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May Newsletter

From the office

Hello and welcome to the May addition of our newsletter.

Many of you may have noticed the trees around the centre have been trimmed back, and we are enjoying a lot more sunshine at this time of year. The children have been very observant and noticed that because the trees have gone so have the birds. So to bring back the birds they have come up with the idea to introduce bird feeders into the playground. all of the children that are outside in the afternoon have helped in some way to get these up to attract more birds into the yard again.

 

For many years we have been receiving free tooth brushes, tooth paste and containers from the Metro Health clinic in Logan. This government funding has now stopped unfortunately. We believe the children brushing their teeth every day at kindy is very important as it helps support you as parents, and builds healthy hygiene habits. We would like to continue to brush each day with your help, you would need to bring in a tooth brush for your child to only be used at the centre. the teachers would inform you when this needs to be replaced regularly. Please let me know if you are keen to keep doing this as it will only work if we are all on board to continue. 

Room Changes


Miss Chloe will be moving up to be the Kindy assistant to help Miss Melissa in the room while Miss Allison is away.

What's coming up

Class Photos will be done on Tuesday 6th June. We will be using the same photographer as last year Little Images, Andrew will be here from 7.30am ready to start. Your payment envelopes will be due back before the 6th. If your child attends on a Tuesday all you need to do is drop off as you normally would and your child's/children's photo will be taken some point during that morning. If it is not your child's day to attend care, you need to come to the centre at the time their class photo is scheduled to be taken and then Andrew will also do your child/children's individual photos. As you can imagine it is a very busy morning for the photographer and myself, so asking for change for payments and for forms is near imposable. That is why we ask that this is done before the day. Payment envelopes and photo times will be advised soon.

Friday 12th May at 2.30pm.Mother's Pamper Day on Mothers, Grandmothers and aunts welcome to come along and have your nails painted, make up touched up or enjoy a foot spa.

Thursday 25th May- The Biggest Morning Tea. We will be holding the biggest morning tea again this year to raise much needed funds towards cancer research. This event is very close to our heart as Miss Brooke and Karleigh's mum died of cancer, we as a centre support the effort the girls put in each year to raise funds. bring your money on the morning get a coffee tea or a yummy cake or slice to take to work. donations can also be make before the day if you want to.

Preschool room have a number of events coming up in May. 

26th May is the excursion to Eight Mile Plains State School for under 8's Day. the children need to be at the centre and ready to leave at 8.15am, they will be walking the back streets to the school. They need to have a back pack, closed in shoes, a drink bottle, morning tea and a hat. we are also seeking parent volunteers to help with supervision. permission forms and all details will be in your child's parent pockets next to the preschool door, please let Andrea or Leanne know if you can help on the day. 

31st May the preschool room with have the Logan health clinic come in to do the Healthy Mouth Day, each child can have their teeth screened and checked by the dentist. permissions slips will need to be signed by parents they will be in your child's parent pockets as well. 

Nursery 

We would like to welcome our two new Babies in the Nursery Ayla and Jiyu.They have both joined our nursery group very well and settled in easy.

Just a couple of notes:

Please remember to label all your children's belonging.

When packing your child's lunches make sure we have a variety of healthy foods.

Also please remember it is getting much cooler weather so we need warmer clothing.

We very excited to see all our Mummies at the mothers day afternoon tea.Well be great way for all of us together to know one another.

Thanks Miss Skye and Miss Mimi

Toddlers 

  What fun we are having at the moment in our room. We are focusing a lot on creativity. We are trying to introduce the toddlers to a wide range of art techniques and sensory play by using natural materials and other art equipment. We are exploring painting with leaves, drawing in sand with sticks, painting on pine cones, having sensory trays out and of course the more traditional art methods of paint brushes, sponge paintings etc. We do wear art aprons when doing these messy activities, but sometimes our little hands are very quick and paint does get on our clothes.

We have started a community wall in our toddler room. It has pictures of our centre, our friends, our family and some of the special people that come to visit us at the centre like Mr Jason. Please come and have a look with your child. The toddlers love to look and reflect as they point out all their friends, family and other things that are special to them and make up our great centre. If you have anything photos you wish to add please bring them in for us.

Please also ensure now its getting colder that your child has enclosed shoes, socks and a jumper. All items are to be clearly named so we can prevent any items being misplaced. We are also asking parents to bring a top sheet in now for our rest period as it is getting a little more cooler. Please no large quilts or pillows as we store them in your child's locker. Once again please ensure they are labelled.

