Gas Station Play

1. 15 of March Gas Station Play This week children have been demonstrating an interest in the cars and bikes while playing outside. Building off the children’s interests we included a gas pump with the cars. The children, used the combination of the gas pump, cars and bikes as a stimulus to create a gas station. The children worked together to create a gas station, thinking about what they have seen in gas stations- a cash register, money, credit cards, fridges with food and drinks, and people to drive cars through and work in the gas station. What can we use for milk, drinks and food ? People need cards to pay with if they have no money Through this dramatic play children engaged in social skills, working together, listening to each other, taking turns with using the cash register, and cars. As well as practicing and refining their fine and gross motor skills through manipulating the cars and bikes, working together to carry the fridge down to the bottom of the garden where the station was set up, and using their fine motor skills though handing the plastic money and the keys of the cash register.

2. How does this play contribute to children’s development and learning? Developing Children’s Sense of Identity • Children were taking initiative, asking questions about where to find things and what to included. • Through dramatic play the children were able to explore different points of view – How the driver felt who did not have money for petrol. • Encouraging children's connections and contributions to their world • The children listened to and respected each others different ways of engaging in play. • The children were able to express their opinions on what they wanted to be included in the play- one child wanted to include credit cards for the costumers so when we went inside she drew, glued and cut credit cards for the other children to use for their play. • The children were able to cooperate with each other and negotiate roles and relationships in their play- who were going to be the drivers, and the cashiers. • Engaging Children as Confident and Involved Learners • Children were expressing wonder and interest in their environment. • The children were able to follow and extend their own interests with enthusiasm, energy and concentration- the play was sustained, and children activity shared ideas on how to further develop the gas station, by adding new items to it that they deemed necessary.

3. Creating an Obstacle Course To day the children created an obstacle course. We focused on the process of creating the course and working together, listening to each other and acting upon others and their own ideas. Not only did the obstacle course practice children’s gross motor skills but it gave meaningful context for children to engage in problem solving. How can we make this safe ? We can put the mats on the wall and the floor How can you carry the climbing equipment down to the obstacle course ? I have strong muscles see ! How can we make all the climbing material fit in one area? Luka move the red one there…Yes, that fits well like that… Watch me Jump The children also came up with rules to follow to ensure that they would not hurt them self's, because they created these rules they felt they had ownership over them. Thus allowing children to actively contribute to their learning environment. 17th of March

4. How does this play contribute to children’s development and learning? Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity Children feel safe secure and supported-respond to ideas and suggestions of others Children develop their emering autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency-persist when faced with challenges and when fist attempts are not successful Children learn to interact in relation to toher with care, empathy and respect -reflect on their own actions and consider consequences for others. During this week children were listening to each other and taking each others instructions. Children explained their reasoning to each other when setting up the obstacle course. Children become strong in their social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing • demonstrate trust and confidence • increasingly cooperate and work collaboratively with others • assert their capabilities and independence while demonstrating increasing awareness of the needs and rights of others Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing • engage in increasingly complex sensory-motor skills and movement patterns • combine gross and fine motor movement and balance to achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity, including dance, creative movement and drama • demonstrate spatial awareness and orient themselves, moving around and through their environments confidently and safely • show enthusiasm for participating in physical play and negotiate play spaces to ensure the safety and wellbeing of themselves and others. Next week the children will be given the option to take the obstacle course outside and add more materials to it.

5. 17th of March Respecting Friends Today we focused on respecting others, and listening to other. We started with a discussion on how we like our friends to treat us, and how we don’t like to be treated, as well as what we can do when some one dose something we do not like. The children decided that we must be gentle with each other when playing, we need to respect other work, and listen to others when asked to ‘Stop’. This discussion was aimed to help promote children’s social emotional skills, and arm children with ways to independtly attempt to resolve possible conflicts. Moreover this was futhur develop when we all sat down and play board games which the children each choose, listened to the instructions and waited very patiently for their turn. First its Aliah’s turn then Luka then it’s my go

6. How does this play contribute to children’s development and learning?

7. 17th of March Helping Out a Friend My light is broken. I need help. Will showed empathy for Luka today when he noticed that Luka was frustrated at not being able to fix the light. Will as he attempted to fix the light also attempted to explain to Luka how to fix it. I can do it for you. I'm good at fixing things Luka found his head light had broken off and he was unsure how to reattach it. As I walked over to show him Will rushed in and appeared happy to show Luka how to reattach the light.

8. 17th of March Dinosaur Family Play The children found a small dinosaur outside today which sparked their interest in dinosaurs. Therefore a box of dinosaurs was brought out for the children to use. They decided to use sheared paper and arrange them on a table. After arranging the dinosaurs on the table, the boys started to engage in dramatic play with the dinosaurs. Specifically playing families with them, the father, son and baby. You talk to my baby sister to make her happy Hi hi Thanks bro you’re the best Ok we have to save the others son

9. 18th of March The Who’s Who of the Dinosaur World: Herbivores, Omnivores, and Carnivores Dinosaurs • Today we extended the dinosaur play by putting a mat down with shredded paper, and using the interactive whiteboard to classify the different dinosaurs that we had. We discussed which dinosaurs were herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. We also found a lizard in with the dinosaurs, and talked about reptiles being cold blooded animals. Sorting, grouping, ordering and classifying groups of objects promotes mathematical thinking and scientific reasoning skills 10 meters is close to 20 of my big big steeps. Form the wall to the end of the lockers We discovered that a triseratops was 10 meters long. We roughly measured 10 meters of the classroom to see how long it look.

