Wordless Wednesday: zoo trip

Linked up at 5 minutes for Mom,   Live and Love…Out Loud,  Parenting By Dummies and Seven Clown Circus.

We did painting on the easels

We talked about water safety

Because it is hot and sunny and summery here we talked about children and water safety at playgroup today.

Unfortunately the number of people drowning in Australia has increased, for the third year in a row, making us realize that we all have a part to play in preventing drowning. Children are at greatest risk when they are toddlers and need constant supervision around water to have fun and be safe.

We talked about basic safety around water and pools and CPR and made sure everyone knew the emergency number 000. The most important thing we decided was to only allow your child near a pool if you are able to stay and supervise.

We talked about active supervision and how it means focusing all of your attention on your children all of the time, when they are in, on or around the water and how mobile phone use can distract us from active supervision.

We used the Kidsafe Swimming Pool Safety sheet.
The Royal Life Saving Society has many fact sheets on water awareness, bath time safety, home water safety, wading pools, pool toy safety and resuscitation. They also have resources on water safety in Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese. 

We made kangaroos

Lots of brown cardboard and a little white cardboard, cut into circle shapes to create a kangaroo. We also used black stickers for the eyes. Our kiddie creations did not quite end up looking like our inspiration above but the children loved gluing the shapes and the mothers enjoyed cutting the circles, as they could still chat as they cut.

We made fruit salad

 

The parents had previously discussed trying to get their children to eat different kinds of fruit and not just stick to their one or two favourites, so this week we involved the children in making some fruit salad.

 

We found some fruit puzzles

 

and a fruit matching picture game

and we read Handa's Suprise which is a delightful book about fruit,

amongst other things

and everyone had a happy morning.

 

 

We made finger paint prints

We made our own fingerpaint using this recipe. We like it as it helps with easy clothes washing.
We placed a small amount of each colour in a tray for each child. The children played in the fingerpaint, some cautiously and some with squeals of delight.
They washed their hands and then placed a piece of paper over their tray and rubbed.
We slowly lifted the paper off and hung them outside on the line to dry.
The clean up was quite easy as we washed the trays and wiped down the plastic table tops.

We sang songs about transport

I'M A LITTLE ROCKET (sung to tune of "I'm a Little Teapot")
I'm a little rocket short and thin,
Here is my nose cone, here are my fins
When it comes to blast off, then I zoom
Off the launch pad, to the moon.

Transport is our theme this term: how things move around, how we travel on trains and buses and cars and aeroplanes, boats, helicopters and rockets.
I think the theme has been great for the parents as well as the children and they talk to each other about transport on the way to and from playgroup and during the week when they are out and about. Many families have been bringing in pictures and books to read about transport like:

We will probably go on a ferry boat as an excursion this term too.

Here is a link to some more transport songs.

Also this term we will be creating something to take home to Dad or Grandpa for Father's Day. What do you make for Father's Day?