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FOOTPRINTS SUNNYBANK | March 2020 Newsletter

March 2020 News 

Important news from the office: COVID-19 and how this affects care 

 Hi everyone, during this time of great uncertainty as we work day by day, hour by hour I want to reassure you we are doing the very best we can to ensure the health and safety of all at our service.

We are remaining open and everything is operating. The things that may change from day to day are the rooms and menus, however, we will keep you posted on this as it occurs.

For families that have children at school and needing alternate care, please know that we are able to take school-aged children should the need be required.

The only way we would close is if we had a confirmed case present at the centre, or are told to do so by Government officials. Until then we are continuing as normal.

If you are worried and want to keep your child or children at home for a period of time, please call me and I will be able to explain how we can assist you with being able to keep your child or children at home without termination and not paying fees, holding your spot for you until you return.

We do ask, that if you are keeping your child or children home for the day to please let us know and why - we always ask this, however, this is now more important than ever.

1- it helps us to monitor sickness levels. 

2- staffing needs to be arranged to ensure that all children and ratio needs are met. I design the roster according to the rolls, however, when children are off sick, staffing changes and its important to know - especially if you plan to bring your child in but later, that we have correct staffing at all times.

Please keep an eye out on Educa for updates as they come to hand regarding COVD-19. If you have not linked to educa please do as it is where you will find the important information we need you to know as they come to hand.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation during this time and please remember to use sanitation products as provided when entering and leaving the centre and if there are any concerns or suggestions, please feel free to discuss this with us, we are all in this together.

Thank you and stay safe.

Glenda

 Welcome to all of our families who have a child in the Nursery this month!

As you may have seen from our daily reflections and from our art work display around the sliding door, we have been very busy!

Wow what a month we have had here in the nursery room. First we got new toys and a new stand/climbing foam frame which we love. As we are all at different levels of our development it has different levels that we are able to work on. Either by having tummy time on the ramp and smiling up at our friends who are on the top of the tunnel to being able to use it to help up us up so that we are standing next to it.

We have enjoyed using the mirrored blocks to either build with or to just look at into the blocks. When we are stacking the blocks together we are working on our hand eye coordination and learning understand that if we knock it down that we can try again.

This month we had a chance to go over to the kindergarten playground where we celebrated our Holi festival together as a centre. This gave us a chance to explore and interact with our older friends that are within the centre.

Not only did we have a chance to celebrate Holi festival, we also got to watch the magic show. While at the magic show we had to make sure that we yelled out when we show the rabbit. At the end of the show we had a chance to meet the star of the show the rabbit.

We hope you all stay safe and we will see you all very soon.

 Hello and welcome to January's newsletter from toddlers' room.

I would like to start by extending a very warm welcome to all our new families and exciting families. Our friends in the toddler room are Jayveer, Micah, Ariella, Millie, Chase, Evan, and we have welcomed our new friend Theano and we also would like to welcome her family to the Footprints family. We have also recently welcome Roseleen and Amelia who have moved up from the Nursery. We hope all our friends have fun and get settled with our toddler room routines.

I hope you are finding it easy to locate your children's bags and sheet on their allocated name tags on the lockers.

Since the beginning of the year we have incorporated the 'Jolly Phonics song' in our everyday group time programming. We also been learning behaviours such as, being gentle to our friend's, sharing toys, saying thank you and please and also our packing away skills. Our weekly programming has been based on children's interest.This program is a part of the stepping-stones that will eventually help the children to learn and develop in their learning environment. We value and encourage all family input into our curriculum, so please come see either Miss Gurpal or myself so that we can include your child's interest into our curriculum.

In January, the children participated in a range of different art creations to celebrate Australia Day. In February we celebrated Valentine's day and also our Oscars Day with a Hollywood theme, where our friends got dressed up their favourite characters. We enjoyed celebrating Holi day and seeing the Magic Mike show in March. Busy busy busy bees we have all been.

The children have also been showing great interest in doing some puzzle solving which helps them to think and manipulate object with increasing competency and skills.

Please remember to label your child's belongings so that, if something does go missing, we can return it to the rightful owner. Hats and water bottles: Please ensure that your child has a hat and water bottle each day they attend care.

Please if you have any questions or concern regarding your children please don't hesitate to see myself (Miss Rupa) or Miss Gurpal we will be happy to assist you.

Kind regards 

 Wow, where has the year gone, it's hard to believe we are at the end of another month and about to begin March.

