Grace Berglund Kindergarten in Warragul, Victoria | School

Grace Berglund Kindergarten

Locality: Warragul, Victoria

Phone: +61 3 5622 3324

Address: 12 George Street 3820 Warragul, VIC, Australia

Website: kindercluster.ymca.org.au/centres/GraceBerglund

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25.01.2022 September 10th. Outdone by a 5 year old. I played 2 games of Memory or concentration with Anabelle. She beat me both times. "I'm too clever for you Pauline" she declared

24.01.2022 September 10th 2020 Harvey and Austin Bawden collected stones, rocks, leaves and grass to make a campfire. They declared the leaves and grass were the Bush tucker that they were cooking to eat. They found some charcoal and used it to draw on themselves declaring that they were body painting just like the Aboriginals. Both boys were drawing on prior learning about Australia’s First People. I am sure the boys knowledge has come from both their home and kinder environment. Children use play to develop a deeper understanding of their world and a deeper awareness, empathy and respect for other people.

24.01.2022 Blue and Green Group November 23rd and 26th Reflection SCHOOL TRANSITION Over the last few weeks many of the children have been visiting their School. Transition to school can be a very anxious and scary time as well as exciting. So many mixed emotions for the kinder children. They are told they are BIG now and going to school. Only to get to school and find that they are the smallest ones there and that the place is so big with so many people. It is loud, lots of rooms, p...Continue reading

21.01.2022 Blue Group don't forget to bring your Teddy Bear on ThursdayBlue Group don't forget to bring your Teddy Bear on Thursday

21.01.2022 Green Group Reflection 11.9.20 Today we read the story You, Me, and Empathy to the children by Jayneen Sanders. The children were unsure of the word empathy, and what it meant. After reading the book some of the children were really understanding the concept, as I gave examples. Mia was able to tell me that it is about being kind and caring if you see someone hurt, or sad. Several children when asked were still very unsure, so Pauline will read this book again to the childr...en on Monday in small groups. This will give them a chance to reflect on what they remember and go into more detail on this topic. https://e2epublishing.info//book-reading-you-me-and-empathy Above is a link if you would like to listen to this story at home. At mat time before lunch we listened to the song H20 by the Willems sisters. It is a fantastic song that highlights how important water is to all living things, and how we can do our part to try and save 3 buckets of water a day. This leads on from our discussions and learning about ‘The Water Cycle’ that was continued today in our Friday afternoon school readiness, small group sessions. Trudie followed on with our learning around ‘The Water Cycle’ showing the children a 3 minute video/song for the children to watch and listen with discussions and questions at the end.. We continue to work on the cued articulation son and building childrens language development through promoting communication and I went games. Inside the children are developing their skills in box construction as you can see Eddy drawing a plan of what he is going to build, being a bird house. Staff scaffold his learning through asking questions about what materials he might need, giving praise for great ideas, offering support to hold an item if required, promoting language. Finley demonstrates his independence, creative thinking ability and fine motor skills as he creates a fabulous construction of a rocket with flames down the bottom. We continued with some bear activities and their was some great socio-dramatic play happening in the 3 bears area. We will continue with Bear activities again next week along with the water cycle, learning about empathy and much more!!!

19.01.2022 Yellow Group-3 Year old Children bring your Teddy Bear on Wednesday. No snack needed. We will provide fruit and Teddy BiscuitsYellow Group-3 Year old Children bring your Teddy Bear on Wednesday. No snack needed. We will provide fruit and Teddy Biscuits

18.01.2022 Green Group September 14th During our first mat time one little boy was feeling sad because his sister told him he was not allowed to have her nail polish on because he was a boy. We all shared stories of wearing nail polish with many boys showing us their painted nails. Staff discussed with the children the idea of equality and how we can all have nail polish if we want. We read the story No Difference Between Us. We looked at all the ways we are the same and different and... how we can wear or do what makes us happy. We got the kinder nail polish out and many children and staff had their nails painted. (Pauline bought some nail polish remover for the staff after kinder!!) As you all know a big part of our Learning, Identity, Community and Wellbeing focus is on Equality and being able to do what makes us happy. We will follow up with the book Who Am I? I am Me by Jayneen Sanders from Educate 2 Empower on Wednesday See more

