July 2018 Newsletter

Here we are again almost at the end of July. I hope you have all been well, especially as it has been so cold. Please remember to keep your little people home if they are unwell, it does stop the spread of infection in the child care centre and they really need that home time to recover.

All is going well with our children here at Puss in Boots Early Childhood Education Centre. It’s amazing to see how they are developing and learning. They are enjoying their Japanese classes with Miss Suzi as well as yoga with Miss Naomi on a weekly basis while the younger children enjoy Hush Little Baby music classes with Miss Demi. They are such happy beans and we share lots of laughs and fun times during the day. We as early childhood educators really have the best job in the world.

Staff wise we have a great caring team. Miss Satoko is back with us on a more permanent basis from 13 August. Her temporary visa has now been granted and it is so lovely to have her back at Puss in Boots Child Care Centre knowing she is well and happy. Our new male member of staff Mitchell is fitting in well with our team and doing a great job. All my other staff who are studying are progressing well. Miss Nicole who has just completed her Diploma is now studying for her Bachelor of Education – Early Childhood & Primary.

My family and I went to Darwin for several days for Tracy’s Graduation. After 7 years of study she is now a registered teacher with a Bachelor of Teaching and Learning Early Childhood – great news. Congratulations to the girls keep up the good work.

Please remember if you have any concerns at all call in to see us in the office and we will endeavour to help you with them. The Child Care Centre is at the moment very involved in building a website; we have never had one so this is a positive step forward for us.

Several reminders:-

• Please remember to sign your child in and out on the days that they attend the child care centre. This is very important as it is a regulation which we have to comply with.
• Please remember to inform the child care centre if your child is not attending for whatever reason.
• Please ensure you send along a change of clothes in your child’s bag daily.
• Please ensure you send along a sheet weekly.
• Please make sure all your child’s belongings are clearly marked.
• Be aware that we are a healthy eating child care centre; therefore please send along healthy snacks for your children. For suggestions come and see us in the office for ideas.

Till next time. Stay safe, well and happy and thank you all again for allowing us to care and educate your children – it is a great privilege.

Kindest Regards,

Pamie – Owner/Director

Puss in Boots Child Care Centre Room Leaders for 2018

Nursery: Miss Nandi
Toddlers: Miss Linda
Junior Kindergarten 1: Miss Christy
Junior Kindergarten 2:
Miss Jo Kindergarten 2: Miss Leisa Preschool: Miss Tracy

Upcoming Events

1 August – Hush Little Baby (Nursery/Toddlers/Junior Kindergarten 1) and ongoing every 2nd Wednesday
8 August – Evergreen Children’s Theatre (Junior Kindergarten 2/Kindergarten 2/Preschool)
15 August – Public Holiday – RNA Show
29 August – Cheeky Monkeys (Junior Kindergarten 2/Kindergarten 2/Preschool) – is part of the set curriculum for the Children who attend on Wednesdays – ($5.00 per month)

End of Year Dates to Remember

22 & 23 August (Wednesday/Thursday) – Child care centre photos (All Rooms)
3 November (Saturday) – Parent Educator Interviews – 9.00am to 12.00noon
25 November (Sunday) – Puss in Boots Family Christmas Picnic – 9.00am to 11.00am
1 December (Saturday) – Preschool Graduation – 1.00pm to 3.00 pm

More information will follow….

Extra Curricular Activities

• Tennis – Every Tuesday 2.5 yrs to 5 yrs
• SuperKidz – Every Wednesday 2 yrs to 5 yrs
• Physikids – Every Thursday 2yrs to 5 yrs

If you would like your child to attend in 2018 please add your child’s name to the displays in the foyer.

Reminders

• Haircuts (monthly) – please add your child’s name to the form above the sign in/out attendance sheets in the foyer.
• Update of family details/contact numbers/new address/change in emergency contact persons. Should any of these changes occurred please advise Trish.
• Update of Immunisation records. Please provide the MyGov record to Trish so she can update your records. Please be advised if your immunisations are not up to date Centrelink will cancel your CCS.

