improvements. A big thank you to Alex and his team from Bare Hands Carpentry, for dealing with the sweltering heat to accomplish some of the large construction work. 

Our group leaders for this year are Gabe, Susan, Suze and Karen. Our assistants include Antoinette, Maria, Jess and Eryn. Other support staff are Elendel, Julie and Danni. Maria is our new Preschool team member who will be assisting Gabe at the start of the week.

Our aim is to walk alongside families on this journey. On behalf of the whole staff team, we are looking forward to sharing a wonderful year together.

Craig d'Arcy
Preschool Coordinator

​Birdsong and Hummingbee Kindergartens were buzzing with excitement last week, as the children and their parents enjoyed getting to know each other and their new Kindy environment, during our orientation week.
​The lovingly prepared spaces were filled with a mood of warmth and happiness as the children enthusiastically helped to fluff and puff the wool for their rest time pillows, and mums and dads leant their hands to some embroidery. Songs were shared and a lovely puppet story told. It  was wonderful to see the children recreating their own puppet show stories during their free play time, proof of the power of imitation!

In Kindergarten, the children are active 'doers' and over the coming weeks and months they will have the opportunity to participate in meaningful will-strengthening tasks such as cleaning, cooking, gardening, and woodwork.

The many artistic experiences offered, including painting, drawing, craft work, beeswax modelling, circle games, music, songs and stories, will all help to nurture and enhance the children’s own innate imagination. Creative free play both inside the Kindy rooms and outside in the playground will provide plenty of opportunities for developing social skills and individual expression.

All of these activities form strong daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms helping the children to feel secure and participate with joy and a growing sense of confidence in themselves and the world around them.
 
We warmly welcome all our Kindergarten families and are very much looking forward to sharing a wonder-filled year with you all!
 
Jane Michaelis
Early Childhood Coordinator

This term, in Hummingbee Kindy, we have been busy boat-builders. We began by each making our own sanding block for smoothing our hulls, cabins, masts and paddles. Next we dyed our sails to catch the breeze and, finally, we painted the hulls. Today, with much excitement, we headed down to the Brunswick River, to launch our fleet. 
 
Earlier in the term, we expressed our gratitude for our brave fire fighters by baking them a batch of crunchy buns, and a lovingly made book of drawings with messages composed by each child. We received this letter of thanks from the firies this week…
 
To all the dear kids at Hummingbee Kindergarten,
Thank you for all the beautiful pictures and support.
Everyone enjoyed the crunchy buns. They gave us all the energy we needed to fight the fires.
We are looking now forward to holidays and camping with our friends and family.
Lots of love and a big thank you from the whole crew at Mullum RFS.
Ryan, Neville, Mark, Leah, Chris, Alex, Sasha, Josh, Phill, Ron, Phil, John, James and Paul
 
During playtime, our Portuguese-speaking children have been teaching their friends some clapping games in Portuguese; the monkey bars continue to provide challenges and we've been working hard on our garden - fixing pavers and paths, weeding and harvesting.
 
We enjoyed a beautiful festival with our families, sharing with them the story of Dripple and Dropple and their journey from Mother Cushion Cloud, down to help Bella Billabong find her way to Mother Ocean, where they met many friends. Following our delicious feast we headed off for a treasure hunt in our garden, each child hunting for the little clay bird-feeder they had made, which was filled with kindy treasures for them to carry with them across to Class 1.

We had a lovely time meeting our new Class 1 teacher, Maria, a few weeks ago and the children are so looking forward to all they will learn with her next year. 
 
We wish all of our children and their families a restful and relaxed holiday and a smooth transition to Primary School. Thank you all for our beautiful year together.

Joanne and the Hummingbee Team

“The preschool years (the years before formal schooling) are the most important of all in the education of the child... It is absolutely essential that before we begin to think, before we so much as begin to set our thinking in motion, we experience the condition of wonder.”   - Rudolf Steiner

In our busy lives, we need to allow time to breathe. These are the moments in which we can discover wonder.  At Playgroup, we encourage an environment where the children can play uninterrupted and unhurried for long intervals of the day. Sand and water play (below) give children many opportunities to learn to interact with each other socially, while stimulating imagination, inspiration and intuition.

PICS from top left: The children saw a pair of water dragons (one big and one very little) scurrying for safety under the house and now they are sitting and waiting patiently for them to come out. We also have two resident green tree frogs at Playgroup, which are often found in the fish tank. The children delight in finding their little hiding places; Humphry has made a fresh tea and is giving Annabella a cup to taste; the girls are taking some time out for a cuppa and a chat; Rex, River and Winter are enacting our puppet show of the day; we always welcome grandmothers for a visit, bringing their wisdom and generous sense of time.

Warmly,
Carina Halliday
Playgroup Coordinator

After so much careful and clever work, with each child finger knitting, then weaving, their own beautiful turtle shells, we are now learning to work as a team as we feed our turtles, making them full and strong. We have even had some parents come to help, and join us for a turtle game and morning circle.

