Little creek stopped flowing, her beds are all dry

Little creek is waiting for drops from the sky.

Bunuru is the Noongar season of late summer, and this year our creek began to dry up early over the holiday break.  However, due to some heavy rain in the days before school returned, we were fortunate to have flowing water for our first Bush Kindy visit to the creek for the year.  The children were having a joyous time playing in the fresh waters and climbing branches when the forest shared one of her unexpected wonders with us - an enormous green caterpillar making its way along the log.  Everyone was captivated by its beautiful features, and followed its slow progress for some time before it was eventually moved (for its own safety).

By the second week the creek had dried up again, as the children settled back into the routines of Bush Kindy.  The forest and creek have their own particular qualities during Bunuru, the dryness characterised by cicadas singing, dragonflies darting and hovering and bindi-bindi the butterfly fluttering by at every turn.  With another bout of rain in the early morning, cicada song was replaced by the chorus of happy frogs.  And always, the familiar birdsong that welcome the children back into their midst.  All these sights, sounds and feelings are reflected in our songs, stories and yarning as we give our attention, and our thanks, for the gift of spending time together in this special place.

Bush School

Our Bush School program has gotten off to a fine start.  During our first week we based ourselves at Kristi’s Earth Station, and the children participated in a range of activities including weaving and making paperbark Gathering Baskets.  In Week 2 we commenced our exploration of our local surroundings by following the course of the creek bed from one end of the school boundary to the other.  The children showed great perseverance as they met the challenges that arose while finding our way from one end to the other, and got to know the creek in a way that most had never experienced before.

In Week 3 the children worked together in smaller groups tackling some of the weeds in a section of the creek that we had identified during our walk the previous week.  This was putting into practice the custodial ethic of ‘Caring for Country’ that underpins the Bush School program.

In Week 4 we will be having an incursion by the Denmark Bird Group, who will be engaging the children in some exciting activities to deepen their awareness of the birds in our forest environment.

“Little shell, little shell, tell me about the ocean

 Little shell, little shell, tell me about the sea

Where have you been?

Where is your home?

Little shell, little shell that the waves brought to me…..”

We’ve been singing this song at the end of our morning “Ocean and Beach Circle” at Karri Kindergarten each day….. you might hear your child singing it at home.  After almost three weeks the children are settling well into our daily and weekly rhythms, especially those who have already attended Silver Birch Kindergarten in previous years, as our days flow in a similar way.  For those who are new, it may take a little longer to feel comfortable away from family in a new environment with a large group.  We warmly welcome our newcomers and their families; Eleanor and Sacha (K4), Donnie, Ruby and Charley (K5) and Daniela (K6), bringing our total to 20!  We wish each of you a positive, nurturing experience in our kindergarten and we are very happy you’re here!

A mixed age kindergarten (4-6 year olds) brings wonderful opportunities for the older children to learn to nurture the younger ones, and for the little ones to be inspired by the imaginative play of the older children.  As the year progresses, the K6 children will be given more responsibilities to assist with the running of the kindergarten, such as taking notes to the office, helping to cut fruit, pour water and clean up after morning tea.  These are all tasks which utilise their developing skills and help them to feel like valuable members of our kindergarten “family”.  In addition, the K6 children will do handwork each week.  They have been very excited to begin their first sewing project, a placemat stitched with wool and large needles on hessian.  As the “silver dolphin” (the needle) dives beneath the “waves” (the hessian), we watch in wonder as stitches appear in a line.  Then with a contrasting colour the dolphin glides “underneath the bridges” to fill the spaces between the stitches.  Our 30 minute handcraft session yesterday passed so quickly with the children engrossed in learning a new skill whilst the small group of K5 children enjoyed extra outside play with Merveena.

The children have all been enjoying outside play on these mild summer days, swinging on the swings, going for rides in the red wagon and making beautifully decorated cakes in the sandpit.

Here are some photos of our outside play.

Warm wishes,

Denise

  

We have had a wonderful start to the year with a form drawing main lesson.  It was heartening to see the wonder and excitement of the children on the first day when they discovered that everything in the world around them was made from straight and curved lines!

Class One followed the adventures of Lucy and Peter over two weeks as they explored a magical forest and met all kinds of colourful characters who helped them discover some of the interesting forms of which the world around us is made up of.

We also heard the story of Wallace, the wandering sheep who wandered away from his flock and got lost in the bush.  Although he survived quite well his wool soon became a problem.  His fleece grew and grew and made the summer unhappily hot and the rain drenched him in winter making his fleece too heavy.  How grateful he was when some children found him and took him back to the farm to be shorn.  This was the beginning of our Handcraft sessions.  We have been washing and carding Wallace’s wool, as well as getting soapy and wet with wet felting projects.

Thank you to all the supportive and encouraging class one parents who sewed crayon rolls over the holidays and helped us to have a smooth and joyful start to the year.  Special thanks to Lesley who sewed a class set of beanbags that we use every day in our morning circle.

