Month: June 2020

Community in a Washing Basket

Flinders University Childcare Community 4 Comments

A Special Message from the Director Today’s blog is taking a different tone to the usual. Most of the world has had a rough and bumpy last 13 weeks, and so has Flinders, but for far more reasons than you may think. Things are said to happen in threes, and by the middle of March, I thought we’d had our three, and I was moving on. I was very much mistaken. The beginning of March brought a stove ignition problem. It took three visits from a tech and three days of creative meal preparation from the centre’s fantastic cook, to be fixed, and all the while the children were fed. I thought this was the end. The next week, the industrial dishwasher in the kitchen decided it would get in on the action. It needed a new control panel. We did a fair bit of dishwashing and wiping during this week; it was okay, and we smiled through. The next breakdown was the washing machine. The digital code on the panel told me it was a blocked overflow pipe, and I knew how to fix it thanks to Dr Google. This breakdown was not going to cost us time or money! Alas, my ability as a washing machine technician was lacking; we needed a professional. The fan needed replacing, and it was going to cost, but it was fixable and quick. Over the next fortnight, the two heaters in Sturt House went, and we were unable to get replacement partsRead more

A Pot of Tea

Flinders University Childcare Nutrition No Comments

Winter is certainly upon us; it’s cold and a little gloomy, however the outdoor program at Flinders is as strong as it is in the warmer months. The children are navigating the change in weather well. With support, even the youngest children are beginning to recognise their body’s need for extra layers of clothing and a change in hat. Some children even wear gloves, mittens, and gumboots, warming right to the tips of their toes and fingers. Just as educators adjust the program in response to the winter season, so the children adjust their play. Keeping their shoes on in the sandpit, seeking shelter when they feel drops of rain, recognising the need for gumboots with puddles and doing a little more running when they feel cold. The outdoors is important all year round and the colder months teach the children about body awareness and looking after their wellbeing. The winter menu provides children with hearty meals, warming them from the inside of their bodies. Alongside this, the educators have been making lemon verbena tea with the children during some mornings. Warm drinks and warm food encourage the children to take a moment and find joy in good nutrition and delicious tea. It is delightful to see a group of children, mug in hand, chatting about what they see, feel and smell. A time to gather and enjoy the simple pleasure of each other’s presence and calm those rosy cheeks. To make your own lemon verbena tea, simply add aRead more

Winter Menu

Flinders University Childcare Nutrition No Comments

Food is an essential part of the programs at Flinders. Not only are meals a time to feed the body, they are a time to feed the community and the soul. Food and menus at Flinders are carefully planned to ensure they meet a range of requirements, including the guidelines developed by Nutrition Australia. The meals at Flinders are seasonal; during the summer months they include lighter foods and in winter we eat heartier, warming foods like soups and curries. All food at Flinders is prepared in-house, in our commercial kitchen by our cook. The meals are made from scratch wherever possible from locally sourced ingredients. Whole foods are the foundation of all meals. Allergies and other dietary requirements are catered for, including plant-based options. We are delighted to move to our winter menu for 2020, welcoming back such favourites as Build-your-own Baked Potato, Black Bean Soup with Corn Salsa, and Lentil and Vegetable Lasagne. For those of you who would like a taste at home, here is the recipe for Black Bean Soup with Corn Salsa: Black Bean Soup Ingredients 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 stalks celery, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 cloves garlic chopped 1 tablespoon ground cumin black pepper to taste 2 cups vegetable broth 2 cans black beans 2 can whole kernel corn 2 can crushed tomato Method Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté onion, celery, carrots and garlic for 5 minutes. Season with cumin, and black pepper;Read more

Numeracy in Play

Flinders University Childcare Numeracy No Comments

Sometimes when we are talking about learning we get caught up in buzzwords – STEM! STEAM! Literacy! Numeracy! We think about content, we think about assessment, we might think about NAPLAN and all the things that are ahead of us. It all feels really complicated. Competitive. And complex. But does it have to be? Learning in the early years is really, fundamentally, all about play. Play and playful investigations enable children to experience the world in a wide range of ways. Play in carefully constructed environments builds a strong foundation of experience, upon which children can later build structured content knowledge. Indeed, without this strong foundation of experience, children will find it quite difficult to later build this structured content knowledge. “If it hasn’t been in the hand and body, it can’t be in the brain” Bev Bos The wise words of Bev Bos are backed by substantial research. Take, for example, mathematics. When teaching children mathematical content in a school setting, teachers tend to follow a particular sequence – concrete (physical resources), iconic (pictures that represent physical resources) and symbolic (using symbols such as number sentence to represent physical resources). Children often move back and forth through these various stages as they encounter increasingly complex concepts, or unfamiliar ideas. If we expand this out from a single content area and instead look more broadly at the learning and development of children, we can see the connection between the importance of play-based learning before embarking on direct instruction. Take theRead more