Our followers may have noticed that we were given a challenge by the girls from Homemade Rainbows a couple of weeks ago to make an imaginative play setup using recycled and repurposed articles and props.

We did it – it took all day mind, with two of us doing it. We so admire Michelle and Janine doing multiple sets with four young children between them! Anyway our set was put up for auction with the proceeds going a charity called The Nicholas Timms Foundation and Narelle and Pam from Highvale Preschool were the generous recipient. Thanks girls!

We decided to pop by the preschool ourselves to drop off the bags of goodies to say hi to everyone and thank them for inviting us to their recent night time kinder session!

While we were there we had a wander around to see what they were up to, being that bit later on in the year.

The preschool had had the people from the Responsible Pet Ownership program come out the day before we arrived. The children are taught by a dog and its handler how to behave safely around dogs. It is a fabulous program run by the Department of Industry.

As a follow up the teachers had set up a whole corner of the playroom as a Pet Shop…

complete with animals and a selection of pet accessories to ‘buy’…

as well as a checkout complete with cash register and scanner.

The animals they had there reminded us of the great book, ‘Arthur’ by Australian author Amanda Graham, about a dog in a pet shop so desperate to have a home, he mimics all the other animals in the pet shop as he thinks they are more popular than a dog.

Another dramatic play corner they had set up was a prince and princess/fairy/glamour-type one …

with all the bling the children could want …

and of course a mirror to gaze into!

The children had been busy colouring sand using edicol dye and making very attractive patterns with it in bottles …

and how gorgeous are these coloured water, musical bottles?!

We noticed some party play going on …

with some very gorgeous fabric cup cakes …

made by Pam, one of the teachers (in her spare time!)

Pam made this amazing teepee too!

We really liked this great bendable bamboo fence at the dinosaur table  …

and inspired by the Homemade Rainbow girls, Narelle and Pam had set up this lovely literacy area which the children had really been loving!

We really get a buzz at being able to revisit the centre we’ve already featured on the Education Directory …

especially as we get to see the changes that take place to both the inside and outside environments …

as the year progresses.

Thanks for having us back girls!

For further information on Highvale Preschool please visit our Education Directory.