Month: July 2018

This year at Flinders we have made a commitment to improve our menu by developing the nutritional value and taste sensation of all the meals offered, incorporating more whole foods and a more inclusive approach to the provision of allergy meals. Food is central to so much of what we do as humans and our children have a right to learn and experience a healthful and positive food culture here at Flinders. Hand in hand with a positive food culture comes an understanding of where our food comes from and how it is produced, preferencing sustainable practices where possible. Making all this happen has been an exciting time. Involving all stakeholders; children, families, our kitchen and administration staff, director, assistant directors, educators and food suppliers has required dedication, time, communication and quite a bit of trial and error. The children have been looking at, feeling, smelling and tasting the new foods from our trial menus. Some dishes have been received really enthusiastically. Tom from Sturt House said when tasting the Sushi platter for the first time ‘It smells just like at the shop!’ and Alex from Toddler House said ’What’s this?’ about fifteen times as she looked at, picked up, smelt, felt and then tasted each one of the fifteen different ingredients she could choose from the Create Your Own Noodle Bowl dish platter. Other dishes have slowly grown on the children with some, like the Bircher Muesli, for morning tea, becoming new favourites. We have had time to tweakRead more

The Early Years Learning Framework tells us that “children learn about themselves and construct their own identity within the context of their families and communities” (pg. 20).  This year we have been on a journey to express our identity through the making of a flag. The interest in flags arose from a small group of children who started to make flags following a child sharing a description of their families Chinese New Year celebration.  It was at this point that educators realised we have at least thirty nationalities represented at Sturt House this year! During this inquiry the children made a number of flags and made flags in a number of different ways.  Flags were made in miniature with matchsticks and sticky tape, flags were drawn and flags were painted.  The children enjoyed working in different scale and then began with much excitement to work more collaboratively as they painted large flags on material with acrylic paint.  Then the Educators wondered if we could make a flag to represent who we are, a Sturt House Community Flag.  We took this suggestion to the children and they immediately took up the idea and began brainstorming what would be on our Community Flag.  We wondered what colour represents Sturt House?  What symbols?  What is community?  We invited the children to draw their ideas. Through this journey the children have been thinking deeply about who we are as a community.  During a discussion the phrase “a together group” was coined. It came aboutRead more