Each day at Uplands brings new opportunities to flex those learning muscles and have fun with friends and teachers. Children go home tired and happy.
We arrive at kindy and settle, choosing what activity to do when our parents leave. We might make some cupcakes from sparkly play dough, or play tabletop games with one of the teachers, or head to the sandpit outside.
10am: It’s mat time! We gather on the mat for some music and dancing or singing. Then we wash our hands and get out the morning tea we brought to kindy. We say grace before we eat. When we are done, we tidy up and get busy playing again! If it’s a special day, we might have visitors for morning tea and a concert. We will sing for our grandparents, and then share morning tea with them. We will show them the paintings we have created, and take them outside to show them the worm farm and the climbing structures.
At story time we gather on the mat. Sometimes we will have a birthday to celebrate. The birthday boy or girl gets to sit up at the front of the group. They blow out the candles in their play dough cake, and everyone sings happy birthday. The children who are going home for lunch are picked up, and the rest of us eat our lunch together.
The older children gather in a separate space for the preschool/transition to school programme. We focus on developing fine motor skills in readiness for school, and encourage pre-literacy and pre- maths skills through games and activities. Meanwhile the younger children continue to play outside and inside, sharing their ideas for new games with the teachers.
It’s time to go home. We tidy the play equipment and books away and say goodbye to the teachers. We can’t wait to come back to kindy for another day!
We choose to limit the number of children attending our sessions to less than our licensed number. This enables us to offer a very high quality space with an excellent teacher:child ratio as well as enhancing interactions and the environment of Uplands Kindergarten.
All of our children enjoy interacting with our wider community in a number of ways. These are some of them.
Each year kindergarten children and families are invited to join in a special service at Somervell Presbyterian Church. During this service the children and teachers sing their favourite songs, photographs of the children at play during sessions is shared with the congregation, and morning tea is served.
Twice a year, the children invite their family to a night at Uplands Kindergarten. They share dinner, show their parents their favourite things at kindy, and then perform a short concert.
