Goodstart Early Learning Wantirna

🚗🌈 Little hands, big learning through play!

Our babies have been enjoying car play, rolling, pushing, and exploring movement on their own little “traffic” track! 🛣️✨

Playing with cars helps build important skills like hand eye coordination, fine motor development, and early understanding of cause and effect. Adding bright colours also supports visual tracking and early colour recognition. 🎨

Most importantly, it encourages curiosity, creativity, and lots of joyful exploration through play! 💛👶

Also, we’d love to hear from you, has your child been obsessed with cars lately? 🚗💛

🟡🟦🟥 Colourful blocks, big learning for little hands!

In our Nursery One Room (6 weeks to18 months) space, coloured blocks are more than just play, they help babies explore colours, develop hand eye coordination, strengthen fine motor skills, and build early problem-solving abilities. 🧠✨

As babies stack, sort, and knock them down, they are learning through curiosity, repetition, and discovery every day. 💛

Simple resources, powerful learning! 👶🌈

📚✨ In Nursery One, we love bringing stories to life!

Our cosy reading space with books, comfy chairs, and puppets helps our babies explore language, build imagination, and develop a lifelong love of reading from the very beginning. 💛

Because it’s never too early to start reading with little ones! 👶📖

🏡✨ Come and meet our Nursery One Room!

Our little ones have been enjoying our cosy Casita—a special space where they can step inside, explore, and engage in imaginative play. 👶💛

It’s a place for pretend play, building early social and language skills, and also a calm, safe space where children can relax, hide, or enjoy quiet moments when needed. 🌿

Through play like this, children develop confidence, independence, and a strong sense of belonging. 💫

We love seeing our babies explore, imagine, and feel right at home! 🏡✨

The research is clear 📚 reading aloud is one of the most powerful things we can do for our children.

When we read with a child, we’re doing far more than sharing a story. We’re building the foundations for language, confidence, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning.

Decades of research shows that children who are read to regularly:

💛 Build stronger language skills
Hearing rich varied language in books exposes children to far more words than everyday conversation alone. This growing vocabulary helps them understand, communicate and make sense of the world.

💛 Develop early literacy skills long before they learn to read
Through stories, children learn how books work – that print carries meaning, that pages turn left to right, and that stories have a beginning, middle and end. These early understandings make learning to read feel familiar and exciting.

💛 Strengthen phonological awareness
Rhymes, rhythms and playful sounds help children hear the building blocks of language.

💛 Grow their comprehension and thinking skills
Talking together about a story, predicting what might happen, wondering how a character feels, and connecting events to real life helps children develop memory, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking.

💛 Experience connection, comfort and joy
Shared reading fosters calmness, closeness, and moments of joint attention. These warm interactions support a child's sense of security and belonging.

Most importantly, children who experience positive, engaging reading moments from a young age are more likely to develop a genuine love of books - something that matters even more than early literacy skills alone.

Reading is simple, joyful, and sets children up for success in school and life.

Here is a list of some of our favourites below 👇

🎨⚽ Designing Our Dream World Cup Jerseys! 🌍💙💛❤️💚

Our little artists in Toddlers room had so much fun today using window dryers to paint their very own World Cup team shirts! Each child chose their favourite colours, expressing their creativity while imagining they were designing the next jersey for their football team.

Activities like this are about so much more than painting! As children decorate their shirts, they are developing:
✨ Creativity and imagination
✨ Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination
✨ Confidence in making their own choices
✨ Colour recognition and artistic expression
✨ An appreciation of different countries, cultures and sporting events around the world

The World Cup is a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to the idea that people from many different countries can come together to celebrate teamwork, friendship and respect. It helps children develop a sense of belonging to a wider global community while learning about diversity and inclusion.

🏡 Try it at home!
Why not create your own family team shirts using washable paints, window markers or fabric markers? Ask your child:
🎨 What colours would you choose for your team's shirt?
🌎 Which country would your team represent?
⭐ What symbol or picture would you add to make it unique?

This simple activity encourages creativity, conversation and quality family time while supporting your child's learning through play.

