MARCH 2016
14 APRIL Kindy Photo Day 25 APRIL CLOSED Anzac Day Public Holiday 28 APRIL Grandparents Day 2 MAY
CLOSED Labour Day Public Holiday
4 MAY
Mother’s Day Morning Tea
“As soon as children find something that interests them, they lose their instability and learn to concentrate” — DR. MARIA MONTESSORI —
Hillcrest Christian College Kindy has been a hive of activity the last few weeks with lots of fun things happening within our 3 Kindy classrooms. Our visit from the reptile show ‘Crocodiles and Dragons’ was a great experience for our children to learn about the different types of species of animals and their habitats. We also had a dental health visit that was organised by a fellow Kindy Parent who owns a dental practice. This was a great opportunity for your Kindy children to learn about why it is important to look after your teeth and the healthy foods that we need to eat to keep our teeth healthy and strong. It was great to see all our Kindy children join in with their crazy hair styles for Crazy Hair Day. Thank you for your gold coin donations that will go towards the Leukaemia Foundation in raising such vital funds for a worthy cause. As Easter is nearly here our Kindy children have also been learning about Easter and the true meaning of Easter. When Jesus was on the cross He was not angry at the soldiers who nailed him to the cross, instead Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23: 34). Through this situation Jesus still showed love and compassion to others. Then 3 days later after Jesus died it was the happiest day as Jesus had risen from the dead and because of this we can have new life in Him. Our Kindy children have also been doing some lovely Easter artwork in reflection of Easter and the cross.
God bless,
HILLCREST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE EARLY LEARNING COMMUNITY LONG DAY CARE / KINDY 21 Bridgman Drive REEDY CREEK Q 4227 PO Box 2503 BURLEIGH WATERS Q 4220 07 5593 4226 hillcrest.qld.edu.au kindy@hillcrest.qld.edu.au
HOURS OF OPERATION
6.30am – 6.00pm KINDY DIRECT LINE
5655 0910
ALICIA SHIELDS Director of Early Learning Community
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kindy news “Play is nature’s way of teaching children how to solve their own problems, control their impulses, modulate their emotions, see from others’ perspectives, negotiate differences and get along with others as equals. There is no substitute for play as a means of learning these skills.” — PETER GRAY — (FREE TO LEARN)
SIGNING YOUR CHILD IN & OUT / ABSENT DAYS Please remember to sign your child in and out each time your child attends Kindy. Parents are also required to sign for absent days if your child is away and also for public holidays. If you are entitled to Child Care Benefit or Child Care Rebate (even if you are intending to claim at the end of the financial year) please sign for your child’s absent days or any other day such as public holidays your child does not attend Kindy. KINDY PHOTO DAY Our Kindy photo day will be on Thursday 14th April. Each Kindy class will be having their own class photo on this day. We are yet to finalise times for the class photo’s so we will let you know as soon as this has been confirmed with the photo company. If your child does not attend Kindy on a Thursday and you would like your child to be included in the class photo and also have an individual photo taken please know that you able to bring in your child for their class photo. I will send out an email to all parents once we know class photo times. HEALTHY LUNCHBOXES Please ensure that your child has a healthy, nutritious lunch box packed for their day at Kindy and that there is adequate food for your child. We ask that lollies and chocolates are not sent to Kindy but rather foods such as fruit, cheese and crackers, sandwiches and yogurt are great for your child’s lunch box. If you are after some healthy lunch box ideas please have a look at the link http://raisingchildren.net.au/ articles/packing_healthy_lunches.html for some different nutritious lunch box options. BRINGING TOYS TO KINDY A friendly reminder that we discourage
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children bringing their toys to Kindy as sometimes these toys can get lost or broken. We have amble resources within our Kindy for children to access through their play experiences and ask that your child’s toys be kept at home. Show and Tell is an opportunity for children to bring an item of interest to discuss with their peers such as shells from a day the beach, pictures from a family holiday or things that our Kindy children may be discussing within their programs in their room. Parents are more than welcome to email pictures from your weekend through to your child’s teacher for show and tell. PARENT FEEDBACK SURVEY So we can look at ways to improve our Kindy program we would love to hear your feedback. Please complete the parent survey attached to this email and let us know your feedback in regards to your child’s first term with us at Hillcrest Christian College Kindy. Please feel free to email the survey back to Alicia directly or drop your completed survey into the Kindy admin. POLICY REVIEWS In the Kindy admin area the policies that are currently under review are: •
Policy 2.1 – Health & Hygiene Practices
•
Policy 2.2 – Safe Food Handling
•
Policy 2.3 – Nutrition: Food and Beverages
•
Policy 2.4 – Sleep and Rest
If you have any feedback or input into any of the above policies please let us know. We value and appreciate your feedback and contribution into our policies reviews.
