HomeHello Fabulous Families , Here is your May News!
May Dates to Know
| May 2nd, 10th, 15th, 22nd | Educator Coaching & Mentoring (In-Service) |
| Friday 5th May | Reconciliation Symposium for Julie Cooper (Blossoms Lead Educator) |
| Monday 8th May | Educator Wellbeing Professional Development (In-Service) |
| Friday 12th May | Mother's Day Afternoon Tea 2.00pm - 3.30pm |
| Wednesday 18th May | Parent Contribution to Centre Philosophy Review |
Mothers Day afternoon tea
For our Mother's Day afternoon tea all rooms are extending their invitation to include time between 2pm to 3.30 so that more mums and grandma's can come join us for a treat & spend time together on Friday the 12th of May. This is a special occasion for us to show you you are loved and appreciated for all that you do so please R.S.V.P by letting your child's room educators know, note it in the room communication book or email me for catering purposes. We are looking forward to sharing this celebration with you :)
Sharing a happy place
Piptree Early Learning is fast reaching 90% full. We are having many families visiting and interested in joining this happy place of understanding and engaged care. If you are considering increasing your child's days in the future then it would be a good idea to let me know as soon as possible and I will do my best to manage it for you.
Centre philosophy review
Our Centre philosophy is due for review. Our philosophy is what guides us every day, it is a statement of our beliefs and intentions to provide this service to you, new families and contribute to society and community. I have printed copies at the office for your perusal. I will collect your feedback and use for reflection during the revision process. Please contribute by Wednesday 18th May.
Hello from the Pip's (Nursery) room… How we have grown!
It's only April and we have welcomed 7new pips to our family tree. We would like to say a big "Welcome" to our new friends…
Toddler Sprouts
We would like to start off by welcoming our new friends Zara, Alby, Vincent and Daniella to the group!
Over last few weeks children have shown a lot of interests in using their gross motor skills experiencing in enhancing their leg muscles, climbing on to the small fort, balance beams and large foam shapes. Each day we have been extending their interests adding a variety of items to the area to practice our gross motor and balancing skills. The latest item we have added is the inflatable slide with a small ball pit to further practice our climbing skills as well as our eye/hand coordination to throw, roll and kick a ball.
During our morning group time on the mat, children have also been sharing with us their áll about me' information they have been bringing in from home. Educators have been extending their interests in group and individual learning experiences. Charlotte shared her weekend story us, spending time at the zoo and we talked about zoo animals while exploring our animal pictures and paintings.
In the room we are finding some of your child's belonging still not being named, so we just want to send a reminder to please name all of your child's belongings including lunches, socks, bed sheets, hats, spare clothes, shoes, drink bottles and bags to prevent them from getting lost. Thankyou.
Miss Lorelle and Miss Bwari.
Learning through play
In the next few months, the children will continue to learn about body parts, animals (domestic, wild and Aussie animals). They will also continue to learn shapes, colours, counting, and the alphabet and there will be lots of talking and interactions to increase our vocabulary. To support this, we will be involved in a variety of activities such as artwork, construction, books, puzzles...
And also, some popular activities in Buds room will be offered daily depending on children's interests to foster their learning. -Home corner has proved to be a favourite area with our dress-ups, kitchen and baby dolls.
-Playdough and shaving cream are also the popular activity in Buds, which gives the children very interesting sensory experiences. Children create lots of objects through touching and feeling during play.
Housekeeping
I would like to remind parents about the importance of naming all your belongings. If they are not named we are not sure to whom they belong, so things may get mislaid. In most cases the misplaced items aren't labelled which makes it really hard to find whom they belong to. We have a "Lost property" basket located on the top of the lockers. Please clearly label all clothing and other items to avoid losing them.
A warm welcome
A wonderful warm welcome to all our loving families. We hope that you all had a restful Easter break, and managed to have some quality time with family.
Focus
We have been concentrating on building reciprocal relationships to further develop trust and love between the children, familiar educators and peers. These relationships are critical in providing a stable base for achieving learning outcomes and developmental milestones.
The environment as educator
Please bear with us as we change the room set-up. We are endeavouring to provide an environment to invite the children to explore and engage to scaffold their understanding and learning, whilst following their own interests. Social skills such as sharing and collaborating are being enhanced whilst the children are developing dispositions for life-long learning. We aim to provide more natural, open-ended materials to guide the children as they gain respect for nature and each other. We would like to explore gardening, so if any families are avid gardeners – any cuttings/seedlings would be greatly appreciated.
