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March Newsletter 2020

From the Office 

Firstly we would like to thank all our families for their help and support over the last few weeks, ensuring to follow procedures regarding using hand sanitizers, hand washing and keeping children home when they are unwell.

Under the current circumstances, we are trying to limit the amount of social contact between people entering the centre.  We ask that when you are dropping your children off at the centre that you please only stay for the reasonable amount of time it takes to drop off and say Goodbye.  Please be reminded that social distancing, although difficult between children, does need to be respected by adults. At this time we are not encouraging parents to stay in the centre for long periods of time or interact with the other children in the centre.  We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

As you are aware, we have cancelled any upcoming Centre events to follow direction from the Australian Government, Department of Health.  Due to this, our annual Easter Bonnet Parade will not be happening this year, however, the children can still create an Easter Bonnet while at the Centre to wear with their friends.  The children will also still be able to do lots of Easter art and crafts in their classrooms and enjoy other Easter games and stories.

Class photos that were booked for April have been postponed for now.  You may have already received your photo order envelope in your child's bag.  We will let you know once we have been able to organise a later date for the class photos to be taken.  If you have handed in your order form already and paid in cash you can pick it back up from the office when convenient for you.​

We hope everyone is staying safe in these uncertain times and we will keep you updated with new information as we receive it.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact the office, we are always happy to help.

Until next time.

Nursery 

Hello and Welcome to another month,

Firstly we would all like to extend our warm welcome to our new friend Mariam. Over the past few weeks we have been very busy exploring lots of different experiences. We introduced finger painting in to our programming, and babies have loved swishing and swiping the paint from side to side and squishing it between their fingers. There are many good reasons for babies to explore a fabulous, messy art experiences.

At a young age physical development is a Vital part of a child's development. So we encourage our babies to participate in physical experiences and explore their gross motor skill by crossing obstacle, riding bikes and climbing on the fort. The babies have a strong sense of belonging as they confidently explore the learning activities and experiment with their own ideas.

Recently we have seen most of our babies becoming more mobile which means lots of pulling themselves up on the couch, standing and walking. It is so exciting to see them move through this transition as they build their confidence in their newly discovered skill.

If you have any concern about your child, please feel free to come and see us.

Until next time,

Miss Praxa, Miss Arley & Miss Laura

Toddler

Hello and welcome again to the Toddler Room. A big welcome to Kingdavid who started recently in Toddler Room. We are happy to have you on board and are pretty sure we will have lots of fun learning together.

After our AUSTRALIA ANIMALS last February, this month we started on our new and exciting adventure – ALL ABOUT ME!! During our group time, we are talking about our body parts and we are asking the children to show us their head, their eyes and their nose. We also use our flashcards to encourage the children to recognise different parts of their body. Our toddlers are now so verbal using their emerging language and communication skills. We also celebrated our INDIAN FESTIVAL - HOLI this week so our toddlers engaged and participated in colourful fun activities such as mirror painting and brush painting. These activities are good for the children's sensory capabilities and their fine motor skills. Come and see our children's art works displayed on our wall.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be doing more sensory play. Using our sense of touch and hearing and also engaging our toddlers in music and dance. We will also be extending on our toddlers' interest about colours as some of them have now started to recognise some basic colours.

As the weather changes every day, we would like to ask our parents to bring your child's jumper in their bags just in case its windy and/or cold while we are outside playing in the mornings and afternoons.

You are always welcome to come and see us and have a chat about anything to do with your child. We also appreciate any ideas and suggestions you have that we can add to our weekly programming.

Til next time,

Ms. Cariad, Ms. Faapepe and Ms. Khushi

Tweenies 

Hello to all the Tweenies families and friends, firstly we would like to welcome our new friends that have joined us on our learning journey this month.

Our topic this month was all about "The Three Little Pigs". During group time we read out the story about the Three Little Pigs, singing and dancing to our favourite nursery rhymes and name recognition. To follow on from this theme we had a variety of different activities that help motivate each child to participate. Activities included, letter P for pig dot painting, pig collage, pink pig painting and pig shape sorting. We also had other play activities that assist them with their fine motor skills, concentration, role modelling and hand eye coordination such as building up ABC blocks, building up connectors, connecting animal toys, threading, connecting bristle blocks and magnetic rod.