Babysitting Services

In addition to our Morningside child care centre, Puss in Boots offers a babysitting service to our families. If you wish to take up the offer please email Trish at pibccc@bigpond.com with the details and we organise one of our educators to babysit your child/ren.

It is now a Centre policy for families to sign an agreement which needs to be completed and returned prior to the babysitting occurring. An agreement will be emailed to you when your babysitting request is received at the office.

Our rates are below:-
One Child $25 per hour
Two Children $30 per hour
Three Children $35 per hour
Four Children $40 per hour
Five Children $45 per hour

What is happening at our Morningside Child Care Centre…

Nursery

We are already halfway through the year! I would just like to inform all the families that while I was in South Africa for a month visiting families and friends that Miss Etty and Miss Lu did a fabulous job in the room while I was away.

Welcomes & Birthdays
We would just like to welcome Alexander and his family to the nursery room. We hope that you will enjoy your journey with us. We would also just like to say goodbye to Alexandra and want to wish them the best of luck with their big move to New Zealand. Teddy and Hunter have had a good transition to the toddler room and are really happy in their new environment. Frankie and Georgia celebrated their 1st Birthdays recently and we would just like to wish them a Happy 1 st Birthday!

Just a reminder to please name all your child’s clothing and belongings. We also would just like to remind you that you are welcome to look through your child’s profile book at any time to see what they have been up to. The children loves to look at their families and pets on our family tree wall so if you haven’t had the chance to add some photos yet please send some in to share with us.

Activities
The nursery children has been really busy this last two months, ocean life visited our child care centre and gave all of us the opportunity to explore our ocean life, the children touched and saw sea stars, spiky sea urchins, turtles and a baby shark. We also engaged in some fine motor skill activities as we enjoyed sticking our fingers in the play dough and using crayons to create beautiful drawings. We also enjoyed dot painting and playing with coloured spaghetti using our sensory capabilities.

We are pleased to see how each child has been meeting their developmental milestones as the children are becoming more verbal and starting to walk or show interest in walking.

We would just like to thank all the families for sharing their child’s interest through the family input we enjoy to extend on their interest through activities and new adventures. Don’t forget to look at our curriculum wall as your child’s day is documented there.

Please feel free to discuss with us any concerns you may have or ideas to improve our practices.

Thank you, Miss Nandi, Miss Etty and Miss Lu

Toddlers

That month has gone past like lightening. We are half way through the year already….where has the time gone! We have had such a busy time in the toddler room.

New Arrivals & Goodbyes
Teddy and Hunter have made their new room like their home and have settled in so well. The transition went smooth for all the children. They love to explore and are always showing great interest and curiosity in all areas of their new surroundings. We are very happy to welcome Jacob to Puss In Boots. He is a beautiful child. All children have formed new friendships with each other and enjoy the learning experience they share together. We all had a sad time saying goodbye to Grace as she moved to the Sunshine Coast with her family to start their new life adventure.

Cooking
We had a fantastic cooking experience this month. We had a sausage sizzle, which was a big hit with everyone. The children helped prepare the food for cooking. They got to experience the different tastes and textures of the food, cheese, onions etc. The children responded verbally and non-verbally to what they could see, touch, taste and smell.

We can see a big change in all of our children’s development. Across all areas the children are thriving and a growing.

Birthdays
We celebrated Tabiianna’s second birthday on the 2nd June. We all sang Happy Birthday to Tabiianna. She was very happy and proud.

Activities
This month has been another magical world of art. We enjoyed ball-rolling painting prints, dot painting, finger painting etc.… The children have so much fun getting involved with sensory and messy play. We display all our art work in the room for all to see. We had Hush Little Baby again this month which is our Early Childhood Music Classes. The children really enjoy listening to the songs, nursery rhyme, stories and puppet show. It’s truly a wonderful experience for the children to be involved in.

Thank you to all our families who take time to do the Family Input. We love hearing about your weekends and sharing with friends.

