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Set for School at BestStart Fendalton
This week, in our Set for School group, our 4-year-olds got busy exploring the letter 'T' through our 'Letterland' programe. We began our week on Monday getting to know Talking Tess who is always in a terrific hurry. She is in charge of all the telephones and televisions in Letterland. Tess talks all the time. She keeps on talking or texting when she travels in taxis or on trains. Following this we spent some time seeing what words we could come up with that started with the letter 'T.' Exploring the phonetical sound that the letter 'T' makes is a really important pre-literacy experience!
On Tuesday, tamariki engaged in some tower building. This was carried out in pairs as children worked together to see who could construct the highest tower. Some of the creations as you can see. Being able to work in a team is another important skill our tamariki will need when they go to school. On Wednesday we got busy with the word tongue, finding out about our taste buds and the parts of our tongue that taste sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. Understanding of this concept was supported with a little tasting experiment salt (salty), sugar (sweet), lime juice (sour), and orange rind (bitter). On Thursday we worked on finishing group activities for our display that we had been doing as a collective for Matariki.
Over a period of a month, we have engaged in many experiences celebrating this time of year, making stars, storytelling, bird art, music, gardening, and learning about the nine stars of Matariki and what they symbolise. On Friday, tamariki each got busy making their very own taco for lunch. This involved reading and following a recipe, cooking the mince, adding measured ingredients, and then constructing each individual taco. Being able to make your own food is a real-life skill.
We hope to be doing more of this in the future. Some awesome pre-numeracy skills were being taught here, while tamariki learned about the concepts of full, empty, half, quarter etc.