The Little School Preschool Inc.

🌱 Building Resilience Through Everyday Moments at The Little School

At The Little School, we know that wellbeing isn't something children learn in a single lesson—it's built through everyday experiences, relationships and conversations.

This year, we are continuing to embed The Resilience Project Early Years Program, an evidence-based wellbeing program designed specifically for young children.

The program focuses on four key areas that help children develop positive mental health and resilience:

☀️ Gratitude – noticing and appreciating the good things in our lives

💚 Empathy – understanding and caring about how others feel

🧘 Mindfulness – slowing down and being present in the moment

😊 Emotional Literacy – recognising, understanding and expressing emotions

What does this look like at The Little School?

Rather than sitting children down for formal lessons, these concepts are woven naturally throughout our day.

You might see children:

💭 Sharing what they are grateful for during group discussions

💭 Talking about emotions through stories, books and role play

💭 Practising mindful breathing after energetic play

💭 Learning to identify feelings and communicate their needs

💭 Supporting a friend who is feeling sad, frustrated or worried

💭 Reflecting on acts of kindness they have experienced or shown

💭 Using emotional language such as "I feel disappointed", "I feel proud" or "I need help"

Why is this important?

Research shows that children who develop strong social and emotional skills are better equipped to:

✨ Build positive relationships

✨ Navigate challenges and setbacks

✨ Regulate emotions

✨ Develop confidence and self-belief

✨ Engage positively in learning

✨ Maintain positive mental health throughout life

Our GEM+EL Framework

The Resilience Project uses the GEM+EL Framework:

🌟 Gratitude

🌟 Empathy

🌟 Mindfulness

🌟 Emotional

🌟 Literacy

These skills are developed through play-based experiences, meaningful conversations and responsive relationships with educators.

Working Together

Families play a vital role in strengthening these skills. When children hear the same language around gratitude, empathy, mindfulness and emotions at home and preschool, their learning becomes even more meaningful.

Together, we can help children build the resilience, confidence and emotional skills they need not only for school, but for life.

💚 At The Little School, wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do.

✨ The Environment as the Third Teacher ✨

At our service, educators carefully observe children's interests, ideas, and emerging skills to inform the planning cycle. As children's interests evolve, educators adapt the program and thoughtfully modify the learning environment to extend learning, encourage investigation, and support deeper engagement.

By intentionally arranging resources, experiences, and play spaces based on what children are curious about, the environment becomes a "third teacher"—inviting exploration, inspiring creativity, promoting problem-solving, and encouraging children to take an active role in their learning.

Our practice is guided by:

🌱 Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
• Recognising children as active participants in their learning and responding to their interests, strengths, and ideas.
• Supporting children's agency by providing opportunities for choice, decision-making, and self-directed play.
• Creating environments that encourage children to become confident and involved learners through inquiry, exploration, and discovery.
• Using intentional teaching practices to extend learning through responsive and meaningful experiences.

🏡 National Quality Standard (NQS)
• Quality Area 1: Educational Program and Practice – Educators use observations of children's interests and learning to inform curriculum decisions and program planning.
• Quality Area 3: Physical Environment – Learning environments are designed and adapted to support children's engagement, learning, and wellbeing.
• Resources are accessible, flexible, and responsive to children's changing interests and developmental needs.

❤️ Our Service Philosophy
• We believe children are capable, competent, and curious learners.
• We value children's voices and use their interests to guide meaningful learning experiences.
• We recognise play as the foundation for learning and development.
• We create responsive environments that foster belonging, independence, creativity, and a love of learning.

🌿 When educators listen, observe, and respond to children's interests, the environment becomes more than just a space—it becomes a teacher in its own right, inspiring children to play, learn, explore, and grow every day. 🌿

📸 Did you know The Little School Preschool are on Instagram? If you are an avid Instagram user make sure you follow us there! ⭐

Little School Preschool

🖤💛❤️ Exploring Reconciliation Week and More 💙💚🤍

National Reconciliation Week provides an opportunity for us to reflect, learn, and deepen our understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and perspectives. It is a time to build respectful relationships, celebrate the world's oldest continuing cultures, and work together towards a more reconciled future for all Australians.

