HomeHello May!
| 12th May 2017 |
Mother's Day Afternoon Tea |
| 19th May 2017 | Pre-Prep Eye Testing |
| 30th May 2017 | Library Visit |
| Time | 3.30pm - 4.30pm Friday 12th May 2017 |
| Location |
Robina First Early Learning Centre |
| Tickets | Click here to RSVP |
Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative (2014) Early Childhood Neurodevelopment
"A well-integrated sensory motor system supports play, self-confidence, self-care skills, academic learning and executive functioning"
Research tells us that "information from sensory experiences is critical for children's brain development. A well-integrated sensory motor system supports play, self-confidence, self-care skills, academic learning and executive functioning. " (Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative, 2014).
With this in mind, we have been focusing on strengthening the sensory motor system through sensory experiences such as water play, play dough, finger painting and sensory bins (our Easter sensory bins were a major hit!). At this age the children cannot wait to get their hands into anything squishy, sqweezy, gooey, crinkly and messy and we love it! These experiences provide hours of uninterrupted exploratory play that absolutely delight the children.
Another focus over the course of the month was self-help skills. At this age we encourage children to be able to identify their own drink bottle, feed themselves, pack away their own plate & cutlery after each meal and wipe their own face with a wet washer. So far the children have been superstars!!!
With the weather finally settling a little (thank goodness) the children have had more opportunities to explore our gardens and have been showing interest in the natural world, in particular birds, snails, lizards and frogs. Over the course of this month we will be extending on this interest with a focus on garden animals and insects.
We kindly ask that you please bring us a family photo for or family tree and don't forget to pack spare clothes and a pair of winter clothes as our sensory play can get very messy.
Please feel free to ask Miss Acacia or myself you have any questions or you would like us to implement anything into our program.
Miss Lauren ♥
We would like to welcome our new friends and their families into our room and say goodbye to our other friends that are moving up to Hollows.
Mabo also would like to welcome Miss Shay.
Mabo enjoyed learning about the farm.We explored all the things that happen on the farm eg: the animals and food and the sounds that the animals makes
Mabo has been exploring Healthy and Unhealthy Eating and what foods are sometimes and all the time foods.
Mabo will be focusing on and learning about ourselves and our identities including Body Awareness, self-help and independence and where we come from (cultures and families).
Now the weather is starting to get a little cooler in the afternoon could you please put warmer clothes in your bags.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for experiences we would love your input.
Miss Kylie, Miss WeiLyn and Miss Shay
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"The childhood years are considered the critical period for language development. This suggests that children need to hear, observe and engage in language interactions to be able to comprehend and use language effectively"
Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative (2014) Early Childhood Neurodevelopment
A big warm welcome to our SUPERSTAR educator Miss Shay. Miss Shay will join Miss Wei and I, 5 days a week in the Mabo room and we couldn't not be more thrilled for her to join our team.
We would also like to extend a big welcome to all of the children and their families who have recently joined us in our room. We are delighted to have you in our room and are eager to get to know you and your family.
According Rowe (2012), "young children (12-24 month olds) benefit from exposure to lots of words". So in Mabo we are looking at extending the children's vocabulary (more specifically nouns) and developing the children's ability to use short two-worded sentences. As with most children, the children in Mabo have a fascination with animals, so we have been using farm animals to assist us in strengthening vocabulary. See more on language development here.
The children have enthusiastically made attempts at the words 'horse', 'sheep', 'cow', 'chicken', 'pig' and 'duck'. If you would like to extend on these at home, The Hanen Centre has an excellent article by Lauren Lowry titled 'Build your child's vocabulary'
This month we will be focusing on building vocabulary around 'body awareness', 'the body' and on 'identifying body parts'. .
Now that he weather is cooling down, we kindly ask that you provide warmer clothing options as spare clothes in your children bags.
If you have any ideas, feedback or suggestions regarding our programs please do not hesitate to contact the friendly staff in our room.
Miss Kylie ♥
Welcome to our Hollows family.
The children in Hollows were very busy last month with preparations for Easter. A major focal point for art and craft activities last moth was creating Easter hats (for our Easter parade). Children chose between Bunnies and Chickens. We also made Sun catchers; these are in the shape of an Easter egg and were made by the children collaging tissue paper on contact film which we have hung them up on the back windows for you to see.
