Kindergarten 2020

Wow! What an exciting start to Kindergarten!

On Thursday 30th January, the youngest members of our Santa Sophia community came to school in their smart uniforms, shiny new shoes and carried backpacks as big as them! They looked fabulous. We even had our very own ‘Welcome’ balloons to celebrate our new learners.

The first few days at school saw the children quickly settle into their new routines and become familiar with their brand new classroom. We made Kinder hats to wear home, decorated our name collages, read stories about coming to school and sang lots of fun songs!

At the end of the first day, one Kindergarten student asked “I want to learn more about Jesus please”... and at Santa Sophia we put Christ at the centre of all things we do. The Kindergarten students have been guided by the Year 1's who have been modelling for them how to be reverent and participate during morning prayer circle each day. The children also visited the church and attended a Parish Mass where many parishioners commented on how beautiful they were- the teachers were so proud! A highlight for many of the students was that “we got to go on a big bus to the high school” where we joined with other Santa Sophia staff, students and parents at our Opening School Mass. Kindergarten has also been highly engaged during Religion lessons where they have watched presentations and then chosen one of the choice stations linking to the learning, such as, practising setting up a prayer space, tracing prayer hands, painting crosses, looking through children’s Bibles and learning about Saint Sophia.

By Week 3, Kindergarten has already begun Reading Groups and are learning to independently work in their pods each day, such as making words out of letter beads and pipe cleaners, tracing letters on the magic boards, developing their oral language in the ice cream pod and reading with the teachers. During writing, we have been practising how to hold a pencil and where to start writing on our page - we are all writers in Kindy.

During Mathematics the children have been counting everyday, concentrating on saying the “teen” numbers correctly and working on our careful counting. In our first weeks in Kindergarten, we have been learning about position and how to follow an instruction to a position and describe the position of objects. One of our favourite activities has been listening to the story You Hoo, Ladybird! by Mem Fox where we found all the different ways to describe the position of the ladybird who was hiding from us! We then got to hide our very own ladybirds around the classroom and work with a partner to describe its position. Learning is so much fun!

One of the biggest adventures we have been on so far would have to be our ‘We’re Going On A Season's Hunt’ adventure to introduce our Seasons unit in Investigations. We travelled all around the playground in search of the seasons.

Can you see a hot season? Yes! Over near the sandpit! Look at those hats and towels!
Can you see a crunchy season? Yes! Look at all those leaves!
Can you see a cold season? Yes! Look at the fireplace and all those jumpers in that freezing cold room!
Can you see a flowery season? Yes! Look at that tent full of flowers and spring coloured balloons!

Kindergarten have also posed many questions throughout our Investigations unit, focusing on the season of Summer. Some of the student’s inquiry questions have been; ‘Why is it so hot?’ ‘How can we keep cool in Summer?’ ‘Why do animals drink so much water?’ We have loved investigating these questions in our Investigations pods. We have made summer puppets, used magazines to make summer collages, made mini earths, sorted seasons pictures, made a summer picnic in home corner and made summer stories on the felt boards.

You may have seen us dancing at home - that’s because we have been busting some serious moves at Dance Fever on Friday’s! To end off a busy week, Kinder and Year One (and even the teachers) come together to learn some group and partner dances led by our awesome Dance Fever teachers. No wonder we are tired on a Friday!

Each and every day the Kindergarten students continue to develop their love of learning and start to form some friendships. Thank you to all of the families who have provided your children with great enthusiasm and positivity over the first few weeks of school. Your children are shining!