Galston, Glenorie and Hills Rural News
DOORAL EARLY LEARNING CENTRE
Camp Out for the Pyjama Foundation
On Friday 17th July 2020, the educators and children at Dooral Early Learning Centre wore pyjamas to help raise vital funds for the Pyjama Foundation.
This foundation helps to support some of Australia's most disadvantaged children, by providing each foster child with a 'Pyjama Angel'.
With our 'Camp Out' in the backyard, we roasted marshmallow, hotdogs, corn and sweet potato.
The big Dooral family successfully raised $550 for the Pyjama Foundation!
We would like to say THANK YOU to all the families who have supported this experience in many different ways. Thanks also go to all our lovely, creative, passionate and responsible educators.
Making 'Risk' Safe
Camping helps children to develop a sense of adventure. Camping gives children the freedom to explore, boosting creativity and brings children closer to nature. It has been so lovely to see Dooral children discuss, explore, and to have so much fun with camping out in our backyard.
While a fire pit is something you wouldn't normally expect to find in an early childhood centre, lots of new Australian researchers suggest that children should be exposed to different 'risks' within child care, including open flames, hammers and saws. This will result in children developing more confidence, safety awareness and better risk assessment skills.
Dooral educators have been trying every effort to let the children experience the 'Risks' and ensure they are safe and well supervised in the meantime. We believe these experiences will help the children develop their own risk assessment skills as they engaged in risky play. The educators' 'Intentional teaching' not only involves giving physical and verbal support to the children but also engages children in co-problem solving and higher-level involvement in making decisions themselves. We hope all these risk play experiences help the children to make their own safety judgments and develop competence when approaching risk.