We are all so happy to be back at Playgroup. It is wonderful for the parents to be able to come together again, sharing the challenges and joys of their parenting journeys and realising they are not alone.
Term 4 is an important term with some of the children showing readiness for Preschool - packing up the toys is done with gusto, as is setting up for juicy fruit time, and our little cottage is full of big, strong voices, singing, telling stories and sharing the events of the week. Some of the older children are creating little puppet shows themselves, retelling our much-loved Playgroup stories and bringing some of their own.
In these last weeks of the term, we are going for little walks over to the Farm and to Preschool, in order to familiarise the children who will be taking their first big steps away from home next year. It is wonderful to see these older children helping the little ones, building a train track, packing up or simply nursing one of the babies.
We are all very busy, with some wonderful toys being created by the parents, such as this little wild Brumby (pictured above), made with hand-felted fleece. One of our fathers brought in some little pots and soil, so the children could take rosemary cuttings from our garden to grow at home and remember Playgroup by.
Our first painting activity for spring combined lemon yellow and cobalt blue to create green. The children added leaves, grasses and flowers, collected from our garden, and laid it all out on the wet paper before painting over and around the plants, to create lovely shapes and patterns.
It is a bittersweet time as some of us will soon say goodbye. But I am always happy to have a visit or a wave over the fence. Seeing the little bright faces ever so proudly going off to Preschool is a gift in itself.
Carina Halliday
Playgroup Coordinator
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