March 2017 - Beattie Road

​Welcome to another Beattie Road newsletter. Thank you to all the parents who donated to the 'Shave for a cure' we raised $32.00 which will go to help find a cure for blood cancer. We have recently purchased a new trampoline for the 'big' yard and a smaller one for the babies' yard which I'm sure the babies will love. As the weather is getting cooler (well supposed to be) can you please provide warmer clothes for your child? There has been an increase in the amount of mosquitoes that are invading our yard. We have been keeping the children inside of an afternoon until this infestation passes. Can you please provide insect repellent if you wish your child to wear it?

I will be leaving on holidays on the 24^th April, 2017 and returning 27^th May 2017 . Miss Kylee will be doing the administration in the front office, and Mr Rob will be acting in my position. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to discuss these with either Miss Kylee or Mr Rob.

The staff and I have been attending a lot of Professional Development workshops. This is to ensure best practices in the centre. Miss Sharon & I have attended the Abecedarian Approach to learning, which is an evidence based language programme, which will be implemented throughout the centre. I emailed a booklet a few weeks ago to all parents with methods you can use at home when reading to your child. If you did not receive one please let me know. Miss Carol and I attended a two day work shop focusing on the 'Wings" programme. This approach supports resilience & understanding of children's environmental background. It also touches on brain development, and the impact the environment has on early childhood growth and development.

The next newsletter will be done by Mr Rob. I am leaving you in safe hands while I'm away. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

Take care, Tracey

Nursery

Whoa! April is nearly here and time sure flies in the Nursery Room, with all the babies growing so much over the last few months. There has been lots of Learning Experiences and developmental successes through many hands on play opportunities for each child. The children are developing a strong of sense of belonging in our Nursery Room, as they become confident and explore learning activities and experiment with their own unique expression of interests.

Sharing quiet one on one moments with your babies have been extremely rewarding. These quiet moments support language development, and fosters social interactions.Recently Miss Sharon & Miss Tracey attended a workshop on Language Development – 3a –Abecedarian Approach. This is an Australian evidenced based learning approach that supports language development.The Nursery Room focuses on enriched learning moments with the babies and implementing the 3a's will continue to foster positive interactions between peers and educators. This learning approach is underpinned by the Early Years Learning Framework learning outcomes.

By following a flexible daily routine in a positive relaxed atmosphere ensures that each child's needs are being fulfilled throughout the day. Our Nursery is designed to reflect the home environment, and allows babies to feel safe and secure. This enables each child's individual preferences regarding bottles, meals, sleep patterns and play routines.

We would like to welcome Deja & family to our Nursery/ Junior Kindy Room.It's a pleasure getting to know you.The Nursery has many sensory activities; this type of exploration promotes critical thinking. The babies are using their senses to touch, smell, hear and taste. This is enhancing their natural curiosity of their environment.

We ask that each family brings in some photos that are meaningful to your child, so we can display them around the room. This can make a good conversation point, and promote a sense of belonging for the babies.Easter is soon approaching and we will be holding an Easter Hat Parade on Thursday 13th April in the morning 9:30 am followed by an Easter egg hunt and hot cross bun morning tea. Parents are welcome to attend this event 9:30 – 10:00am approx.

Until next time – Stay safe and Happy - Miss Sharon and Miss Alana.

Junior Kindy

A big hello to all the Junior Kindy families. We have been busy so far this year, with self-help skills and becoming familiar with our room. The children have settled in and are aware of their own personal belongings, thank you for naming their items; it gives the children a sense of ownership. As part of our educational program we have been exploring colours and numerals. The children enjoy these activities as they are very inquisitive. Keep a lookout in our room for our Easter displays. The children have also been enjoying sensory awareness activities. They have been feeling different textures e.g. soft, hard, fluffy … These textures have intrigued the children and they have shown a great interest in them. We will continue to explore.

Regards Miss Donna

Senior Kindy

Wow! Time is moving on so quickly and we have been involved in lots of fun and new learning experiences. Over the past month we have been developing our skills to be able to identity shapes and colours. As the year progresses we will still work on mastering these learning areas.

We have also been working on our Gross/ Fine Motor development in balance and movement activities, and throughout April we will be working towards using more fine motor experiences to increase our ability to manipulate equipment with skill i.e. cutting and drawing experiences.

Self-help skills are such an important stage for children, we have been encouraging children to be responsible for their own belongings putting lunch boxes away, opening containers and making beds at rest time. Children have lots of fun at making their bed and the sense of achievement when they do it is awesome.

Until next time Rob & Leanne

Pre-Prep Room

Welcome to all our new children who have joined us in the past month.It has been a great but busy time with the children learning the routine of the room, and encouraging them with self- help skills which are working really well with all children.The children's self- confidence is improving every day. This term has also been quite busy with 'Little Big Sport', 'Hey Dee Ho' and the implementation of the ELLA program. The children are very enthusiastic on the days when Conner comes to Kindy to coach the children in soccer, and other ball skills.. Miss Jess alternates between Yoga and musical experiences on a fortnightly basis. The ELLA programme is a government funded program which is accessed through I pads. It's a second language program for children who are not struggling with their primary language. The language that was chosen is Spanish. Each child has their own log in details, and their own file.We have just started this programme so hopefully we will see the children use Spanish during the day.

As you can see the kindergarten program is full of lots of activities in which the children seem to really love being involved with. Miss Tracey has sent home via email the 'Conversational Reading' information for you to use when reading with your child at home. Reading to your child is so important. It promotes a love of reading, familiarises them with the written word, and also helps them with concentration and being able to focus, not to mention the language component. All these skills are an excellent school readiness foundation.

If you have any concern please do not hesitate to talk to either myself or Miss Carol

Kind regards Tracey and Carol