From The Office
Welcome to spring, the weather has been glorious the past week, remember to dress your child in layers as the mornings and afternoons are still cool. We have had some staff changes over the past few weeks, first off with miss Jessie leaving and miss Skye replacing her in the PK room. Miss Mimi just got married a week ago and is on her honeymoon,she will be away for 3 weeks. Miss Kirstine is back cooking in the kitchen on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays, to replace Mimi. Miss Basak will be cooking on Mondays and Tuesdays until Mimi gets back from holidays.
Thank you to our father's and Grandfather's who took the time to come along for our father's day afternoon. The children enjoy time spent with dads and granddads even if it is someone else's
Parent Teacher Interviews
We will be looking at holding Parent teacher interviews during October. This will only be for the Pre Kindy, Junior Kindy, Toddler and Nursery rooms. The kindergarten parents had their interviews back in august. The interviews will take place over a week and will be conducted before and after the teachers shifts start and end. so if you put your name down for an interview time please make sure you arrive on time and if you can not make the interview call the centre and let the teacher know so she is not waiting after her finish time ( these interviews are done on the teachers time and they are not being paid for this time) Time tables with interview times will be placed on top of the lockers in your child's room. if the times do not suit your work scheduled please speak with the teacher and she will be able to arrange another time that does better suit you both. these interviews only take 15 mins at most and they are for you to see how your child is progressing and what goals you would like to work on with the educators.
Nursery September News
Welcome to Spring , along with the warmer weather we have welcomed Sophie to our class, and say goodbye to Lylah as she moves into the Toddler room.
With this weather, cool still in the mornings, please check your childs bag for sets of day clothes, short sleeved t shirts, so we can change them during the day as the days are beautiful when we go outside.
If your baby has a sleeping bag/swaddle for sleeping, do you need to provide a lower TOG number to avoid overheating . Have you given baby a new blanket for sleep time. Please label all your sheets and bags.
Old MacDonald had a Farm, is still such a popular tune for children, so catchy and repetitive with the animals names and sounds being mimicked. We are going to find out more about farm animals , learn new sounds this month, using puppets and pictures as prompts.
To help develop our fine motor ( small fingers) skills which we use for holding bottles, cups, a spoon for meals and toys, I have offered the children Coloured pencils for gripping and working on their strong finger hold and hand muscles. All they know is that we are making colours on the paper !
I will be updating our babies daily day routine, to suit their ever changing needs and ages, please see me if there is anything particular you may want to add or changes you feel need to occur. Meals are currently served around 8 am for Breakfast, 930 Morning Tea (if Required) 12 Lunch and 330 A'tea. Bottles are offered when they are required, but please share in the morning what time baby last had a bottle.
Lets get out and enjoy Spring
Thanks Miss Allison and Miss Kanako
Toddlers news
With the weather warming up the toddlers will be exploring alot more messy play and water based activities. They are so curious and wanting to touch and explore everything, so this weather is perfect to explore alot more hands on experiences outside in the shade. Please ensure you are packing spare clothes that are suitable for the weather that are clearly labelled with your childs name on it.
We have welcomed a few new friends up into our room from the nursery and they have settled in really well. We have also been transitioning a couple of children up into Junior Kindy and we are so proud to see them settle so quickly.
We have been beginning to explore colours and shapes. During our group experiences we are reading books and using flashcards to help with the identification of basic shapes and colours. Everyone loves our story time together and gets so excited. These moments together are cvery important for the childs early introduction to language and literacy. If your child has a favourite book they enjoy reading at home please feel free to bring it in for us to read as a group.
Thanks everyone
Miss Sheree and Miss Megha
Junior kindy parents
Frist off welcome to the new junior kindy parents and children.
We can't wait to get to know all our new children and learn with them as they grow.
This last week the children have been super interested in buses. Everything to do with driving them, riding them and where they're going. We hope to further explore this idea. We may even take a look at our own kindy bus and who it picks up.
A new feature to the room is our washing up station, where the children have been further developing their self-help skills. After each morning tea and afternoon tea the children are asked to wash their dishes. Some children may not feel like it and that's ok, because on other days they will be more interested in it. Some children love to help wash other dishes along with their own.
While two children wash the rest are able to sweep the floors with their child sized brooms, or wipe down the table. Each little contribution helps all of us to work together.
Over the time we have had your children in our class we have worked on our mindfulness. Meaning we work towards how we treat others with respect and empathy and how we regulate our own emotions to what is around us.
Recently we have started to see all of this play out in real life situations. The children show their caring nurturing sides when speaking with other children and teachers. They even show an understanding of others emotions and how to help regulate their friend's emotions.
Here's a link to a short reading about the importance of mindfulness for young children.
In Pre Kindy we are all working so well together and using excellent communication skills with our peers.Verbalizing our needs and wants.We are working so hard on our self helps skills with taking our jumpers off, applying sunscreen and putting on our shoes and socks.
Just a note with clothing it is getting very hot we may need to thing about the amount of layers we are dressing the children in now.
