Dear Parents and Guardians,

Wunya and Welcome to our Newsletter for March 2020.

With March and all the worries of the COVID-19 virus there has been so much happening and I'm sure lots of uncertainty within ourselves, families and the wider community.

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you that at this point in time, and until otherwise informed, we are continuing to operate as usual. We have been monitoring the coronavirus disease (COVID – 19) and will continue to encourage good hygiene practices within our service as well as adding some additional procedures during this time.

Our service numbers have dropped slightly and we are monitoring this weekly to see where we can allow for educators to take leave, combine classes (where appropriate) and roster accordingly to our numbers and families requirements.

Health and Hygiene

  • Use alcohol-based hand sanitiser if soap is unavailable
  • Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of your elbow
  • Dispose of tissues in the bin immediately
  • Stay at home if you are unwell and avoid contact with others through touching, kissing or hugging

Cleaning of our service

We will continue to ensure cleaning requirements are documented and completed regularly, we have also recently implemented rosters around - end of shift, individual room, monthly and daily full cleans of areas such as bathrooms (twice daily), playgrounds, classrooms (twice daily) and staff and kitchen areas.

Antibacterial hand sanitiser's have been stocked at each hygiene station and we will be purchasing additional supplies in the coming weeks to ensure we keep stocked.

I have also removed our centre water station within our reception area during this time.

On arrival

We ask that on arrival each day that you wash and dry your own and your children's hands.Additional hand sanitiser has been made available in reception as well as on the 5 hygiene stations located throughout the veranda areas.

Our downstairs bathroom is also available for hand washing with soap and water.

*Our extra circular activities such as Tennis, Soccer, Kenitic Kids and Martial Arts have all been cancelled until further notice*

If you are having difficulties with attending care or are concerned in any way please don't hesistate to send me and e-mail or phone me and I can support with the options that are available during this difficult time.

Looking forward to getting through this next step in our journey and getting back on track in the weeks/months to come.

Take care.

Kind Regards,

Hayley Le – Centre Director Kidz Magic Capestone

2 April - World Autism Awareness Day 2020

The day to raise public awareness of autism.

9 April - Good Friday

The Friday before Easter, the day on which Christians annually observe the commemoration of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

11-12 April - Easter & Easter Monday

Easter, also called Pascha (Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

21 April - World Creativity Day and Innovation

A global UN day celebrat to raise awareness around the importance of creativity and innovation.

22 April - Earth Day 

The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action. Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

25 April - Anzac Day 

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served"

29 April - World Dance Day

This day we promote art and culture, to raise awareness among public regarding the art of dance.

2 April                     : Laura Chapman

9 to 19 April              : Charmaine Weston

10 to 19 April             : Maria Purnamadjaja

Banana and Chia Muffins

INGREDIENTS
1 cup old fashioned oats
3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp chia seeds

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray a 12-cup muffin pan and set aside.
Place oats in a blender or food processor, and process until a fine flour forms.
In a large mixing bowl, combine mashed bananas, egg, vanilla and brown sugar.
Add the oat flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon, and stir to combine.
Add the chia seeds and stir until evenly incorporated.
Scoop batter evenly into 12 muffin cups.
Bake 14 minutes, or until edges are just browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. 

Hello Families,

Our sustainability column this month focused on watering our garden using recycle plastic bottles. Miss Mariela made our sprinkle bottles to water the plants in our garden. The sprinkle bottles helped us measured that we have enough water and did not over watering our plants to support the wise water usage program. This could be also a fun activity when the children help their families to water the plants at home.

Hi Families and children,

My names Tracy and I am one of the newest members of the Kidz Magic Capestone team. I am the Lead Educator in the Toddlers room. I have been here since mid Jan 2020 and loving it. All the families are so friendly and nice.

A bit about me. Im originally from Tasmania. I moved to QLD nearly 12years ago, and have never looked back. Ive worked in Child Care for around 15yrs and have had my diploma for over 10years. I have worked across all age groups from Nursery to Outside School Hours Care. For the past 4years I have actually been a Special Needs Teacher Aide but was ready to come back to centre based care.

At home I have my partner Neil and my 9yr old son, Landen. I also have a 13yr old step son Nate who lives in Tasmania. We also have 1 cat (Simba), 1 budgie (Kylo) and a Childrens Python (Slinky).

In my spare time I like spending time with my family, reading, going to the movies and swimming.

Looking forward to getting to know more of our Kidz Magic familyJ

Tracy 

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Another excited time to shares what is been happening with our little ones progress with their each milestones developments. They are all has been very productive and active with their own interest between indoor and outdoor play.