We are also working together to make felt for our blossom babies’ soft, leaf beds, and carefully stitching our own little baby’s flower suit and leaf hat.

Play has been full of enthusiasm and adventure and is a joy to watch. There are cubbies filled with mice, blue tongue lizards and puppies. There are well-stocked shops with intricate alarm systems. There are boats sailing across the waves to Golden Island, and planes flying over land and sea to visit family and friends. Outside, there are complex and challenging obstacle courses, designed and built by the children. We are learning how to be kind and fair leaders, and to be happy and helpful team members.

In the weeks to come, we will begin our transition stories and songs as we get ready for the children's big journey into Class 1. There are just a few more things to learn in Kindy before then, and we are looking forward to sharing the rest of the term together.

Kat Barwick
Birdsong Kindergarten

We have arrived back after the holidays full of enthusiasm and ready for new growth in Term 4, just like our beautiful garden which has been rejuvenated by its two-week rest. The children have arrived ready to work together and have fun with their friends and teachers.
 
It’s a busy transitional time in Preschool as some of our children start looking towards Kindergarten, and we  begin to get to know the new children and families who are joining us next year.
 
We find that during this time, the children settle into being held through the daily rhythm and routine, and appreciate a strong sense of belonging to their group. They enjoy being with their friends and engaging in the activities that reflect our own particular place and time at Preschool.

Craig d'Arcy
Preschool Coordinator
 
 
 

After our beautiful Winter Festival and happy holidays, our Hummingbee Kindies returned refreshed to a garden filled with Dancing Daffodils, and veggie gardens bursting with fresh ingredients for our baking days... One of our favourites was potatoes baked in our fire pit. We collected wood on an exciting walk to the Big School, prepared our toppings of herbs and grated cheese and wrapped the potatoes for the fire dancers to bake. Another was Afghani filled flat bread Bolani Katchalu... rolling dough, chopping potatoes and silver beet and herbs, filling and cooking in our outdoor restaurant kitchen in the frying pan.

For Book Week we dressed up from our baskets of silks and muslins, and even used our finger-knitting to dress up as characters from our Kindy stories... Bobber Blue Wren, Jingle Jangle Jellyfish, Flutterby Butterfly and many more. The children loved being a part of it. We watched the Primary School parade with interest and delight.

The children have been enjoying putting on shows for each other, re-telling our stories and creating their own. We are all learning quickly how to be good audience members!

Our busy fingers have been weaving our finger-knitting to make the beautiful rainbow shell of Grandmother Shellyback Turtle.

We've been enjoying the sunshine with extra outside play, making cubbies, obstacle courses, and learning new group games. Some favourites are Puddledock Farm, Ultimate Tips and Hide and Sneak. Our mud pit has seen many alterations... including speed bumps, trenches, pipe laying, form work and concreting. It's always a hive of activity with our big garden trolleys out collecting gravel, timber, pipes, mulch and furniture for cubby building!

We continue to extend our skills on the monkey bars - backwards, twisting and turning, skipping bars, and combinations of all three, as well as practicing balancing and hopping for hopscotch.

Our guinea pigs, Daisy and Jasmine are enjoying their new home, and caring for them is a focus every day, with the children lovingly picking fresh greens, filling their water bowl, cleaning out their home and putting in fresh straw for their bedroom and, of course, lots of cuddles!

This week, we are looking forward to our first class outing, to see Wink Blink Lighthouse and watch out for Wash Wallow Whale and his family. Next week we have our Spring Festival to end the term with song and dance, flower crowns and a feast for morning tea before our next happy holidays.

Joanne Owens
Kindergarten Teacher

Spring has sprung and the children are full of enthusiasm. Our silkworms are growing rapidly and need fresh leaves and a cleaned box every day. Ren decided to hammer some air holes into the lid and, despite his initial reluctance to use the big ‘grandfather hammer’, he managed it it very well and showed great determination and hand-eye coordination.

Sahara is showing our silkworms to her Grandma Kay, who lives in New Zealand and has never seen them before. Everyone joins in cleaning out the box, showing great care and gentleness when handling our little pets.

I brought in my spinning wheel and some parents gave it a go while others watched on. It does take a bit of practise to master!

Some of the children got very excited about making a Fathers' Day card and the table had to be moved into the middle of the room to fit them all in.

Finally, it was time to sit down for songs, stories and juicy fruit. We always have a great team of helpers getting the table ready for morning tea and serving the fruit.

Nixie, Winter, Leilei and Ivy are cleaning the table after making our crunchy buns, with lots of bubbles to make our table sparkle and shine. What a busy morning we've had have and now it is time to rest.

Carina Halliday
Playgroup Coordinator

The children in Antoinette's group (pictured above) have been making and baking, listening to stories and going for walks. We use our imagination to create our play together, whilst we take care of our environment. Getting muddy is fun as we help in the garden. Making juice is one of our favourite things to do on the verandah. We love working and playing together and having lots of fun.

Craig d'Arcy
Preschool Coordinator