General News
14 June, 2024
Kinder cooking up a muddy storm
CHILDREN at Baranbali four-year-old kindergarten received a special delivery from Camperdown College’s Vocational Major (VM) students on Monday.
The kindergarten received a handmade mud kitchen from the secondary campus, built from recycled timber.
A mud kitchen is a piece of play equipment that allows children to become pretend chefs with mud as the primary ingredient.
Vocational major product design and personal development skills teacher Warren Attrill said year 12 coordinator Sue Maskell began the project earlier in the year.
“Sue Maskell was just looking for some community-based projects for the VM students to do, and spoke to Kim Helmore, who said ‘our mud kitchen is falling apart’,” he said.
“They decided to build one of those to fulfil a few outcomes in VM and help the kindie at the same time.
“It started in Term One, and they finished it earlier it in the term. They just had to give it a few coats of finish, then find the time to deliver it.
“They couldn’t use any sort of treated timbers because the kids were going to use it, so they actually got some recycled timbers from Oakbrook Collectables.
“He donated a bit of the timber, and there were some decking boards that we had at school to build it as well.”
Baranbali Kindergarten teacher Kim Helmore said the kindergarten was thankful for the connections it has with the community, which allowed them to reach out to the school.
“We have great community connections with a lot of services in Camperdown, and the schools are certainly part of the connections that we have,” she said.
“Our current kitchen was looking a bit old. We needed a revamp, so I reached out to the school to ask would they would be interested in helping us to make a new one.
“The school thought it would be a great idea for a project for some of the year 12 students.”
Ms Helmore said the kindergarten was “thrilled” with the end product.
“Outdoor play is so important for children for their mental health and physical wellbeing, so we always make sure we have big blocks of play outside every day,” she said.
“The mud kitchen just really enhances the program.
“It’s been really popular since we got it. The children are really enjoying it and using it every day.
“It’s really enhanced their play - it’s just terrific.”
Ms Helmore said the children have been running pretend restaurants and bakeries using the new kitchen, making all sorts of “concoctions” using sand, water and other natural materials.
She said the kindergarten was grateful for the work put into the new mud kitchen by the Camperdown College students.
“They’ve made a really study kitchen, and we really appreciate all of the work they’ve put into it,” Ms Helmore said.
“We’ll have many, many years of play with it.”
Mr Attrill said the VM students who worked on the project took pride in their work.
“I think they were pretty happy to do it,” he said.
“They’re always happy to go hands-on rather than pull out the bookwork in the vocational major.”