Centre Newsletter May 2017

Welcome to our Nursery class,

As you head into our class room this month, we would like to welcome you into our jungle theme. We have been exploring all the different wild animals and the environments which they live in.

Firstly, let's extend a warm welcome to some of the new children in our room. Say hello to Ellie and Levi. Our children have really blossomed over the last few weeks, from crawling to walking, gaining confidence, independence and being able to use a sippy cup.

Over the past three weeks we have been discovering all about different wild animals that live in the jungle and the habitats in which they live. We have extended on the babies interest with singing and dancing by providing jungle themed music to dance and sing along too. We have been getting right into censorial play as well as using our imagination by creating our very own flamingo, gorillas, giraffes, elephants, lions, monkeys, hippos, parrots and tigers.

May we ask parents to please make sure all your child's belongings are properly labelled with their names. Hats and sunscreen are also needed as we take our friends out for a fun and sunny outdoor play.

Your Nursery Staff

Miss Arleen, Miss Casey and Miss Ether

Hello & welcome to our Toddlers classroom,

I would like to formally introduce myself, I'm sure you all know that my name is Christine & I am the Toddler Lead Educator. As you may know, Miss Helen has left us to pursue family commitments, so we wish her well. 

It has been a busy & wonderful month getting to know all the children & parents.

Our learning this month has been focused on colour recognition through calm & inviting repetition. If you look around the room, the children have visibly enjoyed getting involved with painting experiences & collage which has opened up more opportunities to talk about & choose colours. 

Part of being a toddler is learning about their role in each community & awareness of their surroundings. We are taking little steps at teaching & encouraging the children to learn where things belong, placing items on shelves, helping to pack blocks into containers & pushing in chairs. The children are responding positively to these opportunities & are proud of their achievements. It's wonderful to see them evolving & taking pride in themselves.

Now that we are being blessed with some cooler weather, we ask that the children wear warmer clothing & shoes to school & bring a light blanket for rest time as we work in partnership with our families in an effort to avoid the dreaded sniffles.

Having so many little friends in our class has meant that our fridge is always full, we would like to implement a basket system for our class in an effort to free up some space. Please help us by placing named food in the baskets labelled 'Morning Tea, Lunch & Afternoon Tea'.

In an effort to solidify the relationships between educators & parents, please always attempt to spot one of our Toddler educators to discuss your child's day, care or needs so that we can work collaboratively together for the best care & education of your child.

Thank you,

Miss Christine, Faapepe, Josie & Margaret.

Welcome to the Tweenies class,

This month we have continued to focus on sensory exploration & colour recognition, the children have been showing a great interest in the messy play & it has opened up some interesting conversation topics with the children. We have noticed that the children have been exploring length, volume & measurements while engaging in sensory play. We will be extending on this by adding pre mathematics to our focus points. We will  be using songs that encourage counting at group times and providing experiences that promote pre mathematical discussion. 

With our colour recognition, the children are now becoming quite confident in their ability to recognise & often label most colours, so we will now be experimenting with mixing some colours to find what exciting discoveries await!

A lot of our children have now started toilet training & have taken this challenge openly & with confidence, if you think your child is ready to start toilet training, please do not hesitate to discuss this with Miss Kim & learn how we can support your family through this exciting time.

Please be reminded that we can get messy at times & are still learning about accidents so please ensure your child's bag is equipped with the following items;

Nappies or underwear, sheets, change of clothes, drink bottle, hat, lunch & if your child requires their own sun cream, please keep in touch with Miss Kim.

We can't wait to spend another month with our inquisitive Tweenies!

Thank you,

Miss Kim, Khushi & Phoebe

Hello to all our Junior Kindy Parents, we trust you are all doing great. :)

We would like to start off by talking about what we have done over the past month. As you have seen from our room, we have been focusing on our numbers and shapes. We have focused on a different shape/number each day by creating experiences and activities incorporating these shapes and numbers. All the children have really enjoyed learning about this months topic as each day we have observed the children talking about their shapes and numbers to their friends and also to the educators, discussing it with them during group time.

ARTWORK

The children's artwork is always being displayed around our room. They have made the room beautiful and brilliant! The children have been working very hard using their creativity, imagination, fine motor skills, cognitive ability and confidence to present their artwork. Please take a look at your child's art work and praise them for the great work they are doing, as your child needs that ongoing encouragement and appreciation.

Our aim for this month is to create engaging experiences and spaces for the children to enjoy, we will be working on toilet training in the room and focusing on making the children feel safe and secure in their environment.

The children have been doing an awesome job at using their self help skills such as wiping their own face/nose, putting their scraps in the bin and washing their hands before and after meal times.

Just a quick reminder, as you all know it's starting to get much cooler during the mornings and in the afternoons, so we do ask that you provide your child with lots of warm clothes, socks, and closed shoes.

Our door is always open, so if you have any questions about the programming or your child's development, please feel free to come and speak to us. We are here to help

Until next time

Sarai, Sophia & Florence

Welcome to our busy Pre Kindy 1 class,

We would love to share what we as a class & community have been doing over the past month. As you may have seen from our classroom we have been focusing on pre numeracy, the children have showed a great interest in numbers, especially their age! We talk both in groups & individually about numbers each day & how they're used all around us; one banana, two cups of water, five building blocks. Using academics in every day life helps our children's minds to see the world & environment around them in many different concepts.

During June we are going to continue to focus on our numbers recognition, colour recognition & letter recognition skills. We're discovering through discussions with the children that many of their parents are also talking about recognition in their home life, identifying colours in their surroundings while driving home & verbalising recognition of a familiar letter in a sign for example. If you have goals for your children that your working on at home, we'd love for you to share these with us so that we can support these goals too.

On of our most exciting actions is to reflect on progress in our class & our children, so far we are seeing that group times are becoming more interactive, the children are displaying their emerging development through their play and learning, their ability to share and wait their turn with an understanding of why & the use of counting throughout their routines & learning.

We welcome parental input in many ways so please feel free to communicate with us about your child, our program, our room.

Until next

Miss Praxa, Miss Dipali, Miss Angela

Hello from Pre-Kindy 2

The children & I have settled really well in our new classroom and have become familiar with our new routine.

This month we are focusing on basic shapes, colours, numbers and letters. This will be ongoing each month and as the children become more familiar and confident, I will introduce more throughout each avenue of our learning. We are also learning name recognition & the days of the week. I have been quite impressed with the interest shown & pride taken in their already inquisitive minds.

As our classroom is new & constantly evolving, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to all families to spend time in the class & share any goals you are working on at home within your family for your child.

Just a reminder to make sure you supply a hat, water bottle, sheet/blanket and spare clothes (all named please) each day your child attends the service.

If you have any questions/queries please do not hesitate to talk to me.

Regards

Karen

Hello!

We have been busy once again in the Kindergarten Classroom 1. This is what we have been looking into;

Theme Projects

We briefly looked into the construction theme. We had fun role playing traffic lights among others.

The 'Snow' theme that we are currently working on in the room is really popular, peaking a lot of interest & stimulating discussions. We have done some amazing experiments. We have also learnt to ask 'Why' questions. We have encouraged number and language awareness by looking at child friendly texts such as, "How big is a million?," "Mr Sneeze" and "Seasons" by Peep Chirp and Quack.

Writing Exercises

We have encouraged writing practice by creating a space in the room on the wall. The children have been having fun trying to practice their writing there.

Name Recognition

We have also created a space in the room for children to sign in and sign out. By doing so, they get to recognise their names. We thank all parents who encourage their children to do this daily.

That's all for now from the Kindy Room! Catch you all next month!