Housekeeping
Some housekeeping: * if possible (time restraints understood), please label the children's chosen lockers at drop-off.
- The children's independence is being fostered by making and packing-away bedding, caring for shoes and hats, dressing for the weather – we expect there will be some misadventures – so please label all belongings.
- Please provide A4 folders and plastic sleeves for children's portfolios, if you have not already done so.
Mothers Day afternoon tea
Mother's Day afternoon tea has been planned. This is for mums, grans, aunts or ANY significant females in the child's life. If 2 - 3.30pm does not suit – please discuss with either Leanne/ myself to discuss alternatives.
Toilet training success!
The children attempting toilet training have exceeded all expectations – so congratulations to the children and families working with us to achieve these results.
It takes a village to raise a child
We welcome parent input into curriculum planning, desired objectives, behaviour modification techniques successfully used at home, family interests/ changes, interesting anecdotes and magical moments, dreams and hopes. Suggestions for change, and any concerns are also welcomed. We have such an amusing, amazing and talented group at the moment, so thank you for allowing us to share this time with your delightful children.
Poppies room plantings
Visiting Students
We have new visiting students, Sakshi, from New England College of Technology, studying her Certificate 3 in Children's Services and Shaun who is studying his Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care from TAFE (Logan Campus). We enjoy these ties to the early childhood sector and of passing on our knowledge onto the next generation of Educators. This leads to positive relationships with others and a developing sense of security and trust and an increasing respect for diversity (QKGL).
Making our own Musical Instruments
The children, through careful observations, developed an interest in making their own musical instruments. This started from children putting, lids, paper, buttons and other objects and holding them up to hear the sound effects it made. The children observed that softer sounds were made from the paper than buttons and lids. They used empty bottles, cardboard boxes sealed with masking tape and empty yoghurt containers to make these. This led to a further interest in music which engages creativity and imagination and a confidence and involvement in their own learning (QKGL).
Measuring and Comparisons using Everyday Objects
The children have developed an interest in Measuring and Comparing lengths, heights and width of their block structures, connectors, Lego and each other. This promotes the exploration and engagement with numeracy in personally meaningful ways and promotes an increasing independence and perseverance through play (QKGL). To further this interest, we added rulers, pencils, to use to see how long, how high, how wide or how tall each child was and we recorded this on graphs to help the children to visualise how each child's creation compared and this introduced the children to the concept of numbers meaning something.
Henny Penny Hatching Program
We once again had the great fortune to have Henny Penny Hatching Program visit us prior to Easter.Each day we would visit the hatchery and see if any chickens were hatched. We would hold and touch them in small groups. This prompted discussions on the life cycle of the chicken, what they needed to survive (fresh seed and water), heat lamp to keep them warm, and quiet voices so we didn't scare them. This demonstrates an increasing respect for environments and ways to promote their own & other's health and safety We made some paper plate chickens using glue and rolled up crepe paper to collage. We played a memory egg matching game in a large group. We can't wait to see t hem again next time!
The ELLA Program
Each of the seven applications (or apps) follow a basic learning context such as the beach, the circus, the park, a birthday party and the zoo and other social settings, introduce words and pronunciation, social customs, and culture of the chosen country. For the Poppies, that will be Mandarin Chinese.
This programme links to the Early Learning Years Framework (ELYF) of Identity, Connectedness, Well-being, Active Learning and Effective Communication. (ELYF) which closely mirror the learning goals of the Queensland Kindergarten Guidelines (QKGL). Each of the seven applications (or apps) are fully interactive and interchangeable at any time, following the individual child's progress.
I will also be attending the Transitions to School ("Strong Start, Strong Learner") on 24th May. This network meeting will focus on brain development, ecology of the child, investment in the early childhood sector, community and school data for planning, parent and wider community engagement strategies, and building better leadership skills in the early years prior to school.
Miss Belinda (Miss B) and I will be both attending an Alisha Hough's Programming with the ELYF (Early Learning Years Framework) on 29th of April and on the weekend of the 4th of June The Australian Childcare Alliance Conference.We will update you on our experiences as we attend these workshop/seminars in future newsletters.
