Time really does fly when you’re having fun! Lets travel down the developmental milestone pathway in the Dolphin room and recap on the children’s growth over the last 6 months, from when they first entered their new room environment.
Children adapt extremely well when they are in a safe space. Our main focus and goals for this room is to provide emotional support and a sense of safety to our toddlers. We achieve this by the way of consistent daily routines. Self-help is a foundation skill at this age, which is supported through our daily routines. Consistency is a confidence builder and the key to growth and sustainability.
We take the following into consideration, the emphasis being on the word ‘NEW’;
- Transitioning into a new environment, means lots of curious learners excited about exploring;
- Building new bonds with their new educators; and
- Learning new skills such as self-help skills, sense of belonging, communication skills and regulating emotions.
With this in mind, communication is key and is encouraged each day for the children to express themselves verbally and non-verbally. We create opportunities for engagement through singing, story-time and group discussions as a collective, where the children are encouraged to contribute verbally. Our transition group time song is “Bee Bee bumble bee” where the Dolphin children are required to give their name when asked, before moving on to the next part of their day.
Educational Programming
Our Educational programming places a strong emphasis on;
- Social and Emotional learning (SEL) ;
- Fostering exploration, discovery and learning by fully immersing in Natures playground; and
- Inclusion of our Native culture.
We harness these teachings through our 3 specialised programs; ( Mindful Kids Resilience, Empowering Our Youth, Indigenous and Nature Inspired) These programs are modified to each age group and are embedded into our Centre curriculum to complement the National curriculum, for optimum growth.
‘Empowering Our Youth’ program
‘Empowering Our Youth’, is our Indigenous Inspired program. Our vision is a journey of living, breathing and walking together to bridge the gap and unite as one. To empower our youth to be inclusive of all cultures, but especially their own.
The Dolphin’s friends pay respect to the traditional custodians of past, present and emerging, by incorporating the indigenous culture through the day, with the ‘Acknowledgement of Country’, learning the Yugambeh language, listening to dream time stories and music, dancing, painting and interactions with elders.
Elder Miss Billie visits the children on a regular basis, providing hands on, interactive experiences:
1. Orche body painting
The process of making the Orche is introduced at the beginning of each lesson where the painting of the totem animal (Dolphin, Turtle and Eagle) is painted on their bodies the dolphin’s children communicate with Miss Billie by stating which totem they were wanting on body.
2. Totem dancing.
Billie then moves into totem dancing which represents a sense of ownership and responsibility as each child connects with their chosen totem.
In the classroom
In one lesson, the Dolphins friends followed up their learning from Miss Billie by exploring ‘Naidoc’ week in the classroom. Painting the aboriginal flag on their hands, the dolphins learnt colour recognition, and furthered their understanding of what each colour represented on the Aboriginal flag.
‘Mindful Kids’ Resilience program
The Mindful kid’s’ certified resilience program was created by our very own licensee, who is a Resilience Facilitator and a Certified NLP coach. This unique program has been embedded into our centre for the past seven years and is continually being revised and updated with new resilience techniques.
Each day we support the children by providing a growth mindset to view each and every experience, positive or negative, as an opportunity to learn. Over the past six months we have focused our learning on breathing techniques, redirection tools, role play, relaxation practises such as yoga and meditation and exploring books and tools that support different ways to understand, identify and manage emotions.
This month the book that the dolphins friends explored was Tiger-Tiger, Is It True?. The book is about a little tiger who thinks that his whole world is falling apart: Tiger thinks his parents don’t love him, his friends have abandoned him, and life is unfair, until his friend Mr turtle questions him asking are you sure that true? We implemented this activity daily, asking the children are you sure that this is true?
To teach the skill of how to question false beliefs in this age group, we first start with a physical item. For example;
- Prior to announcing it was time to transition to outside play, we gathered on the mat with a hat strategically placed in the middle of the group, which belonged to one of the children. The children were asked to look carefully at the hat. The question was asked “Is it true that the hat belonged to”….. they all looked and giggled and replied NOOOOO, pointing to the person the hat really belonged to.
Nature Inspired, Bush Kindy program
Our campus outdoor environmental yard was designed as an extension of our indoor studio, providing space for sensory exploration with natural materials, discovery, stillness, relaxation, collective group learning and gross motor skills.
Our Dolphin friends are diving into nature, literally, with messy mud play. Dirt seems to be every child’s dream environment. It supports whole body, imaginative experiences that are different to sand. Sensory heaven is what we call this yard, with grass, sand, dirt, bark, logs and a timber bridge. During the past six months our Dolphins friends have participated in fun activities that fostered exploration though their senses.
The Dolphins children also participate in earthing and grounding activities, to cultivate inner stillness, presence and heighten self-awareness through their 5 senses. They rejoice in having afternoon tea, picnic style in nature, focusing on what they can taste, before laying on the grass immersing themselves in the present, by focusing on what they can see, before closing their eyes and shifting focus to what they can hear, feel and smell.
Developmental Milestones
Developmental milestones are the essential abilities such as;
- Moving;
- Seeing;
- Hearing;
- Communicating; and
- Interacting.
Which toddlers achieve as they begin to engage with the world.
Beginning of the year
Our focus with the children consisted of creating safe and secure attachments within their peers and with their educators. Learning to adapt to a new routines, finding a sense of belonging and learning to communicate.
Six months on, we are setting short- and long-term goals for each individual child.
Long Term goals
Language and Communication skills
Encouraging fuller sentences, by putting words together to complete a sentence…… “May I please”, “I would like”, “my name is” and so forth.
Cognitive Development
By providing:
- Art experiences, offering a range of materials and textures;
- Exploring shapes, colours throughout the daily routines;
- Counting throughout the day; and
- Encouraging friends to be interactive during group time.
Gross Motor
Movement and physical development, with a focus on strengthening muscles and balancing. Children are provided with the opportunity to upskill by exploring the big yard, as a part of their daily routine. Gross motor ability enables children to move in their world with balance, coordination, ease, and confidence.
Fine motor skills
This Is a daily practice with the Dolphins children to strengthen their fine motor skills. Opportunites to strengthen core muscles in their fingers are provided with;
- Threading
- Cutting
- Self-help skills.
In conclusion
As we enter the second half of the year we will continue to work towards reaching each child’s fullest potential. Observing, facilitating, expanding and extending on children’s interests as we witness the children reach their individual milestones.
It has been a joy to watch each individual child, blossom.
That’s all from us this month, Miss Sabrina, Miss Jaiya and the Dolphins Gwonda Children.
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