Hi Parents, and welcome to another month of our Newsletter!
Welcome also to the new families that we have had join us this past month! Here at Piptree Mount Gravatt East, we truly believe it is the little things that matter, so I'd like to kindly remind you to take advantage of our '2 weeks' free childcare if you have recently joined our Piptree family.
For our current families, don't forget that you too also have the chance to receive '2 weeks' free childcare by recommending us to a friend or family member. There are a couple of terms & conditions, such as ensuring your account is up to date, and that new families have been here for a min of 6 weeks, however I would be happy to discuss these with you.
As you would all know by now, we recently had CCTV cameras and access control door system installed. We are happy that these are now all fully installed and up and running.
Our state of the art 16 camera system, covers all areas from the car park downstairs, throughout all our rooms, and even out in the playgrounds.
The code access door system, is also up and running. All families should have received an email with their unique family code by now. If you have checked your emails/junk folder and still have not received this, please come and see me to ensure the email address we have on file for you is correct and so that I can issue you your code.
These steps were taken to ensure the safety and well being of our children, families and staff. It ensures that we have the most secure environments and that only authorised people are able to enter our centre.
All these measures give us the ability to ensure that Piptree Mount Gravatt East, is in fact a safe place to blossom
However, it is important to understand that these new precautions, do not take over for our kiosk. The sign in and out kiosk still remains a legal requirement, and I ask all parents to please ensure you are signing in your child upon drop off and remembering to also sign them out when picking up.
If you are not comfortable with using this, please do not hesitate to let me know and I would be more than happy to help!
You will notice that some of the room environments have been changed.
In the early childhood pedagogy, we believe that the environment is the third educator. The environment enhances your child's learning, which is why we are excited to announce that we will soon be having new wall mounted learning tools added to the rooms. We are very excited to see how the children become involved with these!
The children continue to show interest in the new learning tools in the rooms, as they develop skills to use these and share their knowledge with their peers and teachers. It is wonderful to see when one child is unsure how to use a new resource, another child comes and assists the first child in using it and together they show a growth and enjoyment together.
Last week we sadly said goodbye to two of our beloved educators. Miss Bwari & Miss Raisa finished up ready for their new chapter. This week we get ready to say goodbye to our wonderful nursery lead educator - Miss Lorelle.
Miss Lorelle's last day will be this Thursday 29th March. Ms Taylah has been invited to join our Piptree family, taking over as Lead Educator of the nursery room. Miss Taylah will start on Wednesday 28th March, to work together with both Miss Lorelle & Miss Julie ensuring a smooth transition for both our parents and children, and will officially be taking over on the 3rd of April.
As of Tuesday the 3rd of April, we will be supplying sunscreen here at Piptree MTG!
If your child is allergic or if you would prefer for them to have a specific brand please bring a labelled bottle in with you and give it to your child's educators as this needs to be stored in a locked cupboard out of reach.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to come and see me.
As we get ready to say goodbye to our cute little chickens from the Henny Penny program, we have joined forces with one of our beautiful parents that works at the local 'City Pets' to ensure the chickens get the best possible start. Thanks to this, we now have 'Chickens & Ducklings Care Sheet' in the foyer on our information bench. Please feel free to take one if you are considering taking home a baby chick on Thursday 29th March.
For the month of March, we took part in St Patrick's Day, Harmony Day celebrations, The Henny Penny Hatching program and finally Dr Joe's Science show.
For the month of April -
4th - 15th - Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
22nd - Earth Day
25th - Anzac Day
Happy Easter to all of our Piptree families, enjoy your long weekend and stay safe!
Pips
Welcome to another exciting and fun time with the pips!
Firstly, we would like to welcome our new friends to the group that have recently just joined us, we hope you enjoy your time with us.
We have been so busy learning new skills daily while playing. We have taken a lot of interests in outdoor play lately, so we have been giving the children the opportunity to initiate indoor and outdoor play throughout the whole day.
While playing outside, children have been practising their physical skills involving themselves in all experiences while exploring, Children has shown an interest continuing ball play in the room, engaging in enjoyable interaction with educators involving in throwing, rolling and chasing after small and large balls.
Thank you, parents for sharing your weekend stories with us. It is nice to hear about your weekends spending time with your families.
From your child's interests on the weekends we have been extending participating in learning experiences in the room.
To continue your families interests we have placed 'all about me' forms into your child's pocket and would kindly ask if you can fill them out and return to us.
Please feel free to come and see us if you would like to add your input into the program.
Miss Lorelle and Miss Julie.
Sprouts
"HEI"…(Hello in Finnish!)
It's been a very busy month of March in the Toddler room, with all of the Sprouts children interacting as a group by going camping in our room's camping learning area of play/pod. This room activity came from one of our children's weekend sheets and allows all the children to participate in a 'real life' hands-on experience that some children may never get to participate in.
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Please remember that we always have our Weekend Stories and Happy Holiday sheets available for you to participate in, as we love reading what our fabulous families and what they do together. Including photos make for a wonderful visual talking point, encouraging children to communicate by pointing or using language to help tell their story. They also tell us about a child's interest, so we look forward to reading your stories soon.
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This month we also celebrated Harmony Day by wearing the colour Orange and creating Orange artwork celebrating Australian Multiculturalism.
