Story House Early Learning Keilor Downs

🧸🌞 Picnic Day Celebration! 🌞🧸

We are excited to invite all children to our Picnic Day Celebration! Children are welcome to bring along their favourite teddy bear and enjoy a fun-filled afternoon with healthy sandwiches, fresh fruit platters, outdoor picnic experiences, and social time with friends.

Date: Thursday 18th June
Time 2-3pm

We can't wait for a wonderful day of laughter, friendship, and outdoor fun! 🧺🍓☀️

🖤💛❤️ Reconciliation Week – Kangaroos Room ❤️💛🖤

This week, the children participated in a range of meaningful experiences to celebrate Reconciliation Week. Together, they created a collaborative handprint artwork using the colours of the Aboriginal flag, explored an Australian bush sensory bin, and engaged in playdough activities using Aboriginal symbols and natural resources.

Children also worked together to create an "All In" Footprint Mural, symbolising unity, diversity, and belonging, while developing patience and cooperation. To conclude the week, they enjoyed making damper, exploring new textures, smells, and cultural learning through a hands-on experience.

Through these activities, children developed a deeper appreciation for Aboriginal culture while embracing the values of respect, inclusion, and working together.

🖤💛❤️

We are pleased to share that Story House Early Learning has been featured in the local newspaper, recognising our centre's commitment and hard work in implementing the Smilies 4 Miles program.

We invite you to read the article via the link below:

www.brimbanknorthwest.starweekly.com.au/news/smiles-all-round/

Thank you to the families for the ongoing support.

www.brimbanknorthwest.starweekly.com.au

Our 4-year-old kinder children have engaged in an open-ended mathematics table experience focused on early numeracy development. Together, we practised verbally counting the numbers 1–10 and worked collaboratively to place the numerals in sequential order. The children used small blocks to demonstrate one-to-one correspondence by carefully counting and matching the correct quantity of blocks to each numeral while counting aloud.

To extend on the children's mathematical thinking, The kinder teachers presented the numerals 3 and 5 and asked, “Which number is bigger, 3 or 5?” some children identified 3 as the bigger number, demonstrating that they are beginning to explore number comparison concepts and are still developing an understanding of quantity.

This learning experience supported the children's numeracy skills, including number recognition, rote counting, one-to-one correspondence, and early mathematical reasoning.

🌿🖤💛❤️ Reconciliation Week in the Emu Kinder Room ❤️💛🖤🌿

This week, the Emu Kinder children began their Reconciliation Week journey with a meaningful Country Walk led by our Aboriginal puppet friends, Bindi and Dural. Together, the children followed Aboriginal symbols and footprints to explore the lands of the Wurundjeri people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we learn and play.

To begin our experience, we shared the beautiful story Welcome to Country written by Aunty Joy Murphy. Through the story, the children learned about the great Bunjil, who created the birds, animals, mountains, and rivers, while watching over the footprints of Aboriginal ancestors on the land.

With their “imagination hats” on, the children eagerly joined Bindi and Dural on a journey through Country. Along the way, they followed kangaroo footprints, discovered Aboriginal people gathering together to share stories with younger generations, and explored traditional tools such as boomerangs and digging sticks used for hunting and gathering food for families.

As the story unfolded, the children actively participated by interpreting symbols and footprints, using wooden sticks and logs to recreate and visualise the ancestors’ journey across Country. They showed wonderful curiosity, creativity, and respect while engaging in discussions and retelling the story together.

To conclude our experience, the children reflected on the journey and thanked Bindi and Dural for sharing their ancestors’ stories with us.

Through experiences like these, we continue to foster children’s understanding of culture, connection to Country, storytelling, and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and histories. 🌿

This week, the toddlers enjoyed a colourful fruit water play experience as part of our May fruit learning program. The children explored different coloured water tubs representing fruits such as strawberries, oranges, grapes, and lemons while scooping, pouring, splashing, and collecting fruit pictures.

This experience supported the children’s fine motor skills through scooping and pouring. This is a skill the children are still exploring and trying to master.

The children especially enjoyed discovering floating fruits and choosing how to explore the sensory setup independently.

🛒 Possum Room Shopping Experience 🛒

This week, the Possum Room children extended their learning from our excursion to Keilor Downs Shopping Centre through a fun shopping activity in the room.

The children explored fruits, vegetables, and meats while creating their own Coles shopping bags using pictures, glue, and paintbrushes. As we named the foods together, the children built their vocabulary, communication, independence, and fine motor skills through hands-on play and learning. 🌱

This hands-on activity supported the children in connecting their real-world excursion with play-based learning in the classroom, while also engaging our community in their learning. Through making choices and following steps independently, the children developed confidence, decision-making skills, and independence.

🦋 What an incredible learning journey our toddlers have experienced! 🦋

Over the past few weeks, the children have been exploring the fascinating life cycle of a butterfly, inspired by the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Their curiosity extended beyond the book as they discovered the different foods caterpillars eat from fruits to other healthy foods while exploring our local community together.

The children engaged in a variety of hands-on learning experiences, including creative arts and crafts that reflected the beautiful butterflies they created. They carefully observed and cared for our caterpillars in the classroom, watching with excitement as they formed their cocoons and eventually transformed into two beautiful orange butterflies.

Yesterday was a very special moment as the children proudly released the butterflies back into nature. 🌿🦋

What a wonderful learning experience filled with curiosity, care, creativity, and discovery! We are so proud of our toddlers and the meaningful connections they made throughout this journey.

International Firefighters’ Day
Our senior toddler children enjoyed participating in a range of firefighter-themed experiences to acknowledge International Firefighters’ Day. Dressed in red, the children explored a fun and engaging fine motor activity using water spray bottles to “put out” painted flames on cardboard houses and boxes.
This hands-on experience supported the development of hand strength, coordination, and concentration while also helping children learn about firefighters as important community helpers and the valuable role they play in keeping us safe.
The children had so much fun working together, showing teamwork, problem-solving skills, and lots of excitement throughout the day!