Thank you, Miss Linda, Miss Renee and Miss Maria

Junior Kindergarten 1

We can’t believe we’re half way through the year already. It’s so pleasing to see the developments in the children here at our Morningside Kindergarten, from their interactions, understanding of concepts, progression in their language, toilet training and much more.

Activities
Over the last couple of months the children have engaged in many different activities emerging from their interests, abilities, needs and family experiences. During our meal times we have discussed our food, in regards to texture, shape of the food, comparing foods and the importance of healthy eating. We have also read several books, asking open ended questions to promote language and discussed parts of a book (title, spine, beginning, end, author etc.) Doll play has been very popular over the last couple of months. The play has promoted discussion about nurturing, using our ‘gentle hands’ and the awareness of the needs of babies. It has also tied in well with some of our mums expecting and the arrival of siblings.

The children have participated in many art experiences, from drawing, string painting, dishmop painting, marble painting, fine brush painting, dot (Aboriginal) painting and Perspex board painting. A lot of focus has been on the colours used in the paintings, developing awareness. Some of the children have also enjoyed exploring the paint with their hands and fingers.

We have also been working on building up our peer relationships and being mindful of others. We have done a lot of group games/songs and have encouraged the children to help each other while walking along the stepping stones or tyres, handing out the water bottles and taking turns when using the equipment. The children have also shown a lot of interest in letters. They are becoming familiar with their initial letters and more recently, they are developing recognition of other word/letter sounds.

Play Experiences
The children have also participated in many dramatic play experiences, from dress ups, doctor play, shop play and hairdresser play and they have also assisted in the preparation of Taco mince lasagne and Vegetable lasagne for lunch. During the cooking experiences they have learnt many skills, from turn taking, colour recognition, cooking techniques and quantity.

Group times have been an opportunity to participate in whole group learning from discussions about bike and fire safety, the importance of plants, animals and humans needing food and water, to discussions about gender, counting and much more.

New Friends & Birthdays
We welcomed our new friends Taylor, Sarah and Cairo from the toddler room and Louis has settled in very well to his new environment. In May and June we celebrated some milestones, with Samuel (Ziggy), Olivia, Zavir and Sarah all turning two. Toilet training has been going very well. It’s pleasing to see the toileting success when we work in collaboration with our families. Thank you to all our families too for providing us with family input on a regular basis. It’s much appreciated.

Thank you, Miss Chris and Miss Leanne

Junior Kindergarten 2

A big hello to our parents and families at PIB and particular the Morningside Kindergarten 2 parents and families. It is hard to believe this year is already half gone! Time flies when you’re having fun and we have all been having fun as we learn in Junior Kindergarten 2!!

Activities
During our morning group times the children are continuing to learn and recognise the days of the week, the weather and greet their friends. We are now incorporating looking at the calendar each day learning the months of the year. We are also talking about the seasons and the effect the seasons have on our natural environment and the phases of the moon. We have had several areas where the children have been displaying interest and eagerness to learn more about. We followed children’s interests in campfire which the children can now use in their dramatic play. We sat and warmed our hands and toasted marshmallows too!!

The children’s interest in fires also expanded to include bushfires and helicopters that help put them out which also gave us opportunities to talk about fire safety.

The children have been developing their fine-motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination through ongoing activities of drawing, painting, constructing and using scissors. The children are very keen to use the scissors and have been developing their cutting skills by using scissors to cut a variety of materials – paper, cardboard, masking tape and straw.

Children’s Classics
One of the areas that all the children are showing a lot of interest in is Fairy Tales especially “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs”. The children have been retelling parts of the stories word for word. We made a straw house for the first little pig for use in dramatic play which was almost demolished when dinosaurs decided to dance on its roof! We’ve decided to make a stronger straw house and a stick house, plus the brick house. We now have the big bad wolf and three little puppets which the children are having a lot of fun using.

