At Kindy we come together each morning and say our welcome: “Here is the land, the water and the sky, here are our friends, and here am I. Today I will go with Yindyamarra my heart”. Yindyamarra is a Wiradjuri word that means to go slowly with honour and respect, to care for yourself, others and the environment and to be observant and kind. We use the word in multiple contexts throughout the day, reminding ourselves to make choices that respect others, ourselves and the environment. We have been amazed at how the children in both groups have taken to the idea of Yindyamarra, using the word throughout the day to describe actions and behaviours. “My friend just found a caterpillar and put it back onto a leaf, that was really Yindyamarra”, reflected one friend. “Saying sorry is Yindyamarra”, thought another at a different moment. “Listening to your Mum and Dad is Yindyamarra”, offered another, wisely. “Throwing rocks is not Yindyamarra”, suggested another, “unless you’ve done a safety check”, he added. This early time of the year is when we all, staff and children, contribute to deciding on what our Committee Meeting 18th March 2021 Page 2 of 8 expectations are in order to create a peaceful, happy kindergarten, and Yindyamarra has proved to be a wonderful, rounded concept to start that thinking and those conversations. We have been learning other indigenous words, mainly from our local Yuggerabul language, which the children find fun and interesting – as families you may have heard some of these words from your child and wondered about them. “Jippi” for bird, “Gadam” for rain, “Duram duram” for storm – we like to think of these as the first names of things in this place and it is respectful, Yindyamarra even, to learn and use them. Following are some examples of our play and learning recently: - Exploring ideas about Lunar New Year last month – Blue Group embarked upon an amazing project of creating our own enormous Dragon for a Dragon Dance. The dance was repeated many times over a couple of weeks and included a Pearl of Wisdom on a pole for the Dragon to chase, and musicians. All the ideas came from the children from their interest in the books we had read about Lunar New Year. - Playing lots of name games so that we can learn each other’s names and call out to our friends – this can take a while though! - The climbing tree has been a focal point so far this year as children develop their courage to find a way up and get down again. We have used these moments to discuss “safety checks” and making choices that are safe for yourself and others. - Going on the swings – we are impressed with how many children can swing themselves independently – this is quite unusual for this time of year! Perhaps it’s because of all those trips to the local park during COVID restrictions? - Sensory play and learning with play dough, clay, seeds and shaving cream. Sensory experiences provide opportunities for children to learn and think scientifically about their world and to develop their language as they describe textures, sights and smells. Sensory play can contribute to wellbeing and calm feelings for many children too. - Lots of spontaneous, self-directed play and exploration. We provide open-ended resources and big chunks of time for children to initiate their own projects – this encourages independence, curiosity, decision-making, creativity and social development, to name a few outcomes. We have really seen the children’s independence and perseverance growing.Committee Meeting 18th March 2021 Page 3 of 8 - Investigations in Blue Group about dinosaurs and how fossils are made, and how the dinosaurs went extinct. This has been a fascinating topic for teachers and children alike. I posed the question at group time one morning – Why aren’t there dinosaurs stomping around outside today? “The dinosaurs all ate each other”, thought one friend. “They ate all the leaves on the trees and then they didn’t have any air”, said another. “They’re extinct and now they live on Mars because it’s hot and it has volcanoes”, thought a creative thinker. Afterwards we did find out the probable explanation for the dinosaurs’ demise – a massive meteor strike – but it was wonderful to hear their original thinking and to create the opportunity to teach them that ideas are valuable and that their ideas are valued. - Imaginary role play about animals, especially cats, tigers, games about families and rescue games. - Developing compassion and understanding through the discoveries we have made of a diverse range of insects and small creatures. - - Imagining we’re in the Rainforest with the Evergreen Children’s Theatre and meeting some beautiful native animal puppets. - We’ve been enjoying the rain and it has eased up enough for us to get out and play in the damp, fresh garden every day. In Yellow Group we observed the big umbrella steaming when the sun came out after a downpour – “It looks like the umbrella is on fire!” exclaimed a friend, which started a nice science discussion. - We’ve been really loving storytime and music time – you may have heard snippets of some of our songs like the Pirate Song and Boa Constrictor. - Yellow Group engaged in a big, long-running project about boats (in fact I think it’s still going!). Children were designing their own boats and working out how to make them move. - We’ve been re-enacting some of the stories from story time – Mr McGee is a favourite character who has many misadventures that are fun to re-enact. Recall, rhythm, rhyme and vocabulary are strong elements of learning in this type of experience. On Wednesday our staff had a very productive pupil free day. We completed our full First Aid course, held an offsite evacuation drill, reviewed our Philosophy, conducted our Annual Peer-toPeer Reviews, made plans for future projects and dealt with some policy and procedure updates. We are making plans and looking forward to our Bush Kindy program starting next term.Committee Meeting 18th March 2021 Page 4 of 8 Thank you to our families who have come on roster, we’ve enjoyed your presence and appreciated your help. Thank you to our new committee members for taking on the roles, we appreciate your support and hope that you find it to be a rewarding and enjoyable experience.