Junior Kindy 

Children love to be involved in the everyday routine at kindy, from playing outside in the mornings- when weather permits us to, to heading in together as a class for morning tea, and soon activity time, helping discuss what we can choose to play with today and explore what interesting activities us educators have set out for the children, soon leading to lunch and rest time after so much excitement throughout the morning. Please remember being apart of the routine from around 8.30am is as important to your child as it is for you to be at your next destination on time​.
We are loving the parent input we are receiving, children become so excited when we ask them about these subjects e.g. holidays or going to Sea World. This helps us bring their outside world in to our day at kindy and sharing their interest with their friends. Simply emailing a photo with just a few words or a paragraph helps us to discover what you and your child have been up to and their interest. Your children are excited to share their story books with the class recently, at times they can be shy when up in front of the class, while others would talk about parts of the story, it is great to hear them continue their interest with their books even further at home from parents, or even end up only wanting their teacher to read the particular book from now on. We also welcome parents to come and join in our activity time when possible, if you wish to join us please speak to the teachers about a time. This month we are sending out a page 'All About Me'. We would really appreciate if you could return this to us to help us out with a bit of parent input and help us discover more about your child.
Most days the class gets out to explore the garden and water when needed, as we are soon to have new garden beds the plants have been moved around lately, hopefully they will survive the transition that is occurring for that we will enjoy larger gardens to attend to soon​.
Don't forget to check out the extra curriculum activities we provide at the centre, the children that are involved in these are really enjoying having another teacher come through and spend time with them, they get so excited as soon as they walk in the door, such great learning in these classes as well as our time with them.

If your child has began toilet training or wish to begin can you please dress your child in underwear over their nappy at drop off as this really does help us to get their day started with training them.

Please remember a fitted cot sheet it more appropriate for rest time as children do wiggle around on their beds and the sheets will move around too, if possible please pack a fitted one. till next month Jessie, Chloe and Fleur

Kindy Room

At Underwood Early Learning Centre, we pride ourselves on working with you and your child to help your child develop to the best of their abilities we understand that children all develop at different rates and want to work on your hopes and dreams for your child. If you haven't completed the hopes and dream sheet please do so, so that we can work with what you want your child to learn. This year is all about getting the children ready for the Kindergarten Program next year if your child will attend prep in 2019. This means that the children need to develop their self-help skills before moving to the preschool room, if we can please ask for your help in this it would be much appreciated as we only have limited time with your children. We ask that where possible allowing the children time to do such things at home which include dressing self with clothing and shoes, wiping bottoms and developing everyday skills. The skills are a process of developing but by allowing the children to attempt these things first before we help them will help them to develop the confidence and being able to do these things prefect in the future. Please bring in a scrapbook if you haven't brought one already for your child's artwork asap. Most of you are interested in your children learning to count as well as names and letters, a few things that you can do with your child at home are:

  • Counting items into the shopping trolley when shopping
  • Reading packets when shopping or at home in the kitchen and noting what letters things start with.

Things that we will be focus on for the next couple of months are:

  • Finding their names with leaving the mat or sitting at the table
  • Counting and letter activities during activity time and flashcards during group times.
  • Tracing activities and pencil grip

These skills will not be perfect by the end of the year, although the children are developing an understand and by practising these they will gain confidence for the future.

Now that the weather is cooling down can you please ensure your child has 2 jumpers at Kindy in case one get soiled as well as numerous changes of clothes as children tend to have more accidents during the cooler months.

We would like to wish all our mummies a Happy Mother's Day and hope you all enjoy the day you all truly deserve.

From Miss Melissa & Karleigh

Preschool

We have a busy couple of weeks coming up.

First mothers day. Afternoon tea at 2pm on the 12 may. See note in pocket for more information. Please let either myself or Brooke know if you are attending , so we can ensure there will be enough food to share.

Secondly, Under eights Day May 26th

Look out for permission slips in pockets. Children need a packet morning tea and a water bottle. They need to wear enclosed shoes. We also need parent volunteers' to help out on the day. If it is not your child's day they can come with us but they must be accompanied by a parent. We will be leaving at 8.15am and returning at lunch time.

Lastly on May we will be visited by the dental clinic. Please look out for permission slips. Even if this is not your day you are welcomed to visit along with your child. All parents welcome.

We have been very creative the last couple of weeks making presents for mum. We have also nearly finished set 2 of our jolly phonics. We have started our new story (the three Billy Goats Gruff). The children are enjoying show and tell please check your date and the letter so that your child can join in. the children are very proud when they stand up and show everyone what they have brought in.

We are looking for dress up shoes. If you have any old shoes please bring them in we will be collecting them all year.

Thank you Andrea and Brooke 

After / Before School Care 

During the past 4 weeks, the school care children have been developing their own program by doing this the children are extending on their own learning. The topics we have been focusing on are weather and what is weather and the different types of weather, minerals, rocks and gems we discovered that diamonds start as an ugly rock before it becomes a shiny rock. The children also took a big interest in learning about the brain and how the brain works and functions. This interest was so big that the children wanted to taste brains and they did get to taste crumbed brains. The children thought this was great experience and all step out of their comfort zone and all the children tried the brains and we had a talk about what it tasted like. Also, we have been busy making out Mother's Day presents and cards for our mums the children have been working very hard on them. Over the next few weeks our topics that we will be focusing on will be erosion, earth worms and compost and the solar system, bugs, insects and reptiles but at any time the program can change depending on the children's interest and weather they have changed their mind an want to learn something else as the program is ran by the children. If you have any concerns about your child please feel free to come and talk to me. I love parent in put into my programs and learning what you as their parents would like them to do. Now that the weather is getting cooler could all the children please remember they need a jumper to wear please and could they please bring a hat to wear for when they go outside. Just a kind reminder our school bus leaves at 8am in the morning so could all children please be here by 8am.  

Untill next time
Fleur

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