Child Care Centre Materials & Sustainability
We are continuing to use recycled materials in our art and crafts and made signs for our rubbish bins, one for rubbish and one for recycling. The children were eager to make mobiles from the recycled and repurposed CD’s. They have shown a lot of interest in light, shadow and reflections and enjoy the light spots and reflections the mobiles create in the outdoor play area.

The children are still enjoying yoga, stretching, ball games and pretty much any activity we can think of that develops their gross-motor skills. Recently we have been learning the names of a few bones on our bodies and singing “Dry Bones”.

All the children are displaying their knowledge of colours and shapes in their play along with their growing knowledge of letters of the alphabet and numbers.

We are still missing some photos on our family photo wall. Please send some in if you can. The children really love seeing family photos on the wall.

Message Book
Thank you for using the Junior Kindergarten 2 message book on top of the lockers. It is great for keeping communication flowing if we haven’t spoken to you. Once again thanks for all the wonderful family input. It makes a big difference in our program as we find out what is of interest and important to your children.

Until next time.

Thank you, Miss Jo and Miss Alice

Kindergarten 2

Children and educators have had a very busy past few months with lots of fun and learning in our Morningside Kindergarten 2 room.

Our mat times have presented many opportunities for children to interact verbally and non-verbally with others to individually share their stories from home, their interests and their weekly and weekend adventures. Children are confidently communicating by recalling events, sharing knowledge and are actively listening to questions asked by their peers and educators and answering them appropriately.

Activities
We have used these mat times to investigate the Gold Coast Marathon; why hens lay soft eggs; what happened in medieval times; Lone Pine Koala sanctuary; how does Australia Zoo Wildlife hospital help sick or injured animals; what happens at an offshore drilling rig; how do batteries and electricity work; our ocean environment and how to protect sea creatures; why is recycling important and what can we do to be sustainable at home and at Puss in Boots. Kindergarten 2 children have been able to exchange ideas, knowledge and feelings about these topics through play experiences.

Home corner play is popular as ever with children expressing their creativity and imagination through role and pretend play. They have explored relationships from home and the child care centre and made connections between experiences and processes as they take on family roles and act them out. We have experienced many backyard BBQ’s with many different meats and vegetables being cooked. Children have followed their interest in cooking and pretended to be chefs using the recipe books as a guide for their imaginary restaurant play. A hairdressing salon was set up and children enjoyed watching in the mirror as their hair was done and children were able to extend on their own learning by introducing a makeup artist. Children have pretended to be parents while they care for the dolls and have demonstrated various emotions as they act out different parenting scenarios. Children have demonstrated respectful relationships with peers and engaged in meaningful conversations where scripts for their dramatic play have been created.

Experiments!
Kindergarten 2 children, with help from their early childhood educators, created a controlled experiment where children investigated how seedlings grow best. They first germinated some seedlings in wet paper towel until shoots appeared. These were then placed in test tubes (one filled with water, one with sand and one with soil) to determine the best environment. Through observation each day the children concluded that water was the best. During this experiment children were able to develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, hypothesising and investigating.

The construction area has been a hive of activity with amazing projects being built. From the Gateway bridge to boats, to tunnels, to waterfalls, to houses, to police and fire stations, children have used trial and error to overcome challenges associated with balance and construction and have overcome all obstacles. Their play has led to extensions in community awareness and the importance of emergency services. They have used recycled cardboard boxes to create houses, 3-D trees, tunnels, bridges and people and have been able to contribute in different ways through this project. This has given the children the opportunity to feel a sense of achievement and to be proud of their efforts.

Japanese & Yoga
Japanese lessons are progressing well with many children singing songs throughout the day in Japanese. Yoga is popular and children are enjoying the sense of calm and harmony they feel after participating and are using language to explain these emotions and feelings. In August we will be participating in the Premier’s Reading Challenge and we will be asking families to bring in their children’s favourite storybooks and to read to their children at home as well. More information will be sent out shortly.

Yours in fun and learning.