Just as a reminder: Please label all your child's belongings such as bed linen, shoes, hats, clothes (jumpers), milk bottles and lids, and drink bottles as sometimes items go missing and if other children have the same or similar item it can make it harder to locate.  Lastly, as the weather is getting colder, please ensure your child dresses appropriately as per weather conditions.

Thank you.

Miss Sarai, Miss Phoebe and Miss Florence.

Pre-Kindy 

Hello Pre-Kindy Parents and families,

We have had a great past few months through out February and March as we focused on the "very hungry caterpillar", which was based on the interest of the children as they enjoyed the story so much. We extended on from the story by incorporating it through art and craft as we made our own caterpillars through a sensory hand painting experience, we also spoke about the days of the week and what fruit the caterpillar ate and also extended this into our art experiences. This then lead us onto our next topic which was dental hygiene and brushing our teeth morning and night. We learnt a new song about brushing our teeth and made our own tooth brushes too, which was a great opportunity for the children to practise their fine motor skills and cognitive development and grip as they used scissors to cut, imitating the bristles of a tooth brush.

In the coming month we will be focusing on colours as we plan to learn a different colour each week. We will incorporate songs, art and craft and fun games and activities that will relate to the colour we will be focusing on each week to try and help the children to become familiar and confident with their colour recognition.

I'd like to commend all our children and parents on the success of our toilet training. The children are doing so well, thank you for working with us to help encourage their independence. Just a friendly reminder to please send some spare underwear and clothes in your child's bag everyday.

If you have any concerns or suggestions at all, please address one of our room staff.

Regards,

Chloe, Cassandra, Dipali and Esther. 

Kindergarten 1 

In the Kindergarten 1 room this month we are learning about health and safety. Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on healthy foods, germs, dental hygiene and sun safety. How did we get here? The children are continuing to talk about the foods that the caterpillar ate from last month. In group experiences the children would talk about which foods were "healthy" and which foods were "bad" for us.

So how did we extend on this? We extended this by discussing in group times about healthy eating, how that impacts our body and by making food charts. The children also created their very own fruits and vegetables food booklets and also created a healthy food rainbow. This quickly escalated into more questions about how food effects our teeth i.e. dental hygiene and how do germs get into our body and make us sick.

We then started our journey on germs. We stated this week with a science experiment. We mixed glitter in hand sanitiser. The aim was for the children to recognise the glitter as the germs and using the correct hand washing procedure, would wash the glitter away. Over the period of the week we spoke about hand washing and the correct way we wash that get rid of the germs. We also created some beautiful art germ monsters. During this artwork the children used droppers to drop the water colour on their paper and using a straw they blew the paint around the paper creating the germ monster.

Week 8 brought us into learning about all dental hygiene. Miss Casey had organised the dentist from forest lake dental to come in and talk to the children about how we look after our teeth. The children had shown great enthusiasm and excitement when the dentist asked the children to show her how they brushed their own teeth. Dr Nina even gave them a goodie bag. As well as our visit from Dr Nina we also painted yucky yellow teeth back to white. During this experience we used white toothpaste acting as the paint and toothbrush instead of paint brushes. The children thought I was nuts. 😊 We also completed a cut and paste sequencing activity.

During these weeks of themed activities, we also have been focusing and teaching the children their curriculum learning by weeks. During the week we will revise in the morning our daily learning and recap back in the afternoon. Incorporated with their daily learning is their handwriting tasks. Each week the children will trace, write and collage the letter of the week, write and quantity match the number of the week. Trace, write and cut out the shape of the week. Down below is a table of their learning that will be doing over the course of this term.

Week 6 – Letter "P" Number "4"Shape "Diamond" and Colour "White"
Week 7 – Letter "N" Number "5"Shape "Diamond" and Colour "White"
Week 8 – Letter "C" Number "6"Shape "Star" and Colour "Black"
Week 9 – Letter "K" Number "7"Shape "Star" and Colour "Black"
Week 10 – Letter "E" Number "8"Shape "Hexagon" and Colour "Yellow"

Just a reminder to please ensure your child's names are on all items i.e. hat, sheets, shoes and spare clothes. We like to make sure all items find their way back home. Please make sure you bring your child's hat and bag daily. Hats are a must as we are promoting sun safety and setting the children up for a positive future in their health and safety. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate come see Miss Naomi or myself.

