The Little School Preschool Inc.

Check out the new outdoor kids area at Smiths Ln Dairy what’s a great space for kids to play while you grab a bite to eat and a coffee!

🌿 Meet Melissa (Mel) Harper 🌿

It’s time to introduce another wonderful member of The Little School Preschool team! 💛

Meet Mel, one of our caring and playful educators who loves creating a safe, nurturing environment where children can build confidence, have fun and feel truly cared for.

From Munch & Move dance parties and The Floor Is Lava to puppy gelato adventures with Leo 🐶🍦, swipe through to get to know Mel a little better — including the fun fact that might surprise you! ➡️

💬 Say hello to Mel in the comments!

🐨🌈 Introducing Cozy Koala – and Cozy’s Latest Adventure! 🌈🐨

We are excited to introduce Cozy Koala, a special take-home part of The Resilience Project Early Years Program.

Cozy Koala helps us extend the learning happening at preschool into the home, giving our children and families the opportunity to explore GEM – Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness together. 💛

Each child will have the opportunity to take Cozy Koala home and include him in their family adventures. Cozy travels with his very own Cozy Koala Adventures Journal, which includes simple activities and ideas families can enjoy together.

Families might practise gratitude by sharing things they are thankful for, explore empathy through kindness and helping others, enjoy moments of mindfulness, or simply take Cozy along for some special family time. Families can then add photos, drawings or their child’s words to Cozy’s journal before returning him to preschool to share the adventure with friends and educators. 📖✨

And Cozy has been exploring the Snowy Monaro community! 🐨

Over the weekend, Cozy visited the Cooma Visitors Centre and couldn’t resist having a cheeky play on the Man from Snowy River statue! 🤠

These little adventures are a wonderful way to strengthen the connection between home, preschool and our community, while giving children meaningful opportunities to practise gratitude, empathy, mindfulness and emotional literacy in their everyday lives.

We can’t wait to see where Cozy goes, what he discovers and the wonderful family adventures that fill his journal! 🐨🏡💕

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🕷️ Following Children’s Interests: Our Bug & Insect World 🐞🐜

Our children’s ongoing interest in bugs, insects and spiders has continued to inspire their play and creativity. After exploring spiders and their webs, the children asked for help to create their very own spider’s web for their dramatic play.

Working alongside an educator, the children used a hoop and wool to begin weaving their web, carefully stretching, wrapping and connecting the strands. This idea soon grew beyond the original web as the children took ownership of their play and began transforming the outdoor environment.

Using various loose parts from around the art crate and playground, the children created their own insect homes, habitats and webs amongst the trees and on different pieces of equipment. Everyday materials were repositioned, connected and arranged as the children shared their ideas about where insects might live, hide and build their homes.

Through this child-led experience, the children explored creativity, problem-solving, fine and gross motor skills, spatial awareness, cooperation and imaginative thinking. Most importantly, their ideas were listened to and valued, allowing their curiosity to shape both the experience and their environment.

We love seeing where a shared interest can lead when children are given the time, materials and freedom to bring their ideas to life! 🌿🕸️🐛

🖍️ Discovering the Magic of Chalk and Water 💧🔨

Today, our children became little scientists and engineers as they explored chalk in a hands-on sensory investigation!

Using wooden hammers and blocks, the children carefully broke large pieces of chalk into smaller pieces, strengthening their hand muscles, coordination, and problem-solving skills. They made predictions, experimented with different ways to break the chalk, and worked collaboratively as they shared tools and ideas.

The excitement continued when water was added! The children eagerly observed how the dry chalk transformed into a smooth, colourful paste. They noticed changes in texture, colour, and consistency, mixing and creating their own vibrant chalk paint while discussing what they could see happening.

This rich learning experience encouraged:
🌈 Scientific thinking through observing change and making predictions.
🔨 Fine motor development and hand-eye coordination.
💬 Language development as children described their discoveries and shared ideas.
🎨 Creativity and sensory exploration through mixing, painting, and experimenting.
🤝 Collaboration as children worked together and negotiated the use of tools and materials.

Simple materials can inspire the most meaningful learning, allowing children to explore, question, create, and discover through play.

💙 Sensory play with a splash of creativity! 💙

Our little learners had a wonderful time exploring coloured salt drawing today! Using spoons, cups and paintbrushes, they poured, scooped, spread and created their own unique designs in the vibrant blue salt.

This open-ended sensory experience supports:
✨ Fine motor development
✨ Hand-eye coordination
✨ Creativity and self-expression
✨ Early mark-making and pre-writing skills
✨ Focus, curiosity and imaginative play

Watching the children experiment with different tools, patterns and textures reminds us that some of the best learning happens through hands-on exploration.

