GAP
Practical guidance, family resources and everyday moments connected to German-language early learning through GAP Playschool.
These posts help families understand the rhythm, routines, culture and community around early childhood learning at Spielwelt.
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Preparing for Kindergarten
From Term 4 onwards, we start preparing our older children for their transition to Kindergarten at ‘big school’. We offer more ‘reading, writing and arithmetic’ in their day, and predictably there are children who prefer to play outdoors, and other children who can’t get enough of pretend school! We read stories about transitioning to ‘big…
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Forest Fridays
The children at the GAP are always delighted when we head out amongst the beautiful coniferous trees in Haig Park. Sometimes we take a little picnic with us of foods the children have requested; other times we play hide and seek, or have races, or build pretend camp fires.
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Banning Glitter
From 2018, Spielwelt will heed the call of scientists and environmentalists, and delete glitter from our art consumables. After reading an article in the ABC news about how damaging these micro-plastics are to the environment, the committee decided there was only one way forward for an eco-conscious organisation like Spielwelt: a ban on glitter. We…
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Racing Car Visit
The children of the Thursday/Friday class thoroughly enjoyed having a real racing car brought to the GAP for them to see, touch… and hear! A big thanks to Steve for bringing in his ‘baby’ for us all to explore and learn about fast cars. We even got to see the motor, ask questions, and some…
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Sankt Nikolaus visits GAP
Sankt Nikolaus has been seen at GAP this week already, and will return on Friday for the Thurs/Fri class. As always, it is charming to have him visit. (The photo above was taken with that same Nikolaus at the GAP in 2008!) . Nikolaus is once again giving out traditional Christmas oranges, together with Christmas…
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Baby Chickens
The Thursday/Friday GAP class enjoyed a visit from some 9-week old chickens. It was fun seeing how the chickens were transforming from fluffy chicks to feathered chickens. We’ve been collecting compost from our lunches to feed the chickens, too. Thanks to the family who brought them in for a visit – that was fun!
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Arboretum Excursion 2017
The Monday/Tuesday GAP children enjoyed a wonderful excursion to the National Arboretum today. We had an absolute ball exploring the acorn playground… and we soon found out that the arboretum has so much more to offer. We enjoyed morning tea on a large deck overlooking sweeping views of Canberra. We could see Telstra Tower and…
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Kittens in Kinder
As part of Spielwelt’s community giving program, the Monday / Tuesday GAP class are collecting donations and crafting toys for Canberra Pet Rescue. On Tuesday, we had a totally engaging visit from three Canberra Pet Rescue volunteers who talked with us about caring for kittens and shared some interesting facts about kittens. Best of all,…
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Community Service
Oh, those wonderfully helpful Pfadfinder! As a favour to their young friends at GAP and Spiel und Spass, the Pfadfinder scouts got busy putting their carpentry skills to good use, doing some repairs in our playground. Wobbly benches were made secure; the slide ladder was fortified; the wall-mounted tubular music instrument was fixed so the pipes…
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Messy Play
The children decided last week that it was time to cook up a witch’s magical frothy brew and fly about the playground on broomsticks. So, armed with ingredients they found and no end of imaginative ideas, the children set about their tasks with glee. Did you know that the German word for a ‘whisk’ is…