Balcombe Pre-School Newsletter Term 2 2013 by Magneto Design

NEWSLETTER Term 2 - 2013

The Working Bee dates for this year are: Sunday 21st July: 9am - 12pm Sunday 13th October: 9am - 12pm Sunday 24th November: 9am - 12pm

The Teachers

Welcome to Term 2 newsletter for 2013! In This Issue: The 2013 Committee Presidents Report Important Dates 4 Year Old Teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Report 4 Year Old Teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Report Seals & Sea Stars Photos Dolphin, Lobster & Penguin Photos The Turtles Photos Social and Fundraising Report

2 3 3 4 6 8 16 24 28

The 2013 Committee Eliza

Jessica

Jessie

Kerri

Kellie

Lee

Natalie

Position Name

President/Public Officer Secretary Treasurer Enrolment Officer (4yr old) Enrolment Officer(3yr old) Website Manager IT Officer Maintenance Officer(Gardens) Maintenance Officer(Playground) Maintenance Officer(Indoor) National Quality Framework Staff Liaison Officer Party Officer Fundraising/Social General Committee

Chris Britt Kate Robinson Renee Skipsey Sally Fisher Sam Howard Tim Curtis Merran Wood Victoria Smith Jo Mackay Melinda Binder

Administration Officer Office Hours: Thursdays 10:30-3:15

Glenys Hodgson

Claire Dyer Merran Wood Marie Williams Renee Skipsey Kirsten Beshara Rachel Drysdale Kerryn Heffer Suzanne Fahey Liz Andrews Sasha Balchin Liz Andrews Jill Ford Pamela Moore Karen Lewis Geoff Lawyer Decima Chadd Melanie Robinson Melinda Binder Wayne Binding Amanda Curtis Marie Williams Suzanne Fahey Julie Kendall Prue Richards

From The President I know we seem to say it every year at this time how this year has flown nearly into Term 3 already. Its been fantastic to get to know many families in my new role as President. Just a big thanks to our past president Luke Woods on his achievements and dedication to this role. To all the Staff led by Eliza and Jessica your dedication, enthusiastic and passionate nature within all your roles has been such a blessing to the children and parents. Each child is cared for as an individual and respected for their particular personalities wants and needs, all the staff make is a wonderful place to learn and grow and they allow the children time to adjust and fit in which is so precious in this busy world we now live in.

In Term 2 we were able to gather together both past and present committee members to celebrate a milestone on accomplishing a successful 15 hour pilot program which was able to fund the new meeting room and staff office. We had the local council and state member present at unveil the plaque and also we were able to open up the totem pole tile area thanks to all who were involved Thanks to Tim Curtis and the launch of the new website this will enable us to communicate information sharing more streamline in the future. Take care all of the wonderful staff and families over this coming holidays’.

Thanks to the tireless work the maintence committee has undertaken to successful working bees also on a great note we Please don’t hesitate to contact me if need be. have been able to get a retired local handy man to do some of the bigger jobs which puts less pressure on the working bee Christopher Britt days. 0478 676 316 Within the next up coming Terms we will have some major works happening in the upper playground with some of the items in our Master plan playground to be ticked off keep your eyes open for these.

IMPORTANT DATES IN TERM 3 Term Three Begins:

Tuesday 16th July. On Monday 15th July, all staff will be participating in a planning day (with no Pre-School sessions running on this day). Thanks in advance for your understanding.

Working Bee:

Sunday 21st July (9.00am-12.00pm).

Peninsula Vet Care Visit:

Book Week: Wednesday 21st August (for children in the Dolphin, Lobster and Penguin Groups) Thursday 22nd August (for children in the Seal and Sea Star Groups) Pre-School BBQ fundraiser at Bunnings, Mornington: Sunday 25th August.

Fathers Day: Monday 5th August (for children in the Dolphin and Penguin Groups) During Term Three, the children will make some special gifts for Tuesday 6th August (for children in the Seal and Sea Star Groups) Father’s Day, however we will be holding a special ‘Dad’s Night’ once daylight savings begins and the weather becomes warmer! Responsible Pet Ownership Incursion: Further details will follow shortly ☺ Wednesday 7th August Trivia Night: (for children in the Dolphin, Lobster and Penguin Groups) Saturday 7th September. Thursday 8th August (for children in the Seal and Sea Star Groups) Australian Wildlife Incursion (Andrew Wegener): Monday 16th September Science Week: (for children in the Dolphin and Penguin Groups) Monday 12th August – Friday 16th August Tuesday 17th September Photo Day: (for children in the Seal and Sea Star Groups) Friday 9th August (for children in the Dolphin and Lobster Groups) Wednesday 18th September ( Thursday 15th August for children in the Lobster and Penguin Groups) (for children in the Seal and Sea Star Groups) Footy Day: Wednesday 21st August (for children in the Penguin Group) Wednesday 18th September Book Week: (for children in the Dolphin, Lobster and Penguin Groups) Monday 19th August – Friday 23rd August. Thursday 19th September (for children in the Seal and Sea Star Groups) Cathy Scollo (author/illustrator) Incursion:

4 Year Old Teachers Report:

News from the Seals, Sea Stars, Penguins, Lobsters & Dolphins It’s hard to believe that we’re already at the end of Term Two! Our term together started with a very special “Teddy Bears Picnic” at The Enchanted Maze. The children were excited to be part of this exciting day out and this was a wonderful opportunity for our Pre-School families and staff to come together. The children (and of course the grown-ups!) all had a lot of fun, especially on the tube slides! Following our Teddy Bears Picnic and Mum’s Afternoon Tea (where the children shared some delicious treats, performed songs and surprised their mum’s with some special gifts), learning experiences this term have been based on the children’s emerging interests, including; Camping, Wild Animals, Autumn, Food, The Environment (particularly Recycling) and Fire Safety. Our dramatic play area has been converted into a range of different scenes (which the children have loved exploring), including; Camping (in a real tent!), a Jungle and a Restaurant (building upon the children’s interest in food). The children have also enjoyed participating in a wide range of sensory- based experiences (with finger-painting, delta sand, sunflower seeds and split peas just to name a few!) Through our planning, experiences have incorporated appropriate knowledge and skills which the children have demonstrated a real thirst for (e.g. by following recipes when engaging in a range of cooking experiences or when experimenting with colourmixing using a range of mediums). In response to the children’s interest in The Environment, on Tuesday 18th June, Jenny from Bunnings visited our Pre-School to help us establish our own Worm Farm. During Jenny’s visit, we got to see a working Worm Farm and also learnt about how we can recycle our fruit and vegetable scraps from snack routines. The importance of teaching children about sustainability is described beautiful by the following quote from Stonehouse (2006); “. . . one of the most significant responsibilities we have is to support children to retain the sense of awe and wonder that they are born with, to add to that a desire to nurture and protect what is beautiful and to encourage them to appreciate that there are many possibilities for honoring life and wonders that the world holds” Through mat time discussions and the use of our ‘fruit and vegetable’ tally (used during snack routines), we continue to do our best to promote healthy eating. In response to our Nutrition and Active Play policy, we ask that you be mindful of what food is packed into your child’s lunchbox. We understand that as our year together progresses, you may need some ‘inspiration’ for new snack ideas and there are a number of fantastic resources available online (for example, by visiting http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Lunch_ boxes_healthy_ideas or http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/ lunch+box+ideas). Please let a staff member know if you would like a copy of our Nutrition and Active Play policy. On Wednesday 19th June and Thursday 20th June, we participated in Mt Martha Fire Station’s Fire Safe Kids program. This learning experience created a fantastic link to our local community (addressing Early Years Learning and Development Outcome 2: Community). The children’s awareness and understandings of fire safety were consolidated further following this excursion through a range of interactive learning experiences, including; fire-fighter dramatic play, fire-safety related songs and games as well as a range of craft-based experiences.

Thank you to all the families who came to the fire station and assisted us on our walk ☺ Over the next semester, we hope to facilitate greater connections to our community through a range of incursions and excursions (including visits from Balcombe Grammar and Mt Martha Primary). The children have been very excited to hear about the adventures of their group’s sea creature each week (as part of our new show and tell format). Sharing the sea creature’s adventures has not only helped us to learn more about one another but has also assisted in developing the children’s communication skills, sense of identity and confidence in speaking in front of others. It has also been exciting to see all sorts of interesting objects being bought in through the use of our ‘share bags’. Please remember that we’d rather not encourage the children to bring in toys, but instead focus on items that we can learn something from (for example, books, photographs or items from nature). We hope that you have found our daily program (in the black folder next to the sign-in books), photos displayed on the TV in the foyer and your child’s portfolio useful in beginning discussions with your child about their learning and time spent at Pre-School. Like last term, the children’s portfolios will be sent home during the last week of Term Two. Please feel free to contribute to these over the holidays . . . we would love to hear your thoughts, ideas and all about what you get up to over the break! This information is very useful to us and will help to inform our planning for Term Three. Have a relaxing, safe and happy break. We look forward to seeing you in Term Three!

Eliza, Jessica, Kerri, Jessie, Natalie, Lee & Kellie.