Congratulations for Clare who is in her transition period to Nursery 2 room with Ms Liz and Ms Sandra.

These are our little friends achievements and interests for March 2020:

- Kodi is showing so much improvement from last month. He is now showing his interests more towards his environments between indoor and outdoor play. He is starting his finger food from the Centre as well.

- Koda is getting much better with his sitting position and now gradually using his both kneescrawling forwards for few steps now. Sometimes from belly time he is be able to manage his positions to sitting down very well.

- Penelope isalways shares her happy smiles every time her educators calling her name and interact with her between indoor and outdoor play. She is interested to explored her walking step through any obstacle that she is found comfortable for her to do. She is in her exploring mode between indoor and outdoor play at the moment.

- Aza is always shares his happy smiles as well. He is always willing to explored his interests at assorted area. He is happy to pratising his walking skills through pushing the walker at the moment.

- David is sitting on the mat with a full confidence now and he is happy to create his own art and craft as well. He is enjoying his musical play and starting to use more of his baby language to other peers or his educators.

- Clare is having so much fun with her exploring. Since she is transition in Nursery 2 she is having so much fun with her play and her activity. She is getting to know her new educator and other peers very well too.

- Valishka is showing so much happier and be able to show her play interests with other peers and her educators at the same time. She is taking her bottle very well and starting to shares her happy smiles when her photo is taking too.

- Zara is always enjoying her activity between indoor and outdoor play. She is maintaining her relationship with her other peers and her educators as well. She is be able to sit on the mat with full confidence as well. She is be able to manage herself to catching a ball by crawling and back on her sitting positions again. As well happy to shares her happy moments with others.

- Kayden is getting more stable with his belly time where he is confidence enough to lift up his head and move side to side movement as well. He is find mirror set one of his favourite activity at the moment. He is be able to manipulate his both feet to grab any resources around him as well.

- Geo is showing so much confidence with his new skills. From sitting on the mat and starting to rolling over on his side little bit. He is love his solid food as well.

We are so proud with all our little friends who has been achieves so much this month.

We are still encourage offer water drink during the day and offer finger food as well.

Please naming each child belongings and bring spare clothes as well.

Thank you,

Ms Yefi, Ms Inday and Miss Prema

Hi from Nursery 2

This month we welcomed Keira to our room and said goodbye to Morgan and Matilda.At the moment we have Hudson C, Matias and Anika having playdates in Toddlers as they begin a new journey.We have welcomed Clare from Nursery 1, she has been very excited to join us recently for transition.

We have focused on lots of the creative arts this month.We explored nature with a Leaf painting, using a bunch of leaves as a painting tool.Delving further into what we could use as a paint brush we then tried toothbrushes, this proved to be a bit of a challenge as the children weren't sure whether it was for cleaning their teeth or painting.Our centre event was Holi-Day where we used lots and lots of bright colours for our art, this represented the changing of the seasons. We all got in the spirit by painting our faces with pretty colours.

Unfortunately we couldn't have our Multicultural show due to the present situation but I'm sure we will have it at a later date.

At the moment we are preparing for some fun Easter activities to try and bring some laughter back into our lives and move on as normal as possible.The children are really enjoying their songs and rhymes and dancing.We incorporate the bubbles and dancing ribbons as props as we dance.

As the weather slowly becomes cooler, now might be a good time to check our bags to ensure we have some spare clothes and a light jumper just in case.

Stay safe and rest assured we are constantly washing the childrens' hands and looking after their hygiene.

Until next time!!

Miss Liz, Miss Sandra and Miss Prema

What a month March has been in the Toddlers room.

We have just said a sad goodbye to Amelia, Chayce and Sahas as they moved up to Senior Toddlers. Nikolas will soon be joining them as well. But on a happy note we have just welcomed Matilda and Morgan from the Nursery, and have Matias, Anika and Hudson transitioning up to us now. Exciting times ahead for our transitioning children.

We have been continuing our focus with early introduction to colours, numbers and letters, especially during our morning group times. We have also been using our group times to introduce the Toddlers to our 'Acknowledgement to Country'.

We have also introduced some cooking in the last couple of weeks. We have made Banana bread, frozen banana yoghurt pops, smoothies, apple and celery with cream cheese and fruit platter. These sorts of experiences promote healthy eating, self help skills, fine motor skills and early maths skills. We found with the fruit platter experience where I cut up fruit in front of the children, they were a lot more inclined and interested in eating or trying the fruit, even lemon (that resulted in some funny faces being pulled). The different smoothies we made, provided children with the opportunity to practice drinking from an open cup, and we all did pretty well with it as well.

