HomeAugust 2019
Office News
Welcome to our last winter edition for this year. Recently we have had quite a few new families joining our service and we wish them an enjoyable journey with us here at Piptree.
The 1st of September is reserved to celebrate the invaluable contribution fathers and significant male figures make to families and communities. To show our appreciation, we would like to invite all daddies, papas, grandpas, poppies, opas and uncles to join us on Friday the 30th of August at 3:00 pm for some special afternoon tea and activities in your child's room. Our team would like to wish all the special male figures in their children's lives a very Happy Father's Day!
Keep smiling, Natasa
Room reports
Pips room
Hi everyone,
Welcome to our Pips room. Our new babies Tomas and Ravia are settling in well. We are so happy to have them.
Ethan, Hannah, Amos and Arthur have out-grown our room and have moved up with the toddlers (Sprout's room). We're sure they'll miss us but at the same time they're enjoying their new freedom and new friends!
The babies absolutely love going to the playground and running (or crawling) around. Recently, we have seen lots of our nursery friends getting mobile, meaning lots of standing and walking. Valentina is now walking with the support of furniture around. Babies also developed their social skills by playing games with each other inside the cubby house. Bianca and Ellis loved to play inside the house. We used open ended materials like cardboard boxes for babies to play. It inspires creativity and imagination as children transform and reinvent them into something.
If you have any queries about your babies please feel free to talk to Annie or myself.
Until next time,
Sanchita and Annie
Buds room
Hello everyone,
We would like to welcome our new friends who have moved up from the toddler room and new to the centre. Last month was filled with lots of fun and busy for the children. This month they are learning the concept of care, respect and empathy for others and the environment, shape and colour recognition, becoming involved learners through sense of agency.They were engaged in various play-based activities which were based on interests, exploration and planned experiences.
To support the children in these learning concepts we have been using a range of resources and materials to inspire the children interest.Through still life images of fruit, this encouraged the children to learn about colour and shapes. Through small group play the children learnt to take turns when playing with the parachute. Through role play in the sand pit encouraged the children to become bakers and bake cookies and scrolls for afternoon teas. Using their sense of agency, the children started to make their own beds and set up for meal times. Exploring our creativity this month the children used a wide range of materials to exploring different textures to paint with.
To encourage the children to become effective communicators the children have been learning too.
- Naming objects when reading
- Counting basic numbers one to ten
- Greeting their friends in the morning and afternoon
- Learning to t take turns with peers
- Communicating needs to peers and adults We are interested in parents input and ideas so please feel free to speak to our room teachers, we are keen to work with you as a team. Miss Sawraj will be on leave until 6.9.2019 Ms Sharon, Ms Maia and Ms Sawraj
Blossom 2 room
Firstly, a warm welcome to our all the new children and their families to the blossom 2 room J
In the past few months, we have been learnt the alphabet through songs, art, stories and in play. Most of the children are now able to recall the alphabet and have developed a great enthusiasm for learning. Children have also been learning to add numbers together from 1 to 5. We use blocks, shells, counters and other objects for a visual representation of addition. Alongside our math and language skills, we have embedded some social language into our routine. During group time, we talk about manners, and have implemented a buddy's system as well to learn how to take care of each other. Social communication refers to the way in which children use language within social situations. It is important for building social relationships with peers as later on, many curriculum-based activities in schools rely on group communication. In our class, we encourage children to use language to discuss emotions, feelings to support them in regulating their feelings. We also use other methods such as shown tells, puppet shows, or dramatic play to develop their confidence in various situations.
For months coming, we will start to learn to write our names using different sensory stimulus (e.g. sand, playdough, we will get to know the alphabet phonics and continue with our simple math. These skills are important to have for those who will transition into Prep next year.
Until next time!
Miss Yu-mei (Sophie) and Miss Cindy
Poppies
Hello from the kindergarten room, also known as the Poppies!
We wish to welcome Fiona and her family who have joined our group.
What is happening in the kindergarten room?
Kevin the Swaggie man visits the two older groups (Blossom 2 and Poppies) each Monday where he actively engages the children in music and movement using a variety of musical instruments as they learn about percussion. This a great way to strengthen their auditory/listening skills while learning about rhythm, tempo, pitch, melody as they engage all of their senses.
We are over the half year mark already! In the kindergarten room we have been talking and discussing a lot about social and emotional intelligence. It is great if the children can count, know their shapes, colours, letters. But there is much more to academic knowledge and achievements. We are talking about resilience, confidence, determination, responsibility, kindness. These are fundamental behaviour dispositions that will enable your child to transition successfully into prep next year. Every day we talk about one of these dispositions during group time as well as reading stories or make up a scenario where the children have to share their perception or understanding and then we discuss it as a group. The puppets and the puppet theatre have been a great resource to emphasize these behaviours and the children love using these props to entertain their peers through social dramatic play.
