Kew Review | Page 13

Kindergarten Birdworld As our year in Kindergarten drew to an end and the long hazy days of the Summer holidays lay ahead, we all came together for a wonderful day out to Birdworld. Prior to our visit, the children in Kindergarten warmly welcomed a new member to their class - Percy the toy Penguin! Percy had come all the way from Birdworld and took turns to come to stay with each of the children for a few days. During his stay the children wrote a short account of Percy’s visit. This helped to develop their observation skills and independent and creative writing skills. As Kew College has been such a loyal supporter of Birdworld over the years, we have been given the opportunity to adopt a real penguin at the park! During our day we visited the Heron Theatre and were introduced to Noddy the infamous Macaw and to many of his friends who we were able to handle, such as George the bunny. However, some of his other friends needed a lot more courage to touch, like Monty the python! Then it was off to explore the Jenny Wren Farm which is filled with adorable, newly-born Spring animals. After watching the penguins being fed, our thoughts turned to food for our own rumbling tummies. As we made our way to the picturesque picnic area we passed cages of beautiful birds, many with exotic plumage and wonderfully strange and unusual sounding names. Fun with Maths Young children are natural problem solvers. In Kindergarten, the children explore maths through fun practical experiences that encourage and develop their mathematical skills. Stories, such as ‘The Enormous Turnip’, are helpful links to ‘real life’ maths by comparing the weight of fresh vegetables. Role Play situations also support children with mathematical concepts such as money. The children enjoy using Numicon, a multi-sensory resource, which helps to develop their understanding of abstract arithmetic ideas throughout maths investigations. 11