Playgroups at St Tom’s
Aim:
To create a friendly, inclusive, supportive and fun community space.
There is a loose structure to the morning; free play, craft & activities, singing and dancing, morning tea, more playing and cleaning up.
Roles:
Our volunteers are here to build relationships with parents/carers and their children, set up and run activities and supervise children and help with morning tea, craft and music.
Parents/Carers are to closely supervise their children and play with them. This is a special time with your child, encourage them to positively interact with other children and participate in the activities we offer. Please also help keep the flow of the day going and support the routines that are in place for the group.
Typically our mornings look like this:
10am:
Arrive & check in and pay. You can either pay $7 weekly for your family or there is a term fee too. Cash or Card is available.
Free play and craft till 10:45am - please have a cuppa, nibbles and chat with other parents and volunteers but also keep an eye on your children.
Be active in your supervision, particularly as they interact with other children. We want to encourage positive and safe play.
Please also encourage your children to look after the toys, taking care not to break things and a little bit of tidying as we go would be really helpful.
If your child is doing a craft, please head in with them, and help them where needed. Donna is amazing at helping the children, but if there are more than 2 kids, this will get tricky for her to help.
10:45-11:15 ish -
Songs, stories and morning tea. A leader will sound a bell to help us transition.
Please come and bring your child (ren) to the designated mat area to join in with the singing, it's lots of fun! If your child really isn't engaging with the story or song, that's ok, but please encourage them to move to a different area so the kids who are joining in can focus.
Morning tea is provided. Please help your children with washing their hands (there are sinks in the toilets, in the main lounge area and the Red Room). Please also come and be with them in the area where they are having morning tea. We will either put morning tea on outside if it's lovely weather (bring a hat and sunscreen!) or inside in the Red Room. We would like the children to be sitting at the table on their chair to eat. It's super cute how they chat and interact with their friends while they eat!
Around 11:30
We tidy up. There will be an activity outside so some cleaning inside can happen.
Please return toys to their designated areas (eg. toy cars to the toy car area, market food to the shop area) Volunteers will also do some light vacuuming too.
11:45am
We gather together as a big group (A leader will ring a bell to help with the transition) and this is a great time for the kids to share their news. Please come and sit with your child and encourage them to listen to their friends. We then sing our good bye song.
12pm Playgroup finishes.