What a fantastic start to the year we have had in Class 2!  The road has risen to meet us, the wind has been always at our back, and the sun warm upon our faces as we have followed in the footsteps of the Goddess Brigit through ancient Ireland.  We’ve skipped to jigs, drawn beautiful Irish landscapes and sung our hearts out in the key of D.  The forces of light have struggled mightily with the forces of darkness as we’ve immersed ourselves in the Celtic Narratives main lesson.  Thank goodness for the Sword of Light, the Spear of Victory, the Cauldron of Plenty and the Stone of Destiny!  Otherwise, who knows which side would have prevailed?

We have also begun to unravel the mysteries of the times tables.  We discovered that the 4 times table forms a five pointed star with an upside down pentagon in the centre.  Amazing!  Through singing the tables, moving our bodies to the tables, rhythmic clapping and skip counting, even Ashley is getting better at them.

We have cherished our quiet time together as Class 2 for painting and craft but have also really loved getting to know our new verandah buddies in Class 1.  We have been singing, drawing and playing together in the afternoons and doing Bush School together on Wednesdays, which has been such an exciting adventure!

So, with our packs on our backs, some sensible shoes and a stout walking stick we strike out once more along the way to see what secrets lie around the next bend.   Safe in the knowledge that we travel in the best of company and that a good story can always be relied upon to shorten the road.

It has been wonderful to welcome the Class 3 and 4 children into our new combined space.  The room is filled with lots of activity, fresh faces and new friendships.

We have begun the year with the introduction to Bothmer Gymnastics.  Fortunately no leotards to be seen on a personal level (phew!), but wonderful strong wooden staves to right us into the vertical.  We are working with our ‘will into rhythm’ and with the practice of certain exercises we hope to foster the incarnation of spatial awareness, rhythm, dexterity and physical coordination. Bothmer traditionally begins in Class 3 as the children become aware of themselves as an individual, the directions of left, right, forward and backward assist their physical and spatial orientation.  It has been a challenge to begin and lots of fun!!

Class 3 have commenced the year with their Time Main Lesson, first learning about the sun and the moon, day and night, months and seasons as we now begin to focus in on hours and minutes.  The time main lesson works in beautifully with the stories of creation and Old Testament stories relevant to the Class 3 students as they turn 9.

Class 4 has begun the year with fractions, learning that there is a lot to understand between 1 and 0.  Fruit has been cut to assist with their understanding as we have looked at equivalent fractions and have begun to add them together.

In craft, Class 3 have reacquainted themselves to knitting their gnomes and making felt pencil cases to house their new pencils, whilst Class 4 have begun their first cross-stitch project.  Together they have painted and have completed a guided drawing of learning to create the illusion of foreground and background.

We welcome parents into our class for reading on a Thursday morning 8.45 to 9.05am and craft help on a Thursday afternoon 1.30 to 2.40pm for knitting, sewing and cross-stitch.

Many thanks!

Robyn

Easing our way into the year, Class 5/6 have begun The Wonder of Mathematics main lesson where skills are refreshed and refined.  They have heard the stories of Middle Town, a place where math is rampant.  They’ve assisted The Average Family, The Sum Family and the best friends who go by the names of Round Up and Round Down with the town’s complications.

Meanwhile, in The City of Stars, the children have been experimenting with concrete and abstract nouns, creating unique and poetic sentences.

Form Drawing continues as the children move, build and draw the forms.  The current forms have a focus on an in and out movement, duality and balance.

With the beautiful forest only a skip away, I really hope we can all keep developing and deepening our relationship with nature.  A silent afternoon was spent in the forest by the river, trialing charcoal sketching.

And finally, music.  We have so many instruments in the classroom this year – recorders, drums, tambourines, xylophones, ukuleles… the list goes on!  And how wonderful that the class is big enough to create music together, incorporating all of these instruments.

A very promising start to the year – well done everyone.

It was such a beautiful afternoon at the Golden Hill Summer Session, a great variety of talent, beautiful food and space for kids to play and be.  It felt like a mini festival.  Katie’s voice is always sublime and it felt like our own personal unplugged session.  We will do more. ❤️  Thank you to everyone who shared their talents, Ashley, Bruce & Justin, Robyn & Class 3/4 for organising the lemonade, Haikam & Steve from Gin Lao, for providing their delicious food, Michelle G for her lovely cakes.  Cian and Steve for the fab traditional irish music and stories.  It was wonderful to see Luiza & Sienna showcasing their talents and Maya sharing her voice.

Just perfect! ❤️

We have our March Parents & Friends Meeting on Wednesday 4th March at 6pm in Peppermint Cottage.  Please send apologies and agenda items to our new Secretary, Tanya Bourne at tanybourne@gmail.com by this Thursday 27th Feb.

We hope all Class Carers can attend, if not please invite someone to represent your class. 

Many thanks,

Pen

Chair, P&F