Welcome to our first newsletter for 2019, what an exciting year a head we have planned. A big welcome also to our new families, here's to many more years in the future. We value your input and need this to improve our service you the families. so please feel free to chat to me any time or drop me a line.
National Quality Standard
The National Quality Standard (NQS) sets a high national benchmark for early childhood education and care and outside school hours care services in Australia.
The NQS includes 7 quality areas that are important outcomes for children.
Services are assessed and rated by their regulatory authority against the NQS, and given a rating for each of the 7 quality areas and an overall rating based on these results. Underwood Early Learning Centre will be going through assessment and rating anywhere from 21 January to 18th February 2019.
Educa
Some time next month we will be starting a new digital platform called "Educa" you will all receive an email in the next couple of months inviting you to join. through Educa we will be able to share observations, learning stories and daily reflections about your child. You will also be able to have input directly to your child's teacher, up loading photos and stories about your weekends. We are looking forward to the benefits of this type of program.
Kindergarten Graduation
First of all I would like to say congratulations to our Kindergarten graduates, I know its been a year of learning and development for you all, Parents you can rest assured your children will start prep with the benefit of an excellent early education behind them to support their life long learning and development. Our graduation ceremony will be this Thursday 17th January stating at 5.30 pm, all family grandparents included are welcome to attend for this special occasion.
Parent Information Night
We invite all our families to the parent information evening on Tuesday 5th February starting at 6 pm. this evening is for you to all meet the educators of each room, find out what learning is going to take place with your child through out the year and to ask questions.
Extra Curriculum Activities
This year we have Grasshopper soccer on Wednesday mornings with Wes and Hey Dee Ho music on Thursday mornings with Jason. flyers for these extra activities will be in the office if you would like to sign up for them. The kindergarten class receive the music lesson with Jason free as well as Yoga classes on Tuesday afternoons, these programs only run during the school terms and stop over the school holidays.
Kindergarten 2019
For the children going into the Kindergarten room in 2019 with Miss Natalie, If you haven't given me your childs birth certificate or filled in the Kindergarten consent form as yet i wont be able to put you on the kindergarten rate, also if you have a health care card please send me a copy ASAP as you can receive cheaper child care fees. I will again out the kindergarten consent forms into the parent pockets of the families that are missing these forms.
Hello and Welcome to 2019
Miss Allison is again working as the Lead Educator and Miss Kanako is joining our room as Room Assistant.
Welcome to Samuel, Ruby and Owen. Building strong connections with your children and families is a high priority , in our room building on sense of belonging. We are always available to chat and discuss your families needs for your child. I like to have a smooth transition from home to kindy, sharing information as much as possible.
As babies learn by exploring, we have been having craft, messy play and more outside time.
Sometimes we get covered in coloured paint, pull out all the crepe paper and splash in water making our friends very wet. For these times a spare set of clothes is needed in your bag and I recommend purchasing a Wet Dry bag for your dirty clothes to be sent home in.
This month I will be setting up play areas to encourage rolling, crawling and encouraging the older ones with their free standing.
Meal times are important not just for nutritionan but socially to interact, we have encouraged the use of holding a spoon and helping with direction. Finger foods and adding a variety of fruit, vegetables and meat to your baby's daily food you bring to care establishes healthy habits. Remembering your babies' stomach is the size of their fists, overeating isn't filling them up its causing tummy pain and restlessness.
If you need some fresh ideas on finger food, we have a NAQ Nutrition website we use for our kitchen, the link is https://naqld.org/services/healthy-at-home/
Looking forward to fun filled year Allison & Kanako
Welcome everyone to 2019!
We have started off the year with a nice small group which is allowing us the perfect time to bond and form relationships between each other. I am looking forward to learning all about you and your child over the course of this year.
For the next month I will be sending home some small questionnaires asking about your children's interests, goals for the year and dislikes. This will assist me in getting to know your children and be able to provide them the best learning environment.
Please ensure all your child's belongings are labelled so we can minimalize your child's items being lost, I would also request as it is still hot outside please bring your child shoes and a hat.
Feel free to come and have a chat with me at anytime about your child, the room or our goals for the year.
Miss Sheree
Welcome to the new year Junior kindy parents
It has taken a little getting use to calling us junior kindy instead of tweenies, but the children have already started to get it.
This year we will be focusing on reaching our goals, be that toilet training or using our manners more. We will work together to archive it in no time. Already the class is winning at toilet training, and have been interacting with each in respectful meaningful ways.
We have recently started a community wall outside our door, to add to this we would love to add your family photos. If you could please email us a photo, we will printing and adding it to the junior kindy community. You all are big parts of our community.
In the room we will be continuing our yoga wind down, but are hoping to further it a little more with longer sessions and story telling yoga.
Your children have told you about some of things we count as our jobs. Such as: feeding the wild life birds outside our room, watering the centre gardens and feeding the centre worm farm which provides the fertiliser for the gardens. This is something we really want to dive more into and learn more about as we do it. Ask them how the worms or birds are going, they love to talk about them.
Some reminders for the year:
- Don't forget to keep spare clothes in your child's bag, in this hot weather there will be water play
- Please check the wet clothes bucket before going home, the soiled clothes can get a little stinky (we are only human and can forget to let you know)
- Please bring an extra tooth brush as a spare
Thanks from Junior Kindy,
Miss Chloe and Miss Tracey
Welcome to 2019 in Pre-Kindy
As a new year most of the children are about to move up in to the kindergarten room, I am enjoying spending a few weeks with these children as I had taught most of them previously before going on maternity leave.
In the next couple of weeks we will begin to have the children from junior kindy room move up in to our room. I am looking forward to getting to know each one of your children I will be teaching over the year.
I would appreciate any family input, to be able to guild us in the program and what we can learn throughout our room. This may involve activities you do at home or out and about with family and friends, also culture outings. I would love to get to know the year to year occasions families practice, as I continue to learn and grow with each family I come across.
There is a communication book provided on the lockers, please write any input or information for me in this book, even if I am already here, that way I have everything in writing and as I may be told details from a few parents all in one morning.
Miss Jessie
Welcome to Kindergarten 2019! We are very excited for the year ahead. Kindergarten is the year for learning important skills that help to prepare your children for the even wider world to come. Young children learn, by being actively involved in real experiences and through interactions within their world by themselves and within groups. We aim to challenge the children to explore, try new ideas, ask lots of questions and to share these experiences with their friends. Kindergarten is a time where children learn how to learn. They begin to form their attitudes toward school and to see themselves as learners.
Kindergarten is an opportunity to assist your child to the structures of a school setting. The day begins at 8am and finishes at 4:30pm. During this time, children will learn about the world through play. We use portfolios to document your child's learning and development throughout the year, as well as plan the program according to children's interests. Please ask if you have any questions and let us know if you can contribute to the program at any time.
Show and Tell this year will be based on the letter of the week. For example, if the letter of the week is 'S' your child may bring in a shell that they found at the beach from their last holiday. Please ensure your Show and Tell is marked with your child's name. This experience will help your child's social and emotional development as well as their communication skills. This in turn will assist in developing a strong and confident self-identity. The dates of our focus letters are as follows:
29.1.19 - 1.2.19: 'S' and 'A'
4.2.19 - 8.2.19: 'T' and 'I'
11.2.19 – 15.2.19: 'P' and 'N'
18.2.19 – 22.2.19: 'CK' and 'E'
25.2.19 - 1.3.19: 'H' and 'R'
Parent information evening will be held on the 5th of February. Please consider attending for information on the upcoming term.
Kind regards
Natalie Parkin