July 2013
Kids on the Rock/ Minischool Preschool news July 2013
http://norfolkislandpreschool.blogspot.com
Firstly we have a new name. The children have spoken and their nickname has stuck, we are now called MINISCHOOL. Starting next week we will use our new preschool van to do a courtesy pick up from near the pedestrian crossing in Cascade road at 8:40 for about 10 minutes each morning. To book a free place on the Minischool minibus, call 51862 so we know you are coming with us, otherwise we will meet you up at the preschool (on Prince Phillip drive).
July was another busy month for the pre-schoolers. As well as everyday fun with, craft, games, reading, writing and drawing, painting, singing and dancing, puzzles and dramatic play, we also learn about our world with thematic adventures.
This month we began with some American studies to celebrate their 4th of July Independence Day. We made and learned about the stars and stripes on the USA flag (50 stars is a lot!).
We then went on a trip to France for Bastille Day and learned about life in Paris, including greeting and farewelling each day with Bonjour and Au Revoir. While playing with a miniature Paris city set, we discovered the architecture, heard the music and saw the art on the ipad. We can count to ten in French and tried our hands at some French cooking, throughout the week we loved making our own chocolate croissants and ate le pahn and le fromage (French bread and Camembert cheese).
We spent a week studying shapes and sizes, lots of sequencing patterns, 2D and 3D shapes. The 3D shapes amazed us the most until we took a drive around town a recognised many family shapes on street signs and on shops and buildings, shapes of all sizes and colours are everywhere. When the children call out ‘Octagon’ when we reach a stop sign that is a proud teaching moment for me.
During the school holidays we turned into a lovely vacation care group with extra pre-schoolers and their brothers and sisters, we had one of our preschoolers Granny who came to play each day which was a lovely extra experience for the kids. Having a small group over the school holidays allowed us to go on many excursions, catching guppies and swordtails in the creeks for our fish tank, fairy garden picnic lunches, walking to the top of Ball bay, a picnic at Palm glen followed by rolling down the hill races. Lastly a huge walk from Capt. Cook to Bird Rock and back again, luckily there were hot chocolates waiting for us at the end as a reward.
Our last theme to end July with has been A Winter Christmas or Christmas in July learning how our northern hemisphere friends celebrate Christmas in the cold. Of course it has been warm and summery weather wise most of this week, but we still wore our silly season Christmas hats and dressed up to make Christmas puddings, cupcakes and a yule log. The smell of peppermint scented playdough filled the air as we made some snowy snowmen, women and animals. It was fun to revisit our winter activities and games we first learned at the beginning of June like rolling the dice to build a snowman, feltboard stories and penguin maths. We all know the ‘Snow-key’ pokey off by heart now and this helps us put our shoes & gumboots on the right (and left) foot.
Our trip to the cross country was great for our future kindergarten children to experience what to expect when it is their turn next year or the year after, they mimicked the runners by racing on the outside of the track and cheered on our houses, our friends and family as well as encouraging those who needed it most. There were lots of life lessons were learned on this day about support & teamwork.
We wish one of our friends who just moved away a very happy 4th birthday and hope she receives the card we all made together and posted, we are looking forward to our post office excursion very soon to learn how it all works.
A huge Thank you to Marianne Ryan for donating a new cubby house to Minischool, we hope to turn it into a gingerbread cottage shortly and will send you the photos. A special thanks to all of our helpers who helped to move the cubby up and over the hill to its new home, you are all worth your weight in gold.
Thank you to all the fantastic feedback we have been receiving from the community through these articles in the paper, we love to hear the grandparents tell us how much they love to see the photos and stories about what the children are learning, they say they wish they came here too J
If you have any queries about the preschool or just want to come up for a visit, please call the number at the top of the page.
Minischool is an educational preschool run by qualified staff for 3 to 5 year old children. Situated on Prince Philip drive above Cockpit waterfall. With gorgeous views over the South Pacific. Come up to visit us at our home like preschool and see why we say we are learning with a view.
