August News

Welcome to the month of August. We have seen some wonderful interactions between the children. As they watch, imitate, model and interact with each other verbally and non-verbally. So, to promote interaction among them, we have held group times, which helps to build up their confidence.

In our home corner, we have set up an Ice cream shop area for our children to explore and develop their imagination and communication skills, while further developing their language skills. Through this learning area, the children have been interacting with each other.

Within our room, some children have shown a lot of interest towards dinosaurs. We have also  setup a dinosaur world with a variety of different dinosaurs for the children to explore. Children also take part in dinosaur activities such as dinosaur footprint, playdough play with dinosaurs. While doing these activities, children are developing their fine motor skills as they use hand eye coordination, creativity and imagination skills.

Our children are learning to use their gross motor skills and love to go on the fort through the rope and came down through the slide.

If you have any questions, please approach the educators in the room and they will be able to assist you.

Thank you

Miss Himani and Miss Zubaida

We can't believe we are already in August. 

June and July were very busy months in our room. The children showed a great interest in dramatic role play and we created an Ice cream & coffee shop role play. It was a big hit and the children loved it. 

After a few weeks, we changed our Ice cream shop into a Doctor's surgery. The children are still very involved in this imaginary play. The more they engage in pretend-play, the better chance they get at expanding their vocabulary. At the moment we extended our Doctor's surgery on Vet surgery and the children were encouraged to bring and share their favourite soft toy pet from home that they can take care of. 

We have done a few experiments which children loved; coloured milk with detergent, shaving foam and food colour, dinosaurs fossils. The children are getting more confident in more challenging physical activities and developing their gross motor skills such as climbing big A frames and jumping from platforms. Hammering set with cork pin board, geometric shapes and nails has been very popular among the children as well as sensory experiences, such as play dough with different patterned rolling pins, magic sand, painting with cling warp, painting and making prints with leaves or just a free paint. The children really enjoyed making real grapefruit and orange juice and milk shakes with frozen berries. In the warmer moths we are looking forward to making some popsicles 😊 

We have been reading lots of books lately. Some of our favourites are: Kuwi the kiwi stories, Aboriginal dream time stories; How the birds got their colours, The Wonky Donkey, Wash your face in orange juice, Never smile at the crocodile, Hariet you will drive wild…. 

Just a friendly reminder, if your child is in the process of toilet training, please pack at least 3 -4 pairs of underwear and 3- 4 pants in case of any accidents. 

Paperbark Team

In our wattle room, we have been focusing more on learning the ABC alphabet letters, number counting and practising our shapes. Learning about the alphabet letters and number counting is great for basic speech and communication skills.

We have been practising with the children how to trace and write their names and also recognising the letters that belong in their names. During group times, we have been going through some ABC and number posters with the children where they can get familiar with numbers 1-10 and the alphabet letters. We also talk about different shapes through videos, flashcards and even activities like matching shapes with the correct picture. This has been great for their letter, number, and shapes recognition skills.

We have also been engaging in more group discussions and group activities whether it be in small groups or large groups. It is always great to hear from the children and what their ideas are during group experiences.

Further on, we will continue to focus on small group experiences where we can understand the children's ideas and assist them during group activities. It will give the room educators a chance to have a one on one interaction with the children as well.

Please provide the children with jumpers, hats, drink bottles and bed sheets daily.

If you have any questions, please approach the educators in the room and they will be able to assist you.

Thank you

Miss Simran & Miss Sukh

Hello Coolibah families!

Welcome back to the month of August with the news about your child's learning and efforts. I hope you all had a great month. First of all, I would like to welcome Aurora and Nirbhay to our Coolibah room. We want to make sure they are feeling safe and comfortable in their new room environment and ready for learning.

As Flu season is there, hand washing plays a vital role to keep the germs away. To continue with health and hygiene we are washing our hands whenever we need to. This month we continue to learn about the self-help skills (empty dishes, putting water bottles away and packing our sheets after rest time etc.) We are also learning about our emotions at this stage (Happy and sad only) in our room. We are reading books about it during our group time. We are also singing songs (If you happy and you Know it). Learning emotions can help a child to communicate about "How am I feeling today"?

