Bright Minds Program: Early Learning Enrichment

Our bright minds programs are thoughtfully designed to foster holistic development, ensuring that every child’s journey is filled with joy, growth, and exploration.

MUSIC & MOVEMENT

Our music program works to provide children with a range of learning opportunities including storytelling, dance, singing, playing musical instruments, games and crafts to develop their knowledge and understanding of musical concepts.

Our talented educators introduce our children to Indigenous and multicultural instruments and songs, dance for fun, and movement aligned with our world including seasons, animals and the Earth.

Building confidence, creativity, and choices in self-expression, not to mention listening skills, children are able to explore aspects of their identity through role play and build on early literacy skills with rhyming, patterns and sound recognition.

Our in-house program is supported by the talented team at Musical Minds who visit all children across our Centres on a rotating schedule once a fortnight during school terms.

Liz Hubbert talented educators introduce our children to music
Children exploring nature at Coolstores Bush Kinder

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

One of the most exciting undertakings for Educators is expanding the circle for children beyond their immediate family, carers, home and centre, and taking them into the wider world to form connections and enable their confidence to grow.

Encompassing Bush Kinder, Community Explore and Intergenerational Connections, our Centres offer a range of Community Engagement opportunities that value collaborative learning and participation. Broadening their understanding of the world in which they live, this program guides children to become aware of connections, similarities and differences between people and places in a range of environments that support spontaneous teaching and learning.

Through this Centre centric, curated engagement we provide experiences that involve children in the broader community and environment beyond the early childhood setting.

Our Bush Kinder program is born of the research that shows outdoor activity in a natural environment is extremely beneficial to children’s health, wellbeing and development. 

Recognising they are part of and have an impact on local eco-systems and bio-diversity, our children are encouraged to care for Country and connect with animals, plants, lands and waterways in our excursions to local parks and nature reserves.  Our hands-on approach, immerses children in sensory play, encouraging learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity 

Affording the opportunity to learn about the normal ageing process and how to interact with people with disabilities, these visits provide community inclusion and exposure to the many experiences of the older generation for those children without (or without access to) their grandparents.

These wonderful sessions also provide much joy, laughter and the chance to play for some residents who risk isolation in their aged years.

There are many benefits of cross-generational programs, sharing skills, ideas and inspiring movement, fun, human connections purpose and love.

Community Explore introduces our children to the local world around them.  From culture, history and traffic awareness to simple economy through walking visits to the Library, Bunnings, neighbourhood war memorials, cafes and even the supermarket, we improve the confidence and communication skills of our children in navigating with their local community.

Incursions from local Police Units and Fire Stations, Dentists and indigenous flora specialists allow children to actively engage as co-learners alongside the community, recognising and appreciating the significance of local knowledge that is shared by members of our neighbourhood.

Children learn by collaborating with their communities and when provided the opportunity to participate in reciprocal relationships, engaging in learning with a wide diversity of people.

STEM

Our STEM program is designed to foster a strong foundation in Science Technology, Engineering and Math concepts while nurturing children’s natural curiosity and creativity. Through hands-on activities, interactive experiments, and engaging projects, we aim to ignite a lifelong love for learning and exploration in these fields.

Science Adventures

Children engage in age-appropriate scientific explorations that encourage them to ask questions, make observations, and conduct simple experiments. Sensory play including simple tasks such as adding detergent to water is used to experiment, test hypotheses, imagine and explore ideas. 

Technology Trek

Young learners are introduced to the basics of technology. They use child-friendly devices and educational apps to understand concepts like cause and effect, problem-solving, and digital literacy. Interactive activities also introduce coding concepts through games and puzzles.

Engineering Expeditions

Children are encouraged to become little engineers by building and constructing using a variety of materials such as blocks, LEGO®, and other recycled materials. They learn about structures, design, and simple machines both from our educators and their peers who bring their own learnings and practices to play, igniting critical thinking and spatial reasoning.

Math Marvels

Math is made engaging and accessible through hands-on activities, games, and puzzles. Children develop foundational numeracy skills, pattern recognition, spatial awareness, and basic geometry concepts. They also explore mathematical concepts through art and creative projects. utilising cooking experiences along with sand and water play to support mathematical skills such as observation, reasoning and measurement.

SPORTS AND WELLBEING

We incorporate sport and physical activity as a part of every day for all our children.

By including running, jumping, crawling, throwing and catching activites we help children develop their coordination, balance, strength and overall physical fitness.  

By contrast, but just as important, deep breathing exercises and meditative moments can help children manage their emotions, reduce stress, and develop self-awareness.

We also have the opportunity and responsibility to introduce concepts of health, hygiene and nutrition in order that they develop an understanding around the importance of staying active, eating nutritious foods, getting enough sleep, and practicing good hygiene habits. These lessons lay the foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

To support our curriculum, we are thrilled to welcome the Playball Program into our tribe in 2023 for all children aged 18months – 5 years across all Centres. 

Offering a comprehensive weekly session, Playball delivers exciting and engaging sports classes designed to create confident and involved learners for healthy development in all areas of life.

Combining gross and fine motor movement and balance to achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity, children are inspired to make choices around participation and accepting new challenges, trying things not undertaken before.

With a wellbeing or mindfulness component introduced within each session, Children become aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental wellbeing, providing important space for themselves to learn how to find a quiet moment in the bustle of their day.

Children engaged in outdoor activities at Little Grasshoppers Early Learning Center

OUR WORLD

In today’s rapidly changing world, it has become imperative to instil a sense of environmental consciousness and sustainable living from a young age.  Introducing OUR WORLD, an integrative sustainability program through which, we can foster a generation that is not only environmentally aware but also committed to making a positive impact on the planet

Through our composting & gardening-to-kitchen, recycling efforts, and animal care & interactions, our children become aware of and use the 7 R’s of sustainability: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, Respect, Repair, Reflect and Refuse.  Providing space to investigate the dependence between people, animals, plants, lands and waters whilst encouraging critical thinking and problem solving in a safe and constructive environment.

By nurturing a sense of environmental responsibility and empathy from a young age we can inspire the next generation to become thoughtful, environmentally conscious individuals.

Where Every Hop Counts