First Five Early Learning Bundall

🔬 'National Science Week 2026’ runs from 15–23 August across Australia, featuring over 2,000 events and the official school theme “Seeds of Science: Nurturing Knowledge for All.”

🔬 The Kindergarten children have shown such a strong interest in science this week, so we wanted to provide them with another opportunity to explore, wonder and discover.

🔬 We placed trays of oil on the table and prepared cups of brightly coloured milk. Each child was given a dropper and invited to carefully squeeze the coloured milk and release tiny drops into the oil. The children watched closely as the colourful drops travelled through the oil, forming beautiful little beads of colour. Some drops floated, some moved slowly through the oil and others changed shape as the children continued to experiment. The tray began to look like a tiny, colourful world of moving bubbles and droplets.

🔬 The children were encouraged to predict, observe, question and describe what they could see. We wondered together about why the milk and oil stayed separate and what might happen when we added more drops of colour. As the children squeezed the droppers, they were also strengthening the small muscles in their hands and fingers while developing their fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. At the same time, they were building early scientific skills by noticing changes, making predictions, testing their ideas and sharing their discoveries with their friends.

In Queensland early childhood education, science concepts are integrated into the Queensland kindergarten learning guideline (QKLG) under Active Learning, focusing on inquiry-based exploration, cause-and-effect testing, and investigating the natural and physical environment.

Aneta and Rita 🌟
Kindergarten

🌺 Pre Kindy have had a wonderful morning delighting our senses through exploring a natural elements loose parts tray, filled with Hibiscus flowers, various leaves including Lemon Myrtle, Seed Pods, Bottlebrush, various sticks, bark and coloured sand.

🌺 Our undercover big yard created the perfect space for us to implement this learning experience today, allowing opportunity to connect with nature within a weather appropriate play setting.

🌺 Our inspiration for today’s planned learning experience came from the children’s ongoing interest in mark making. The idea for today was for the children to draw inspiration from nature to create patterns in the sand.

🌺 Children used their hands to create prints in the sand, while many of the other children used sticks to poke holes and create lines. A child even brought over his monster truck which he used to create tyre tracks in the sand., “Look at the wheels” shouted they with excitement.

🌺 Engaging in mark making is a great experience to help strengthen fine motor control, spark open-ended creativity and develop early writing skills. Adding natural materials creates an opportunity for the children to develop a connection to the natural world and learn to respect and care for the environment.

🌺 The textures, smells and sounds of natural loose parts also provides rich sensory experiences that contribute to children's overall sensory development.

National Quality Standard (NQS): Q1: Educational program and practice
1.2.1 Intentional teaching: Educators are deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in their decisions and actions.

Remi, Tegan & Amaia 🌟
Pre Kindy

🎉First Five Early Learning Bundall would like to express our congratulations to Amaia, our assistant educator who just completed her Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care - what a wonderful accomplishment! 💚

🌟 We wish Amaia well for her future studies, as she begins her diploma.

Great work Amaia ✨ We are so proud of you!

National Quality Standards
7.2.1 Continuous Improvement
7.2.3 Development of professionals

🍼 Today in Toddler One, our children have been interested in home corner, in particular, caring for babies. Our experience today invited our toddlers to use language, sounds, gestures and movement to engage in play to imagine and create roles, scripts and ideas.

🍼 We began with washing our hands, reminding the children we always wash our hands before meals and feeding. They then chose their babies putting on their bibs, mixing the baby cereal and then began feeding their baby's using their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.

🍼 We could hear some of the children's conversations with their babies "Are you hungry? Here is some food? Have more! Finished!" They were narrating the feeding process aloud, building conversational skills. Once they finished feeding their babies, they used face washers to gently wipe their baby's face and taking off their bibs putting them in a pile to be washed.

🍼 They then gave their baby a cuddle taking them for a walk around the room. The children were role playing and using their imaginations preparing their own meals sitting at the table pretending to eat. During this experience, the children were practicing kindness and nurturing behaviours caring for their hungry baby.

Early Years Learning Framework: Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.
5.3.1 Use language, sounds, gestures and movement to engage in play to imagine and create roles, scripts and ideas.

Sylvia and Alka 🌟
Toddler One

🔢 In Pre Kindy we have been exploring numeracy through a range of different experiences this week and we extended this learning into the nature yard.

🔢 The children chose from cardboard cards or cups, each with numbers written on them with markers. The cards also featured the corresponding number of pegs, providing an opportunity to create a collection of natural materials and attach them to the cards.

🔢 As the children explored the environment and natural resources they showed their ability to recognise and name the numbers in text on the cards.

In the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), numeracy is defined as the capacity, confidence, and disposition to use mathematics in daily life. It goes beyond simple counting to include patterns, spatial awareness, measurement, data, and problem-solving through play-based learning.

