From the office
Brrrrr welcome all to the chilly season! As the temperature is cooling down it is a good time to remind all our families to dress your children in warmer clothes and closed in shoes. Also it is important for our children to stay warm during rest time, so please pack a blanket with your sheets. It is fine for children to bring in their security toys, such as blanket, however it is not recommended that children bring personal toys or other items to the centre. Please remove all items from your child's bag that is not safe for young children, such as lighters, medications and jewellery. Children need the freedom to play and learn, but they also need a safe environment to do so. Avoid toys with small parts, that could be swallowed or pushed into ears or noses. It takes children a long time to learn and recognise dangerous situations and keeping an eye is the only way to be sure they are safe.
We will be busy this month, celebrating Environment Day with a show "I love My World" on Thursday, 15.6.2017. We will cover topics about the Great Barrier Reef and the Seven Natural Wonders, facts about corals, 1500 species of fish, ecosystem, ...
Our Pips will be visited by a librarian who will read them a story or two and teach them about the procedure of visiting libraries and borrowing books.
On the Monday, 26.06.2017 all our children over 3 years of age will be attending Revolution Learning Incursion, with lots of stories about magical nature.
Keep smiling, Natasa :)
Pips
Hello all!
This month has been so busy with our room almost full every day, it's so exciting getting new friends to play with. We welcome Aria, Martin, Lucas and Edwin to our room. We cannot wait to watch you grow and learn. This month we had a student in the room; Miss Lanchi. She added new things to our room. The babies really love anything to do with sensory so Miss Lanchi made new sensory bottles, sensory bags on the windows and sensory patches on the floor. You can see all of her learning stories for these activities in our room displayed on the walls. Moreover, to grow on sensory play with did some finger painting, the reaction from the babies when they touched the paint was fantastic, they felt it between their fingers and of course tried to eat it! The babies are really growing on their learning skills of curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, imagination and reflexivity (Learning outcome 4.1)
Lots of love
Miss Melissa, Miss Annie and Pips!
Sprouts 1
Hello all Sprouts 1 room parents,
Welcome to another busy month in the sprouts 1 room. I would like to give a warm welcome to Oscar and Matthew who have recently joined us. I am sure that they will have a good time in our room.
During the first two week of this month in Sprouts 1 room, we celebrated Mother's day. We sang songs, and made mother's day cards for our mums. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it. In addition to that, we learnt about face parts, doing face collages and other many fun activities. As usual, we have constantly been working on our room routines.
Next month, we will be learning about body parts. We will be doing lots of fun art activities that involves a lot of singing, dancing and being hands on. I'm sure everyone will enjoy it.
Finally, just a quick reminder to all parents to bring warmer clothes for your child. Winter is approaching and the weather is starting to get chilly.
Thank you and till next time,
Miss Nikki
Sprouts 2
Hello and welcome to a fun and exciting month with toddlers!
Firstly, we would like to welcome our new friends to our group; we hope you enjoy your time with us.
Also a big goodbye to someone who will be moving up to JK to experience a new environment with friends.
This month we have been learning about all kinds of animals. The toddlers are becoming verbal and it is fantastic to hear some of the children saying phrases like the animal's names and sounds.
We would also like to politely request all families to please remember to label all of your child's belongings.
We are looking forward to a great month ahead!
Until next time,
Miss Sharon
Buds
Hello Buds Room families.
A big welcome to all our new Buds Room families that have recently joined us.
Just as our centre new name means we are Piptree Early Learning and in our Buds Room we provide our children a place to play, learn and grow, we inspire our children to understand their place in their family, engage with our community and to care for the environment to create a brighter future.
You can see what a busy time we have had in our Buds room lately; our little Buds have been enjoying many indoor and outdoor activities. Our favorite toys are Smart Snacks Number Pops, Rainbow Circus Tent and Discovery Lego…the trains, trucks, dress ups & home corner have been very popular in the last few months as well as any art we provide.
We encouraged our children's exploring of numeracy with Number Pops, exploring the alphabet by Alphabet Puzzles and songs.
Our children also enjoyed exploring our indoor obstacle course, pattern painting to be able to identify different colours, patterns and shapes, and dress ups to provoke creativity and our imaginations.
It has been very special to see our children start to build up partnerships & friendships with the other children. They are not only playing together, but also helping each other with creating things, problem solving, communicating and comfort. We also learning about good manners, sharing and gentle hands in our room.
The big goal for our Buds room is to have all of our children begin their toilet training adventure. We have been encouraging the children to pull their own pants down, take their own nappies off and sit on the toilet. It is great to see the children to start to get the hang of it. If you have any questions about toilet training, please do not hesitate to ask any of our Buds room educators.
Another big focus in our Buds room now is self-help skills. Mainly self-serve at meal times. Our children have been grasping this concept really well. As well as encouraging self-help, it gives the children a sense of achievement once they have served themselves food, and it increases their fine motor skills and strength. We have even seen the children help other children when they are struggling to serve themselves. What awesome teamwork!