Throughout the week, our children have been engaging in a range of meaningful learning experiences inspired by Bundjalung author and illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft's beautiful book, Why I Love Australia, which celebrates the diverse colours, patterns, and landscapes of our country.

Some of our experiences have included:

🌿 Exploring lemon myrtle-infused play dough with fresh leaves and banksias to create natural imprints and patterns.
🎨 Using wax crayons and watercolours to represent colours and patterns inspired by the natural environment and children's own creative ideas.
🪃 Investigating Aboriginal tapping sticks, coolamons, and textile bush tucker foods at our exploration table.
🔴⚫️🟡 💙💚🤍 Participating in a yoghurt lid threading activity inspired by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, supporting colour recognition, patterning, and fine motor development.
🌱 Taking a yard walk to discover the native plants growing in our preschool environment and working together to write a letter to the Wollongong Botanic Gardens to enquire about adding another native plant to our collection.

Outside of our Reconciliation Week experiences, children have also been actively exploring, creating, and problem-solving through play:

💪 Testing their strength, balance, and perseverance while having fun with a resistance belt challenge, encouraging confidence and resilience.
🚂 Designing and constructing colourful trains using a variety of loose parts and materials, fostering creativity, collaboration, and imaginative thinking.
🔧 Working together to build a pulley system on the playground, which gradually evolved into an exciting water station. Children used traffic cones as pipes and experimented with water flow, demonstrating engineering thinking, teamwork, and persistence as they adapted and extended their ideas.
🔷Threaded twine to create shapes and connections and so much more!

Through these experiences, children have been exploring their identities, strengthening relationships, developing problem-solving skills, expressing creativity, and building connections with their environment and community. Whether learning about First Nations cultures, investigating native plants, constructing with loose parts, or experimenting with movement and engineering concepts, children have been active participants in their own learning journeys.

These experiences connect with our curriculum, the National Quality Standard, and our service philosophy through:

🌱 Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
These experiences supported children to develop a strong sense of identity, wellbeing, and connection to their world. Through hands-on exploration, creative expression, physical challenges, and collaborative problem-solving, children demonstrated confidence, curiosity, resilience, and effective communication as active participants in their learning.

⭐ National Quality Standard (NQS)
The learning experiences reflected our commitment to providing a rich, play-based educational program within an engaging environment that encourages inquiry, creativity, and exploration. Through responsive interactions and meaningful connections with culture, community, and the natural environment, children were supported to develop a sense of belonging and agency.

💙 Our Service Philosophy
These experiences reflect our belief that children learn best through play, investigation, and meaningful relationships. We value children's voices, celebrate diversity and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, foster connections with nature and community, and encourage creativity, collaboration, and a lifelong love of learning.

💙❤️💛💚 Understanding the Zones of Regulation at Preschool 💚💛❤️💙

At preschool, we are supporting children to develop important social and emotional skills through the Zones of Regulation. This framework gives children a simple, visual way to recognise their feelings, understand their emotions, and learn strategies to help them regulate their bodies and emotions.

The Zones use four colours to describe different feelings and levels of alertness:

🔵 Blue Zone – Feeling tired, sad, unwell, or bored
🟢 Green Zone – Feeling calm, happy, focused, and ready to learn
🟡 Yellow Zone – Feeling excited, worried, frustrated, or silly
🔴 Red Zone – Feeling angry, overwhelmed, terrified, or out of control

At preschool, we regularly talk about our feelings, identify which zone we are in, and practise strategies to help us move toward a state where we can learn, play, and connect with others. Children are learning that all feelings are okay—there are no "bad" zones. The goal is to recognise how we are feeling and choose helpful tools to support ourselves.

How We Use the Zones at Preschool

✨ Daily emotional check-ins
✨ Identifying feelings through stories and conversations
✨ Learning calming and alerting strategies
✨ Building emotional vocabulary
✨ Practising problem-solving and self-regulation skills

How Families Can Support the Zones at Home

🏡 Ask your child, "What zone are you in?" during different parts of the day.

🏡 Share your own feelings and model regulation strategies:
"I'm feeling a bit stressed and in the Yellow Zone, so I'm going to take some deep breaths."