Learning really is as simple as play, explore, create! 💙

🌿 MEET OUR EDUCATOR 🌿

✨ Meet Justine ✨

As one of our Early Childhood Teachers, Justine is passionate about creating an environment where every child feels understood, supported and encouraged to learn in their own unique way. 💚

With a love of music, movement and nature, Justine enjoys creating meaningful experiences that foster children's physical development, emotional wellbeing and sense of belonging. From Bush Kindy adventures with her daughter to her impressive collection of oversized tea mugs, there's plenty to discover about the wonderful educator behind the smile! ☕🌿🎶

Swipe through to get to know Justine a little better ➡️

🎨 Little hands, big discoveries. 🌿

Today, our children explored the many possibilities of painting through both brushes and their hands, discovering how different tools create different marks, textures and movements. From broad, sweeping brushstrokes to the gentle press of tiny hands, each child experimented freely, expressing their ideas in their own unique way.

Rather than focusing on the finished artwork, this experience celebrated the process of exploration—building confidence, creativity and curiosity as children investigated colour, texture and cause and effect. Open-ended art experiences like these encourage children to think creatively, make choices and develop fine motor skills while enjoying the joy of self-expression.

At The Little School Preschool, we believe children are capable, competent learners, and we provide opportunities for them to explore materials in ways that are meaningful to them.

🌱 This experience reflects our philosophy in action by:
• Valuing process over product and honouring each child’s unique creativity.
• Encouraging children to take the lead in their learning through open-ended exploration.
• Creating rich, responsive environments that inspire curiosity and imagination.

✨ Connected to the EYLF V2.0:
• Outcome 1: Children develop a strong sense of identity as confident and capable learners.
• Outcome 4: Children use creativity, curiosity and inquiry to explore and solve problems.
• Outcome 5: Children express ideas and meaning through creative arts.

🏡 Linked to the National Quality Standard:
• QA1 – Educational Program and Practice: Learning experiences are intentional, responsive and based on children’s interests.
• QA3 – Physical Environment: Providing inviting environments and materials that encourage exploration and creativity.

🌿 Mud, Magic & Meaningful Play 🌿

What began as a morning of cooking and potion-making in our mud kitchen soon transformed into a joyful exploration of muddy puddles, imaginative play and scientific discovery! 💚

Using lemon balm leaves, native rosemary and creeping pink thyme, the children carefully gathered natural ingredients to create “soups,” “tea,” magical potions and delicious imaginary feasts. As they mixed, poured, stirred and experimented, they noticed how water changed the texture of the soil—leading to the irresistible invitation to jump, splash and stomp through muddy puddles! 💦👣

This spontaneous progression is a wonderful example of child-led learning. One curiosity naturally led to another, with children investigating cause and effect, exploring the properties of natural materials, testing their ideas and engaging all of their senses. Along the way they negotiated roles, shared resources, balanced on logs, built confidence through managed risk and experienced the simple joy of connecting with nature.

🌱 EYLF Connections

* Outcome 1: Children developed a strong sense of identity as they confidently took risks, made choices and directed their own learning.
* Outcome 2: Children connected with and cared for the natural environment through the use of herbs, plants and natural materials.
* Outcome 4: Children became confident and involved learners by investigating, experimenting, predicting and problem-solving.
* Outcome 5: Rich conversations, imaginative storytelling and collaborative play strengthened children’s communication skills.

⭐ NQS Connections

* QA1 – Educational Program and Practice: Educators followed children’s interests, extending learning through responsive, play-based experiences.
* QA3 – Physical Environment: The outdoor environment acted as a rich “third teacher,” inspiring exploration, creativity and sensory learning.
* QA5 – Relationships with Children: Children collaborated, negotiated and celebrated discoveries together in a warm and supportive environment.

💚 Our Philosophy in Action
At The Little School Preschool, we believe the richest learning often begins with children’s curiosity. By providing open-ended natural environments and following children’s interests, we create opportunities for exploration, creativity, problem-solving and joyful connections with the world around them.

Sometimes, the best recipes don’t end in the mud kitchen—they end with muddy boots, big smiles and unforgettable learning. 🌿🥣💦

❤️ We Need Your Help

This is one of the hardest messages we've ever had to share.

After almost 50 years of serving Illawarra families, The Little School Preschool needs to find a new home for the 2027 school year.

Our current lease comes to an end in December 2026.

For years we've worked tirelessly behind the scenes.

✔️ We've secured Development Approval.

✔️ Invested more than $270,000 in planning and approvals.

✔️ Worked with government, council, community organisations and landowners.

✔️ Explored every opportunity we can find.

Despite all of this...

We still haven't secured a permanent home.

Today we're asking our wider community for help.

Do you know of:

🏡 Land that may be suitable?

🏢 An existing building?

🤝 An organisation that may like to partner with us?

💚 Someone who could introduce us to the right person?

Sometimes the solution to a complex problem starts with one conversation.

If you have any ideas—no matter how small—we'd love to hear from you.

📧 [email protected]

☎️ (02) 4261 6566

Please share this post so it reaches someone who might be able to help.

Together, we can find a home for our preschool.



For more information visit
http://www.thelittleschool.org.au/we-need-your-help.html