We are also focussing on learning our own names as well as our peers names at the moment. This promotes self identity. We do this in lots of ways including our favorite transition song 'Bee Bee Bumble Bee'.

Please remember to bring named sheets and drink bottles everyday. Having all items named (including bottles, lids and formula containers) ensures they can be returned to the correct owner, with up to 16 children a day in the Toddlers its very easy for un-named things to get misplaced.

Thanks

Miss Tracy, Miss Luna, Miss Tomomi, Miss Claudia, Miss Salma and Miss Tash 

 Hi Senior Toddler one families

Welcome to all our new families that have joined us over the last month we hope that you are enjoying being a part of our Kidz Magic family, we are enjoying having you all here and look forward too many more months with you here.

Over the last few weeks, we have all faced some uncertain times and during this Coronavirus situation everything can seem very overwhelming. If you need anyone to talk to myself and the girls are available at any time. We will continue to ensure that your child is cared for and given access to high quality care. We will still be providing play-based programs that cater to each child's individual needs.

We are focusing on our handwashing and hygiene over the next few months and we have a few handwashing songs that we are beginning to learn. In light of what is going on in the world I feel it is important to encourage children to learn the importance of correctly washing their hands.

Over the next few months, we will be focusing further on our self-help skills and independence. Toilet training can be a tricky time and we are here to help and support in any way we can. If you are ready to begin this journey at home and would like us to continue this when your child is here please come and see one of the team. We encourage parents to bring lots of changes of clothes and a wet bag if possible as this negates the need for the use of plastic bags for any soiled clothing. I have attached some links below that are helpful in deciding if your child is ready to toilet train.

https://www.babycenter.com.au/a4384/toilet-training-is-my-child-ready

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/toilet-training

https://www.startingblocks.gov.au/at-home/toilet-training-your-child/

Over the next few months, we will also be looking at our environment and exploring our surroundings more. We will have a new garden to explore that I will be bringing in in the coming weeks and we will be planting lots of seeds. Exploring and interacting with the environment is important in early childhood and allows for a child to feel like they belong in the world.

I thank you all for your support during this scary time and together we will reach the other side.

Again myself(Charmaine), Laura, Tabi and Mariela are here if you have an questions or concerns 

 April already,

Almost time to see the easter bunny.

I can't believe how fast the year is going.
This month we started toilet training for those children ready, our little friends are doing absolutely amazing.

Popular activities within the ST2 room include trucks, wooden building blocks, the sensory table with a range of sensory items, plastic animals, logs and leaves, puzzles, painting and drawing.

During group time we revise on our shapes, alphabet, body part recognition, colours and counting 1 to 15.

With current events in the world, the past few weeks we have focused on personal hygiene.

This includes coughing into our elbow, blowing our noses, washing our hands after we disguard the dirty tissue and singing a whole wash our hands song whilst washing our hands with soap. We stop washing once the song is finished.

As things slow down and many of us start to self isolate, I would like to express to all families my best wishes.

You are all in my thoughts and I hope we get to see you all once things start to find normality.

Much love,

Miss Mel, Miss Irena, Miss Olivia, Miss Mariela and Miss Raman xxx

Senses were a big topic this month with lots of activities to do with touch and sight being created to engage the children in. We made sensory bottles with different media, made art with nature (in particular pinecones and nature crowns), created a rainbow snake wall hanging with our feet and some gooey paint and participated in Holi celebrations.

We engaged in some great provocations of environments on the tuff tray like insects in the grass, ocean creature in the water, dinosaurs, and surf n turf creatures. These activities are enhanced with natural objects like rocks, stones, leaves and fabrics to give the provocations life and enable the children to change the environments as they like.

We have continued with letter recognition and numbers but one constant along with this is the story of Warnayarra the Rainbow Snake. The children request this book daily and we have engaged them in many artworks associated with this story.

Another story we are loving is Stick Man. The children show a lot of empathy and the look of concern on their faces is so touching when Stick Man becomes lost and can't get back to his family.

As the month went on we are of course facing the COVID-19 pandemic. We have kept our rhythm of the day the same and flowing from time to time as the day takes us, but have been putting extra emphasis on handwashing and behaviours around coughing and sneezing. The children have been modelling coughing and sneezing into the elbows and we have been singing Twinkle Twinkle as we wash our hands, making bubbles with soap, ensuring we wash every part of our hands before rinsing and drying.