We are very interest in bugs and insects.We are learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.We have been trying to catch one in our Bug Aquarium but we have only caught a spider so far.We have been also reading many different stories "The Very hungry caterpillar","The very busy spider" and the "The very crouchy ladybug"
If you have thing to add we would greatly appreciate any bugs you may find.
We will be doing so Scissor work in the up and coming weeks as the children have been asking to use them with the playdough. This will encourage the childrento use more concentration and further their two handed movements, hand/eye co ordination.
Thanks Miss Skye
Dear Kindergarten families,
I cannot believe that we are almost at the end of term 3! This term has been wonderful to watch the children form sincere friendships and demonstrate success in various domains of development. The highlights for me personally, have been the excursion to Woolworths, Science experiments, Book week and playing in the ice cream shop.
In the kindergarten room, we have had children leave on extended holidays overseas and children new to the centre. I would personally like to welcome our new families and we are fortunate to have you join us. Below is information for the upcoming term.
Next term the kindergarten children will be focusing on:
- Social skills
- Name writing
- Scissor cutting
- Life cycles
- Patterns
- Preparing for school
Focus diagraphs:
| 9-13 September | Sh |
| 16-20 September | Revision |
| Holidays: 21 September-7 October | |
| 8 October – 11 October | Th (voiced/short sound) |
| 14-18 October | Th (unvoiced/long sound) |
| 21-25 October | Qu |
| 28 October- 1 November | Ou |
| 4-8 November | Oi |
| 11-15 November | Ue |
Extracurricular activities:
Tuesday- Yoga: 11:00-11:30
Wednesday- Soccer: 9:45-10:15
Thursday- Music: 10:00-10:30
Kindergarten Term 4 Daily Schedule
| Our Kindergarten day has a mix of child lead, play based, and teacher directed lessons and activities. We infuse movement throughout the day and take a child's attention span into consideration as well. This is our Term 4 daily routine. The routine will not often change. However, it may be adjusted based on a child's needs, situations (fire drills, etc.), and classroom events. | ||
| Time | Activity | We are learning … |
| 8:00-8:15 | Outside gross motor play | Various gross motor activities are set up around the playground to practice and develop various gross motor skills. Students can also play on the equipment and in the sand pit daily. |
| 8:15 | Acknowledgment to country on the yarning circle and sharing time | An Acknowledgement of Country is an opportunity for anyone to show respect for Traditional Owners and the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country. |
| 8:20-8:40 | Fine motor activities | Fine motor skill (or dexterity) is the coordination of small muscles, in movements—usually involving the synchronisation of hands and fingers—with the eyes. |
| 8:40-9:00 | Morning tea | |
| 9:15-9:30 | Morning group time:
| We review the calendar and schedule and talk about our day. There is a lot of math embedded into calendar time. Morning group time is filled with songs, rhymes and instruments. Through music we build and learn various language skills, phonemic awareness, math concepts, music, social skills, and gross motor skills. |
| 9:30-9:45 | Handwriting | Children participate in handwriting, letter writing and name recognition activities. |
| 9:45-10:00 | Literacy group time | We start by reading a book related to our theme or focus letter. Children share, join in, make meaning, and make connections to build reading comprehension, book knowledge, and phonemic awareness. |
| 10:00-11:00 | Developmental Learning Centres and Table Time | Children pick a table and do the activity on the table. Children are learning various literacy, math, science, art, and/or fine motor concepts/skills. The activities are often connected to our theme and or focus letter. |
| 11:00-11:15 | Make beds and prepare for lunch | |
| 11:15-11:45 | Outside gross motor play | Various gross motor activities are set up around the playground to practice and develop various gross motor skills. |
| 11:45-12:15 | Lunch | |
| 12:15-12:30 | Clean up and Bathroom | |
| 12:30-2:00 | Rest | |
| 2:00-2:30 | Pack away beds and self-chosen activity | |
| 2:30-3:00 | Afternoon tea | |
| 3:00-3:15 | Math group time | The children will focus on mathematical areas such as number, subitizing, sorting, patterns and shapes. |
| 3:15-3:45 | Mathematic Table Time | New games and activities are introduced at this time to ensure success. The groups are always changing based on ability, interest, or random selection. |
| 3:45-4:00 | Show and Tell | Children communicate to their peers about a particular book of interest |
| 4:00-4:15 | Class meeting and daily reflection journals | Children draw and write about their day at the tables. Students are learning about concepts of print, writing, letters, sounds, and strengthening fine motor muscles. |
| 4:15-4:30 | Pack away | |
I would like to remind you of a few things:
- The kindergarten hours are from 8am- 4:30
- Please ensure your child has a hat everyday and taken home to be washed each week
- Please provide a fitted sheet and a flat sheet
- All food (breakfast and late afternoon tea) must be placed in the container above the fridge
- A change of clothes is required in case of any accidents
- Please write any reminders regarding your child in the communication book
- Medication forms must be completed if medication is required to be administrated throughout the day
- Please ensure that your child has a scrapbook if not done so already
- Show and tell is based upon a book that your child wishes to share to his/her peers
Exciting learning experiences are planned for next term based on the children's interests. Parent and family input is important, therefore if you have any suggestions please feel free to contact me. If you have any concerns regarding your child, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
Natalie Parkin