Term 4 is always a busy time at Beaconsfield Kindergarten. As well as their usual kinder program, our children have participated in a number of other incursions and excursions.
The children from our O’Neil Rd campus went to the Melbourne Museum, where they visited the Children’s Gallery and were particularly interested in the dinosaur exhibit. This interest has been extended on at kinder with lots of fun activities such as digging for dinosaur bones and painting their own dinosaurs.
Our Woods St children visited Myuna Farm where they went on a train ride to the wetlands, saw Farmer Daniel’s show featuring ‘Joey Davis’, a talented and cheeky cockatoo, and even had a chance to milk a goat and handfeed some of the larger farm animals. Our Rainbow Group had an incursion with Animals on the Move, during which they had the opportunity to cuddle and pat small farm animals. Since these visits, the children at Woods St have enjoyed many experiences at kinder that have extended their learning about farm animals, including matching adults with their young, and matching animals with their correct habitats (e.g. pond, paddock, stable, etc).
Both campuses were fortunate to participate in the Book a Chook program earlier in the year, and our O’Neil Rd campus has recently had a second visit from some chickens. The children enjoyed playing with and cuddling the chickens, as well as collecting the eggs and using them in our cooking program.
Sam from Berwick Family Eyecare recently came in to conduct vision screenings on all participating children. We are very fortunate that Sam and Berwick Family Eyecare have donated their time to provide this service to us for a number of years now.
This year our Committee of Management has organised a children’s disco for the first time. All of our kinder groups have been invited, and we are looking forward to seeing lots of our friends bopping around on the dance floor.
Many of our kindergarten children are excited about starting school next year. Our teachers have all been busy writing Transition Learning and Development Statements, which are completed in collaboration with parents in order to support children as they transition to school. These Statements provide valuable information to the Prep teachers about the child’s strengths, abilities and interests, as well as teaching strategies that help the child learn in the best possible way.
Our educators are also well underway in planning their end of year celebrations. Kindergarten is an important milestone in children’s lives, and all of our groups celebrate this time with an end-of-year concert. The children have already started practising for this special event, and are looking forward to showing off their acting and singing skills for their families.
We wish our kindergarten children all the best as they move on in their educational journey in 2018!