17.01.2022 We also read the book version of Can’t You Sleep Little Bear in the morning and watched it on the screen in the afternoon. Each child did a pasting activity of a Bear. Staff supported the children to enhance their skills with the paste and paste brush. Wiping the brush, putting a small amount of paste on the item to be pasted on, thinking about the colours, shapes and sizes of material and some even looked at pattern as they worked. We sang Bear songs and went on a Bear Hunt. More Bear activities on Wednesday and Friday. Don’t forget to bring your bear on Friday.

15.01.2022 September 10th Blue Group 2020 We recapped on the water cycle starting with the H2O song. It is a really catchy tune and the children wanted to listen to it several times. The children are beginning to grasp the idea of the Water Cycle with Charlie G saying so it goes round and round all the time. We will follow up with some simple You tube clips explaining the water cycle as we have found that many children understand and retain the concepts being taught when we use a screen!!! The children enjoyed pretend play with the Black Bears and Grizzly bears and asked staff to read the facts about the bears that was printed and displayed in the Bear play area.

14.01.2022 The Kinder Tea Towels have arrived and will be given out this week. Thanks to Caitlin Juster for organising all this.

14.01.2022 Communication, Community, Identity September 17th Blue Group Teddy Bear Picnic We began the day with the children standing at the front of the group and introducing their Teddy or toy and telling us what they knew or liked about the toy. This supports the children to develop a sense of agency and identity. Our Teddy Bears songs, games and stories gave the children the opportunity to actively use, engage with and share the enjoyment of language and texts in a range of ways. Re...petitive rhymes and stories give the children the ability to practice speech sounds and patterns and recreate stories as they remember them. We heard many versions of The 3 Bears, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear and of course The Bear Hunt. Children used the creative arts, such as drawing, painting and sculpture when they made bear ears, paintings, pictures & used playdough. Today we made Hairy Scary Bears sorry about the wool that will line your floor at home. Drama, dance, movement, music and story-telling was used to express their ideas and understanding of the concepts involved. The children engaged in enjoyable reciprocal interactions using verbal and non-verbal language as they used role play and dressing up as bears and pretending to tell the story of Goldilocks. They constantly used their memory to recall and retell the many bear stories. The children responded verbally and non-verbally to what they saw, heard, touched, and tasted. The costumes and materials were soft, fluffy, prickly etc. The dough was soft and squishy. The Bear Hunt Game was very noisy!!!! This theme was rich in language and numeracy as we focused on small, middle sized and large. We talked about emotions we, the Bears or Goldilocks may have felt. We presented a different scenario with Father Bear being disappointed rather than the angry and aggressive dad as we did not want to portray dad’s or male figures in a negative way. The children demonstrated a sense of agency and belonging within the kinder environment as they showed others their bear and shared picnic lunch. Some of the teddy bears were nearly bigger than the children!! The children enjoyed the playful atmosphere and responded positively to others, reaching out for company and friendship. We read 2 stories about Bears sleeping through the Winter and talked about Hibernation. Wake Up Bear and Goodnight Bears See more