At the end of January, we saw all our recently two-year friends move from Toddlers to Junior Kindy along with Miss Bernadette and Miss Lily. It has been great getting to know our new and old teachers as well as all our friends. Since January we have also had a number of new families join us in the Junior Kindy room, we would like to welcome Oscar, Kruz and Naksh along with their families to the centre and Junior Kindy room.

We have hit the year running, looking at already so many different topics. First, we looked at self-identity, learning ours and each other's interests as we settle into a new room and environment, exploring our physical identities as we completed several version of how we perceive ourselves, using the mirror to view our reflection and using that as a guide to shape our artworks. If you missed our self-portraits, they are now available in individual portfolios for parent perusal. If you do not know where these are please come see either Miss Bernadette or Miss Lily for help.

What other focuses have we been looking at this year so far:

  • -Communication
  • -Caring for babies
  • -weather
  • -Fine motor skills
  • -Colours
  • -Self-helping skills
  • -Germs
  • -Creative skills
  • -Doctors role play

As we move through March, we will continue to be looking back on all these focuses, revisiting them regularly as well as adding more as our interests continue to develop and change.

A major interest in the room at the moment is helping with day-to-day tasks, such as wiping tables after meals and serving our own food. With this interest taking over the room we have been gradually exploring these as well as introducing activities/experiences to expand and increase confidence in these skills, e.g. using tongs to move various shaped toys, cleaning/washing babies. The children have been enjoying these opportunities and as the year continues, we will build on these skills in preparation for moving to the Senor Kindy room and home life where we will be able to use these skills to help our parents.

Early March saw an interest in doctor role play develop. As an extension to this interest a Nurse was organised to come out and spoke about what happens when we visit a doctor, we also had the opportunity to explore and use the various equipment she brought along.

On March 6 we celebrated Holi. We enjoyed a morning of colours, using the coloured powder we enjoyed sharing in this festival with all our friends. This festival timed in well with our emerging interest in colours.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue to explore our enjoyment in creative art projects as we prepare for Easter, decorating room displays and other items for Easter.

If you haven't already seen we will be moving from Facebook to Educa in the near future so please keep an eye on your email in-box for your invite. Once connected to Educa you will be able to view all our daily stories, observations and daily information from within the Junior Kindy room. You will also be able to contact educators with ease with this new system. Please be sure to connect so this change can be made effortlessly. Don't forget to comment.

Until next month, Miss Bernadette and Miss Lily

 Hello to all,

What a fun few month it has been with so many eventful things happening and our educators have been very busy of late too with building our children new toys for our friends who have had great fun discovering/exploring them. This month our friends have been really enjoyed learning recognition of their names and have started tracing their first letter of their names, numbers and shapes. We will continue learning to do this to help prep them for school.

As for now, we do ask parents to please let us know if your child is not attending the centre for the day as we do need to know due to ratio and staffing.

Just a friendly reminder to all parents to please make sure that you to pack sheets, hat, drink bottles and spare clothes with their names on it. We also would like to remind parents that yes, our Centre is still open as normal but we are undertaking the proper procedures and precautions to keep the centre hygienically clean and following the government guide lines. If you have any concerns regarding what is happening please feel free to call or email us anytime.

Till next time

Miss Catherine & Miss Alison 😊 


Kia ora, Nihao, Namaste, Kamusta, Gday

Hello, Footprints Families and friends. Wow, what a crazy few weeks we've had! We are closely monitoring the current situation trying to keep up to date as best we can and appreciate your patience and co-operation.

Firstly, welcome to Henry who has joined the kindergarten room, we look forward to getting to know you and having lots of fun. We celebrated the festival of colour 'Holi' which was an awesome experience and Magic Mike came to visit and performed lots of tricks. Also, Easter is coming up and look forward to celebrating with the children.

Miss Monique and Miss Amandeep have been getting to know our new class and families, we have discovered a lot of interests the children have developed and are curious about learning. Thank you to those who have taken the 'About me' sheet to fill out, can we please have them back to add to your child's profile book 😊

Our focus for the month has been the alphabet focusing on a letter a week, hand washing with soap and water. While working on our letters, names, numbers, and colour recognition and also learning how to take care of ourselves, people, places and things.

Friendly Reminders

  • Please make sure your child's belongings are named so they don't get misplaced.
  • Please provide you, child, with the following each day:
  • Spare clothes
  • A hat
  • Shoes
  • Water bottle
  • Sunscreen

P.S. Maddison's paw patrol lunch bag has gone missing, so it would be much appreciated if you could check if it has accidentally come home…

Many thanks,

Miss Monique and Miss Amandeep

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