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April News

April-Newsletter

News from the Office

Hello and welcome everyone. First -a big warm thank you to all of our families who have been so very supportive and understanding in these very trying times. Your kind words and offers of assistance in any way whatsoever have been greatly appreciated. The staff have received many compliments, treats and words of encouragement throughout what is shaping up to be a very different kind of life and education style. We have had to adjust our movements and practices within the centre and the community and it is trying times for everyone. 

The staff at Cannon Hill Early Learning centre want all of our families to know that we are here for you throughout this pandemic. We will continue to support you and care for and educate your children. 

A big shout out to everyone who has been so very diligent with sanitising procedures upon entering and exiting the centre and also for keeping unwell children at home to minimise cross-infection. You have all been phenomenal at this. Please continue to do so. What we have been seeing in the centre is a lot less cases of unwell children and staff due to this. Thank you.

As social distancing with children is extremely difficult we have had to look at differing approaches for this and one of these is running our curriculum outdoors. We are currently doing this on a regular basis and the beautiful Autumn weather is being so helpful. The sun is shining and the fresh air is invigorating for the children. We have seen lots of gardening and investigating, role play and social development on the fort and cubby areas, dancing and movement at the stage, climbing and gross motor skills on the obstacle course and sensory development with sand and water play. our children have been getting physical with Yoga and dance and playing circle games in the yard. Throughout this pandemic, we are all still growing and developing different skills. If we could possibly make a suggestion to parents regarding rubber shoes or sandals? The children enjoy climbing a lot and this requires bare feet or shoes with grip. We have found that lovely little girls sandals and croc type shoes slip easily on the equipment which can be a little dangerous. We will encourage children to remove their shoes when on climbing equipment. Sandshoes are always a really good option if the weather is cold. 

Just a couple of friendly reminders to all families.

1. During this pandemic, we are trying to limit the number of people coming through the centre to the best of our ability. this includes on drop off and collection of children so we request that only one person( two if you are requiring assistance) come through the centre rather than entire families. 

2. If your child is staying at the centre after 5pm can you please send in a small non-refrigerated snack for them. We normally have late afternoon tea just after 5 pm. 

3. Sheets: We require parents to send in sheets for rest time. While we are aware that some of the older children do not sleep, we are still requiring sheets for health reasons during the rest period. 

4. Respect: We understand that these are trying and stressful times however our staff are working very hard(as always) to ensure that our centre is running productively, educationally and safely. Please remember that even though you may have had a bad day, staff are not to be spoken to disrespectfully. We are all trying our best throughout these crazy times. 


Upcoming Events:

4th May-Labour Day Public holiday-Our centre will be closed

5th-8th May- Mothers Day Stall. If you would like your child to purchase a gift for Mum then please send them in with some money in a zip lock bag or envelope(clearly named). There will be register lists in each room on top of the lockers. Can you please hand your money to a staff member and then complete the register in your child's room so the staff know who has handed it in. 

Mothers Day Raffle- drawn 8th May. Tickets are out in pockets now


Nursery News! 

 It has been a busy time in the nursery room. we have welcomed our new friend Fleur to play with and share our smiles and wished Alice and Levi a very Happy Birthday

Recently we have seen a lot of our nursery friends becoming mobile which is super exciting. This means lots of pulling themselves up on furniture and standing, crawling and rolling. It is so exciting to see the children move through this transition and develop their physical strength and body control as they build their confidence in their newly developed skills.

Our older children have also begun to role play in simple form so we have set up a small home corner including a few furniture items and telephones, cameras. dolls and other household items.

We are continuing with our rhymes and songs and will be introducing short group times to the children.

We have enjoyed many celebrations over the past couple of months including St Patricks Day, Holi, Easter and we even attempted to make ANZAC day poppies. 

We hope everyone stays safe and healthy. If you have any questions please feel free to see either Bithi or Jonabeth


Until next time,

Miss Bithi and Miss Jonabeth


Toddler Tales! 

 Hi Parents,

We cant believe we have been together in the room for 4 months now. Wow! The year is flying by. We would like to wish a big Happy Birthday to Maxime, Pia and Isabelle who have all turned 2 this month.

We have all been working hard on learning new skills. Over the last couple of weeks we have been exploring colours through a number of exciting activities and we will be looking into understanding the basic colours a little more over the coming weeks. 

Dancing in the mornings from outdoors to indoors has been our absolute favourite transition. The children have many favourite songs that they ask for in these sessions such as "Baby Shark", "wheels on the Bus", "Johnny Johnny". "Twinkle Twinkle", "Paw Patrol" and many more. Please feel free to ask Miss Kat for a list of songs if you want to download them at home for the children. We are also looking to extend our Toddler playlist and that's where our parents come in. There will be a list on the lockers for parents to add their children's favourite songs. Then we will download them and add them to our class list.

You may have noticed Miss Deep has been away for a while. During this time Miss Pinky has been helping us out in the room and will continue to do so.

Just a few Reminders

Please ensure you are labelling all of your childs belongings

Please place any afternoon snacks for your child in the container provided in the kitchen. All parents need to be sending is brekfast(if before 7.30am) and a small snack for late afternoon tea if your child is here after 5pm. All other meals are provided by the centre. Please do not leave food in the children's bags. We have children with food allergies and we would not want them grabbing something out of a school bag that could be harmful to them. 

Stay safe

Miss Kat and Miss Pinky




 Junior Kindy Jam!

 Hello Junior Kindy Families,

What a crazy year it has been so far!