10. Weekly Reflection week starting: 15th of March 2010Week 1 Outside Play Through out the week the gas station has been a popular feature of play while out-side. Next Weeks Extensions: Sponges will be brought out for children to use to wash the cars with. Children will be shown common road signs and road safety will be discussed. Children will be asked what we can do to promote road safety with our cars and bikes. Inside Play The dinosaurs have been very popular this week, we have sorted, classified and discussed dinosaurs and their eating habits . Next Weeks Extensions: If the children still show the same interest in the dinosaurs the activity will extend to an indoor out door activity. We will discuss different habitats, and recreate these habitats. We will also continue to use the interactive white board to learn more about the dinosaurs.

11. Indoor Out Door Play This week the children have been actively creating obstacle course and practicing big jumps, as well as learning about safety requirements for setting up the obstacle course- eg mats must be down, one at a time and watching out for others. Next Weeks Extensions: we will move into the climbing area and incorporate the climbing equipment into the course. As the children in the late part of the week showed a growing interest in the climbing frame and slide. Weekly Focus • Children have also been practicing self help skills of responding to potential conflicts that may occur, how to treat others at kinder. They have also been encouraged in practicing self help skills of putting on suncream and putting on their own shoes and socks. Next Weeks Extensions: we will continue building upon these self help skills and children’s independence by continuing to encourage children to apply their own suncream, remember to get their hats and put them on, and encourage children to put on their own shoes. We also will encourage children to further develop social skills of turn taking and listening to others, this will be done through group games both indoor and out doors.

12. Trees Roots and Flying Ants Will had shone some reluctance to engage in any drawing or painting activities while at kinder, so when he showed interest the whiteboard, Will was given a whiteboard marker and he started to draw. Will drew one horizontal line and vertical lines. When asked what the drawing was he explained pointing to the horizontal line “this is the ground, and these (pointing to the bottom bits of vertical lines) are the bits of trees that suck up all the water” we discussed that these bits of the trees were called roots. 18th of March Tree Trunk This is a flying ant. I did 9 legs incase he wanted to walk Roots

14. 22 of March 2010 Flying is Hard Work Today Luka and Will got dressed up as super hero's Batman and Superman! Not only did they decide that they both helped people but they both flew ! During morning tea we read a book and noticed some of the different birds that were in the book. So after morning tea Will and Luka wanted to work on our kinder art project of creating wings. The wings had been painted and cut out last week, and today the boys decided to add feathers and things that would help them to fly. Aliyah you can do that side and the glitter. Did you know superman can fly While working on the wings we investigated how birds can fly. We watched a 10 minutes video explaining how birds took off, flew and landed. These are my wings so I can fly too.

15. Flying into a New Day Today we continued with the creation of our bird. More feathers were added then it was decided that the bird wings needed a birds body to be attached to. So the children found a block of foam and asked me to cut it into an oval. The children then asked if they could paint it. While they were painting the girls decided that the bird was now a parrot . We looked up parrots and looked at all the different colours they had in their feathers. While creating this bird children were engaging with vital skills of team work, problem solving, listening, joint decision making, instructing others, and following their peers instructions.

16. Hari ini kami bicara bahasa Indonesian Today we started our Indonesian program. We learnt how to say good morning “Selamatpagi” and count to ten. One------------1----------------Satu Two------------2----------------Dua Three----------3----------------Tiga Four------------4----------------Empat Five-------------5---------------Lima Six--------------6----------------Enam Seven----------7--------------Tujuh Eight------------8--------------Delapan Nine-------------9--------------Sembilan Ten--------------10-------------Sepuluh Next week we will continue to revise one to ten, and greetings as well as introductions.

17. 23 of March Piloting Planes Today boxes were left out on the floor, when the children walked in and saw the boxes they decided to create a plane out of the boxes. The Children then had to decide how to join the different pieces of cardboard and practiced tearing off bits of tape. Once the structure was complete the children decided to paint the plane. There was much discussion about what colours to paint it, however all of the children decided that the best colour to use was blue! We mixed green and yellow, white and dark blue, purple and blue, and green and blue. While mixing the paint, the children engaged in scientific thinking - predicting what the mix of colours will make and then adding more paint to create their desired colour. While painting the plane the children worked together, deciding who painted which area and with what colour. This was a big achievement for children at this age, working together, creating a plan, following through with a plan and seeing it through to the end without any disagreements. This shows that the children are practicing listening skills and social skills, which are essential skills for the future. Possible Extensions- if the children are interested tomorrow we will finish the wings of the plane and add cockpit gadgets.

18. A Guest with a Special Treat... Today we had special guest, Sophie. Sophie brought in a very special surprise for us, DOGS, and lots of them. All the children gathered round and looked with excitement at the dogs, Aliyah’s dog barked when she pushed its back. Wills dog growled when he pulled the rope in its mouth. While Luka held his dinosaur close and looked on the tags for the dogs names. Luka, Aliyah and Will chose names for all the dogs, and Sophie made us all laugh telling us she had named them all Hippo when she was little. Will chose the name ‘Soaklet’, and Aliyah named her dog ‘Johnny’. We had a special picnic lunch with Sophie, the dogs, and one dinosaur.

19. Measuring Up Over the last two weeks children have shown an interest in measuring things. This interest was first sparked by learning that a triceratops was 10 meters long. The children wanted to know how long 10 meters was, so we roughly measured it out using informal measurements of Wills steeps.