Child-led learning is a term used to describe educational activities in which children are responsible for deciding what they want to learn. The children at Dragonfly’s Early Learning at Coolum Beach decided upon a dress up day last week which included face painting. It was a great day for the children, as they were surrounded by bright colours and loved being able to play dress-up and have their faces painted. Face painting can have many learning benefits for children. Child

Cooking is one of the things that children love to do. Just the mention of the word catches their attention and they come running. I am sure that the thought of something interesting to eat probably has something to do with it! Cooking with children can encourage an interest in food and healthy eating which are skills required throughout life. Cooking is now considered a fantastic way to help shape their development in early childhood. Cooking encourages children's thinking,

The imagination of a child can be an amazing concept and the Educators at Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach take every opportunity to introduce imaginative play to their little ones to foster the development of very active imaginations. The Kindergarten Educators introduced these tyres to their play space last week. The children have loved exploring with them. Tyres take a long time to break down in landfill so repurposing and reusing tyres in an outdoor play space h

The Pre-Kindergarten Group at Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach decided that they wanted to have a very special "dress-up day" children just love the idea of "Make Believe" Miss Louise, their educator, and the children together, planned their day. They wanted to pack as much fun as they could into their special day. They organised dress-ups, cooking, and special makeup to add to the excitement of the day. Children spend a great deal of their day in the land of make-b

As you can see from the smile on this little face, children love their days spent at Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach. This is a face of happiness and freedom! The team of Early Learning Educators who are passionate advocates of Early Childhood Education are experienced and capable of providing happy educational days full of fun for the children. Their professional philosophy is based on respectful care, and education for all children with the strong foundation of “

Cosmic yoga is a fun experience for kids from age 3 and upwards. At Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach, the educators have introduced Cosmic Yoga to the children using their new smartboard, creating stories, and role-plays and introducing stillness and mindfulness. Mindfulness plays a prominent role in early childhood development and offers psychological support through both physical and mental health. . Cosmic yoga has been found to be a great way to get children to

Last week, the children explored the outdoor construction area. Playing with loose parts for construction uses lots of useful qualities Our little construction engineer makes her choices. After looking through the blocks, she begins by choosing a long block. She carefully begins her construction by stacking cylinder-shaped blocks with long blocks on top of each other while singing...." I'm making a ramp: I'm making a ramp" While completing her construction, she is developing

By understanding more about the ocean and its creatures and how we interact with it as humans, children will learn to care for and protect the ocean and its creatures so that it will be a better place not only for the sea creatures but for them also. All children have an innate curiosity about the world around them and the ocean is one large part of it, in fact, taking up more than 70% of the earth's surface. Children are avid learners so it is important to introduce the oc

I thought that this was an interesting article from The Biting Truth. thebitingtruthkids Does it feel like your kids can plow through 20000000 crackers without getting full? Add a little protein to help make their snacks more satisfying Protein (and fat) add satiety or a feeling of fullness/satisfaction, to foods because they help better regulate our blood sugar. You may notice this if you have porridge and fruit for breakfast-great options full of nutrients and fibre, but yo

The children at Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach know that a garbage truck is a specially designed truck for collecting community waste. Some children may simply love the giant robot-like tool that the rubbish trucks have to remotely pick up the rubbish bins and tip them into the huge truck. These trucks come in bright colours, have huge wheels, buttons and levers and are very noisy. They are manned by people in bright uniforms who have very loud voices. For little

This is a great slice to let the children make. There are just 3 ingredients to add to a Donna Hay Pancake Mix in a jar. Then add the fruit and chocolate topping. So easy!!! Raspberry Chocolate Slice Ingredients 1 jar Donna Hay Pancake Mix 25gms melted butter 1 egg 1 cup milk 1 x punnet of raspberries or blueberries or 1 peeled sliced pear/apple 1 bar Cadbury's Caramilk chocolate Method Preheat oven to 200C Prepare a small slice pan measuring 275 x170cm (or the old 11 x 7 inc

The Educators at Dragonfly's Early learning at Coolum Beach make every effort to have your little one feeling safe and loved From the first days of attendance, we like to create a Circle of Security for the children in which an educator provides the children with feelings of security in their new family environment. We try to make sure that one educator is always down on the floor with the children, giving them a base and a safe place to rotate back to when they feel the need

A Day in the life of a little Dragonfly from Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach is often a very busy one. This week, the children had a really fun day starting with dancing. Children love to dance. Not only does it engage all aspects of a child's physical development but it awakens the inner creativity in all children allowing them to hear a piece of music and decide how their body can best respond to it. They then moved on to building with blocks. This is challenging

Throughout all stages of childhood, drawing has many developmental benefits. Toddlers become interested in scribbling from around 12 to 18 months. Scribbling supports muscle and hand-eye coordination. At this age, their movements are usually large and they are more interested in the marks that they make as opposed to what they draw. Praise is imperative at this stage for encouragement to continue with their mark-making. As hand-eye coordination develops and fine motor skills

This week's story, Millie Mae in Winter, has been a good story to introduce this week. The weather is really cooling off and we are experiencing those nasty winter winds that come from the west. At Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach, Millie Mae's Winter story has been read and enjoyed, compared, and discussed. The subject of the seasons, giving the children an understanding of the passage of time, has introduced them to the idea of change and what happens with our cl

Matching is an essential skill helping to improve a number of cognitive abilities like visual memory, short-term memory and pattern memory. Learning shapes not only helps children identify and organise information, but it helps them to learn skills in other areas of the curriculum like reading, maths, and science. An early step in recognising numbers and letters is to recognise their shape Initially, children learn to identify and name circles, triangles, squares, rectangles,

Children who grow up in suburbia, often miss out on the joy of a chicken coup or a home garden. The challenge then is to help children understand the connection between where real food comes from and the relationship between their health and their environment. Last week, the children from Dragonflys Early Learning at Coolum Beach spent time learning about how our food is grown. Bush Kindy was a great place to start to find our food growing in nature. This nature walk was to p

A little light rain and some play in the wet can actually be really good for children's physical and mental development When playing in wet conditions, children are investigating, exploring, and enjoying a slippery world. This play uses a different set of physical challenges from a dry world. This also helps them to connect with all the weather conditions offered by Mother Nature. It is good to look at wet weather play as an open experience that allows them to explore nature

Just take a look at this happy little girl. Isnt she beautiful? How happy is she to be climbing that tree? She obviously loves Early Learning One can’t deny that Preschool and Pre-Kindy programmes come with many inherent benefits. Those who argue that all children should attend preschool point to the following benefits for preschool-age children who attend programs Prepares Children Academically for Kindergarten. Preschool-age programs will introduce children to their ABCs a

At Dragonfly's Early Learning at Coolum Beach, one of the roles of the Educators is to make sure that their classroom is thoughtfully designed and that the materials for play are well organised because when they are ready to play it is full-on!! This bustling and busy room of 3-year-olds is working hard at creating and building social skills with both their peers and their educators This room has been designed for group activities. Careful thought given to this process provid