Kinder Kits - English

About your Kinder Kit

For children, play and learning go hand in hand. Playing is how children discover and learn about themselves and the world around them. Parents and families are a huge part of that journey. Everything in your child’s Kinder Kit is designed to be shared and enjoyed as a family.

At kindergarten, the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) is used to create learning experiences that support your child to grow and thrive across 5 learning and development outcomes. These 5 outcomes are:

• identity
• community
• wellbeing
• learning
• communication.

Storytelling cubes

Storytelling is an important part of how children make sense of their daily experiences. It supports literacy development and helps them understand how to communicate with the people around them.

You can help your child to learn new words with the cubes in English or other languages.

• Take turns, name the pictures.
• Build with them.
• Tell stories.
• Ask questions.

Crayons and Art Pad

Drawing with crayons provides many ways to learn:

• improving fine motor skills like pencil grasp
• hand-eye co-ordination
• learning about colour and shape
• expressing creativity with paper and other materials.

Most importantly, your child will learn to express themselves safely and confidently. Some children may be making marks that are unrecognisable to you and this is okay. This is the natural process of learning to draw.

• Use the Art Pad to prompt ideas.
• Encourage family drawing experiences.
• Talk as you draw.
• Name colours and shapes.

Seeds

Planting seeds with children is a rich, science-based learning experience that allows them to see the wonder of the natural world. They will learn about nature, build language and learn to follow simple instructions. They will also learn how to observe things over time.

• Talk about plants and name their parts.
• Plant them together.
• Check the growth each morning.
• Name fruit and vegetables at the market.

Threading animals

Early childhood is when children start to gain more control over those smaller muscles in hands, fingers, wrists, feet and toes. Developing the fine motor muscles in the hands and fingers is important for children’s self-care and for later writing. Your child can develop their fine motor skills by using playdough, crayons or threading animals. Here are some ways you can practice fine motor skills:

• thread the lace through holes of the animal.
• open and close the Kinder Kit.
• practise doing up zips or buttons.
• roll playdough with hands and fingers.

Playdough

When your child is using playdough to create, they are doing a variety of very important things:

• improving fine motor skills
• using their senses to explore
• using their imagination.

Creating with playdough is an important part of learning for your child.

• Roll a ball, bang it, pound it, squish it.
• Talk about it.
• Add other objects like sticks or feathers or shells.
• Make patterns with what you can find.

Children’s books

Reading books together is a great way to bond and spend time as a family. It is one of the most important ways to support literacy development. Sharing a regular story-time with your child will improve their imagination and vocabulary.

• Choose a book together.
• Find a comfy place to settle in and read.
• Let them turn the pages.
• Use different voices for characters, talk about the pictures.

Music makers

Music has many benefits for children’s learning and development. Creating music is a fun way for your child to learn new words, sing songs together with family and to feel good about themselves. Dancing, singing, moving, bouncing and clicking castanets are all part of the fun.

Here are some ideas to enjoy music with your child:

• dance and shake to your favourite song.
• count out the beats to teach numbers.
• practise short rhyming songs.
• use castanets to count syllables in words.

Kit activity case

The Kit activity case is more than a case to carry the books and toys - it can be used to support learning and development in many ways. Whiteboard surfaces are great for magnet play, playdough and drawing. Fold the Kit into an easel. Lay the Kit out flat so the green surface can be used for imaginative play. It can be an ocean scene or a city street. Re-create the way you travel to Kinder. Here are some other ways to use the Kit case:

• draw new worlds.
• playdough playmat.
• carry case for books or toys.
• as a pretend play prop.

The Kit activity case is designed to be an environmentally friendly product. It is made of recycled materials, where possible and is designed to be repurposed as a keepsake to store your child’s kindergarten mementos.

Building community

Victoria is a diverse community, home to many cultures and different spoken languages. Diversity is a big part of what makes us who we are. The items in the Kit support conversations about different communities.

• For children, play and learning go hand in hand. Playing is how children discover and learn about themselves.
• Use the playdough to pretend to make food from other cultures, or your own.
• Click the castanets while listening to traditional music from other cultures, or your own.
• Talk to your child about other countries and their native animals.

Books in Auslan

All books included in the 2023 Kinder Kit have Auslan translations available. Auslan and captioning is included with the videos too.

Auslan is the sign language used by a majority of the Australian Deaf community and is also part of Victoria’s Early Childhood Languages Program available in some Four-Year-Old Kindergartens.

Education experts have found that there are many benefits to children learning in another language at a young age, including:

• increased pre-reading and pre-writing skills
• cognitive flexibility
• bolstering self-esteem and wellbeing
• strengthened cultural identity.

Respecting identity

The cultures of our First Nations peoples is an important part of the history of Australia. Encouraging all children to learn about all cultures builds understanding, acceptance and pride. We are proud to celebrate our First Nations authors and makers in the Kits. The storyblocks, for example, depict the vibrant tradition of Aboriginal storytelling. Here are some of the activities that help your child learn more about traditions and cultures of First Nations peoples:

• learning Aboriginal symbols for animals or objects.
• talking about Aboriginal leaders or sporting heroes.
• learning more about First Nations cultures and peoples.

Wellbeing and extra support

All children learn differently and at their own pace. The Kinder Kit offers your child books and toys that can be used in lots of different ways to challenge all abilities. But sometimes you need extra support for your child’s learning. If you think you or your child might need some extra support, there are a number of ways you can do that:

• Victoria’s kindergarten teachers have the skills and knowledge to help. Talk to your child’s teacher about your questions.
• Make an appointment to see your doctor or maternal and child health nurse to discuss your questions.
• Call Parentline on 13 2289 for free, confidential counselling and support.

Kinder Kits are safe and inclusive

All items in the Kinder Kits meet relevant safety standards and are suitable for 3-year-olds attending Kinder.

A small number of items have small parts and are not suitable for use by children under 3 years of age.

These are the whiteboard markers and the magnetic whiteboard eraser, which has a small magnet embedded in the middle of it.

These items have been clearly marked with suitable warnings on the outer packaging and should only be used for their intended purpose.

If you have a child under 3, please keep these items where they don’t have access to them.

As with all toys for children of all ages, parents and carers should always check before use and discard when there is wear and tear.