Yarrahapinni Festival

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Early Years Learning Framework.

Belonging, being and becoming are integral parts of identity.

Children learn about themselves and construct their own identity within the context of their families and communities. This includes their relationships with people, places and things and the actions and responses of others. Identity is not fixed. It is shaped by experiences. When children have positive experiences they develop an understanding of themselves as significant and respected, and feel a sense of belonging. Relationships are the foundations of the construction of identity – ‘who I am’, ‘how I belong’ and ‘what is my influence?’ (EYLF).

The Pole arrives:

During the month of August, our ‘Gumnut’ and ‘Lilly Pilli’ children were introduced to a large cardboard pole. We thought about what we could do to decorate the pole as it was for a special occasion in our community, ‘The Yarrahapinni Festival.'

Following the Children’s Lead

The children had been using wool around the yard making ‘spider man’ webs and just stringing it along the boardwalk and across the yard. It felt natural to begin to wrap the pole with the odd bits of wool and that’s how it all began. Our children would sit down alongside the pole and wrap over and under with all sorts of coloured wool. We then decided to drip some glue over it to add another texture. We coloured the glue ourselves using paint, our children loved using the paint brushes to drip the glue – we sang “Drip, drip, drip, drip goes the glue.”

Wool and Glue:

Reed, Scarlet, Kane and Tahla come over to see what was happening. Helen (Educator) was wrapping wool around the pole. 

Reed picked up some wool and began to wrap over and under. Scarlet sat down and said, “blue” then wrapped her wool on the pole. Reed said,” Helen when I went to Nambucca I saw a bird’s nest with babies in it and one fell out.” Helen said, “oh dear, Reed that sometimes happens.” Sarah sat down with her glue to add some texture to the ‘pole’. Scarlet, Reed and Tahla were able to drip the glue onto the pole. Sarah said, “we need to drip the glue in little drops.” Scarlet, Reed and Tahla continued this experience until all the glue was gone.

Story Sharing

It became a place for lots of conversations between educators and children. There were many yarns spun. We especially liked Reed’s yarn about a birds nest in Nambucca where he saw a bird fall out of a nest. Kimberley shared her favourite story about Peter Rabbit. Our children became confident and involved as they engaged in this pleasurable experience.

Our Festival Story

Our families are invited to attend the march through town with the children. We are meeting early about 9.30am. Helen has invited Erin to attend and we have arrived to meet Sarah. There is a large crowd assembled in the street. Sarah, Helen and Erin (Educators), walk up and pick up the pole. Suddenly, there are children grabbing onto the pole - Santai, Zaylia, Matilda, Frieda, Jawaan and Patrick. 

The taller boys are up the front. Helen asked them to lower the pole for the smaller children and they do this. Alex is walking alongside Helen, she has her bells and is ringing them. The drum is playing an engaging beat. The tall flag poles are up the front of the march carried by the primary school children and members of the community. 

Another child joins onto the pole, it’s Isadora. Helen was given some bells to play, so she walked alongside Isadora and began to bang the bells in time with the drumming. Isadora smiles, looks ahead, and begins to nod her head in time to the beat, saying “Yeeaaah.” The people have come out of their houses to watch us march by. 

We wave to the crowd as we march along. We reach the corner shop and I recognise someone else walking towards our pole……its Jasper, Nate and his family. They all grab onto the pole and we enter the park where all the stalls and rides are happening.  Suddenly there is yahooing and clapping coming from the crowd, its Ayla and her family. We walk a little further and then it’s time to give the pole up as it is to be displayed at the front of the festival. The children say goodbye and disperse into the crowd.

Cupcake Cooking

This week, Matilda’s mum Henrike came in to do some cooking with us. She bought lots of different ingredients to make cupcakes. 
 

Obi, Matilda, Frieda, Alex, Summer, Jake, Santai, Seth, Alanah, Gem, Talya and Kalindi joined Henrike as everyone gathered around the table. Henrike and our children discussed the different ingredients and the measurements needed before allocating the various jobs of measuring, pouring, cracking and mixing.

Alex and Obi stirred the mixture in the bowl as different children had a turn adding ingredients. 

Matilda, Santai and Seth worked hard to grate the beetroot to add to our mixture.

Seth and Tayla added the coco powder.

Jake knew how to crack an egg perfectly.

Obi and Santai also cracked the eggs into each bowl for mixing. 

Summer, Matilda, Frieda and Alanah put the patty pans into the baking trays ready to add the mixture.

Once all the ingredients where added and mixed well we used spoons to transfer the mixture to the baking tray ready for the oven. Once cooked all of our children enjoyed eating them. 

At the end of the day we sold our left over cupcakes to our mums and dads!

Heavy Work

There are many types of Heavy Work, including pushing, crawling, crashing, jumping, hanging and wrestling that can support the central nervous system. Our children engaged in pulling, lifting and carrying as they aimed to lift a heavy bucket.

Obi and Santai wanted to do some lifting, Santai said "We are strong!" The boys collected a couple of buckets and a long rope from the shed. They put their supplies in a trolley attached to the back of their bikes and rode over to the sandpit and unloaded their supplies.

“Let’s set up the lifting over the blank” Obi suggested. Santai replied “Yeah, I’ve got the buckets.” 

Gem approached “What are you doing?” Santai said “We are going to fill this bucket with sand and lift it as high as the roof!” Gem asked “How are you going to get the rope on the roof?” 

Noah tried attaching the piping but decided "The rope will be better."  Obi asked an educator “Jodi, can you do it? You are as tall as the rope!” Gem added “We would need a ladder, but you look long enough Jodi.” Once the rope was threaded over the beam in the sandpit the boys then investigated and considered how they would attach the rope to the bucket. 

Everyone filled the bucket with sand, before realising that it was to heavy. Santai and Gem then removed some sand while Obi pulled the rope, trying to it off the ground. Gem, Noah, Obi and Santai used trial and error as they worked together to add and remove sand. Testing it each time as they Lifted, pulled and wrestled with the bucket. 

After much negotiation, problem solving and manual labour their was success! All four boys heaved the bucket off the ground and up to the roof! They held it at the top "Hold on tight!" declared Obi. Santai said "We have to let it go...move back!" Everyone shuffled back, they let go of the rope and it sand bucket came crashing down! The boy thought it was hilarious!

Further negotiations saw children having individual turns, swinging off the rope. This lead them to remove more sand. Most of our children stood closely under the bucket as they worked hard to lift it off the plank.

Zaylia and Julian removed more sand and worked together as they tried different lifting techniques. Julain said "Did you know its easier to lift it to the roof if you move back!" Zaylia proved this as she stepped right back and used her body to lift the bucket - "See, it's sooo high!"