Supporting Development – Page 5 – Colquhoun Park Early Years Centre

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021

STEM in the Early Years

What is STEM and how do we support it in the early years?

At Colquhoun Park EYC we understand the importance on igniting children’s natural interests, by ensuring we give them plenty of opportunity to experience, explore and experiment.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics based activities (STEM) give children the opportunity to work collaboratively building on communication, problem solving, critical thinking, hypothesis and much, much more. By creating opportunity in the early years for children to build these skills we supporting our future scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians to lead the way in innovations.

Some examples of how we incorporate STEM into our learning

VOLCANOS – we mixed together baking soda, washing up liquid, food colouring (optional) then adding vinegar we were able to create and volcanic eruption!

Skittle experiment – We were able to use hypothesis to guess what we thought might happen when water was added. We then put our thoughts to the test, finding out what the result would be!

WATER TURBINE – using water and gravity to power a ‘turbine’. It turned itself as the water flowed through.

FORCES – we added washing up liquid and water to our tarpaulin, the mixture of ingredients, combined with a flat surface and a hill made a great combination for some FABULOUS slipping and sliding… we all had great fun testing this experiment out!

July 15, 2021July 26, 2021

Exploring our Community

We are so lucky to have such wonderful spaces accessible to us throughout our community explore. One of our favourite places to go is the forest…. Can you guess where we are?!

“There is a growing body of research that shows that young children’s access to nature and outdoor play is positively associated with improved self-esteem, physical health, development of language skills and disposition to learning.” My World Outdoors

Cooking up a storm in our forest kitchen hmm worm pie – yum! yum!

Team work makes the dream work! Lots of measuring, pouring, science, conversation and negotiation needed to make the most magical of meals for our friends.

July 15, 2021July 15, 2021

Music in the Early Years

Research has found that “musical activities stimulate development in every area of the brain” This is why MUSIC plays such a vital role in our Early Years.

Our ‘We love Rock & Roll day’ and ‘Festival’ gave us plenty of opportunity to explore instruments, sound, rhythm and beat. It even got us moving our dancing feet!

“I’ve never seen a real guitar before. Can I have a go?” – FG age 4

“I LOVE ROCK & ROLL” – RG age 5

“These are my Rock hands” – FB age 5

Behind the scenes are our ‘Colquhoun in the Park’ Festival set up!