January Newsletter

​Welcome back to a wonderful new year full of exciting times, friendship and families here at Little darlings. We are all looking forward to what 2020 brings and so pleased to welcome all of our families back from last year and a huge welcome to all of our new families.

It has been a busy start to the year with many children transitioning to  their new class rooms and everyone meeting their new teachers.

We say a huge welcome to Motoki who is our Chef. Having run a large restaurant in Japan as well as in Australia, we are thrilled to have found someone with such experience and knowledge to cook for our centre. He has fitted in so well at the centre and we are so lucky to have him join our team. We are also excited to have Jamie and Phuong join our team. Jamie is a fully qualified Early Childhood Teacher, and we are so happy that she is working alongside Kiran in our senior kindy room, where we will also be able to have a second Kindergarten program running. Jamie has just arrived back from her honeymoon and is very keen to work at our centre and get to know everyone. Phuong, has been at our centre doing relief when our staff were away sick or on holidays, however, we are so excited that she will be in our toddlers room. She knows all the children as is such an asset to our centre as she is so beautiful with all the children. Bailee is also back from Maternity leave and her beautiful son Jagga is in our nursery. We are so blessed to have Bailee back and we are all excited to watch Jagga grow.

We also want to welcome back all of our other staff whom you all know and love. We are so lucky to have such a great team and such loving care givers. Our staff are very precious and we thank them every day.

Today we are celebrating The Lunar New Year. May the new year bring love, hope, joy and good health to all of our families. Motoki and Mymy have joined forces and both the children and staff are enjoying a day of delicacies from a noodle dish for lunch and of course some beautiful spring rolls.

Last week we celebrated the graduation of our preschool class. The students wore their cap and gown and as they performed some songs for their families and friends. It was such a special night and we wish the children the very best in their years ahead and hope they will come and visit us soon dressed in their school uniforms.

Please remember to bring a hat and a water bottle everyday as well as a change of clothes and sheets.

Enjoy the long weekend with the public holiday on Monday, and we look forward to a great week ahead.

From the NURSERY

First of all, I would like to thank you Little Darling Child Care for the love and care. It's almost a year I am being a part of this centre, Thank you Chrisanne and Rinal for supporting us. It feels like just yesterday that I just started here as a casual staff member. I am enjoying being in this beautiful centre. Muditha and I work so well together and we both love all of the children in the nursery and throughout the whole centre.

I value and appreciate all the families who have contributed their ideas in the learning and scaffolding of the learning experiences of all our children. Family input is essential and we always love your input in our program and room.

To start off our year, the children have been learning about colours. The children have been busy learning about the different colours and we have been doing some great activities with colours. They have especially loved the painting. We have read many books and have been playing lots of games related to colours. We are also going to extend on the children's interest in music; they love to play with musical toys and they love when we have a music time and sing. I am also trying to involve parents into our program and always trying to talk to the parents if they can give me many ideas to improve and participate in our learning.

We also have so many new families in our Nursery, and we welcome them and love how the children have settled so nicely.

Aditi, Aaron, Iyla, Angel and Yuvaraj moved to the toddler's room, and welcome baby Jagga and Amari who have started in our beautiful centre.

We will make sure, we are providing the best care in our centre, and build a relationship with families and children.

Sharan and Muditha

FROM the TODDLERS ROOM

Welcome to our January newsletter! This year has certainly started with great speed. Hope you all enjoyed a happy new year and for those who had time away on holiday that you had a nice relaxing time.

A big welcome to all our new families  especially those families experiencing childcare for the first time we look forward to getting to know you. For the many children who have transitioned from the nursery, all the children are settling in well and enjoying their new surroundings. We welcome you all and look forward into sharing a great year together full of many exciting learning opportunities and love and nurture.

This month children showed interest in playing with animals, so we are extending their interest in this. We are learning about sea animals first and have been doing different activities relatedto sea animals . During group time we have read books, enjoyed puzzles, sensory play, and of course loved doing some art work.

On Friday we are celebrating the Lunar new year, so this week the children have been involved in activities about Asian culture and we have been counting in Chinese language, glitter painting and also enjoyed playing with playdough in gold and red.

