St John's Kindergarten in Kingaroy, Queensland | Education

St John's Kindergarten

Locality: Kingaroy, Queensland

Phone: +61 7 4162 7846

Address: 84/94 Ivy Street, 4610 Kingaroy, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.qlecs.org.au

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12.01.2022 For those who don’t know him, this extraordinarily good looking corgi is Waffles. He’s a regular at kindy much to the delight of the children. But sometimes, they do get a bit too enthusiastic with him. So today our friend and experienced ‘animal whisperer’ Steph came to chat with the children about the ways of handling Waffles that everyone including him can enjoy. We discovered that he does not like having his ears, tail or feet touched, but being scratched on the... back of his head or shoulders is one of his very favourite things. In fact, he likes it so much that he rolls over so you can scratch his tummy! She showed us what excites him and how that can cause him to behave in ways we don’t want to encourage but also told us how to respond to him when that happens so that he stops. As she demonstrated, it worked like magic, and the children quickly learned that if he is chasing them or running around in a way they do not like, then they can stop him by just standing still, folding their arms and lifting their head up. Steph also demonstrated how to walk with him on the lead but not pulling. These things are important for the children to learn as studies have shown that direct experiences with animals can have very positive effects on children’s emotional development. Such experiences often result in children developing more empathy for other people from an early age - in part because they learn to understand the feelings and needs of animals. Last week you may have noticed some photos of children having the time of their life covering their hands and arms in slimy, squishy, squeezy paint. Today, we provided actual slime. Deep pink, almost red in colour (It’s blood said Miss GB), it held several of the children totally in its thrall today. The children tried to pick it up, and it slid through their fingers. They swished and swirled it, they smelt it it was such fun! And when the whisks were added, things got really interesting. Dunking them in the trough, pulling them out quickly and holding them up in the wind was discovered to be a very efficient way of making bubbles. But swirling the whisks on their side and pulling them out slowly produced a different result big globs of slime that held in the whisk for a while and then dripped back down with satisfying plops! See more

08.01.2022 Aahh, our mudpit! Dirt and water 2 two very simple and basic ingredients have and continue to be the source of so much activity, creativity, joy, and sensory fun for children at our kindy. Today was the first time it has been used this year, and as new people explored, we could see them falling under it’s spell! Tentative at first and enjoying watching, little people could not resist the call of the mud, the water and the fun! They like to shovel it, ‘cook’ with it, bathe... in it, earthmove it to create dams and creeks, smear their bodies with it and draw with it. There is no end to the creations, ideas and games children will invent. While children are braving the mud, sloshing and squelching around, they are challenging themselves, expanding their experiences and in turn, their world. Meanwhile, there was trouble aboard the dinghy. It had turned into a pirate ship, and the pirates, who had been busy catching sharks with their fishing lines found themselves being attacked. And then the boat began to sink. Just as well they had the ropes from their fishing lines handy they were thrown up into the tree and used the haul the ship to safety! Phew! Many of the pirates found themselves in different roles when we were indoors. Patients and doctors was the theme of the play. The children made full use of the syringes, patient mat, kidney dishes, stethoscopes, goggles and good old St. John’s First Aid book for those difficult cases! This is a play theme that never fails to happen at least several times a year here and it can go on for weeks! We’ll be watching and waiting to see what happens next. In our Yarning Circle this morning we explored shakers, clap sticks and kulups. We experimented with the sounds each instrument makes, talked about their importance in Aboriginal Culture and then practiced keeping fast and slow beats. And then we sang one of the songs we’ve been learning Inanay. It’s astonishing how quickly the children have mastered the words and how often we hear the children singing it to themselves as they play! See more

06.01.2022 Our Picking Garden had some work done over the holiday break, and as a result there has been slim pickings when it comes to flowers. There is lavender aplenty because it was not moved, but the geraniums have all been reduced to cuttings. Being the hardy plants that they are, some have had a flower or two and they last about five seconds before being plucked by an appreciative pair of hands. So, to see if we could provide some quick flowers, today we planted lots of Swe...et Alice seedlings. These are a favourite of our Sugarbag Bees who nest next to the tree trunk in our Picking Garden. Our little gardeners moved mulch aside, dug holes and with tender care (well, mostly) the new plants were placed into the holes and soil gently patted around. Then they were carefully watered, and soon (hopefully very soon) there will be more than lavender to pick! There were so many children wanting to help that we might just tackle putting more flowers in our Flagpole Garden next week! After Morning Tea, it was the turn of this group to walk through the big school over to the library to meet Mrs. T. She read the children a brand new book The Grinny Granny Donkey. You guessed it, it’s a sequel to The Wonky Donkey. Some of the children were familiar with the story so later in the day we watched a very funny YouTube clip and sang the song! There was further experimentation with making marbles roll down slopes (kind of home made marble runs), adventures with rope, painting of rocks and investigations of light and shadow when the basket of torches was discovered. We danced the Hokey Pokey, talked about octopuses and other creatures of the oceans, saw a horde of Harlequin Beetles in a bottle and so much more! But the REAL find of the day was in the box box. An Advent Calendar. Once found it was coveted by one and all the perfect place to hide little treasures! And anyone who has had much to do with children of this age knows just how much they love to hide things. See more