CHILDRENS CENTRE
April/ May Newsletter 2013
Office news.......
Huge thank you to everyone who helped out with the sausage sizzle, particular thanks to Simon Reed for coordinating the event on the day and Rod Miller for organising the donation of the sausages. Special thanks to all our sizzlers for their wonderful cooking skills. Everyone looked like they had a great time during their shift and hopefully you had a sense of belonging to a wonderful community. Thank you also to those parents who sourced donations for the event. We raised an astounding $1551 and only had an outlay of $78 for extra sausages and bread!
IMPORTANT DATES.
Friday 10th May 5.30-7pm Mothers day celebration
PJ day- Friday 21st June all day- children are invited to wear their PJ’s for the day in exchange for a gold coin donation. Money raised will go to the Pyjama Foundation – Creating a brighter future for children in care.
Extra Curricular activities
Music is on each fortnight from 16th April, Dance is each fortnight from 17th April and Sport is each fortnight from 11th April.
Fundraising
Thank you to parents and staff who have already purchased an entertainment book. So far we have made $325 and we look to raising more funds. If you still have your entertainment book at home please return it ASAP or bring in the money. We would like to finish up this fundraiser next week. As stated above the sausage sizzle raised a staggering $1551. Don’t forget to continue to collect your Woolworth’s Ear and learn Points, I have noticed that when shopping I have had to ask for them, so don’t forget to do that if you spend over $10.
Sessional kinder waiting list
Just a reminder that the waiting list for sessional kinder is the council responsibility. If you are looking to swap over from long day care to sessional kindergarten next year or beyond you must be registered at council for sessional kinder, we cannot swap you over. This is council policy. You will be guaranteed a place in the kinder room for long day care if your child currently attends long day care. Details to enrol for sessional kinder are on the front door and you should have also received an email in regards to this.
Children’s Pockets
Please remember to check your child’s pocket on a regular basis, educators often place notices or learning sheets in individual pockets.
Signing in and out
Please note that it is a regulation to sign your child in and out each day. The centre can get an audit at any time and if there is no parent signature you may lose your CCB for that day. Please remember to sign your child in and out!
Sun Smart
Just a reminder that our sun smart policy ends at the end of April, now is a great time to take your child’s hat home to give it a wash so it is ready for September, don’t forget a beanie for the coming months, the children love to play outside even when it is cold. We have a few Brenbeal beanies for sale at $5 each.
Thank you
Thank you to all of the parents who help out throughout the year with fixing the toys that we place in the foyer when broken, it is great to see such good community spirit.
FEES
It is important for the effective running of the centre that fees are paid in a timely manner, invoices are sent out on a Monday and should be paid by Friday of that week. This will ensure that fees remain 2 weeks in advance at all times as stipulated in the fee policy and on the enrolment form which is signed by you on enrolment. We often still have $9000 in fees owing when new invoices are sent out, not only does this affect the running of the centre but also it time consuming to chase up. Please note that late fees will be applied to accounts which constantly fall into arrears. For further information on fees please refer to our parent section on the website. If you are having trouble with fee payment please speak directly to Jane.
Thank you for your understanding.
TAKE HOME A BIG BROTHER OR BIG SISTER
Give your children the wonderful opportunity to have an international big brother or big sister by hosting one of our exceptional international students arriving in Australia in July 2013 for their 3, 5 or 10 month programs. Our international students from France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Spain will live as a local, attend a local secondary school, arrive with their own spending money and comprehensive insurance cover – all arranged by Southern Cross Cultural Exchange. Visit us at www.scce.com.au, email or call us toll free on 1800 500 501, request our international student profiles, and capture the spirit of family and friendship!
Room updates
Whales room news
Good morning/Good afternoon...
Hope everyone is well and staying warm. The weather is starting to change now, it’s becoming really cold and the children enjoy playing outside, so can you please pack a coat, beanies (if you like), spare clothes, socks and gum boots. At the end of April it is not necessary to wear a sunhat outside until the start of September.
We would like to wish Lily.R a happy birthday on the 29th of April (turning 3) and River on the 21st of May (turning 4) We wish you everything special on your birthday and a lot more in life J
We’d like to Congratulate Kathleen, Robert and Matthew on the arrival of their baby girl Georgia. May her life in this big world brings her success, love and joy!
We would like to take this opportunity to tell parents what great work they have done over the past 3 years in their child’s life. We know it’s hard to raise children and we try our best to be great role models for your child, while he/she is in our care. We would like you to know that we care for your children as though they’re our own, and we would love to see them become successful when they leave. It’s important for them to feel safe here at Brenbeal.
If there are any concerns or if you would like to have a catch up with us about your child, please feel free to make an appointment to speak to us.
Upcoming events:
Mother’s Day night- Friday the 10th of May- 5:30-7pm
P.J Day- Friday the 21st June – All day
The children have been enjoying a lot of different activities like:
Indoor:
· Zoo/Insect table
· Construction area
· Blocks/building
· Camping area
· Book corner
· Art and craft area
· Play dough
· Puzzles
Outdoor:
· Sandpit
· Bikes
· Wheelers
· Building with the big blocks
· Book corner
· Drawing with chalk
· Climbing on obstacle courses
“Life ends when you stop dreaming, hope ends when you stop believing, love ends when you stop caring, friendship ends when you stop sharing”
Lucy, Snez
Dolphins room news
We’d like to begin this newsletter by welcoming Charlotte to our room. Charlotte has an older sister Eva in the Kinder room. Hello Charlotte, thank you for joining us in the Dolphin’s room. We’re sure you’ll have a fun time getting to know everyone and everything around Brenbeal.
