NAIDOC Day

Today we had a day full of culture, we created various authentic experiences to help the children celebrate the Indigenous people of Australia. The use of ochre was popular with Olivia and Tamryn. Sarah guided the children through this process, they ground the ochre with their fingers and slowly added water. Three colours were created. We used the ochre to paint our faces.





Sarah our Indigenous education facilitator organised for us to have a Didgeridoo at preschool for this special day. During group time the boys had a turn at playing the Didgeridoo' as traditionally only men can play this instrument... We discussed this tradition and gave the children a chance to reflect and challenge this idea. We were very proud of how accepting the girls were of this tradition even though they felt a bit left out. Each boy made a different sound and received many "ooo's and aahhhhs" from their peers. Malu was very impressed and placed his ear at the base of the didgeridoo to hear and feel the vibrations.



"That sounded like an elephant" The sounds created many laughs....



                       

Aiken lead the group in playing the Didgeridoo as he is the oldest and this is in line with tradition.



Later that day we went on an Aboriginal Native Plant walk. Each group of children had a leaf/branch from a native tree and had to find the tree in the playground.



In the afternoon we printed the Aboriginal flag from tiles onto material. We talked about the symbolism of the flag and what each colour represents. Red- The earth, yellow - the sun, black - the people. Amelia and Summer were especially interested in this and made several flags.



We also sung 'Heads and Shoulders' in Gumbayniggirr language with Elaine our lovely colleague who came to support us on this special day. Elaine has been the Indigenous education facilitator at the preschool for many years.



Finally, thanks to Kel we had the opportunity to dig for pippies in the sand pit and create our very own midden. The children took their shoes of and squirmed their toes in the sand to find the pippies.

Step in Time

Today we put on a great show for our grandparents and parents. As we arrived we were ushered backstage to get dressed and have our 'make up' put on. We were very excited waiting for our turn to perform 'Step In Time' Who would of believed it... everyone wanted to go first. No back stage jitters or cold feet here. The children displayed such confidence and were proud to show the audience their performance. For most children the excitement and sense of confidence came from having their grandparents in the audience.

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported our preschool production. We worked very hard all term practicing our dance moves and planning our performance. Below are 4 links to movies of each groups performance:

1. In this video: Conan, Malu, Asher, Jasper, Santai, Samantha. G, and Tegan

Step in Time 1

The performance starts with their only line: "Step in time" - as you can see - they all fling their arms up and shout "Step in Time" just like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. This phrase is famous at preschool now and the children use it in their play all the time.

2. In this video: Isabelle, Gracie, Milly, Hudson, Joey and Levi

Step on Time 2

3. In this video: Gem, Aiken, Summer, Tamryn, Amelia, Matilda, Charlotte oh and Jasper again (his second performance of the day)

Step In Time 3

4. In this video: Amy, Samantha, L, Riley, Jullian, Senita, Nysa and Olivia

Step in Time 4

The performance was such a fun experience for all of us.... the children wanted to do it all again after lunch and revisited the stage to have one last go. We look forward to seeing you all at our next stage production...

Our Giant Collage

The children are very keen to cut and paste absolutely anything that will stick...they enjoy art without boundaries and especially like to explore a variety of materials. On this day we decided to begin another collaborative art project - we have done many paintings together but never a collage. I spread out a variety of inviting materials - feathers, buttons, wood, fabric, paddle pop sticks, pom poms, and ribbon.We began pasting on pieces in an effort to model how to combine different resources to add effect. Each child used the materials in a different way. Peyton was making a 'design to take home' Matilda arranged the wooden blocks into a neat circle and was not afraid to spread out and add her mark to different areas of the cardboard.



Next to Matilda's circle we can see a rocket made by Elle to inspire the mini artists. Soon we had several rockets being built.



Here we can see Hudson making 'a tall, tall, tall tower' He was very interested in the wooden blocks and referred to them as bricks, perhaps the glue was mortar. Our imagination drives our creativity. Hudson was imagining he was a builder and he was building a tower with bricks. We can learn so much from children's choices for creative expression.



Santai was making a shark and was drawn to spikey looking objects and explained that 'Sharks have sharp teeth', perhaps he chose to make a shark because he has noticed this particular feature of the shark and is interested in expressing his idea of 'sharp teeth'



Milly arranged paddle pop sticks in a neat row, she was careful in her colour choice and her decision making process was very purposeful. She then experimented with feathers and tried to line these up in a similar fashion to the sticks... this lead to the discovery of how shape affects symmetry and set Milly on the path to developing a theory about shapes. Milly later explained that she was making 'Letters'... this comment reveals that through art Millywas also exploring symbolism.



Later in the day we see two friends return to the collage and work next to one another. They are very busy creating their own ideas and not too much discussion is going on. I ask what Matilda is doing and she explains that ; "I'm making a border for my piece of material' Summer busy cutting out very small shapes here's this and decides to make a border for her piece of material too. Children never learn in isolation it is through relationships that explore ideas, share findings and make meaning.

Here we see Matilda carefully arranging her border around the material.

Even Emila and Persia made a contribution to our project when they visited preschool for the day. It is such an inviting project everyone wants to add their mark and be a part of the complete picture. For Emila it was amazing so much stuff to stick on and so many paint brushes to do it with... 

Wow look at the collage now... a combined effort made up of so many small unique contributions. We are still building on our additions and find that we are always coming up with new ways to use the materials to express our imagination, ideas and knowledge.

Milly's Letter

Matilda's border...

Summer's border...

Charlotte's Rocket

A finished product photo will be included in this post in the near future...