When talking about Easter with the children we are able to experience an environment where connecting links with the family and wider world are affirmed and extended.
Children also had opportunities to experience some skipping with ropes, this is a great activity to encourage and promote children's health, and for them to gain confidence and control of their bodies.
After having a conversation with one of our beautiful Japanese families we found out that it is Cherry Blossom season in Japan. Linking family with home we extended on this to create some wonderful cherry blossom collage/stamping pictures. (Presented in room). Other interests the children have had are building and construction with small wooden blocks; however the biggest interest has been cutting this month. The children have loved using the scissors, and there have been lots of extensions to support this interest.
On a final note we would like to remind all families to contribute to our family wall, it would be wonderful to have a picture for your child to be able to feel a sense of belonging with the centre.
Now the weather is starting to get a little cooler in the afternoon could you please put warmer clothes in your bags.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for experiences we would love your input.
Miss Adriana♥
Firstly we would like to welcome our new friends and their families into Pre-prep Chang and welcome our friends that have moved up from Hollows Room.
We have an exciting month ahead of us and have set the ball rolling for term 2!
Miss Pishaya is back and settled after her trip to visit her family in Thailand, and Miss Jaime has arrived back in Chang after completing her final prac for her Bachelor of Early Childhood! (Yay! Congratulations Miss Jaime!)
Over the past month, We have been focusing on tasks such as focusing on 'learning time' spent on the world mat, learning our weekly phonological sounds (Jolly Phonics) and 'brainstorming' things beginning with our letter of the week sound.
We have been painting, drawing and creating art and crafts to tie in with our 'letter of the week' and using our good friend Gus (our smart board) to play interactive early maths and early literacy based games.
We would like to take this opportunity to remind parents/caregivers to ensure that you name your child's belongings, this includes drink bottles and sheets, this will make it easier for us to get them back- should they go missing.
Please continue to encourage your child to find and place their names on the "Our names wall" and place their name on their personal lockers at the beginning of each day and take their belongings (bags and drink bottles) home at the end of each day.
Please do not hesitate to come and speak we us if you have any concerns.
Thank you
Miss Jaime & Miss Pishaya ♥
What a fantastic month we have had in Monash!
We have introduced new friends into the room from Hollows and also from outside the Centre. Welcome to our new children and their families.
During the past month we had a wonderful Easter Hat Parade. We practised the Little Peter Rabbit song every day for about two weeks!!! Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came to see the awesome event!! We hope you all had a brilliant Easter break.
Our focus this past month has been on our numbers one to ten in English and we will be slowly introducing new languages of Chinese and French with the help of our lovely Chinese teacher Miss Kerry and French with the aid of our new tablets through the ELLA (Early Learning Languages Australia) Program . Our Jolly Phonics program is still going strong with our 'brainstorms' most morning where the children are becoming more interested in their learning of the sounds and letter names. . They are starting to understand the connection between letters sounds and letters forming words for meaning.
You may have noticed that our nametags have evolved from our eggs on to the tadpoles. The same process applies, the CHILDREN collect their names from the pond on the wall and place it into their lockers and then when they go home they are to place it back into the pond. This helps the children to read their name and have some independence.
As you may have noticed, in the afternoons we have been doing some different units. Over the past months we have studied - Understanding our bodies – Land Pollution and Safety – we have just finished Healthy Eating and Energy. We are so proud of the children whom follow on with these units and discuss them with their families outside the classroom and then bring their new information back to us.
Over the new few months we will be looking into Soil Health- composting- Exercise and physical activity – Water Pollution and Hygiene. These units sound very interesting.
Now as you would have felt that the weather has begun to cool, some children have been asking to have slightly warmer clothing on, however as they tend to run about they become to get hot and take their warm clothes off. Please can parents check that they have both warm and cool clothing in their bags as we do have limited spare clothing.
Our specialized sports days are as follows:
Tuesday – Yoga with Miss Amy
Wednesday – Dance with Miss Yvette
Thursday – Tennis with Mr Matt
Friday – Soccer with Mr Luke
Please feel free to chat with either of us regarding your child and their progress.
King regards
Miss Tracey♥
