Beach Program
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Beach Kindergarten – Out and About in our Local Community
Our Beach Kindergarten program recognises the contribution that children can make to their community. Beach Kinder increases the children’s awareness of why we need to care for, protect and respect the natural environment. It immerses the children in the beautiful bay area in which they live and teaches the children how to be safe in coastal areas. Children have the opportunity to visit the beach approximately 6 times per year. The children catch the local bus, (learning about and practicing road safety), getting off at Hampton Station bus stop and further connecting them to other parts of the community as they walk through Hampton shops across the railway crossing and onto the beach via Small Street. |
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Taking children out of the kindergarten environment is an act of advocacy, it reminds the community that children exist, and have rights. Beach Kinder recognises children’s rights to be active participants in their community, and to have a say on matters that are important
to their community.
Opportunities for Play Based Learning:
“Research shows that play based learning and spending time in nature are beneficial to children’s health and well-being” (Well and Evans 2003). At the beach the children have many opportunities for play based learning, and through this play and exploration they can
engage in learning under all curriculum areas:
Literacy
Through drawing in the sand, mark making, storytelling, vocabulary building and learning to use language to describe aspects of the world around us, including what, where, and why.
Numeracy
The beach provides lots of opportunities for collecting, sorting, counting, adding, subtracting, measuring, estimating, categorising, exploring shape, colour, and time.
Science and Learning about the world around us
Developing an understanding of the coastal environment, exploring the sea litter found in the intertidal zones, learning about sea life, local plants, weather and seasons. We develop our scientific reasoning skills as we observe, hypothesise, investigate, experiment, and
question.
Sustainability and Respecting and Caring for the Environment
As children explore and play in their local coastal environment they learn to respect and care for this area. They learn about life cycles, the impact of human activity on the environment, and the ways in which we can work to reduce that impact.
Indigenous Perspectives
Beach kinder is a valuable opportunity to immerse the children in Aboriginal Culture and teach them about respecting the Bunurong Country and the elders who lived on the land before us. We talk about why the Bunurong people care so much for this living land, and the responsibility we have to also care for the land.
Environmentally led STEM Learning
Children’s interactions with items they find on the beach such as sticks, shells, seaweeds, and sand leads to early experimentation with concepts related to engineering. It allows children to interact creatively with the environment around them teaching them the fundamentals of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Risk taking and managing risk
Risky play is embedded in the Beach Kinder program because we understand the importance of children learning to take, assess and manage risks. One example of this is when children walk out onto the rock-wall or explore the shallows of the water.
Gross and Fine Motor Skills
The beach provides a large space for the children to explore through walking, running, tumbling and more. They use their fine motor skills to collect and place small objects and their gross motor skills to move heavy sand or water.
Wellbeing
Nature based bush and beach kinder programs are inspired by current research that supports the remarkable range of positive impacts being in nature has on children.
“Contact with nature is critical for our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. It has positive effects on our ability to concentrate, to learn, to solve problems, to relax and to be creative…children who learn outdoors improve their nature-literacy, becoming more confident and empathetic towards the natural world….help(ing) children connect with nature, building the future generation of advocates and custodians of healthy parks for the benefit of all” Parks Victoria Bush Kinder Handbook.
to their community.
Opportunities for Play Based Learning:
“Research shows that play based learning and spending time in nature are beneficial to children’s health and well-being” (Well and Evans 2003). At the beach the children have many opportunities for play based learning, and through this play and exploration they can
engage in learning under all curriculum areas:
Literacy
Through drawing in the sand, mark making, storytelling, vocabulary building and learning to use language to describe aspects of the world around us, including what, where, and why.
Numeracy
The beach provides lots of opportunities for collecting, sorting, counting, adding, subtracting, measuring, estimating, categorising, exploring shape, colour, and time.
Science and Learning about the world around us
Developing an understanding of the coastal environment, exploring the sea litter found in the intertidal zones, learning about sea life, local plants, weather and seasons. We develop our scientific reasoning skills as we observe, hypothesise, investigate, experiment, and
question.
Sustainability and Respecting and Caring for the Environment
As children explore and play in their local coastal environment they learn to respect and care for this area. They learn about life cycles, the impact of human activity on the environment, and the ways in which we can work to reduce that impact.
Indigenous Perspectives
Beach kinder is a valuable opportunity to immerse the children in Aboriginal Culture and teach them about respecting the Bunurong Country and the elders who lived on the land before us. We talk about why the Bunurong people care so much for this living land, and the responsibility we have to also care for the land.
Environmentally led STEM Learning
Children’s interactions with items they find on the beach such as sticks, shells, seaweeds, and sand leads to early experimentation with concepts related to engineering. It allows children to interact creatively with the environment around them teaching them the fundamentals of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Risk taking and managing risk
Risky play is embedded in the Beach Kinder program because we understand the importance of children learning to take, assess and manage risks. One example of this is when children walk out onto the rock-wall or explore the shallows of the water.
Gross and Fine Motor Skills
The beach provides a large space for the children to explore through walking, running, tumbling and more. They use their fine motor skills to collect and place small objects and their gross motor skills to move heavy sand or water.
Wellbeing
Nature based bush and beach kinder programs are inspired by current research that supports the remarkable range of positive impacts being in nature has on children.
“Contact with nature is critical for our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. It has positive effects on our ability to concentrate, to learn, to solve problems, to relax and to be creative…children who learn outdoors improve their nature-literacy, becoming more confident and empathetic towards the natural world….help(ing) children connect with nature, building the future generation of advocates and custodians of healthy parks for the benefit of all” Parks Victoria Bush Kinder Handbook.