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With the arrival of the baby Chicks from Henny Penny, we have learnt about the basic life cycle of a chicken, empathy towards the baby chicks and how to care for animals. We used our sense of sight, sound and touch as we observed some of the chicks when they came tovisit our room. So here is the question…What really did come first, the Chicken or the Egg? 😊
We have all enjoyed listening to our special Easter Story books and love getting creative and messy with our Easter art and craft. All the Sprouts can't wait for the Easter Bunny to visit! "We're sooooo EGGcited!"
Happy Easter to all of our wonderful Piptree families. Enjoy your long weekend and stay safe.
Buds
This month we have been singing the alphabet, practicing our counting, and looking at colours & shapes. We have noticed that our Buds children enjoy having stories read to them and singing their favourite songs at group time.
Henny penny
Henny Penny was exciting! The Henny Penny Hatching program has been set up in Poppies room, it provided an opportunity for our children to watch eggs hatching in a designed incubator, and then to observe the hatched chicks.
Our Buds children were so intrigued and excited to meet the little baby chicks.
They focused on exploring the life cycle of a chicken. They were so excited when they saw the chicks. They observed the appearance of chicks carefully, and some of them were willing to pat the chicks gently and take good care of them.
The children also did art and craft activities related to Henny Penny Program.
Next month we will continue learning about more animals (Farm animals and Jungle animals) to extend children's learning.
Family photo and Portfolio Folder
We continue to collect our children's family photos for our room' s family tree. Please bring one family photo for your child.
Until next time
Miss Na , Miss Shanhaz & Miss Innie
Blossoms
Hello parents!
We've gone through so much change in such a short amount of time. We sadly said goodbye to two of our wonderful educators, but I am so happy and excited to have the opportunity to be in the blossoms room with your children. It has been an exciting few weeks in the room, we have spent some time getting to know each other. The children all enjoyed telling me about themselves and their families as well as some of their favourite things. I also told the children about myself, they all thought it was funny that I had two babies at home. They all wanted to meet them so I showed them a little picture I carry around with me on my bracelet. The children love looking at their picture!
Once we were all settled and comfortable with each other we began to go through our daily routine, we also discussed some room rules. The children were all very eager to help with the rules.
I believe that working closely with the children helps with their learning, they always love having their say in what we do throughout the week, so at the start of each day we have group times and discuss the children's interests. They were all very excited to learn about the alphabet and wanted to start writing the letters on the white board. So the alphabet became our starting point! We focus of one letter per week so the children have a chance to be able to recognise the letter. This is working really well with the children.
We have become a really great team! I am loving my time in the Blossoms room and am looking forward to what the future has in store for us. My main goal as an educator is to get the children to be able to recognise their simple letters, shapes and colours. As well as be able to make their beds and become more independent and ready for the preschool room.
We would absolutely love your family input, whether big or small. Could be by email or just passing on a message.
Having your valuable family input as part of our curriculum helps the children feel more involved and home while in their learning environment.
Miss Elena
Poppies
Dear Parents/Caregivers,
We want to wish you a very Happy Easter from the Poppies room. from the Poppies room. As some of our children and their families may be travelling during this time, we wish you safe travels and look forward to having you come back feeling refreshed and relaxed.
Anti-Bully Day
On the 16th March, 2018, we viewed a video about Allen the Alien looking at concepts of bullying. This video is located on the Bullying No Way website focused on addressing bullying for young children. After watching the video, we discussed how we ask our friends in taking turns. The video showed pictures of different emotions and encouraged the children to identify these, after this we were encouraged in using the self-regulation strategy of breathing when feeling frustrated. Since this time, we have set up an area in the Poppies room, where the children can identify faces and types of emotions and sit on the sheepskin mats to self-regulate their emotions.
Harmony Day
During the 21st March, 2018 we acknowledged Harmony Day by wearing orange or traditional dress. We discussed how we are all different but we are all connected.The children were interested in listening to our friendship song which uses sign language to communicate the message of being friends forever. We looked at how the paper doll chain shows people being connected in holding hands. This was then extended by creating our own human chain across the fence. After this time, children have approached Miss Renee showing how they hold hands. Miss Renee recognises that they have an understanding of being friends and encourages these children to find more friends. They go and find more friends and still holding hands, approach Miss Renee saying they have more friends. It is terrific to see how the children in the Poppies room value friends in their lives.
Dr Joe
The children were so excited to be involved with an interactive science show. We investigated how air can be used to explore the world around us. Dr Joe used vinegar and bi carbonate soda to explore the use of chemistry and made the metal lid pop off its base. We discovered that sound is made through vibrations, when looking and listening to balloons expelling air and flying through the air. After the show, each room had the opportunity to explore the other science activities for the children interactively learn and inquire. Many of the children enjoyed the marble towers, using the blue lights and touching the electricity globe.
Literacy in the Early Years
It is terrific to see the interest Poppies have in reading books. A number of children share with me how their parents read to them at night. I want to say a very big Thank you to all those parents who are reading to their children. I would encourage all parents to read to their children every day. This assists their love of learning and increases their literacy skills. If you feel that you don't have enough books, a visit to your local library is a great family excursion. Also if you wonder about reading the same book all the time, this helps your children to develop their literacy skills. If you have any queries please feel free to see Miss Renee to discuss development of literacy skills in children.
Again, thank you for another great month. It is incredible how the year is going so quickly. Look forward to filling you in on our learning in the Poppies room, next month.
Cheers,
Miss Renee, Miss Belinda, Miss Julie, Miss Lyn and Miss June
Poppies Room