Toddlers and Childcare
TODDLERS AND CHILDCARE
5 Questions to ask your Early Childhood Teacher
Tricia King Photography, www.triciaking.com.au
We asked a Brisbane Kindy Teacher to tell us about the kinds of questions she LOVES parents to ask about their children in her class.
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here’s no doubt that your child starting Kindergarten is a new and sometimes confronting experience for both children and their parents. It’s important that you feel comfortable with your child’s new Kindergarten, and asking questions is a great way to alleviate worries. Here are some questions you might ask your child’s teacher:
1. How is my child doing at Kindy? When we answer this question, there are lots of areas to consider: Social development - What stage of play are they at – do they play by themselves, in parallel with peers or in co-operative play? Can they enter into play appropriately? Do they understand the importance of give and take in play? Emotional resilience - Can they cope with change? With challenges? With disappointments? With conflict? Academic skills – not only learning letters and numbers, but also their fine and gross motor development. Teachers and assistants work tirelessly to assist children to develop social competence and emotional resilience, which are just as important as being able to hold a pencil correctly, or recognise numerals 1-10.
2. What does my child love to do at Kindy?
Tricia King Photography, www.triciaking.com.au
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Research shows time and time again that children learn best when they have an interest in something. There’s really no point in spending a week learning about koalas when the children are interested in a new movie that’s come out all about dinosaurs and
Your Local Families Magazine – Brisbane Issue 12 - October/November 2015
"Research shows time and time again that children learn best when they have an interest in something." palaeontology. Our role as the teacher is to embed critical learning into these interests, so we’ll ask them to make a “Caution – dinosaur excavation” sign (embedding early literacy skills), use tools to uncover bones in the sandpit (encouraging fine motor development, co-operation and patience), and get them to research the bones in a book from the library. We’ll sing a song about a Dinosaur Hunt (Going