14.01.2022 Thanks for the flowers Jemma Mitchard

14.01.2022 September 14th Green Group Reflection Edward, Finn, Oliver and Nash enjoyed sailing the sea in the Pirate ship looking for treasure. They also created an Ice cream shop. Olivia, Aaron, Connor, and George were testing their skills and courage on the scooter boards. They would push the board along and when it was fast enough they would lay down on it and see how far they would travel. This is ok if you get the timing right otherwise you hurt knees, hands and other body parts t...hat may contact the ground. The children showed resilience and the ability to persist and give things a try as they continued to challenge themselves and see how far they could go. It is great for children to learn how to safely take risks and learn what they can and can’t do and the consequences. We continually set challenges or observe rather than stepping in and prohibiting risky activity as children don’t learn if we take the learning away from them. George and Connor did some heavy work as they moved tires, logs and wood to make a fire. Dara and Alexander were testing their skills with the Trapeze swing and the hoops. They used trial and error to see how many different ways they could use the hoops. I witnessed one child chewing on their fingernails and another child telling them they needed to wash their hands now or they would get the Corona Virus

12.01.2022 We have seen this image floating around for a little while now and just love it so much. This is exactly what happens when boys play with dolls. The skills they... learn through doll play are endless, including social skills, responsibility, empathy and compassion, imagination, language and more! We are starting to see more advertising including boys playing with dolls on the packaging or in promotional materials which is great but more work needs to be done. Especially around gift giving and dealing with ‘dolls are only for girls’ comments from family friends. If you have a little boy in your life, break the stereotype and get him a doll!

12.01.2022 DAY 3: SHARING HOUSEHOLD DUTIES Research has shown that in general women do significantly more home tasks than men. And that their load increased with the extra... responsibilities of homeschooling during COVID-19. All households should be sharing the home responsibilities equitably with tasks such as cooking meals, doing the laundry, helping children with their homework or homeschooling Check out the tip sheet below on how we can do the little things to work together respectfully and build a brighter future for everyone https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXPCawJU4AANH_V #16daysofactivism #respectvictoria #gippsland #latrobe #TogetherForRespectAtHome

12.01.2022 Green Group Children attended the Grace Berglund Kinder Olympics today. Mimi our student designed a circuit to support the development of the children's gross motor skills and co-ordination. She pumped them up to start the Olympics with some warm up exercises with some great inspirational music. After the Olympics the Children were awarded a medal. Not once were the words "winner or Loser" mentioned by the staff or children in this exercise. We did egg and spoon races, long j...ump into the sand pit and an obstacle course. Photos and more about this will be sent home next week. We just wanted to explain why they received a medal today. Thanks Mimi we all enjoyed the music and had so much fun. The children have really enjoyed having Mimi here and responded well to her warm and energetic personality. We will miss her when her placement finishes on Friday Dec 4th See more

09.01.2022 Father’s Day and Family Reflection. September 17th 2020 For Father’s Day we asked the children questions about their dad. I hope you enjoyed learning a thing or two about yourselves from the Blue and Green Group children. We asked the children a series of questions about their dad. Some children were able to answer the questions easily and others needed lots of prompts. We asked the children What does dad like to do? The most common answer was Go to work. I had to real...ly prompt the kids to think of things that dad might do outside of work, but the answer usually came back to work. I asked Why do you love your dad? I often meant I had to prompt or give the children ideas. It made me think about the image we portray for our children (and it was no different with my own children). I know we all have to work, and many of us love our work but maybe we need to spend some time with our kids making it obvious as to what the other pleasures or things we like are. For example on the weekend include the kids in the things you are doing and talk about your likes and dislikes and encourage your children to talk about their likes and dislikes. I know you love your children and love spending time with them but how often do we actually say at the end of a bike ride, a game or building with the leggo I really liked doing that with you or that was lots of fun. Children love to help and be involved with what you are doing. How old is dad? We have some youthful parents of 16 and some not so youthful at 70. What is dad’s favourite food and favourite drink? Some dad’s like healthy food and some not so healthy. This is ok we all like sometimes and Everyday foods. Alcohol was one of the main favourite drinks!! During the last few years the kinder went through the State Government Healthy Achievement Program and successfully achieved all Benchmarks in 2019. One benchmark is Tobacco, Alcohol and Other Drugs and Mental Health and Wellbeing. The children’s answers while being funny on one level were also concerning on another level. Our children are very observant and curious, they see, hear and notice everything we do, they also want to be like us. I am not judging but we all need to look at the image we give our very impressionable young children or even for me my older children. It made me think about what image or message we give the children and what we are teaching them with our daily habits and rituals. Maybe we all need to reflect on the image we want our children to have of us both as a mum or dad and what we need to do to make sure we are being a good role model for our children. As part of the Healthy Achievement Program we have lots of information for parents on Tobacco, Alcohol and Other Drugs and Mental Health and Wellbeing, let me know if you would like further information. See more

