Sun Bear Fundraiser

Today we attempted our baking for the Sun Bears again. After Tuesday's failed attempt at muesli bars we tried Banana Muffins (Grub Cakes) and Date Slice (Ant Slice). The children thought it was a little strange that I was calling them this, the lack of grubs and ants confused them I think....

Lately we have been exploring symbols and measurement at our nature table so to add some symbolism to our cooking we all drew the measuring cup and each ingredient of the 'Ant Slice'. This introduced the children to each ingredient and demonstrated how drawings/symbols can represent things. There were three ingredients - Dates, Santana's and Almonds. We drew the cup first, Aiken: I'm going to draw a big cup"... This was a good strategy and enabled Aiken to 'fit' all the other ingredient symbols in his cup.

 After we had completed our drawings we measured out each ingredient and talked about the similarities and differences between the sizes of cups and their contents. 

The fun part really began with the magical noisy whizzer....

It was hilarious the way it made noise and spun around at the same time... we all had a quick turn and Gracie even noted that: "This cooking is cheering me up" (loosing a toy donkey can be a sad experience)

After our 3 ingredients had transformed into a goo ball we all had a turn at smelling the concoction. Apparently it smelt like:

Honey
Coconut
Peanut butter
Yummy
Biscuits and
Cake

The verdict was in... it smelt very tasty and the children would all try some Ant Slice - if of course it wasn't for sale to save the Sun Bears...

Here we have our fundraising stall complete with a group made sign detailing what was in the 'grub cakes' and 'ant slice'...The children cheered when our first customer arrived - Asher's mum... Yay...They even had runners to draw in our customers... Riley helped me warn the customers about the bugs in the cakes and used the detailed sign to assist his explanation.... Most of the shop owners said "there's no way were eating bugs" not really a confidence boost for our cakes, I really thought children liked eating bugs... apparently not and it's "soooo gross"

We sold all our cakes for the day and had our first successful fundraising experience, lets hope it is the start of many more...

Treasure Hunt

Thursday 14th February,

It doesn't look like much, but this group of children were engrossed in a treasure hunt, there were treasure hiders and treasure hunters. Two different roles to play. There was a treasure box and a variety of small trinkets and sparkly things.

Tegan, Mak, and Asher were playing their own treasure hunt game, Tegan had collected the silver spoons, jewels and a basket. Tegan hid all these items over near the veranda fence, Tegan asked the boys to hide while she hid the treasure so they did not see where it was and could go on a hunt to find it.

Matilda observing this asked Helen if she could play. Helen then facilitated a group treasure hunt. Helen asked Tegan to hide while Matilda had a turn at hiding the treasure. Everyone began to play and wanted a turn at hiding the treasure, Helen had to devise a way to determine who's turn it was. they decided to sing/dance 'ring a ring a rose' and the person who fell down first got to hide the treasure....

The treasure was created by each child, they chose objects around the playground to add to the treasure box, shells, dinosaurs, spoons, and sparkles were added to the collection. Tegan said the plain items needed a jewel to make them 'more special'

The children are learning to work together as a group, make up their own rules and negotiate roles. The treasure hunt was exciting and involved the combination of two games - hide and go seek and ring a rose. Treasure was only 'classified' as treasure if it was pretty and sparkled... children are exploring maths through this game and the classification of treasure.

Wrestling and Hand Shakes

Tuesday 12th February,

Today we continued our parent/teacher interviews, these interviews are supporting our program and teaching us a lot about the children.

Ambrose's mum shared an insight into Ambrose's interests, "he loves wrestling"

The little things that we may not know about a child can make a great difference to that child's day at preschool, by including each child's interest increases their sense of value and shows them that they have a voice.

The wrestling began outside with Asher, Ambrose and Malu. I became involved to demonstrate some possibilities like pinning your opponent and counting to 3... We spiced things up with a sock and began the fast paced sock wrestle....

Sock Wrestling: One opponent wears a sock, the other has to remove the sock from their opponents foot. They cannot leave the wrestle mat and have a limited time to retrieve the sock.

Our outside wrestling match drew a lot of onlookers so for group time today we spiced things up and had a sock wrestling marathon. Conan and Malu were first and very fast. They raced around the 'Rainbow Wrestling Mat'.... to no avail. It was deemed a tie, with both boys happy to reach this outcome we partook in a customary hand shake and a compliment: "Good Game"

This act of good sportsmanship and kindness was a novelty for the boy's who seemed to find the idea of a hand shake foreign and new? They smiled at each other and seemed to bond through this experience.

Next up: Tegan and Amelia... Well this was interesting, Amelia finds the idea of wrestling foreign and new... she cautiously crawled around after Tegan... Tegan had the idea..evade, evade, evade. She was ready to rumble when Amelia got close and their chase drew on for a while. The cheering audience added to the excitement and encouraged the two girls to keep on keeping on!

(Notice how the children are yelling out "Go, go, go" They became so enthralled that in the next photo they jumped up and began cheering)

Finally it was called a draw and Tegan let Amelia take the sock, Amelia dramatically grabbed the sock off and the crowd went wild... They shook each other's hand and said: "Good Game" Their were no sore losers and this hand shake thing seemed to be helping...

Another handshake for the weary wrestlers....

Summer and Gracie shaking hands after a vigorous wrestle


A link to Ambrose and Asher wrestling...

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/instantupload/5843961024140756594

Who would of thought that wrestling, a usually aggressive sport could promote such 'sportsmanship' 'comradeship' and provide an opportunity to teach children how to be respectful to their peers.