Also I would like to welcome miss Phuong to the toddler's room as our new educator.

Please remember to lable everything can be easily returned at the end of the day or identified they get left behind.

 Kelly, Phuong, Mymy

FROM JUNIOR KINDY

Welcome to the first edition of Junior Kindy newsletter for 2020!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are ready for the great year ahead. I would like to welcome back all our families and an extended welcome is also due to all our new families who have just joined us. Throughout this whole month we have been focusing on children's seamless transitions into their new rooms and children are coping well with these transitions. They are settling well and looking quite comfortable into new environment.

It was busy a month in Junior Kindy as most of the Junior Kindy children who are moving up in Senior Kindy are toilet training as we do not have any nappy changing facility in that room. Children have shown a great progress and I really appreciate parent's support and Junior kindy's staff effort in this process without them it would have not been possible.

This month we were also been offering children with endless opportunities to explore their interests and that will help me plan my program and curriculum accordingly in coming weeks. As this Friday we are celebrating Lunar new year, so children will be experiencing activities recognising Asian culture, food and clothes throughout this whole week and this community participation will continue with Australia day celebration and activities in the next week .

I would really appreciate if parents could bring a family photo for our class family tree that develops a sense of belonging in child as they moved into new surroundings.

Also please do not forget to label your child belongings in case they go missing and would be easy to locate!

From Shweta, Anu, Suganya and Bailee

FROM SENIOR KINDY

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! The New Year is upon us and we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year break with their families. Welcome back to all families and friends. At the start of every year, we have to say goodbye to some of our friends who have reached their milestones in the Senior Kindy room and are ready to continue their childcare experience in the Preschool room.

This year we are very excited to welcome our new teacher Miss Jamie who has a Bachelor in Early childhood Degree. And our room will be providing two programs this year kindergarten program as well as the Early Years learning program.

This month, the children enjoyed various learning experiences in our room.

From the colourful bears, they practiced and developed their understanding of colours and patterns. They enjoyed matching the bears and the pictures of the bears together.

When they were playing connectors and blocks, they had a great experience of working with their peers and communicating with others to share their ideas. Also, it developed their gross motor skills during playing.

The home corner was very busy this month. The kids enjoyed cooking food, selling food and feeding their babies. When they were cooking, they talked about healthy vegetables and yummy cakes. And they shared how many times they brush their teeth at home and why they need to do.

The children also loved to read books. They also enjoyed dancing with the music Taba Naba, which is a Torres Strait Islands song which they been practicing throughout the month.

This year we are planning to have stimulated, positive experiences and interactions which will foster all aspects of the children's development and support all families efforts to help them become valuable and self-sufficient members of society. Through our philosophy, these goals will be achieved in our daily program.

The program will help to develop your child's physical, social, intellectual, language and emotional abilities. Your children will have opportunities to learn how to:

• use language to communicate ideas, feelings and needs

• make friends and cooperate with other children

• become more independent and confident in their abilities

• develop self-discipline

• creatively express ideas and feelings through art, dance and dramatic play

• identify, explore and solve problems

• develop reading, writing and numeracy skills.

We are looking forward to working with your children this year.

Kind regards,

Kiran and Jamie

FROM PRESCHOOL

We at preschool are excited and sad both at the time, as the majority of the pre-schoolers embark the new journey learning at primary school. We wish them good luck for their future learning journey. We celebrated the occasion with a 'Graduation party' on the 14^th of January. It was a fun-filled evening with tears and laughter. Our pre-schoolers stole the show with their brilliant performance that got everyone in a great mood followed by shared supper. Thankyou! Preschoolers, Parents and Educators for an amazing evening to wind up one entire year here at Little Darlings!

As we bid farewell we welcomed another batch to preschool with open hearts and arms. We are supporting children's transitions to preschool with regular visits to preschool and engaging in learning and play as per their interests. We as staff understand it is a big stride for the children from Senior kindy to Preschool but we hope and will try to make to their year full of exploration, learning and fun as we gear up and get ready for the big school. At preschool we have been lately engaged in construction, dance and music and art work. As the year proceeds, we look forward to writing our names, counting numbers, become more independent and responsible towards our belongings and get school ready.

from Charu, Jothi and Raisa