Ekidna- Dee Why School of Early Learning

Happy Valentine's Day everyone 💕

We were very lucky to be joined by Uncle Laurie who came to Ekidna to host a Welcome to Country and a Smoking Ceremony. Uncle Laurie began by handing out some boomerangs he had made for the children to explore before the ceremony began. Once everyone was sitting Uncle Laurie began by lighting a small fire and putting lots of eucalyptus leaves into the fire. He carried the smoking leaves around to everyone, explaining that the purpose of this is for cleansing. We learnt a lot of incredible information about local Aboriginal culture and practices.

We saw Laurie mix ochre with water to make the clay that is painted on their bodies during ceremonies. We learnt that women have ochre painted on their left hands while for men it is their right hands. Some of the children volunteered to have ochre painted on them! Uncle Laurie explained that ochre is used to connect people with Mother Earth.

Uncle Laurie showed us some different tools and instruments. We saw a woddi which is used for fishing, a woomera which is a spear thrower, boomerangs, tapping sticks, and a coolamen which is used to carry food.

Uncle Laurie showed us a beautiful woven string ray. He taught us that the stingray is the totem animal for the area that goes from Dee Why up to Lake Macquarie. We learnt that totem animals are an incredibly important aspect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture and that you cant ever eat your totem animal. This means that the local Aboriginal clans cannot eat stingrays, and stingrays are extremely significant.

Uncle Laurie will be back for NAIDOC Week!

Happy Lunar New Year! The year of the rabbit 🐰

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and the Danny's are loving exploring all things Spring x

The Very Cranky Bear 🐻 Book week has brought a lot of favourite stories being shared among the children! The Wombat's explored feelings after reading The Very Cranky Bear. How are you feeling today?

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Ekidna- Dee Why School of Early Learning Ekidna Dee Why is a purpose built early learning centre catering to children from 6 weeks to 6 years.

When a creative plan comes to life! This creation was made by one of the children using their imagination and knowledge during non-structured play. The blocks were grouped together by colour then animals were added, each set of coloured blocks represents the land and it’s animal:
He explained “Blue - the ice and the penguins on the ice (but the ice is melting)
Green - the forest with a bear and a tractor because the trees are being cut down
Orange red and yellow - the desert with a tiger because they live where it’s hot
Brown - Australia with a dinosaur, there aren’t any trees or anything because the dinosaurs are extinct.”

How amazing is this!!!

There was such excitement amongst the children in wearing gloves and picking up rubbish safely around our centre for Clean Up Australia Day 🇦🇺🌿 Our centre prides itself on sustainability practices and this is reflected in the children’s willingness to participate. We want to thank all of the children for taking part in a day that they will continue to do in their many years of education ahead.

Chinese New Year Celebrations 🇨🇳

Love Potion 💕
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, love Ekidna xoxo

Valentine’s Day is coming up on Sunday! Who do you love? ♥️
L O V E collage created by our Charlie’s in our 1-2’s room

Curious minds! Our bubs in the 1-2’s room engaged in a sensory experience with blue jelly and sea creatures 🐳