Thanks again for taking the time to read this. We will see you next time in the Buds Room
Miss Lixia, Miss Cindy, Miss Hayley and Miss Isha
Blossom 1
It is time again to deliver news on the Blossom 1 room! The children have been very busy this month. In our Blossom room, children are recognising letters and numbers through art activities such as collages and constructing work. Our activities have been largely based on the children's interest. From our observation on different children and their desire to become fire fighters, it encouraged us to make a fire-truck. For this project, we used only recyclable materials. In addition, children's interest in music inspired us to make musical instruments. Miss Zeljka brought her guitar from home and offered children the opportunity to play with a real guitar. We then continued by creating a shoebox guitar. We also covered facial features and self-reflection, asking and letting the children identify and place facial features on a face, it is beautifully displayed in our room. Recently many of our small toy cars are missing from the room. If mistakenly taken by your child, please bring them back. Please provide a blanket for nap time and make sure there are some warmer clothes in their bag. As jumpers are expensive to lose, please mark their names on them.
Until next time,
Miss Sanchita and Miss Zeljka
Blossom 2
Hello friends and family of our Kindergarten room!
During April, we had a variety of activities focused on the theme of Easter. One of the highlights last month was our big Easter egg hunt. Children did a very detailed search inside and outside the classrooms.
This month, we learnt about different types of transports and what they do. From on land vehicles to all the way up in the sky, children engaged in learning experiences that illustrated their purpose, comparing size, shapes and colours. These discussions were facilitated in activities such as, story time, construction site sensory play, collages, slow stop and go, as well as many more. Children made their own race car tracks and we had a Blossom 2 race! Children have taken increased initiative in the classroom. It has been great seeing their confidence shine. One highlight of the month was our pirate week. As a class, we made a pirate ship out of cardboard boxs and sailed the seven seas! We planned activities that targeted each area of development including numeracy, social and gross motor. For numeracy, children made comparisons of coins in size, colour, value and feature. This activity explores number symbols, concepts and patterns that will later develop into more complicated concepts. Children made their own treasure maps and created their own pirate costume. These activities explore and expand ways to use language.
Next month, we will be focusing on the alphabet and going through different letters each week. We will explore concepts around the target letter through a variety of activities.
As the weather is getting colder, please make sure your child has a jumper in their bags.
Until next time,
Miss Yu-mei (Sophie)
Poppies
Greetings from the Kindergarten room
We extend a warm welcome to our new poppies Elena, Yashangad and their families.
As usual the kindergarten children keep us busy but motivated as they continuously impress us with how everyday play becomes learning in its holistic form.
So what have they been up to:
Stemming from their emergent interest and play, Adventures/Camping at the beach became a popular socio-dramatic play inside and outdoor. Facilitating and scaffolding their interest we set up a tent, camp chairs, branches and logs for a camp fire and bottle tops which they toasted over the fire using the branch sticks. We also set up fishing resources with magnetic fishing rod sticks and sea creatures. Their family outings to the beach and camping was recorded using children's voice, we got some shells from home and parents contributed with stories on the weekend sheet. Because we couldn't toast marshmallows over a flame due to health and safety reasons, we melted chocolate and the children dipped their chocolate coated marshmallows in sprinkles. Yummmy! This topic extended to water safety and we used the scholastic resource of Boo the Alien's adventures by the beach, at home, on the farm and by the pool. We finished this series with a DVD on Boo's adventures and the children perceived a visual understanding of this very important safety requirement. Later in the year I aim to contact the YMCA Recreational Centre hoping to have one of their representatives come and have a talk to them about water safety.
Bugs and Insects, and People in our community were some of the learning interests they enjoyed as well. One of our parents regularly read our program planning board and she and her son would go the library to borrow books on our topics of interest. Thank you for contributing to our program in such an effective way. I spoke to the librarian and she will be visiting the kindergarten room on the 14th June and 30th August. My next goal is having a dentist visit us.
Portfolios: Portfolios has gone on display and the children re-visit this throughout the day with expressions of excitement, pride and awe. It is great to observe how they recall their learning by looking at the pictures, conversing, comparing and sharing their stories to their mates. The children are free to contribute to their portfolios in any way as well as their families.
Me Time: An area in the room, away from the busy loud areas of play were set up. A small tent with scatter cushions, soft toys and outside of it on a little table, a vase with flowers, a candle and books. This area provides a space of sanctuary for children to enjoy alone time, or for when they're feeling emotional. They are allowed to take one friend into the tent for comfort if they feel so.
Literacy and numeracy: This is incorporated throughout the day in various ways through the children's play, but we also include intentional teaching in these fundamental areas. We are including the sign letter with our letter of the week after explaining to the children who, why and how this all important language forms part of Australia literacy.
Topic of interest: Currently the children are learning about animals and their habitats.
Interviews: Some children have gone to their prospective prep schools of 2018 for informal sessions of fun activities and expectations to help with their transition next year.
We maintain our friendly invitation of an open door policy, so please feel free to have a chat with us whether it's a concern or how your child is doing in the kindergarten room or just a happy chat.
Cheers!
Mss Tertia & Briohny