🏡 Create a simple "toolbox" of strategies your child can use, such as:

Deep breathing
Having a drink of water
Reading a book
Taking a quiet break
Going outside for movement
Listening to calming music

🏡 Celebrate when your child recognises their feelings and uses a strategy independently.

When children hear the same language at home and preschool, they develop stronger emotional awareness and regulation skills. Together, we can help children understand that feelings come and go, and that they have tools to help themselves feel safe, calm, and ready to learn. ❤️

☀️ Sunshine, Smiles & Curious Minds ☀️

After what feels like endless rain, the sun finally made an appearance and the children were eager to make the most of every moment outdoors!

🦕 Dinosaur Adventures
The children followed a play schema centred around baby dinosaurs running away from volcanoes and finding their dinner. Through this imaginative play, they collaborated with their peers, shared resources, negotiated ideas and built meaningful connections as they brought their stories to life.

🎨 Colourful Creations
Using spray bottles and paint on a large sheet, the children explored creativity, movement and experimentation. It was wonderful to watch them test how far the spray could reach from different heights and positions. They demonstrated fantastic teamwork by taking turns, sharing materials and asking each other for different colours.

🔊 Sound Explorers
The children investigated cause and effect by dropping wood chips and rocks from different heights onto a variety of surfaces, including a metal pan. Their excitement and delight grew as they discovered the different sounds each combination created, encouraging curiosity, prediction and scientific thinking.

🌱 Learning Through Play
These experiences supported the children to:
• Develop a strong sense of identity through collaborative play (EYLF Outcome 1)
• Become confident and involved learners as they explored, investigated and problem-solved (EYLF Outcome 4)
• Strengthen communication skills through sharing ideas, negotiating and working together (EYLF Outcome 5)

⭐ Connections to the NQS
• Quality Area 1 – Educational Program and Practice
• Quality Area 3 – Physical Environment
• Quality Area 5 – Relationships with Children

💛 The Little School Principles in Action
• Children as capable and competent learners
• Learning through play, exploration and discovery
• Building positive relationships and a strong sense of belonging
• Supporting curiosity, creativity and collaboration

What a wonderful day of sunshine, exploration and joyful learning together!

🌈Understanding the Circle of Security🌈

At our preschool, we value strong, trusting relationships as the foundation for children’s learning and wellbeing. One of the approaches that guides our practice is the Circle of Security® philosophy**.

The Circle of Security is based on decades of attachment research and helps adults better understand children’s emotional needs. It reminds us that children need two important things from the adults who care for them:

- A secure base* from which to explore, learn, and grow
- A safe haven* to return to when they feel overwhelmed, upset, or unsure

When children feel emotionally safe and connected, they are more likely to develop confidence, resilience, empathy, emotional regulation, and positive relationships with others.

✨How this looks at preschool

At preschool, educators use the Circle of Security approach to:

* Build warm, responsive relationships with children
* Support children through big emotions
* Encourage independence and confidence
* Help children feel safe, seen, and understood
* Guide behaviour through connection and co-regulation

We understand that behaviour is often a form of communication, and we aim to respond with empathy while maintaining clear, safe boundaries.

✨How it can help at home

The Circle of Security philosophy can also support families at home by helping parents and caregivers:

* Better understand what children are communicating through their behaviour
* Respond calmly to emotional moments and challenges
* Strengthen connection and trust
* Support children’s confidence and independence
* Reflect on their own parenting responses and triggers

One of the key messages of Circle of Security is that parents do not need to be perfect. Children benefit most from caregivers who are willing to connect, repair, and respond with kindness and consistency.

✨Helpful parent resources

If you would like to learn more about the Circle of Security approach, including short videos for families, please visit:

Circle of Security Parent Videos**
https://www.circleofsecurityinternational.com/blogs/resources/tagged/parents

Together, by building secure and supportive relationships, we can help children feel safe, capable, and ready to thrive.

✨ All Aboard for Collaborative Learning and Creative Play 🚂

Today’s collaborative train track experience created a wonderful opportunity for children to work together, share ideas, and build meaningful connections through play. Children eagerly joined in extending the existing track design, carefully connecting colourful cylinders and thoughtfully selecting trains to add to the evolving construction. Their sustained engagement reflected a growing ability to collaborate with peers, contribute to shared projects, and work towards a common goal.