Thank you, Miss Leisa, Miss Dora and Miss Tricia

Preschool

It’s hard to believe we are half way through July already! Our Schools for Next Year list is filling up quickly. This is a great way share what school your child will be attending next year. We held our Parent/Educator chats last Saturday 28th July. These were very informal discussions and we hope we answered any concerns that you might have that require addressing before now and the end of the year. There will be more interviews held towards the end of the year. We also had our Starting School Presentation was held last Wednesday evening 25th of July. It was very informative and a copy of the slides will be forwarded to the Preschool families. It’s been a busy couple of months with lots of achievements. Thank you to everyone who contributes to our curriculum through your Family Input, conversations and Show and Tells. It certainly makes for a fun and varied curriculum with lots of relevant learning for the children. We have noticed lots more contributions to the Preschooler’s Strength Trees which is lovely to read. Please keep adding to these as we will throughout the year. Also, our Family Photo Wall is looking great and is always a great source of conversation for the children, so if you haven’t sent along a photo already, one would greatly be appreciated.

Children’s Shows
We have had a couple of great shows visit us over the last couple of months. We had Deadly Australians, where a wonderful presenter introduced the children to some of Australia’s most deadly creatures. Then we had a presentation called Street Science where another great presenter came along and included the children in some interesting experiments. It was a great morning for the children and Early Childhood Educators as well.

Excursions
Towards the end of May the Preschoolers went on a small excursion up to Morningside State School for Under 8’s Day. A great time was had by all. The children visited different displays and enjoyed some great hands on experiences including face painting, playdough, bubble blowing, dancing and meeting Constable Albert who is the school’s adopted Policeman. The children were able to have a look inside a real police car and have a group photo taken. We hope to make this an annual excursion and also thank our parent volunteers for coming along.

Activities
Our Funky Yoga on Friday’s had been well received by the Preschooler’s and is something we all look forward to each week. We have been able to purchase a ‘breathing ball’ and have some lovely relaxation sessions during the week. We have also had Eyedeal Optometrists come to the child care centre and give some of the children an eye test. They did a number of simple eye tests which the children were all very interested in.

After a trip to Darwin back in May, I bought the Preschooler’s back a painting of the Rainbow Serpent to hang in the room. We spent a couple of days discussing the story and using a variety of recycled items to recreate our own Rainbow Serpent. What the children produced was just wonderful and can be seen hanging up in the room. Also, a few weeks back we shared a newspaper article about the new baby Elephant born down in the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. The children spent a morning using information found on Google to recreate the home the Elephants would have at the zoo. We were able to borrow some toy Elephants from Miss Jo and Miss Chris, and they used a variety material and their imaginations to complete the task. We have also entered in a competition to name the baby girl and will keep you posted on any results we might have.

We also shared an article about a little Frog that was bought back to life with CPR by a very kind reptile handler. This was extended on using YouTube to find other examples and also how and why CPR is performed on people. For Show and Tell one day, Madilyn bought along a snail she found in her garden and the children spent the morning using our tablet to look at other sorts of snails and slugs and learn about their various habits and habitats. They were also able to find some different ones in our box of insects. Lucy May shared a lovely experience she had at the Wishing Well at Carindale for Show and Tell one day. She bought in a great money box that was made from a recycled tin. She did a great job. We extended on this and watched a YouTube video of the Trevi Fountain in Rome where people throw a coin in and make a wish, just like Lucy did at the wishing well.

Cooking
We had a great cooking experience making Bangers and Mash but also adding some peas which the children shelled themselves and ate some raw. Shelling peas is no easy task but they all worked together well to get the task done. Again YouTube came in handy to see how the peas grow. It was a delicious lunch.

Skills
Reading Eggs has been going well with children now all mastering the use of the ‘mouse’ and enjoying the interactive early literacy activities. We have also been continuing on with our Fine Motor activities, cutting, threading, tweezers, writing and using our wonderful manipulative box for all sorts of different things. We have even started to work on simple shoelace tying. If you have any questions about our curriculum or have anything that you would like to contribute, please feel free to speak to Miss Nicole, Mr Jack or myself.

Until next time.

Thank you, Miss Tracy, Miss Nicole and Mr Jack