Foundation Class Blog: September 2014

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Giving Good Praise to Girls: What Messages Stick

Thought you would be interested in this online article.....

"How to praise kids: It’s a hot topic for many parents and educators. A lot of the conversation around it has stemmed from studies by Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford who has been researching this specific topic for many years".

I can see it's not going to auto link when you click on it but if you search 'Giving Good Praise to Girls: What Messages Stick" I'm sure you'll get the article.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/04/giving-good-praise-to-girls-what-messages-stick/

Friday 19 September 2014

The BEST day on Mt St John

It is always so encouraging to see how much the girls physical skills and stamina develops during the term on our walks up Mt St John. Often the girls begin by being very hesitant to climb up the hills and the trees and prefer to play on solid ground.

Today we visited a new place and it was wonderful to watch all the girls climbing and playing around a broken branch for a long time. We think that being able to wear long pants has certainly helped!

A monkey game developed that went on for a long time.

Halle said that she had discovered this new place and she has called it

"The Monkey Tree Park"; such a great name that we can add to our other names of the

special places we visit.

An important aspect of supporting children's physical development in such areas as balance, is that this enhances reading development. There is a strong connection between children's physical abilities

and learning to read!

Thursday 18 September 2014

Making a Pinny.

We needed a lot of concentration to get our pinny made. First we talked about the size that it would need to be so that it would fit the girls. That required a lot of measurements and number work. We made a tiny little pinny first to see how it would look, before we made a larger

sized pinny out of paper.

Then it was time to use the pattern to cut out the material and to begin sewing. The anticipation of using the sewing machine was quite high with a lot of questions about when they could have their turn.

Once we had cut the pattern out together and pinned pieces of material, we were ready to use the sewing machine... and that was such a lot of fun and it took quite a bit of expertise in using the foot at just the right amount of pressure. The concentration on their faces says it all!

Now that we have finished the pinny, it’s time to start embroidering it!!!

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Designing an 'Olden Days' pinny

We noticed in the photos of 'the olden days' at Dio from our visit to the achives, that the

girls pinnies were very plain.

We talked about how the girls were taught to hand sew designs and patterns on their pinnies, and we drew a picture together using different designs that the girls thought up.

This exercise was a good way to discuss patterns and how they are made and for it to be a pattern,

it needs to be repeating things.

We invited the girls to think about designing an old fashioned pinny for themselves.When it came to drawing their own patterns we were impressed with how quickly they picked up the idea of repeating patterns. They found keeping a straight line
for their patterns quite a challenge!

When we discussed the possibility of sewing a pinny, there was quite a bit of enthusiasm. As the girls have really enjoyed using the sewing cards, and getting the knack of turning the card over to sew the next ‘stitch’. We thought that doing some simple hand sewing would prove interesting!