Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of our centre newsletter. This month you will be hearing from the classes, before we begin with their news I would like to remind everyone that our Centre Christmas party will be held on Friday the 7th of December from 3:30pm. More information will be released in your family pockets and on Facebook next week, so please keep a look out for this information. We cant wait to celebrate Christmas with you all. 

​I have one more exciting thing to share with you all before passing over to the rooms, we are running a competition to have a little Christmas fun with everyone. Im sure you all know and love the 'elf on a shelf' concept. We are going to do something similar ....

COMPETITION TIME

How to participate: find Elf in his hiding place, without touching him take a selfie, upload to your own Facebook page and tag FOOTPRINTS PARENTS. Each location you find Elf and upload (and Tag) a selfie will give you an entry into the draw to win a mystery prize.

When will Elfie find a new hiding place? Elfie may choose anytime to find a new hiding place, he could be hiding anywhere in the centre, so keep an eye out.

The competition ends Thursday December 6th 2018 ready to be drawn at the Christmas party Friday 7th December 2018.

We cant wait to see your selfies with our Elfie ... 

From the Nursery Room ...  

Welcome back.

The past two months has been a busy one for the Nursery room, we have seen a big growth in our development and interests.

We have been putting in a lot of effort to extend on our interest of knocking over towers. We have moved on from solely knocking down the towers to helping to build them. Bit by bit we have shown progress of how tall we can build them. We do still very much enjoy knocking the towers down but are more inclined to push them down as fast if we helped to build. Chase has also been getting in on the tower destruction, taking in all the tricks of the trade as observed from his friend's actions, Chase has chosen the technique of placing his hand on top of the tower and using the force of his hand to knock the towers down. Joel has been observing his friends building and has begun to show interest in using the blocks to create 'music' by tapping the blocks together. Joel has also shown an increased interest in helping build the towers, however he is still working on the hand-eye co-ordination to balance the blocks at higher positions on the tower building scale.

October 31 saw Halloween come around, with a few of our friends dressing up to help celebrate. Before Halloween we participated in creating our own decorations to dress the room up. Working on our growing interest for creative expression. Working with a variety of brush sizes and strokes we painted paper plates orange and with a little help placed a scary face on it, turning a boring old white paper plate into a pumpkin.

We have continued using our sensory skills to explore various forms of art resources. We have used a few of theses resources to shape our artworks, have you seen them in our art sleeves?

With the weather now warm please be sure to pack hats and shoes for outside play and if you haven't done so please bring in sunscreen to be kept at the centre to comply with sun safety recommendations.

Unfortunately, we have not had the best opportunities to participate in the messy play experiences as hoped, a change of clothing has been removed for children's bags and kept at the centre just in case an opportunity does arrive (e.g. finger painting where paint aprons do no always provide the best coverage). These clothes will be used for these experiences to reduce the number of outfits with paint stains on them.

Reminder: Miss Bernadette will be on leave over the Christmas and New Year period, if you have any concerns please come and have a chat before December 14, otherwise Miss Dana will be available to help with any queries over this period. Miss Bernadette will be back before the new school year begins with plenty of stories to share.

Regards, MISS BERNADETTE and MISS DANA

From the Toddler Room .... 

 Hello everyone,

What a busy couple of months we have had. Over the past couple of months, we have welcomed Siyan, Ollie, Amelia, Alessa and we also had three friends who moved up from the Nursery Zoe, Alex and Xena. It's been great that you all are settling well in the room and with all the children and getting familiar with the routines.

During our group time sessions, we have been focusing on children being independent, teaching them self- help skills. The children have been practising dressing themselves, hygiene skills and being responsible for their own learning environment, which includes packing resources away. Some of the children have started recognising the colours and numbers, which they point to on the walls when they are being asked.It is great to see the children are sharing toys with each other; they also comfort their friends if they are upset in the room.

The children have been able to express themselves through our dramatic play in home corner. The home corner play is one of the popular activities during the day, which children enjoy the most. This supports their development in expressing themselves through different characters and the develop language, cognitive, fine and gross motor and social skills. We have been also practising our learn Auslan signs which are incorporated into daily routines and specific learning opportunities such as group time session.

We have been exploring different sensory experiences, which allows the children to feel, look, touch and smell. Play dough is one of the popular activities as well, as this allows children to manipulate the dough through their fingers to support the development of their fine motor skills. Painting is also a wonderful activity for children as they enjoy touching and feeling the texture of the paints and learning about the different colours. Toddlers are engaging on a daily basis and I feel so proud and happy that some of the children are starting to talk as well and some have started calling me by my name which is so good to hear.

Recently at the centre we have celebrated Halloween and a big thank you to all the parents who took time to get your children dressed up for Halloween. On Tuesday 6th November we celebrated Diwali - it's the festival of lights, and before we know it, it will be end of the year of 2018.In the next few months we will be continuing to focus on the children's gross and fine motor skills also social and cognitive developments as well as focusing on some transition days for those who will be moving up to Junior Kindy in 2019, some exciting times ahead for all.

Until next time,

Miss Rupa. 

From the Junior Kindy room .... 

