Art Competition Submission 2023 – Goodstart Early Learning Hope Island from Monterey Keys

I sat down with some of our Kindergarten children and we had a discussion on where feels safe for them. I started writing down their words which included, home, my family, my mum and dad, my kindy, police and my teachers. From this discussion we moved onto creating our artwork. We wanted to use textas on a large piece of paper and started drawing! The children had ownership of their art work and what they wanted to draw. We did this in small groups so we could continue our discussions on safety. We talked about who we felt safe with at home and if we didn’t feel safe.. where we could go. The children also wanted to say and write things down alongside their drawings which I helped with. After the children had finished drawing schools, playgrounds and ambulances I asked if there was anything special they wanted to add to complete their safe community. The children started drawing rainbows and flowers all over the finished picture. Goodstart Hope Island have had visits from the police, paramedics and fire truck within the last few months which you can see within the art work. The children also had drawn their families and teachers. At our centre safety is a huge part of our curriculum and I am the Child Protection Champion within the service and this is embedded into our programs. The drawing depicted our centre and what makes our children feel safe in the community and shows a beautiful picture of what and who we are.