Thank you,

Miss Amy, Miss Chrystal, Miss Manita and Miss Dani. 

Wunya Pre-kindergarten Two Families,

It is almost three month we've been together and our busy days will be continue toward the upcoming months.

In March we welcomed Dani and Cohen into our room. Welcome to our family, Dani and Cohen!

Our progress in name spelling is magnificent! Some children be able to spell their name without help and the rest put extra effort to spell their name correctly.

We rearranged our furniture to create a new book corner and provide extra space for our new additional resources such as our marine exploration space and some other resources to enhance the children's fine motor skills, explore a new experience and engage the children who are not sleeping during rest time in our quiet activities

The new addition of resources for our busy table are rubber board, loose parts thread beads, puzzle related with the children interest such as doctor , restaurant and builder equipment, and the fishing wooden pieces.

We celebrated Holi Festival this month, the Indian colour festival. The children did a dress up, we gave a taste the potato pokora, the Indian snack, we danced and threw some colour powder to others as part of the celebration too.

Our learning wall and days recognition also goes well and smooth. The improvement in some children about shape, alphabet, counting and colour are visible. Keep the hard work, everyone!

Our mindfulness session is one of the session that the children wait for. During this session, we do our yoga movement, we repeat our mantra about positivity toward ourselves and sometimes a short discussion about what the children do during weekend.

To ensure our room in the highest level of hygiene, we do cleaning more often than before. We sanitise all the tables and chairs before and after we have our morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. We also sanitise the toy that contacted with mouth immediately to minimise the germs spreading. Since last week we frequently engage the children in discussion about the importance of hand washing and cover their our mouth when we cough and sneeze. Although we did our hand washing practice for couple times, our inroom educators still closely supervise all children when they do the hand washing as proof that we implement the hygiene practice seriously.

I would appreciate any feedback from the family on my monthly post.

xx Miss Sarah, Miss Maria, Miss Alida, Miss Dani and Miss Ailish 

 What a lovely month it has been, the kindergarten have learning two new letters over the last few weeks.

Revised T and I - Ice, ink, India and Italy. Every third week we revise the previous two letters. The children had an amazing experience cooking spaghetti bot. Thank you to the families who donated food towards this cooking experience. The class each had their own group where they were either grating carrots, cutting up onion, cooking pasta or cooking the mince. They did such an amazing job and discussed how to keep ourselves safe and healthy before we started. They communicated that we needed to wash hands, stay away from hot and sharp objects.

P - The children have been brainstorming words that start with this letter - pink, Paige, Paisley, purple, pig, pirate, pen and painting. We use these words in our daily program with activities to further their knowledge about phonics. The children investigated through mixing colours, how to create pink and purple paint through using other colours. We found that red and blue make purple and red and white make pink.

N - The children brainstormed words - Nets, nose, numbers, names and newspaper. The children had water play outside using the Nets to find the letter N letters amongst other letters. We extended their knowledge with numbers through counting objects, counting fingers and through songs. The children enjoyed standing up in front of their class and counted to 20 then jumped on our number mats 1-10 as a transition to meal times. We set up a number writing table and also a name writing table to extend on their recognition and understanding between the difference - numbers and letters.

Special events in Kindy

  • Harmony Day 20th March the Kindergarten discussed diversity, watched videos and songs to support this topic. We sung our new song "the more we get together the happier we'll be" the children decorate their own hand print for our display. We shared who are friends are and why we like them.
  • Holi Day 9th and 10th March we discussed about this festival through watching videos and songs. The children brought in a plain white shirt to decorate with the tie dye to celebrate this colour festivities. We also joined in the centre with the colour chalk where you throw or wipe on everyone's shirts.
  • Clean up Australia Day where we discussed the importance about caring for the planet by putting rubbish in the bin. We had an activity where the teachers placed rubbish around the play ground and the children had to hunt for it and then place the rubbish in the correct bin - recycle or waste.
  • Train trip visit 4th March, the children had the opportunity to go on adventure to the train station. We discussed our safety rules to the class prior and observed the neighbourhood on our way. The children saw - cars, trees, bikes, people, ticket machine, lift, stairs, yellow line and trains.

Over the holidays the children have no letters but more of a project based on their interests. Next term after the Easter holidays the children will have new letters C, K, E, H, R, M and D.

Thank you for a lovely month,

From Miss Cathy, Miss Tahlia and Miss Ailish.