LIBRARY BORROWING ROSTER With the parent feedback that we have received regarding the rotational library roster we have decided to trial a monthly library roster to save confusion on when each Kindy class has their library day. By doing a monthly Kindy roster each Kindy class will know that what their day is for the month and each child will be able to have their library book for the week. The library roster for term 2 is below. If you have any questions regarding the roster please don’t hesitate to talk to Alicia or your child’s Kindy teacher. APRIL 2016 MONDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
11th April – Kindy 1
14th April – Kindy 2
15th April – Kindy 3
18th April – Kindy 1
21st April – Kindy 2
22nd April – Kindy 3
25th April – Public Holiday
28th April – Kindy 2
29th April – Kindy 3
MAY 2016 MONDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
2nd May – Public Holiday
5th May – Kindy 1
6th May – Kindy 2
9th May – Kindy 3
12th May – Kindy 1
13th May – Kindy 2
16th May – Kindy 3
19th May – Kindy 1
20th May – Kindy 2
23rd May – Kindy 3
26th May – Kindy 1
27th May – Kindy 2
MONDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
30th May – Kindy 2
2nd June – Kindy 3
3rd June – Kindy 1
6th June – Kindy 2
9th June – Kindy 3
10th June – Kindy 1
13th June – Kindy 2
16th June – Kindy 3
17th June - Kindy 1
20th June – Kindy 2
22nd June – Kindy 3
23rd June – Kindy 1
JUNE 2016
“I love Kindy because I get to do puzzles, painting and I like
to watch Murtle the turtle swim around
with the other fish.” — ANNABELLE —
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kindy class news KINDY 1 NEWS
KINDY 2 NEWS
Can you believe it is nearly the end of March already?! We have been busy this month extending on the children’s interest in animals. We were lucky enough to have Brian from Crocodiles and Dragons come in and share his knowledge of reptiles and amphibians with us. The children were very excited to have an interactive show where they were able to touch the animals and ask any questions they had. They also enjoyed sharing with Brian the knowledge that they had already gained regarding these creatures in previous discussions. We saw a crocodile, turtle, a beautiful albino python, a green tree frog, blue tongue lizard and a bearded dragon.
What a busy and productive month we’ve had in the Kindy 2 room! We started the month transforming our home corner into a café which was selected by the class. The children used their prior knowledge to brainstorm ideas of what our café should include and we worked through the list. During our group times we researched menus and then worked to create our own using a mixture of drawings and writing. We made a ‘Kindy 2 café’ sign with the children writing the letters, as well as creating food items during craft time and creating signs for these. We also researched and created our own recipes for the area and this led to a hands on cooking experience making banana muffins.
We moved on with a new focus, space and dinosaurs, after Indie brought in some pictures he had made at home of some dinosaurs. This sparked a lot of interest amongst the children about dinosaurs, what they might have eaten, where they might have lived and how they might have died. We collaborated with the children to get as many answers as we could through web searches and you tube. The children became fascinated with the idea that a huge asteroid could have hit earth and killed all the dinosaurs. This then sparked another focus on space. We learnt about our solar system, stars, the moon, asteroids, the Milky Way and the different planets in our solar system. The children had lots of fun painting the planets that Mr Brad made for us to create our very own solar system.
With the focus on food we began to move on to healthy eating and living, spending our group times learning about foods that give our bodies lots of energy, as well as learning about germs and the importance of practicing good hygiene through hand washing. This coincided with a class visit from a dentist who showed us how to brush our teeth properly and everyone got to have a turn at coming up and brushing the teeth mould. This was a great opportunity for the children to share their learning about healthy eating when the dentist asked what foods are good for our teeth! We are now moving in to learning about the human body and have transformed our home corner again into a doctor’s surgery. The class have shown a great interest in this area and we have seen lots of collaborative play as well as our learning focuses being included into their play episodes.
This month we also welcomed a new addition to the class. A humongous fish tank complete with fish, a yabby and a turtle. We have fondly named the turtle ‘Murtle’ and each of the fish have their own names too. The children absolutely love the tank and can often be seen watching Murtle and his friends swimming around the tank. It is providing lots of enjoyment amongst the children and teachers. We feel truly blessed to be gifted this fish tank by Max and his family.
KATIE MATHESON Early Childhood Teacher
We also had a visit from the Crocodiles and Dragons show to extend on the interest in animals that we have seen across all of the classes. During the show we learned about carnivores, herbivores, camouflage, hibernation, nocturnal animals and scales. The children had the opportunity to observe and touch a blue tongue lizard, bearded dragon, turtle, snake and a crocodile. To follow up on the show we created a habitat for the plastic animals using dirt, sand, sticks and other natural materials. We have seen the children make great use for this area, often adding the trucks and cars when not using the animals. We are excited to see what the next month brings for the Kindy 2 room!
ALANA HURST Early Childhood Teacher 4 | HILLCREST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE KINDY CAPERS 2016
KINDY 3 NEWS We have continued on our animal theme in Kindy 3 throughout March. The children have been very intrigued in this topic, and we have continued to look at a wide variety of animal types. This was encouraged further by an amazing visit from Brian and his Crocodiles and Dragons show. The children learnt that reptiles are cold blooded animals meaning that they need the sun to warm them up. We also learnt some great vocabulary surrounding the reptiles eating and sleeping habits. Carnivores eat meat, herbivores eat plants, and omnivores eat meat and plants – people are omnivores! By the end of the show every child worked up the confidence to pat at least one animal, and we all had a photo with the Albino Carpet Python at the end of the show. Other creatures we saw and patted included a frog, a central bearded dragon, some blue tongue lizards, a turtle, and even a baby crocodile! The children enjoyed sharing with Brian about our pet lizard too! During our follow up discussions the children decided they would like to create their own reptile show. We worked collaboratively in the writing area to make a poster for our show, and we have looked closely at the RWI letters for different reptiles (L for lizards, T for turtles, F for frogs, S for snakes, R for reptiles). The children are taking a greater interest in the writing table at the moment and we are using this as an opportunity to extend on their understanding that speech can be written down. We have been making books in which the children are drawing pictures and asking the teachers to scribe the words for them. Some children are also experimenting with making marks on paper, while others are tracing the RWI posters with their fingers. We are using a variety of provocations in this area to promote name writing and pencil grip, as well as incorporating this into our daily routines by asking the children to trace and glue their dotted name tags onto their art works. We have also enjoyed Crazy Hair Day, Harmony Day and Easter preparations this month. Thank you for your wonderful effort and generous donations on Crazy Hair Day. The children all looked amazing, had loads of fun, and we raised some important funds for the leukaemia foundation.
HOPE GATELY Early Childhood Teacher
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