Show and tell is another factor that encourages confidence by standing up front, facing an audience and sharing your news. So, please send books, photos, something of significant besides toys unless it is something really special.
In June we have put out name tags and the majority of the children are writing their names confidently now. Resilience and determination came into play when at first for those it was challenging. They are trying each day and we are very proud of their efforts. A lot of the children don't need their name tags anymore as they have memorized and write it without any visual support.
The kindergarten children have been going to their prospective prep schools for visits. They are very excited when they return and share their experiences. This a great way for the children to prepare for their new journey next year as well as transition.
The kindergarten programme is full on with lots of learning, discovering, exploring, experimenting as we aim to support each child in its cognitive development in all areas of developmental learning while keeping in mind each child's stage, age, pace. Please feel free to come and have chat with me regarding your child's progress. Alternatively, you can leave a note in parent/teacher communication book on the back-locker shelf. Or, now that we are online i.e. EDUCA you can leave a comment in your child's profile. Thank you to the parents who have left comments on their children's profile page after a learning experience. It makes our job so much more worthwhile when we read your positive comments.
Until next time,
Cheers
Ms Tertia & Amanpreet
Sprouts 1+2 rooms
Hello everyone. Welcome to another issue of August newsletter from Sprouts 1&2 room. Happy second Birthday to our Emma Mae. We also welcome all our new friends and families in the room.
It's been over half of the year already and so far so good. The children showed lots of evidence on their developmental milestones in all the developmental aspects, but I personally love how their language skills evolved! They are so good now with telling me the name of their friends as well as colours, name of animals and fruits as well. I love how cute they sound. 😊 We also have lots of new children moved up from our nursery room and from the community as well and they're doing fantastic in settling into our room and their new routines.They're already starting to explore and become confident and active learners.
August will be a very busy month for Sprouts room and I am hoping for your support and cooperation. Please see below detailed dates of activities in our room.
August activities:
- August 09, 2019 (Friday) – Red Nose Day; Wear something red
- August 13, 2019 (Tuesday) – Ekka celebrations; making show bags and eating some of our favourite EKKA food like popcorn and ice cream
- August 12-16 – Science week; We will be doing different kinds of science experiments everyday this week. See our program for more details.
- August 19-23 – Book week; We will be focusing on our favourite nursery rhyme books. Children can bring their favourite book this week.
- August 21, 2019 (Wednesday) – book week dress up; Dress up as your favourite book character 😊
- August 30, 2019 (Friday) – Father's day celebration; We invite all our awesome dad for an afternoon full of activities and fun to celebrate how amazing dads are.
That's all for now! If you have any questions, please feel free to talk to me or leave a note in our communication book. Thank you!
The Sprouts team
Ms. Shai, Ms. Maninder and Ms. ElishaBlossom 1 room
Hello all Blossoms1 room parents,
Ms Briohny and I would like to welcome Lucas, Yuxin, Lisa, and their families to our room. We hope they have a fun filled stay with us.
We have been doing lots of recognition activities, such as learning names of animals, vegetables, colours, and shapes etc. We have been working on learning songs, reading stories and playing games to promote children's language development during group time every day.
After Ms Briohny came back from her holiday, she talked about Orangutans. We learnt that they are called Man of the forest, and about the rehabilitation centre's in Borneo. The children also saw a photo of Archie, an orangutan adopted by Ms Briohny. The children thought he was really cute. Ms Briohny also read 'The Story of Two Baby Orangutans.' which is about two orangutans in a wildlife center in the north-west of Borneo.
Monday the 19th of August is International Orangutan Day and in Blossoms 1 we are going to learn about Orangutans and the rehabilitation process to encourage the children to be active participants in the environment. The children have the opportunity to draw pictures that will be sent to the Orangutan Appeal.
In August, we will be learning and working on our cognitive development. We will be doing a lot of activities to encourage all children to further develop their cognitive skills. These activities will include categorizing and comparing activities, reading with them and asking questions to let them learn to think about the solutions to problems. We will be encouraging children to keep trying, even when the solution may be a challenge. This will continue daily throughout the Juniors program.
Finally, just a reminder to all parents that the weather is getting chilly, so please bring warmer clothes for your child. Remember our class friend Scooter is always eager to spend the weekend with one of our lovely children each week. Please do not hesitate to contact myself or Ms Briohny if you have any questions.
Thank you and till next time,
Ms Nikki and Ms Briohny