08.01.2022 Goldilocks and The 3 BearsGreen and Blue Group The Goldilocks and 3 Bears play area was very popular. The children at times acted out variations of the story or pretended to make up their own games/stories. This was a great way for children to contribute their ideas and experiences in play. They were able to demonstrate an increasing understanding of measurement and number using vocabulary to describe size, volume and numbers as they counted bears, bowls etc. WE observed chi...ldren expressing their ideas and feelings and understanding and respecting the perspectives of others. hey lets pretend that you are the mother bear, hey lets pretend that you got lost, no no lets pretend and so on. The children were listening to and responding to sounds and patterns in speech and the 3 Bears and Bear Hunt Story in context. They were actively using, engaging with and share the enjoyment of language and texts in story telling, pretend play, dramatization, singing and listening. They used the language of the stories to engage in symbolic play to imagine and create roles, scripts and ideas. As I began to read Goldilocks and the 3 Bears to the group for the first time it struck me that Father Bear is portrayed as the angry aggressive bear, mother bear as the meek and mild and baby bear as not very resilient. These concepts I felt did not fit with our Zones of Regulation and Gender Equality teaching. With this in mind I adapted the way I read the story. Both Father Bear and Mother Bear had surprised voices that were similar when they observed their porridge etc being touched and not an angry or intimidated voice. oh dear someone has been eating our porridge. I made baby bear also react the same way to show that he wasn’t getting too upset but rather a little disappointed. We have found that dad’s are often portrayed as the angry aggressive person in books and children then grow up believing that this is the role of a dad. This is not what we want the children to believe. I am sure that most dad’s don’t want to be represented in this way. We also want dad’s to know that this is not the expectation of them especially if we want to reduce domestic violence and teach boys to be more in touch with their feelings and that they don’t have to be this strong macho person. Throughout our play we have emphasised these concepts of surprise, it will be ok, what can we do and a sense of equality between the bears and Goldilocks. These concepts fit with our kinder Philosophy and Quality Improvement Plan. The staff at kinder use every opportunity they can to promote gender equality, that it is ok for boys and girls to be who they want to and provide examples of ways to express our emotions appropriately and being respectful of others.

07.01.2022 Over the next 16 days we'll be sharing information and resources to assist in the prevention of gender-based violence. Each day we will share resources to show ...how every one of us can take small actionable steps. We would love you to join in, share these posts, and assist us in promoting equality. DAY 1: HOW TO AVOID GENDER STEREOTYPES WITH YOUR KIDS It is important that as parents we avoid gender stereotypes with or kids and do not influence our children's behaviour based on their gender. To better support our kids, we can: allow them to participate in activities that match their interests speak to them in ways that acknowledge their personality make sure to model different household duties in your relationship Here is a great resource to assist you in avoiding gender stereotypes with your kids: https://whe.org.au/wp-conte//sites/3/2017/11/NL-poster.png #16DaysOfActivism #latrobe #gippsland

07.01.2022 Term Dates Grand Final Day Holiday Friday October 23rd Last day of Term 4 Blue Group Tuesday December 15th Green Group Wednesday December 16th ...Continue reading

01.01.2022 GREEN Group don't forget to bring your Teddy Bear on Friday. Kinder will finish at 1.30pmGREEN Group don't forget to bring your Teddy Bear on Friday. Kinder will finish at 1.30pm