St Anne’s Reception (Yellow Cygnets) by Jessica Love
The Yellow Cygnets have been showing great interest in birds and feathers. As an extension to this learning we read “Blackbird, Blackbird, what do you do?” by Kate McLelland, which is a heartfelt story about finding yourself. Pip wants to know what blackbirds do best; herons stand in the river, owls stay up all night, and pigeons peck at seeds … but what are blackbirds good at? After locating the front cover, back cover, spine, the title of the story, author, blurb and illustrations we discussed how birds weave their nests by layering sticks and twigs. We set out images of birds and then the children were encouraged to create a bird using playdough, googly eyes, matchsticks, and feathers. Their masterpieces were so beautiful! The children also had the opportunity to create their own interpretation of a bird’s nest using twigs, clay and feathers. We collected twigs from outside and then talked about using our crocodile snap-hand action to manipulate the clay. We also revisited our feather song (a great sensory experience allowing the children to stroke and tickle their hands, feet, legs, and face and eye track as their feather falls to the ground).

St Anne’s Reception (Green Cygnets) by Katie Whitfield
Term 1 has seen the children in the Reception room encounter a variety of art experiences, including easel painting, finger painting, stamping and dabbing, shape printing and collage. The children have thoroughly enjoyed the investigation and experimentation processes and to extend these interests we have provided the children with an opportunity to discover golf ball painting. The children learned to make predictions, generate patterns and enhance their eye-hand coordination all while they were creating their very own Easter bunny. It was a lovely opportunity to reflect on our learning and achievements this term and enjoy celebrating the upcoming Easter excitement.

Bairnsdale Reception by Sommer-Lea Collins
The children have enjoyed celebrating Easter in the Bairnsdale Reception group as we read books, sang songs and shared family traditions, memories and stories. We have created Easter gifts and handmade cards to bring home to the families on our last day. The children were enthusiastic about having an Easter photo which was later printed and glued on their card, before they decorated and wrote their names inside. On our last day of the term, the children invited their families into the ELC for an Easter afternoon tea. This was an opportunity for the children to share their learning activities and spend time with their families in the ELC environment while enjoying a lovely hot cross bun together.

St Anne’s Transition (Black Swans) by Danielle Carpenter
The Transition/Year 5 Buddy program is a highlight for both groups of children. Every week we meet to participate in a variety of partner activities. So far this year we have exchanged introductory letters, had ‘stay and play’ sessions at the ELC and made Easter crafts together. Next Term our focus will be ‘Buddies in Nature’. We have lots of exciting things planned, including our annual Buddy Bush Kinder day at the Knob Reserve, Stratford. As a teacher it is wonderful to see strong friendships develop between the big and little Buddies, to hear them talk and get to know each other, and to see the Year 5 students become mentors for our younger children.

St Anne’s Transition (White Swans) by Kristy How and Lisa Burgess
Much of the recent excitement has been around the preparation for our Easter Hat Parade. This special event united us as a community with our families, buddies and Foundation friends. Through the process of getting ready, the children experienced a wide range of activities including painting, pasting, taping, singing rhymes and songs with actions and using musical instruments. Parading the hats was a joyous moment for the children. You could see on their faces the pride in having their hard work appreciated by others in their lives. This builds a wonderful sense of purpose into their creative work at kinder and beyond. After the parade, the children shared some time with their buddies and family, sharing lots of yummy hot cross buns.

Bairnsdale Transition by Sommer-Lea Collins
After a visit from the Melbourne Museum, the Transition group extended their learning and interest in Dinosaurs by exploring information books, songs and games. The children then used their drawing and painting skills to create a dinosaur to represent their ideas from their learning. Provocations such as toy dinosaurs and books helped to prompt thinking and support ideas as they sketched an outline of their chosen dinosaur. They later explored watercolours for the first time to paint their hand-drawn images. The following week, the children used clay to create dinosaur fossils. This process was engaging for the children as they squished, rolled, and stamped dinosaurs to create their fossils, which are now dried and added to our outdoor dinosaur garden to add new materials to our imaginary play space.