Throughout the experience, children demonstrated creativity, problem-solving, and persistence as they explored different ways to construct and extend the tracks. The hands-on nature of the activity supported children to express their thinking in meaningful ways, using the materials to communicate ideas, test possibilities, and make decisions together.

The play also provided valuable opportunities for social and emotional learning. When challenges arose around sharing resources, children practised communicating their ideas, negotiating with peers, and expressing their feelings in positive and respectful ways. These moments help build confidence, resilience, and a growing sense of agency as children learn how to navigate social interactions and develop healthy peer relationships.

Through this rich play-based learning experience, children strengthened their communication skills, cooperative learning abilities, and sense of belonging within the group, while feeling supported and empowered to contribute their own ideas and perspectives.

Through this experience, children were engaging with many outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) including:
🍂Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity – children develop confidence, agency, and the ability to negotiate with others.
🍂Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world – children collaborate and work cooperatively with peers.
🍂Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners – children use creativity, problem-solving, and inquiry through construction play.
🍂Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators – children express ideas, negotiate, and engage in shared conversations during play.

Today’s experience also reflects the National Quality Standard (NQS), particularly:
✨QA1: Educational program and practice – responsive, play-based learning that builds on children’s interests and strengths.
✨QA5: Relationships with children – supporting children to develop respectful relationships and positive interactions with peers.
✨QA6: Collaborative partnerships with families and communities – valuing children’s voices, agency, and social competence.

This experience reflects The Little School Preschool’s commitment to child-led learning, warm and respectful relationships, and creating environments where children feel safe, valued, and confident to express themselves, collaborate with others, and learn through meaningful play.

🪣 Mud, Meaning Making & Deep Learning 🤎

What may look like “just muddy play” is, in fact, rich, complex learning unfolding in real time.

As children scoop, pour, mix, problem-solve and collaborate, they are engaging in meaningful experiences that support cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. These moments reflect our deep commitment to our service philosophy — viewing children as capable, competent and active participants in their own learning.

At The Little School, we believe children learn best through play, connection, inquiry and hands-on exploration. Our environments are intentionally designed to invite curiosity, experimentation and creativity, allowing children to build theories about how the world works through authentic experiences.

In this muddy play experience, children were:
✨ exploring scientific concepts such as volume, texture, movement and cause-and-effect
✨ developing early mathematical thinking through measuring, filling and comparing
✨ strengthening communication and collaboration skills as they negotiated ideas and shared resources
✨ engaging their senses and building resilience through open-ended, messy play
✨ expressing imagination, creativity and agency in a self-directed environment

These experiences strongly connect with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF V2.0), particularly:

🌱 Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity — as children confidently make choices, take risks and work alongside peers.
🌱 Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world — through shared play, cooperation and engagement with natural materials.
🌱 Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners — developing inquiry skills, problem-solving, experimentation and persistence.

This learning also aligns closely with the National Quality Standard (NQS), including:

⭐ Quality Area 1 – Educational Program and Practice: Children engaged in child-led, inquiry-based learning through play.
⭐ Quality Area 3 – Physical Environment: The environment supported exploration, risk-taking, sensory engagement and connection with natural elements.

We recognise that play is not separate from learning — play is the learning.

In the mud, children are developing confidence, testing ideas, building relationships and discovering their capabilities. These everyday moments are where some of the deepest and most meaningful learning takes place.

“Nothing without joy.” 🌿

We're so excited to share that our fundraising committee is running a special Pie Drive fundraiser to help us bring even more wonderful learning resources to our preschool! 🥧
These delicious pies are freshly baked at Queen Street Bakery, and every purchase directly supports enriching experiences and materials for the children. We know how much our little learners thrive when they have access to engaging, high-quality resources, and this is a lovely way our community can come together to support their growth and development. Use the QR code on the picture or visit https://2026littleschoolpiedrive.floktu.com/
Thank you to the fundraising committee for organising and for helping us create the best possible learning environment for your children. Every pie really does make a difference! 💚