Till next time!

Miss Casey

Kindergarten 2 

Hi and welcome to our families which have recently joined us or returned from holidays!

What's been happening in Kindergarten over the last month?

Last month we mentioned we planted new flowers in the garden beds outside. The plants are growing well due to the children showing an appreciation for living things and watering and caring for them daily. Please come and take a look at the gardens which the children take pride in daily. This is a great way to start a conversation with your child about their day at Kindy.

What have we been learning about?

The beginning of the Month saw us end our learning of the Very Hungry Caterpillar and extend our learning into tactile learning experiences using our 5 senses. The children were provided with opportunities to explore their 5 senses through experiments where they had to use all 5 senses to describe popcorn and problem solve to decide which container was sugar and which was salt during another experiment. These experiences allowed the children to respond verbally to what they could see, hear, feel, touched and tasted.

Using our 5 senses allowed us to then explore our bodies further by investigating hand washing and hygiene. The children participated in activities where they used their inquiry skills to explore bread which was touched with clean hands after hand washing and then another piece of bread that was touched without washing their hands. This experience allowed the children to see how germs are not visual to the eye but when left untreated on services we touch how bacteria then grows. During another experience, pepper and dishwashing liquid was used to demonstrate how quickly pepper moves away from soap when touched. This simple science demonstration will assist the children to remember to use soap each time they wash their hands.

Lastly our children have been developing their numeracy and literacy skills through handwriting tasks and through our daily learning wall. We have focused on our fine motor skills using the correct pincer grip as well as using scissors to cut shapes. Our focus for literacy has been the letters I, P, N and next week the letter C. Our numbers, tracing and cutting of shapes have consisted of 3, 4, 5 and the shapes star and diamond.

Next week we will be taking a look a dental care as we will be getting a visit from our local dentist.

If you have any questions in relation to your child's learning please feel free to speak with us.

Miss Renae & Miss Sophia

Kindergarten 3 

Hello Parents, Families and Children of The Kindergarten 3 Group of 2020!

My name is Jazmin Fairhurst and I am the Early Childhood Teacher (ECT) for Kindy 3.

It has been a wonderful month with the Kindy 3 children. When chatting and meeting families it has been insightful and a pleasure to get to know you and your children. I look forward to sharing more stories, learning more from each other and being part of your child's 'Kindergarten Journey of Experiences'.

This month we have all been getting to know each other. I have learnt so much about the children's needs, strengths and interests. The children are beginning to learn and follow the rules and routines of the room and with guidance and practice will grow more independent. Hand washing, tidying and cleaning up, making beds and organising resources are some of the tasks the children are learning to do independently.

Indoor Experiences: Cutting out catalogues, solving giant alphabet puzzles in small teams, Bingo Dotter art, sharing and taking turns with toy vehicles. Reading, Icy Insect experiment, free choice collaging, playing with the ball pit. Tracing numbers and letters, reading, dress ups and role playing in the Home Corner, sensory art fun with spaghetti and pasta. Building structures from Lego, shooting for basketball hoops, dancing – Just Dance, singing – Group Time songs, and much, much more.

Outdoor Experiences: Learning how to use the swing independently, role playing with the ocean animals, sand and water. Collecting natural items for an art activity, building Waffle Block structures, playing chasing games, hiding under the fort. Climbing the obstacle course, socialising and building friendships, using the slide, water play experience, digging holes in the sandpit, balancing on stilts, and much, much more.

Remember please bring to Kindy everyday:

  • A Sun Safe Hat
  • Shoes and socks
  • 2 sheets/blankets in a bag
  • 2 sets of spare clothes

I would like you to please encourage your child to not bring toys from home and remember to label all items.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Don't forget to check out our Educa website to view our daily Learning Journey and monthly observations.

Have a Great Month.

Miss Jazmin

Kindergarten 3 ECT

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