APRIL/MAY 2016
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. ” – ANZAC Ode the Fallen
Welcome back to all our families! We hope that everyone had a great Easter!
We’re using a new digital teaching tool, STORYPARK, which allows us to share your children’s learning experiences more immediately and effectively through multimedia stories! If you haven’t accepted your invitation to Storypark yet, please have a look by visiting: http://www.storypark.com. If you have any questions or concerns please speak to Cathy or Lara in the front office!
REMINDERS
- Mother’s Day envelopes have gone out! We’d like thank all parents / carers that returned theirs. If you haven’t received one or you’ve lost it, please see Cathy or Lara in the office and they will give you another envelope 🙂
- Children are REQUIRED to wear a sun safe, broad brimmed hat to play outdoors at all times.
- Extra Shirts and hats are available to purchase from the office for $8 each!
- Please ensure all your children’s belongings are CLEARLY labelled with their names.
- Please remember to sign in and out EVERY time your child attends the centre. We also require an initial or signature on sick days, any holidays you take, or any days your child usually attends which fall on a public holiday.
IMPORTANT DATES
APRIL 25th
Anzac Day Public Holiday
MAY 2nd
Labour Day Public Holiday
MAY 6th
Mother’s Day Morning Tea @ 9:30am
COMMUNITY NEWS & EVENT
YOU CAN GO BLUE TOO
Earlier this month, you might have seen Brisbane’s iconic Story Bridge lit up in all its blue glory or heard about local residents and organisations “going blue”. Well, that’s because April is GO BLUE FOR AUTISM month!
Each year on April 2nd, World Autism Awareness Day, iconic buildings across the world turn their lights blue to promote autism awareness. In support of this initiative, we’d like to share Autism Queensland’s request for people to Go Blue for April and help raise awareness and funds to support Queenslanders of all ages living with ASD and their families. To get involved or to make a donation, visit: http://www.goblueforautism.com.au/get-involved/
ANZAC DAY BOOKS FOR KIDS
ANZAC Day is fast approaching and as one of the most important historical dates in our country’s calendar, it ’s one that understandably, our nation honours accordingly. As time passes, it’s become even more important to keep the memory and stories of all the soldiers alive in our youngest generation.
A great way to introduce and explain a topic like this to our children is through books! One of our favourites at the centre is ANZAC TED, which the children have enjoyed and started many extended learning experiences inspired this lovely story.
Other recommended book titles you may be interested in sourcing for your children, include:
ANZAC BISCUITS by PHIL CUMMINGS
MEET THE ANZACS by CLARE SAXBY
LEST WE FORGET by KERRY BROWN
MARKETS ON GRAND
Don’t forget The Markets on Grand, located at Grand Avenue State School on Sunday May 8th!
With special Mother’s Day stalls and lots of activities for the children it’s sure to be the perfect outing for the whole family!
If you can’t make the Mother’s Day weekend markets, they have stalls every second Sunday! For more info visit: http://www.facebook.com/GrandMarkets
Welcome to our Toddler Room!
Miss Fee and Miss Kay would firstly like to thank you all for your continual support within the Toddler Room and the rest of the centre. We value your involvement in your children’s learning so much!
To continue this involvement, we’d like to welcome and invite all families to enjoy and take part in our new learning journey, “Story Park”! We as Educators, are just as excited in this new experience as all of our family and friends have expressed they are. We hope you all enjoy it 🙂
Coming up, we have the Mother’s Day Morning Tea, in the Toddlers will be a florists for the day to help put together flower arrangements with you! We can’t wait for this fun celebration!
We’d like to give a BIG thank you to Lucy’s Mum and Dad for their updates and ongoing pictures of the ‘Sunflower growing cycle’. We’re looking forward to seeing the end results both from home and in the Centre! Our sunflowers are still growing strong each day.
As many of you are already aware, we are helping our Toddler Early Birds experience the “Toileting Process”. To continue this, we ask to please ensure your child/children are in appropriate clothing while in our care and to remove all nappies before being signed in for the day.
Finally, we’re happy to say that our parent input and feedback is still going strong. We can’t say enough how much we greatly appreciate your support. If any Parents / Guardians have any feedback or suggestions, please continue to put forward your ideas as we value your thoughts and involvement.
Miss Fee, Miss Kay and our Toddler Room Friends
We have welcomed many new friends to our Pre-Kindy family, both from the Toddler Room or completely new to the centre! Welcome Lacey, Lucian, Jake, Lexie, Malik, Hannah, Isabelle A, Noshil, Spencer, Kester and Liam! They’ve settled in beautifully and have had no trouble forming and building new relationships with their fellow Early Birds and Educators.
We’re getting very excited for our Mother’s Day Morning Tea coming up on Friday, May 6th! The Pre-Kindy Room will be transformed into a “cupcake decorating station”, to enjoy with your child / children! We can’t wait for this YUMMY celebration!
Over the last few months children have been offered so many exciting opportunities to extend and enrich their understanding of diversity, culture and the world they live in by taking part in and celebrating many special events, including Australia Day, Chinese New Year, St Patrick’s Day and Easter. These very special days promote and encourage cooperation, confidence, curiosity and a sense of belonging, as we join together with our Kindergarten and Toddler friends to share new understandings, explore our imaginations, experiment with new ideas and continue to make amazing creations and fantastic discoveries!
The children have really enjoyed having the easel set up permanently in our room. They’ve created and designed some beautiful and bright artworks, while also demonstrating and displaying an understanding of several key concepts and processes, including self-expression, representational thinking, language and literacy, wonder and concentration.
We’ve also had other various art experiences requested, including drawing, collaging, “handprinting”, water painting, thick brush painting and “balloon printing”. These activities have given the children a chance to explore different ideas, techniques and tools while also adding splashes of colour and lots of personal touches to our room.
Another very popular activity in the room has been playdough! The children have used this activity to engage in the creative art of sculpting, as they demonstrate imagination and perseverance to express their ideas, as well as enhance their communication and language skills to explain what they’ve made.
Thank you for a fantastic, fun-filled learning journey,
Miss Kerrie- Anne, Miss Angie and Miss Sam
Firstly, we’d like to give a BIG thank you much to Eli Harding’s parents for buying us some craft rollers for our art activities the children love them!
Over the past month, the Kindergarten children have shown a very big interest in rockets, space and planets! The children get their “best learning” done through their own interests, so we’ve themed our room as a solar system and our bathroom as a spaceship! Please have a look at your children’s work as they’ve practiced their hand writing, developed their creativity skills and much more!
The Easter Bonnet Parade was fantastic! Thank you to all the parents, grandparents, siblings and guardians that came to celebrate with us. The children had a great time and were very proud to show you their song and dance!
We’re looking forward to our next event, which is our Mother’s Day Morning Tea on Friday, May 6th at 9:30am! Please come join us for a fun morning with yummy treats and some fun outdoor play! The Kindergarten Room will be transformed into the “Beauty Room” where your child / children will do your hair, make-up and nail polish! We hope you’re able to make it!
Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on pencil grip and hand writing, which is an important skill the children need to have before starting prep. The children have been showing a lot of interest in writing their names so we’ll start doing some practice activities. Also, from Monday April 11th, we’ve had a Kindergarten “Sign In Book” in front of the Kindergarten door. We ask all parents / guardians to encourage your children to practice writing their names every morning and afternoon when they arrive and leave the centre as this will continue this developing this skill.
Until Next Time!
The Kindy Educators