Summer – 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 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!

July 13, 2021July 13, 2021

In the Moment Planning – How to save a Bee

In the moment, spontaneous or responsive planning is where some of our best and most memorable learning experiences come from. Having a highly experienced, skilled and creative workforce allows us to responded to the simplest of cues and turn it in to a magical learning experience for our children.

In our playground we found a Bee who was very tired, luckily one of our staff members knew just what to do and leapt in to action, taking a few of the children with her on this important rescue mission.

Did you know….

“If you find a tired bee in your home or outside, a simple solution of sugar and water will help revive an exhausted bee. Simply mix two tablespoons of white, granulated sugar with one tablespoon of water, and place on a spoon for the bee to reach”

Keeping our distance and helping our Bee

15 minutes later our Bee friend is beginning to move – We’ve done it!

Throughout this spontaneous experience our children demonstrated compassion, perseverance, and a real want to help others. We are so proud of our children daily, but this was a special moment; for us, for them and our new friend Mr. Bee.