 Wow not far now till Christmas, only one month away now and the children are really looking forward to it as they are talking about what they would like from Santa for themselves then they start talking about what they would like for their family members. We would also like to welcome our new friends that have started in the Junior Kindy room recently and have settled in well – a big welcome to Leon, Pierre and Zahara and their families.

An update on our friend's toilet training – this has been going really well and we are proud of how they are doing so far. Including our new friends that who have just started with us and haven't been here that long, they have been doing well so far too.

Friendly reminder to parents - as you know it is coming up to warmer weather now and we do ask parents to please pack cooler clothing as it is now too hot to wear long pants and jumpers. Also, as our friends are in the toilet training room, we do ask that you remember to pack spare clothing in case of an accident. We would also like to ask parents if you would like to pack 'late' afternoon tea we ask that you only pack a piece of fruit (actual fruit, not fruit jellies etc.), Cheese, Yogurt - vanilla or fruit, no chocolate ones please. Anything else will be sent back home. Thank you for your understanding.

Junior Kindy has also celebrated a few birthdays and Halloween dress up day which was fantastic as our friends enjoyed showing off their outfits and had a great time trick or treating. They also enjoyed cooking special cookies for the Halloween afternoon tea.

As we are coming up to Christmas our friends will finish with decorating their room and getting ready for Santa. We would like to thank all the parents for their support and their cooperation throughout the year, it has been great to have - with thanks, Miss Catherine and Miss Alison

From the Senior Kindy Room ... 

Hello everyone, how are you? We are very good here in the Senior Kindy room. Its hard to believe we are already in November and don't know where this year has gone? I would like to say welcome to our new friend Christiana and her family who have recently joined our Footprints family.

We have had as usual a very busy few months and we have been loving the chance to do art work when we can. Our favourite art work that we have participated in recently was our Halloween and Diwali festival art work. The Senior Kindy children were very excited to make fire crackers and do fire cracker painting. We celebrated Halloween and Diwali festival in our centre and I appreciate that all the parents made their efforts for dressing up their children. I would like to say thanks to all the children and our educators who they supported us to celebrate Diwali the festival of lights, it was heart-warming to be able to share something of my culture with everyone here. The children were very excited and were very happy when they were dancing and some of our children loved to learn Indian dance moves.

We also celebrated Lelayna and Miss Amandeep's birthday together and Lelayna loved to make a birthday card for her mum with love from bottom of her heart.

The Senior Kindy children are learning their numbers and letters and are particularly working very hard to learn all of the alphabet.

I would like to remind parents, to please bring your children's spare clothes packed in their bags each and every time they attend. Sometimes the children can have accidents so we need to be able to change their clothes, we don't hold spare clothes here at the centre and so if your child doesn't have spare clothes packed with them, we will have to call you. So, to avoid this please ensure spare clothes are packed all times. Also, please don't forget to bring your child's drink bottle and hat, these are other vital daily requirements and if your children don't have hats, they will miss all fun activities outdoors.

I would like to remind parents about late afternoon tea, please pack only healthy options of either yogurt, piece of fruit and cheese only, as we can only give these things to the children and if you pack something else, we won't be able to give it to your child, but have to return it back home to you.

Our Xmas photos are all done for the year and I hope everyone will like them. I would like to say thanks to the parents who take time to share their input with us. From some of this we have been busy learning numbers and letters and same time we are learning Auslan/sign language and children are very keen to learn it and are showing their interest. Please let me know if you have any concerns without any hesitations, I will be here for you all the time.

A little reminder to all, that I will be away for holidays in December and if you have any concerns or questions you can leave the message for me to the staff member who will be in my room. The staff member who will be replacing me during my time off will be advised to you all soon. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and best compliments for my birthday. Happy Diwali to every one and may everyone get what they dream for.

Thanks, Miss Amandeep 

From the Kindergarten Room .... 

It has been another busy month in Kindergarten as we are getting closer to the end of the year, and on the path to "Big School."

As you may have noticed, there have been a couple of changes in the room due to Miss Sinead injuring her leg. Miss Sally has joined our room as Lead Educator and will be with us each day as Miss Sinead is on reduced duties as she recovers. Miss Eseta and Miss Sinead will both be sharing the room with Miss Sally, whom the children have already formed a bond with. So please say hello and introduce yourself.

We would also like to welcome Talya to our Kindergarten family, and we look forward to getting to know her over the next few months. Happy Birthday to many of our friends this month- Mark, Jermaine, Violet and Maksim. We hope that you all had fun birthdays, thank you for celebrating with us!

Dressing up and role play is a favourite activity of the children, giving them the opportunity to explore other identities, develop our imagination, and confident interactions as they share the experience. This month we have been able to enjoy this throughout the centre, first with Halloween and then Diwali.

Be warned- the Christmas conversations have begun within the room, as the children are starting to get excited. To build on our numeracy skills, we will be creating a countdown calendar as the excitement builds! To celebrate the many cultures within the room, we would love for you to share with us some of your family/cultural Christmas traditions, so we could investigate Christmas around the world. This broadens our understanding of the world around us, respecting differences and celebrating common ideas.

Looking forward to the month ahead,

Miss Sally, Miss Sinead and Miss Eseta.