3 yEAR OLD Teacher’s Report: News from the Turtles

Term two has been nothing short of action-packed for our Turtle group! It didn’t take our three year olds long to settle back into our Saturday routines after the Term one holidays. We have had amazing support from all our parents with most Saturdays having a parent helper. Thank you and please continue to keep up the good work! Kerri and I are building fantastic relationships with The Turtle group and have noticed a vast improvement with self-esteem and confidence. Over the past 11 weeks we have been working on various outcomes from the Early Learning Framework. Some of these include….. OUTCOME 4- LEARNING. • Use play to investigate, imagine and explore ideas • For the children to take on new challenges with self –care skills and separation • Apply a wide variety of thinking strategies to engage and solve problems OUTCOME 3 – WELLBEING • For children to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect • Recognise and communicate their bodily needs • Engage in and contribute to shared play experiences • Recognise the contributions they make to shared projects and experiences OUTCOME 1 – IDENTITY • For the children to feel safe, secure and supported • Show interest in other children and being part of the group • Build secure attachments with educators • Use effective routines to help make predicted transitions run smoothly. A lot can happen in a week, especially for three to four year olds. They can learn how to ride a bike, change their minds about liking broccoli and start writing their own names. Because of this, please feel free to email and let me know what has happened in your week. Has your child got a new interest? Is there something you feel is troubling them? What’s their new favourite song? All these things can be part of our weekly program to help your child. If you would also like to talk to me about your child’s progress, I can start organising times to see parents. Next term we have three new families joining the Turtle group. A BIG welcome to you all. We are really lucky to have such a beautiful group of children to spend our Saturday mornings with! Top ten highlights from this term would be…. Playing ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ during outside time. Performing in the kinder ‘mat time’ concert. (During mat time, I ask if anyone would like to stand up and sing in front the group. Everyone claps after the person has sung their song. There is no pressure for children to get up but, most have sung at least one song.)

Top ten highlights from this term would be…. 1. Walking to the top of the yard and playing ‘hide and seek’. 2. Feeding the Lorikeets with special sunflower seeds. 3. The ‘Kinder Restaurant’ and ‘The Jungle’ in our Dramatic play corner. 4. Making foam sculptures and experimenting if they float. 5. Making robots out of recycled materials. 6. The Wiggerly Worm Dance Company. 7. Painting at the easels with autumn colours. 8. Story time with Kerri Huge congratulations, to the Donnelly family on the safe arrival of their baby girl Isla. We can’t wait to meet her and steal a cuddle!!! We hope all our families have a safe and relaxing break. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures in Term three. Jessie and Kerri

Seals & Sea Stars Photos

DolphinS, Lobsters & PenguinS Photos

TURTLES Photos

Social & Fundraising Report Mother’s Day Raffle Thank you to all families who purchased tickets for our Mother’s Day raffle. The hampers were amazing and brought in $691.05 profit. We hope all Mums who were lucky enough to win a hamper were happy with the prizes and we hope all Kinder Mums had a lovely Mother’s Day! Ladies Night out This term we held a VIP shopping night at Main Desire in Mornington. The evening was a lot of fun and the ladies at Main Desire looked after everyone and made sure we were all topped up with champagne and nibbles while shopping in their fantastic store. We were able to raise over $500 from sales of tickets, raffles and 15% of sales on the night. So thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the evening a success. Trivia Night The fundraising team have been hard at work collecting donations from local businesses, and so far we have had a great response, with a huge variety of goods for auction and raffles! However we are yet to receive any donations from kinder families or family businesses etc. If anyone is able to help in anyway it would be greatly appreciated so please get in touch with either a member of the fundraising committee or a teacher. The tickets have been on sale for trivia night for much of term two and interest has been great. It appears that the seating chart is full, however that does not take us to maximum capacity, so we will be adding additional tables for anyone who still wishes to buy tickets. We are still waiting for payment for some tickets, and tickets paid for will reach you via your slots next term. Tea Towels This term the children have been working extremely hard to create self- portraits that will be going onto tea towels, which you will be able to purchase at the beginning of term three. Order forms will reach you via your slots. The Tea towels will be at a price of $15 for one, with any additional tea towels at a price of $13. Bunnings BBQ On Saturday 25th of August we will be holding our Bunnings BBQ. At the beginning of next term we will have a sheet in the foyer where you will be able to put yourself forward for a specific time slot. We appreciate that everyone’s weekend time is extremely precious, however we need as many people to get involved as possible to make the day a success, and next to trivia night it is our other major fundraiser for the year. So please get involved and volunteer an hour of your day. That is everything from us so far, but thank you all for your continued support in Fundraising for 2013!