What a lovely start to Autumn we’ve had. It was Summerish type of weather to begin with but now the cold weather has started to set in. The children enjoy being outdoors during any type of weather and we promote this play. Please be sure to pack coats, warm hats, multiple changes of clothing AND extra footwear. Your child may even like to bring their own umbrella if they have one. We’ll explain to the children that umbrellas are only to be used outdoors where there’s a lot of room to move about with them. Feel free to visit www.nwf.org/be-out-there/things-to-do/fun-in-any-weather.aspx to have a read of some articles written about outdoor play in all kind of weather. One of the articles describes why play in rain is an important learning tool for children (pgs 4 and 5). To find out more about the importance of outdoor play, “like” the Facebook page named “Be Out There”. It has some great tips for play activities and has beautiful photos of children and families engaging in play together.
Thank you to the parents that attended our parent/carer interviews last month. We had a great response. It was lovely to have the opportunity to sit down with you and discuss your child in a relaxed manner. We’ve taken on board any tips that you’ve suggested and we really value your thoughts. As we usually do, when we find out more about your child and what their interests are, we implement activities based upon their interests. If at any time you’d like to speak with us, please see the educators of our room to organise a suitable day and time to meet up. Usually every second Thursday at any time throughout the day is best suited to us as we have allocated time out of the room for program planning.
Currently the children are showing even more signs of becoming independent. They are great helpers and have been wiping tables, cleaning chairs, feeding the fish, stripping the bedding from their beds, putting on their shoes, taking responsibility for their clothing items (e.g. hats go in the hat basket, if shoes come off they go in the lockers). It’s wonderful to see the children blossom before our eyes. We’ve been encouraging them to at least have a go themselves before stepping in to offer help. Sometimes children doubt their own abilities. We have high expectations of the children in our care and we believe that they truly can do something, even if not right away, over time. Well done children on your fantastic efforts.
Our Family and Friends album is filling up fast. A HUGE thank you to the families that have contributed to this album. The children have been flicking through the album on a daily basis and have been talking about what each of the children and their families are doing in the photos. In some cases the album is being used as a comforter to ease children’s separation anxiety as the children look at photos that are familiar to them. We also have photos on our photo wall that children can take off and put back on at anytime throughout the day and they can carry them around with them if they wish. These too are wonderful comforters. Some of the children have been known to sleep with these photos next to them during sleep/rest time periods. It’s nice to see the children look at the photos as they drift off to sleep. Maybe the children are left with feelings of love and dream lovely, sweet dreams xoxo
We have changed the location of our sign in/out book. Instead of it being on the right side of the fish tank, it’s now on the left. We’ve added all 5 areas of the Victorian Early Years Learning Development Framework to the display wall above so you can have a better understanding of what each of the outcomes mean. As an example, we’ve been growing our own vegetables and the children have been a part of this through all the stages. The children poured in the soil, planted the vegetables, covered them up and have watered them on a daily basis. A suitable outcome for this would be - Outcome 2 Community; Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment, show growing appreciation and care for natural and constructed environments. The breakdown of this would be: 2 which is: Community the second outcome of the EYLF, area/section 4 which is: Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment, point 5 show growing appreciation and care for natural and constructed environments = 2.4.5. Over time you will come to know what each of the outcomes mean so you’ll be able to read what 2.4.5 actually means.
Our Interactive Journal (I.J as it’s known to us) is also placed in this area now. We try our best to write entries on a daily basis as we feel it’s important for families to know and see what their children did throughout the day. We mostly do this with photos but sometimes we use catalogue cut outs to depict what activities the children were involved in or we just write up a few notes without adding any photos. Parents are welcome to write any comments in the I.J as well. This is a wonderful communication tool. We’ll start using this as a communication tool not only for families to see what the children have done, but also for us to hand over information. An example could be a child has wet clothing in his/her bag so we’ll write about why that child has wet clothing to inform families. We’ll allocate a section on the right side of our write up of the I.J.
Children say the funniest things while being serious as they say it. Without them knowing that it’s sometimes not the nicest of things to say, we turn around what they’ve said by saying “How about you use another word instead?” and we offer them some positive suggestions. We explain that such and such is sad by saying “That’s not a nice word to use, ........ is becoming upset. Words like “bum bum” are common and once one child begins to say it, it becomes a chain reaction with the other children. They mimic one another and this sometimes leads to children becoming upset by those words. Feelings are talked about in our room every day. Reflecting on this, sometimes we talk about feelings without even planning for it. General conversations are important and valued conversations. A lot can be learnt by hearing just one statement. Whether it’s remembered or not by the children though is another story.
We have some new resources for the children which we’ve used within our program. The home corner area is commonly used so we’ve purchased some woven baby doll carry baskets and containers that have been made of recycled food wrappers. There are also other bits and pieces that we’ve incorporated into our program such as wooden fencing for the animals, mushrooms for the little people/fairy area and various sized baskets. Curiosity got the better of the children and as soon as the new items were added, the children began using them right away.