Office (9-3)
Penguins (From 2 yrs 6 mths)
We sing, build, cuddle animals, and climb like pirates—Penguins have tons of fun while learning to be big, brave, and kind!
Teacher
Colleen van Eyk
16 years at the school
Assistant
Thabisa Sixubane
5 years at the school
About the Penguins class
The Penguin class children are between the ages of 2 to 3 and a half years. Along with my assistant, Teacher Thabisa, we strive to create an environment where our children can feel safe and secure away from their mommy and daddy while having fun and learning through play.
At this age, it is vital to grow our children’s independence and social skills along with their gross motor skills in a fun and experiential environment. In the Penguin class we focus on the EQ as well as the IQ via themes which we discuss during morning ring. We do lots of singing and action songs to encourage movement, along with playing instruments. We have lots of free play, both outdoors and indoors, which grows their friendships and develops their social skills
Indoors, we encourage the children to make use of their imagination while exploring in the Fantasy Area or building with the blocks or construction toys in the block area. They enjoy reading quietly in the Book Area or building a puzzle if they choose too. Outdoors, we encourage the children to be independent and adventurous to develop their gross motor skills by exploring on our large climbing apparatus as well as all our other amazing equipment, especially the Pirate ship, trampoline, sandpit, and fairy garden. The animals are well loved by our children, especially the rabbit, guinea pigs and chickens. The excitement on the children’s faces when they find an egg in the garden is delightful.
In our classroom we follow a daily programme consisting of a morning ring, creative art, music/movement, snack and toilet routine, free play, quiet time then ending with story time. Creative art is a popular part of our day where we can all get a little messy, exploring with paint, play dough, starch, shaving foam, along with using glue to collage or box construction.
In our classroom we have a “Superstar chart” to promote positive behaviour and we make use of stickers as rewards for completing puzzles or helping in and around the classroom. We encourage daily helpers who assist the teachers with handing out things and keeping the classroom tidy. We have a line leader daily who gets to hold Penny penguin during morning ring and gets to stand in the front of the line for that day. We set classroom and playground agreements at the beginning of the year with consequences to our actions if the agreements are broken, which we instill daily.
About Teacher Colleen
Hello, my name in Colleen van Eyk and I am the Penguin class teacher.
I grew up in Fish Hoek, attending Fish Hoek Pre Primary School when I was 3/4 years old. It is so wonderful to give back to the school where I began my educational journey. It was then and still is the BEST school in the valley. I have been teaching at Fish Hoek Pre Primary since 2007 so am now in my 19th year here. At school, I love having fun with my children, climbing the jungle gym, or playing ball games, especially rugby, football or basketball. At home, I love to spend time with my husband in the garden or walking our dogs Foxy and Lucy. I am happiest when surrounded by my family, friends, work colleagues and special little people in my class.