We can't wait to see all of our future World Cup jersey designers in action! ⚽🎨🌍

🌿📚 Celebrating NAIDOC Week Through Stories, Art and Learning 🌿

This week, our centre has come together to honour NAIDOC Week through meaningful experiences that help children connect with Aboriginal culture, history and the rich traditions of First Nations peoples.

In our nursery two room, children enjoyed quiet, attentive moments listening to their educator share a story. Through reading and storytelling, even our youngest learners begin to build respect, curiosity and connection to culture.

Our toddlers explored creativity by painting a snake, learning about the significance of animals and symbols in Aboriginal stories. They loved experimenting with colours, movement and mark making.

Meanwhile, our kinder 4 yrs old room engaged in dot painting, carefully creating patterns on paper towels inspired by First Nations art. This hands on experience supported their fine motor skills while deepening their understanding of cultural expression.

We believe meaningful learning happens through conversations, stories, creativity and shared experiences. NAIDOC Week has given us a special opportunity to acknowledge, celebrate and learn about the oldest continuing cultures in the world. ❤️💛🖤

🌏✨ Together, we continue to create a learning environment where every culture, history and voice is valued.

🧸🌿 Teddy Bear Picnic Fun! 🌿🧺

Today, our toddlers enjoyed a delightful Teddy Bear Picnic with their favourite cuddly friends! Together, we gathered for songs, stories, pretend snacks, and lots of laughter as our little ones shared a special picnic with their teddy bears.

Activities like teddy bear picnics provide wonderful opportunities for children to develop important skills through play. Today, our toddlers were building:
🧸 Social and communication skills by sharing and interacting with friends.
🥪 Imaginative play as they cared for and included their teddy bears in the picnic.
💛 Emotional development by nurturing their favourite soft toys.
🍎 Language skills through songs, conversations and storytelling.
🌼 A sense of belonging and confidence while participating in a group experience.

🧺 Why is the Teddy Bear Picnic such a popular activity?

The Teddy Bear Picnic has been loved by children for generations because it combines imagination, comfort and fun. Bringing a favourite teddy along helps children feel safe and confident while encouraging them to care for others through pretend play. It also creates opportunities for friendship, cooperation and joyful shared experiences. Best of all, it turns an everyday picnic into a magical adventure where every teddy is a special guest!

🧸💕 What a wonderful day of smiles, sharing and teddy cuddles!

Learning Through Children’s Interests! 🐾

Our Toddler have developed a wonderful interest in pets, especially dogs, through their play and conversations. To extend this curiosity, we’ve been exploring to safely interact with and care for our furry friends.

Learning about pets helps children develop empathy, kindness, responsibility, and confidence, while also teaching important dog safety skills that they can use in everyday life.

We were excited welcome a friendly four legged visitor to our center, giving the children a supervised opportunity to practise gentle, respectful interactions and learn more about caring for animals.

Do you have a pet at home? We’d love to hear about them! Share the name of your pet or tell us about your furry family member in the comments. 🐶🐕🐈‍⬛💛

🐞🌿 **Little Explorers, Big Discoveries!** 🌿🦋

At our Kindergarten, learning comes to life through hands-on experiences that spark curiosity and wonder. Our children have been exploring the fascinating world of **minibeasts, insects, trees, and wildlife** through interactive resources, magnifying glasses, real-life specimens, nature books, and open-ended conversations.

Learning about insects and animals is so much more than discovering what they look like. It helps children:
🐜 Develop respect and care for living things.
🦋 Build observation, inquiry, and critical thinking skills.
🌱 Understand the important role insects play in our environment, from pollinating flowers to keeping ecosystems healthy.
🔍 Strengthen language, science, and problem-solving skills through exploration and discussion.
💚 Foster empathy, confidence, and a lifelong love of nature.

By encouraging children to ask questions, investigate, and make discoveries, we nurture curious minds and create meaningful learning experiences that connect them with the world around them.

Every tiny insect has a story to tell—and every child has the opportunity to become a confident explorer, scientist, and environmental steward.

🌳 **At our centre, we believe the best learning happens when children are inspired to wonder, explore, and discover.**