Footprints Sunnybank | September 2018 Newsletter

​Wow, is it really September already? Were has the year gone?

Over the past few months we have seen a few changes in our friends, we said goodbye to Aditya, Maddison and Vera, we wish them the best and hope they pop by time to time to catch up. We have also welcomed Chase, Eva, Havana-Jodie, Flynn, Michaela and Jordyn. It has been wonderful getting to know our new friends, everyone has been getting along well and it is beautiful to see their friendships developing and growing.

This week (September 10) we farewell our older friends Xena and Zoe as they move up to the Toddler room. Xena and Zoe have been participating in transition days over the past few months, helping them to get to know their new friends, teachers and routines. The girls have both been enjoying these opportunities, can't wait to continue to see you both grow, intellectually and in confidence in your new room, come back and visit from time to time.

Last month we had some visitors come to the centre and introduce us to a variety of musical instruments. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience, Michaela and Chase were not afraid to get in a touch the instruments. Michaela crawled right up to Gecko as he played the guitar, placing her hand on the strings, feeling the vibration of the stings. Chase listened to the echoes on the didgeridoo, lying at the end Chase reached out for where the sound was coming from. Zoe enjoyed dancing along to the music playing and Belinda singing.

Our interests that we have been displaying includes animals, role playing with cars, babies and Home Corner, problem solving and hand-eye co-ordination, sensory explorations, reading books as well as drawing and painting.

We have been looking at animals, their appearance, names and signing their names. We have been exploring animals by drawing and colouring in pictures, reading books with various animals (our favourite animal book is 'Nappy Duck and Potty pig'), we have seen exploring animals through role play as well as general discussions.

Role playing, as well as animals we have been showing interest in role playing with cars and baby dolls. We are exploring the movement of the small cars as we push them back and forward, 'driving' in the big pink car as we make ourselves comfortable sitting back into the seat and fiddle with all the buttons and levers around the steering wheel.

Until next time, keep an eye on our new Facebook page (Footprints Parents) for regular updates.

Miss Bernadette and Miss Dana

We hope you have enjoyed reading our newsletter - till next month, With a smile :-) from the Footprints Family. 

 Dear Parents

Welcome to our September newsletter. First, we would like to welcome all our new families and it has been an exciting time welcoming all the new families to the centre. The year has certainly started at great speed with lots of events and activities for the children here at Footprints Sunnybank, we are already in September - the days are simply just flying. Well, we have had busy couple of months with helping the new children to settle into the room. In August we have welcomed SIYAN, ALESSA and AMELIA and their families. l am pleased to say children have done a really great job settling into the group and with all the children in the room.

Sensational Sensory - The Toddlers love to explore new sensory materials. Recently, the children have been experimenting with paints, soil, sand, water and play dough. The children are learning through early exploration of the senses and are acquiring skills with problem solving, language development, cooperative and collaborative play as well as eye hand coordination. We have been using and learning colours through paints, food colouring during our play dough activity we showed children how blue colour turns red with the food colouring. As well as markers and they reflect through creative expressions. Children are confident and involved learners.

Self- help Skills- I am working with the children to practice the "Flip Trick" which enables children to put their shoes on independently. I always ask them to try first and also I am always there to help them out. The children are also learning to pick up toys and to assist the educators in the daily transitions washing hands, packing away, putting their hats and water bottles away also recognising their names at the water bottle table and placing their water bottle at the right spot.During our group time session, I am also encouraging children to point at their friends so that they can recognize them who they are and also their new friends.

Another source of great enjoyment for the children are dramatic play experiences with dress ups with a particular child initiated focus being caring for babies. We are extending the children's interest by providing more babies and dress ups. The Toddlers enjoy most of their time in the room exploring home corner, they also like to engage in pretend play by taking all the home corner stuff onto the mat and enjoy things like having a picnic on the mat and they also do the cooking and wait for their friends to serve them dinner or lunch.

We have and we are learning so many things in the Toddler room and the children also enjoy being in the room which is fantastic. Our days go past so quick because we are always having fun. We hope that you and your children enjoy the year with us, and if you have any feedback or ideas for us, please let us know!

Kind Regards,

Miss Rupa . 

 Hello again,

What a year it has been for our Junior Kindy friends it has been and now not to long till it will be Christmas. First of all we would like to welcome to our new friends that have joined the room Edward, Jasper and Lusalia. We have also had a few of our friends who have also had their birthdays - Edward and Virajveer. Happy Birthday again to you both.

We would also like to say how proud the educators are with our Junior Kindy friends who have picked up toilet training and are doing so well that most of our friends are in their undies now. Well done Junior Kindy kids.

Our friends have also been showing how well they are developing their cognitive skills with the number; letter and shape puzzle connecting, this will be an ongoing learning process for them, however it is a great thing to see that they are all keen and willing to participate and are wanting to learn. We can also see some of that learning starting to stay with them which is so exciting for us as educators to see.

For the rest of the year, we have other exciting learning opportunities planned, as well as getting ready for an upcoming themed event - Halloween. We will be organising a dress up day for the children where they can come dressed up as anything and then will get to do some fun trick or treating in the centre, then not too long after that - we will be getting ready for Christmas time "YEAH" - our favourite time of the year.

Till next time

Miss Catherine and Miss Alison 

 Hello everyone, how are you? We are very good here in the Senior Kindy room. Its hard to believe we are already in September and don't know where this year has gone? I would like to say welcome to the children Abigail, Ayaan, Polly, and Purvi who have joined us in our room – moving up from the Junior Kindy room and also to their families. I would like to say welcome to our new friends Brayden and Quhantria and their families who have recently joined our Footprints family.

We have had very busy 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 'Ekka fire work' art, and of course our Father's Day art work. The Senior Kindy children were very excited to make presents for their Dads with all the love from the bottom of their hearts. We would like to say thanks to the Dads who made some time to come in and spend some time with us for our Father's Day afternoon tea. We really enjoyed seeing you with your children and watching you all playing happily and seeing such great enjoyment amongst all.

We also celebrated Chayse's birthday in August and Alyssa's birthday in July. All of the children were making cards for them and were very excited to sing happy birthday to them.

The Senior Kindy children really liked to do animal shadow drawings in the outdoor area and they were very interested in this activity, being amazed at the way they can do drawings in different ways.

Another enjoyable activity this month was to be able to cook some cupcakes with Miss Alison. We enjoyed helping her to measure, weigh and mix the cake before cooking it and then of course the most important thing of all – was tasting it!

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.

Our class photos are all done for the year and I hope everyone got their class photos, if you did not get one please let me know, I would like to follow this up and help you.

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 about our body parts names and about our personal hygiene – like how to wipe our noses with tissues and how to wash our hands after doing this. Please let me know if you have any concerns without any hesitations, I will be here for you all the time.

Thanks Miss Amandeep

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