Tammy and Remi 🌟
Pre Kindy

🐣 Today, educators supported the Nursery children to develop and strengthen their eye hand coordination, gross and fine motor skills, balance and concentration through a simple pompom posting experience. The children were encouraged to combine a range of movements as they explored how to carefully place the pompoms into the paper rolls.

🐣 The children grasped the soft pompoms using their hands and fingers before stretching their bodies towards the paper rolls. They carefully focused on lining up each pompom with the opening, adjusting their movements as needed, and gently posting them through the roll and watching them come out the other end.

🐣 This experience gave the children lots of opportunities to practise their hand–eye coordination, balance and body awareness as they reached, stretched and carefully used their hands and fingers to place the pompoms into the rolls. They explored different ways to position and release the pompoms, they were developing their concentration, problem-solving skills and beginning to discover cause and effect.

🐣 The open ended nature of this experience also allowed each child to explore in their own time, building their confidence, curiosity and a sense of achievement as they discovered what they could do.

Early Years Learning Framework: Outcome 3 - Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
3.2.3 Combine gross and fine motor movement and balance to achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity, including dance, creative movement, drama and fundamental movement skills.

Kirsten & Alka 🌟
Nursery

🌼 Today, in Kindergarten we invited the children to explore and learn in the nature yard. School readiness comes in many forms and the outdoor environment provided the children with many opportunities today, to see and experience their world from different perspectives while using different parts of their bodies during creative and group experiences.

🌼 Our cellophane painting experience brought lots of excitement and creativity. The children explored the cellophane from different positions and perspectives, noticing how the sunlight created reflections and how the wind moved and waved the material.

🌼 Some children recognised that the moving cellophane looked like ocean waves. They were fascinated by the way the colours changed as the sunlight passed through the cellophane. Using paint and paintbrushes, the children experimented with applying different colours to the cellophane.

🌼 They stood, stretched, reached, and moved their bodies as they painted the wind-blown material. This experience supported their fine and gross motor development, hand-eye coordination, balance, spatial awareness, creativity, sensory exploration, and visual discrimination. It also encouraged children to investigate light, colour, movement, and transparency while developing confidence in expressing their ideas.

In the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline (QKLG), connectedness is a learning and development area that emphasizes children’s relationships with their world, including social, cultural, and environmental dimensions.

Christina, Aneta and Tegan 🌟
Kindergarten

🦘 Today in Toddler One, we are continuing to follow our children's interests in Australian native animals.

🐨 We turned our tuff tray into an archaeological site filling it with sand and adding the following native animals: kangaroo, koala, cockatoo, crocodile, frilled neck lizard, dingo and bilby. Our little archaeologists began digging to discover numerous animals under the sand. They used brushes to carefully uncover the animals and magnifying glasses for a closer look at the animals features.

🐊 We had photos of the animals with their names to match the animals uncovered. This sensory experience combines early science and cultural education. The children are developing fine motor skills as they grasped their brushes and hand eye coordination as they brushed the sand away to uncover the animals. They were using their problem-solving skills as they decided how much pressure to apply when uncovering the animals and learning about object permanence, finding the hidden animals reinforced the concept that things exist even when unseen.

🦘 The children were engaged and focused as they expanded their vocabulary learning the animal names and features like spiky frilled neck lizard and kangaroo's long tail. They were learning early science concepts, introducing how archaeologist discover fossils and connecting to country, sparking an early respect for unique Australian wildlife. It was a fun morning of discovery with our friends.

Early Years Learning Framework: Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators:
5.1.3 Respond verbally and non-verbally to what they see, hear, touch, feel and taste.

Sylvia, Alka and Sylvie 🌟
Toddler One

🫟Today, the Nursery children engaged in a sensory exploration using psyllium husk gloop.

🫟They used their hands to squeeze, squish, stretch and manipulate the gloop, noticing its unique jelly like texture and consistency.

🫟The children explored how the gloop felt between their fingers experimenting with different ways of handling the slimy matter.

🫟This experience provided opportunities for the children to engage in sensory exploration and discovery, and helped to develop an awareness of different textures, whilst exploring cause and effect through their actions.

🫟The children demonstrated curiosity, concentration and a willingness to investigate the properties of the gloop using their senses.

🫟Experiences held at floor level encourage children to participate whilst on their tummies - engaging deep core and back muscles, whilst promoting the head to lift unassisted. This is an integral aspect of play, as children develop key muscles utilised later in life, enabling school readiness and physical strength for success.

🌟Kirsten & Rika🌟
Nursery Team

EYLF
4.1.15 Children use their senses to play, explore and try new things.
4.2.1 Children use trial and error to explore different possibilities through ‘cause and effect’.