In the past month, we have been emphasizing the importance of hygiene and handwashing with the children and educating them about germs. We have also been incorporating most of our experiences in the outdoor environment, having lots of joint activities with other classes and sunshine morning teas.

There has been a big focus on physical development and gross motor skills. The children have been involved in group ball games, dancing, and obstacle courses, sand and water play. All of these focus on physical skills from manipulative and sensory to large muscle development.

Outdoors has also allowed us to tend to our garden more regularly. We have been watering our plants, tending to them, and weeding. we are hoping our vegetables start to grow very soon.

We have begun to focus on independence within the room. This involves encouraging the children to clean up after themselves, attempt to dress themselves after toileting, and have a go at making their own beds for rest time. In order to assist the children in being successful in making their beds we have noted that fitted sheets about cot size assist them more than large flat sheets do as they can hook them over the corner. If parents could possibly look at sending in a fitted cot sheet for your children this would help them out a lot? 

Please feel free to approach us if you need any assistance

Until next time

Miss Sarah and Miss Pam


Senior Kindy Stories! 

 Hi everyone

I hope you all had an amazing and safe Easter break.

Our senior kindy children had an absolute blast in the week leading up to Easter. We did lots of Easter art, egg and spoon races and had a huge Easter egg hunt. This helped raise the excitement for the children in waiting for the Easter Bunny to visit their homes on Easter Sunday.

I have really been enjoying getting to know all of the children in the senior kindy room and finding out all of their interests. Our programme has been primarily based on the childrens interests and our special events. The children have ben having so much fun lading our curriculum and suggesting experiences.

We have been very particular in looking after our personal hygeine. The senior kindy children are so good at following all of our very important hand washing steps and are great role models for the younger children in the centre. the children are also very aware of coughing and sneezing into our elbows rather than our hands to prevent the spread of germs. 

we have been creating a room shop, following on from the childrens interests. This has been a very popular area and has seen the children all role playing while practicing, communication, social skills, cooperation and interpreting the adult world.

If you have any questions about the room or input into our curriculum please feel free to come and talk to me.

thankyou

Miss Gabby



PreSchool Pulse! 

 Gurumba Biggi from the Preschool room

What a busy couple of months we have had in our room. There have been a lot of changes going on but that has not stopped our pre-schoolers from learning new and exciting things in the room. The children are learning to work collaboratively with their peers and are using their receptive and expressive language to exchange ideas and listening to suggestions from their peers.

During group time we have been focussing on recognising the letters H, I , J, K and L. Through the recognition of the letters the children are also learning to recognise the sound these letters make. This is a skill that all children learn at their own rate and when it is developmentally appropriate for them. During group time we are also learning to recognise our names and see that everyone's name is different. Being able to recognise their own name from everyone else has many cognitive benefits which include the ideals that recognising one's name helps children feel important, recognising others' names builds community, name recognition builds concepts of print and begins the process of sight-reading, and knowing you name helps to support beginning maths concepts due to shapes.

When the children have been playing in the room, they are using various methodologies to explore new maths concept either by themselves or in small groups. Some of the children have been categorising and sorting various things from around the room. They are recognising similarities and differences in objects.

The children explored colours and how they can mix to make new ones. The children explored how to make these new colours by a series of experiments.

Over the past few weeks, the children have been exploring dental and oral hygiene through various activities in the room. This included the well-timed exploration of germs and how they are spread in the community. The children enjoyed discovering how germs can spread and how we can stop them from spreading. We explored this through several experiments. Miss Odette used paint and gloves to show the children how to make sure all the areas of their hands were washed properly (her hands were red showing were all the paint/soap had touched).

Through the exploration of germs the children began to use the new microscopes in the room. They were fascinated by how the micro-world looks. 😊.We have recently purchased real microscopes for in the room and several sturdier ones to use outdoors.

This week we explored ANZAC Day and how it is particularly important to the Australian community. We discussed how this year people will commemorate ANZAC day differently due to COVID-19. We have been exploring the day through various age-appropriate books and some videos. To make the concept more real and relatable, Miss Odette also brought in some medals that belonged to her Pop. She also showed them pictures of him from his time in the Army during WW2. During this time the children showed their eagerness to learn and to understand through the various questions they asked. We finished off the exploration of ANZAC day by making some ANZAC biscuits.

During the past few weeks, the room has begun to implement a quiet period of meditation prior to lunch to encourage the children to relax and regroup mentally. The children are really enjoying this way to relax.

The children have also been eagerly working in our lovely garden. This has led to the children discussing their likes and dislikes when it comes to food. We planted some peas, spinach and celery just prior to Easter but when we got back some of the plants had died and disappeared. This led to the children discussing what happened to the plants. Some children said they got hot, others felt that the birds had taken them, and others said they think the insects ate them. We are now waiting for the seedlings in the greenhouse, beside the preschool room, to mature before we plant them and replace the ones that disappeared.

If anyone has any questions as to their child's development please do not hesitate to see me or send a letter through Kelly so that I can answer your questions.

Until next letter

Miss Odette and Miss Ai


 

Recipe of the month 

Oatmeal Slice

Ingredients:

1 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup rolled oats

125g butter, chopped

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 egg lightly beaten


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a 16cm x 25cm baking panand line with baking paper.

2. Sift flour into large bowl. Add sugar and rolled oats.

3. Stir the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan over low heat until melted. Add to dry ingredients with the egg and stir to combine.(For egg free replace the egg with a tablespoon of oil).

4. Spoon into pan and bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool and then cut to serve.



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