This is our final NurtureOne blog – many thanks for following us…and providing us with a rich assortment of clever ideas, to share with and inspire your colleagues, and showcase the wonderful work you are doing all over regional NSW, Victoria and Tassie!
Wishing you all the very best for your new adventure, and we look forward to meeting up with you again someday.
Fond Regards,
Jodie and Julia
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Growing & Cooking Our Own Lunch In The Koala Room
Educators and children at Kelso Children’s Centre have been growing vegetables and herbs…
“Today we were very busy preparing our own lunch. We made Spinach and Ricotta Quiche. Together with Julie, we collected some spinach from our garden and washed all the dirt off in the sink.
We sat together as a group and followed the recipe, discussing what we were putting in our lunch and how much we were using. We added onion, some garlic, olive oil, eggs, ricotta cheese, cream, cheese, milk, salt and pepper and some puff pastry.
Once all of the ingredients were combined, we each had a turn at spooning the mixture into the pastry which was ready in a muffin tin.
We walked to the kitchen with Julie and placed the quiches into the oven to cook. At lunch time we couldn’t wait to eat what we had prepared, we all thought it was very delicious.“
Loving your work Team Kelso!!
Brown Street Children’s Centre have created a new dining room.
As you will see in the video there are lots of great aspects of the dining room BUT the stand out part is the educators who see the children as capable and competent.
Children are able to have china and glass, serve and feed themselves. The educators have created a space with lots of time for a slow enjoyable eating experience. The attention to detail is a admirable. White tablecloths and flowers demonstrate so much respect for children and their environment.
It looks fabulous. Great work.
When children participate collaboratively in everyday routines and experiences and have opportunities to contribute to decisions, they learn to live interdependently.
Outcome 2: Belonging, Being and Becoming, EYLF, 2009.
One of our favourite authors is Ursula Kolbe. She wrote two fabulous books about children and their art.
She talks about art and the young children is “learning to see. ” Looking at the world with children and celebrating the shared moments.
We love this post in the entrance at Cowes Children’s Centre. ” Why limit a child with this…(with an arrow pointing to a photocopied sheet) …when they are capable of creating this…” A clever way to simply highlight children’s creativity.
The books are: Rapunzel’s Supermarket, 2001 and It’s not a bird yet , 2005. If you are able to read them you will be inspired.
The photos above are full of so much pride and learning. Provide children with access to wide range of art . Look closely, listen….what are you “Learning to see”….together.
On Friday, Lisa, a very switched on educator, spotted a special visitor to Beaconsfield.
She quickly grasped on a learning experience.
You can imagine the response and interest from the children!
Not all learning comes from children’s interests…..sometime it just stumbles along and educators can seize the moment.
The echidna was released back into the wild. Did you know a baby echnidna is called a “Puggle”?
Great work Beaconsfield Drive Children’s Centre.
Have a really good weekend!
Jodie and Julia
Sometimes our role as educators can be seen as huge. Parents leave their very loved child with us for up to twelve hours a day. It is our role to make that child’s day as good as it can be while taking the curriculum into account. “ Curriculum encompasses all the interactions, experiences, routines and events, planned and unplanned, that occur in an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development. ” (EYLF,2009.)
What an honour and a privilege it is.
How can you, as an educator, make your child’s day fabulous? Just what is best for the child???( NurtureOne philosophy, 2013)
Each community is unique, and has its own special celebrations….. sometimes these celebrations evolve over the years, with changing times, responding to community needs.
Anyone who’s been to Grafton in the springtime knows that it comes alive with the gorgeous Jacaranda trees flowering – and the community also blossoms!! There is a whole week of celebrating and community events – dragon boat racing, a fun run, afternoon teas, fireworks, float processions and a ball! Lisa tells me the festival has been going for about 79 years.
The festival begins with the crowning of the Festival Queen (no sign of a King??… yet!) and princesses…….. who raise much-needed funds for the local community. They start the week off with a tour of the nursing homes and schools, and this year Arthur Street was first stop!
Lisa reports that there was great excitement among the children, who also made some crowns for themselves…. it’s a great opportunity for Educators and children to unpack and explore the concept of competitions, and the qualities that communities look for in a Jacaranda ‘Queen’ – someone who serves and represents the community well, who is friendly and kind and giving, someone who takes pride in who they are, and in their community.
The buzz around town is infectious and families, educators and children build a strong sense of belonging when they participate and celebrate their community together.
Recently, Duke Street Children’s Centre held a Grandparents and special person’s afternoon tea.
It was attended by grandparents, parents and friends.People who are special in their life.
The photos and video highlight what a great day it was. How proud the children look to share their centre with their special person.
Relationships are the foundations for children’s construction of identity. In order to form a strong sense of self, children need to build secure relationships first within the family and then with caring attentive adults in other settings. Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework, 2011.
Halloween is a big thing in Healesville where families actively take part in trick or treating.
Steel Street have taken this on board and worked through wearing strange costumes and funny face paint with the children and prepared them for the day.
NurtureOne 
Written by Early Childhood Australia NSW
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