Motor skills enables the movements children need for everyday tasks. To continue our program, we are using our gross and fine motor skills ( running, jumping, dancing, blocks building, drawing and painting etc) and we are having sensory activity regularly so as to continue to develop and improve our gross and fine motor skills.

Friendly Reminder:

Please pack spare clothes in your child's bag. Also label your child's belongings ( water bottle, milk bottle and lid, hats etc)

If your child is allergic to anything please feel free to discuss with one of our educators about it.

Please provide child's medications and creams etc with a pharmacy label on it stating the name and date of birth and amount to be given/applied etc.

If you have any concerns about your child's learning, please do not hesitate to talk to one of our educators.

We will be back next month with the news about your child's learning.

Miss Monica, Miss Kalpana and Miss Emma

In the Eucalyptus Room the children have been very busy with their learning over the last three months. 

We have been learning about the seasons, in particular the Winter season that we are in now. The children have done some temperature experiences, experiencing the difference between cold and warm, making snow ball balloons, coloured ice painting, ice-cream play dough and Winter colours painting. The children have also been using their self help skills to get their jumper/jacket, maybe a beanie, and their shoes and put these on when the weather is cold. The children are doing very well in Self Help skills in general, going to the toilet, putting on their own shoes, jumpers/jackets and hats, and helping to packing away their beds.

We observed 'Naidoc Week' in the room doing some Aboriginal activities, making an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flag and reading some Aboriginal stories to the children.

We have been doing role playing in the room in some different work roles. The children have been practicing being Hair Dressers, Dentists, Doctors, Nurses, and Admin Staff in these roles. We had an in house dentist come in to do dental checks in August, and the children were more comfortable with this after doing the dentist and patient role play. Over the next couple of weeks we will also set up a Police Station and Fire Station for the children to role play in these work roles.

We are going over to the other playground once a fortnight for the children to experience the different outdoor equipment and gain more balance, co-ordination and build up their gross motor skills.

Each day during Group time the children are learning the alphabet, counting to 30, the days of the week, and the months of the year, and having Story time – their story of choice. This is helping the children in their language development.

The children have enjoyed celebrating a few birthdays together with their friends and educators in the room.

Hello kindy 1 families,

This term we have been very busy engaging in learning that involves being sustainable in every day life. We have been focusing on recycling and how we can use recycled material to help save our planet from waste. We have been experimenting on how we can recycle our old paper, to prevent it from ending up in landfill and we have been making our own sustainable products such as sidewalk chalk. We will continue to investigate and experiment in ways in which we can be sustainable at home and at kindy; this will be achieved through practical experiments, observations and data recordings.

Also, this term we have continued to be hands on in literacy and numeracy with recognition and formation being our main focus. We have incorporated these into our program as a play-based learning setting. Play-based learning provides opportunities for children to actively and imaginatively engage with people, objects and the environment. Symbolic representation is a critical aspect. When playing, children may be organising, constructing, manipulating, pretending, exploring, investigating, creating, interacting, imagining, negotiating and making sense of their world.

Kindy 1 continue to enjoy our woodwork and pottery sessions that Mr Callum has incorporated into our program. We have been using real-life tools such as saws, hammers, cutters and tape measures. These tools require us to risk assess and discuss how to be safe and responsible when using and being around them. We as a group, assess what safety equipment we need and this demonstrates that we are exploring ways to promote our own and other's health and safety.

Throughout the remaining 5 weeks of term 3, we will also be focusing on getting ready for school and being responsible for looking after our own belongings. We have been practicing putting our belongings away and making green choices in readiness for school.

As the weather is starting to warm up, I would like to remind our families to name items of clothing. Our children have been starting to take off their excess clothing throughout the day and some items have been getting lost. If your items are named it is easier to return to you and prevents them from getting lost.

Over the coming weeks we will be starting to send out transition consent forms to our families with children that are starting school next year. There will be two different forms for you to fill out and sign. These forms will need to be sent back to kindy before transition statements can be started. Keep an eye out for these over the coming weeks.

Mr Callum and myself would like to thank all our families for their support throughout the first 6 months of 2022 and we look forward to another 6 months where we will learn lots of great things that we prepare us for our transition to big school next year for most.

Miss Jacqui