APRIL 2016
2 MAY
CLOSED Labour Day Public Holiday
4 MAY
Mother’s Day Morning Tea
23 MAY
Under 8s Week
“Play is the highest form of research.” — ALBERT EINSTEIN —
As always our 3 kindy classes have been very busy within their rooms looking at the areas of interest that our Kindy children initiate on a daily basis. Our Kindergarten program aims to provide children with a dynamic, play-based learning environment which is responsive to children’s strengths, needs and interests. Our Kindy teachers capitalise on childinitiated learning, and also use intentional teaching to help children develop foundational skills for life-long learning, a love of learning, and to prepare them for the rest of their schooling journey. By using children’s interests, we are able to create engaging learning experiences in a way that capitalises on the way that young children’s brains learn and develop. Children are encouraged and supported to ask questions, problem solve, and expand their natural curiosity for the world around them. The overall aim of kindy is not to teach them the content they will learn in school, but rather to teach them how to learn. We also highly value family input as we recognise the vital roles of parents as their child’s “first teacher”. If you have any input that you would like to contribute to our curriculum, please let your child’s teacher know.
ALICIA SHIELDS Director of Early Learning Community
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
HILLCREST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE KINDY CAPERS 2016 | 1
kindy news “Playtime is
precious. Play builds brain pathways
for thinking, creativity, flexibility,
empathy and many other
lifelong skills.” — HEATHER SHUMAKER —
MOTHER’S DAY MORNING TEA
CHILDREN’S CLOTHING
We will be having a Mother’s Day Morning tea on Wednesday 4th May 2016 at 9.15am. We will start with a Morning Tea and then each Kindy class will be doing some special activities in their rooms. We invite our Kindy mothers to come along for some special activities with your child. If your child does not come to Kindy on a Wednesday you are welcome to join us for the morning tea. Morning Tea will be provided by the Kindy. Please RSVP to Alicia or your child’s teacher for catering purposes.
As the cooler weather is slowly approaching please ensure that your child has adequate clothing for their day at Kindy. A Hillcrest jumper can be purchased from the uniform shop and kept in your child’s bag if they should need a jumper during the day. As the weather gets cooler we will ensure that children are wearing their jumpers as we go outside in the afternoons. Please also ensure that all your child’s clothing is clearly named.
UPDATED IMMUNISATION RECORDS
ARRIVAL AT KINDY
At the beginning of the month you may have received an email regarding your child’s immunisation records. Thank you to all the parents who have provided an updated copy of your child’s immunisation records. From 1st January 2016, the Public Health Act 2005 made changes in regards to Long Day Care / Kindergarten services and families providing immunisation records of their child. The Department of Human Services have implemented a ‘No Jab No Pay’ immunisation requirement so families are able to continue to receive CCB and CCR. Children whose immunisations are not up to date will no longer receive child care repayments from 2 May 2016. More information about this requirement can be found at this link https://www.humanservices.gov.au/ corporate/budget/budget-2015-16/budgetmeasures/families/no-jab-no-pay
If you have not provided an updated copy of your child’s immunisation please do within the next week. To obtain a copy of your child’s immunisation record with the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register, please follow this link https://www.humanservices.gov.au/ customer/services/medicare/australianchildhood-immunisation-register
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Please ensure that your child is dropped to Kindy by 8.45am at the very latest. This allows your child to play outside and enables an easier separation at drop off times. Our Kindy children go into the classroom at 9am for their morning group time and morning tea. POLICY REVIEWS In the Kindy admin area the policies that are currently under review are: •
Policy 2.6 – Child Protection
•
Policy 2.7 – Incidents, Injury, Trauma and Illness
•
Policy 2.8 – First Aid Kits
•
Policy 2.9 – Infectious Diseases
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 painting,
drawing and crafts.” — LUCY —
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kindy class news KINDY 1 NEWS
KINDY 2 NEWS
Wow April is almost over already!! We have been super busy in the Kindy one room with our focus moving from space and dinosaurs into plants! This came about after a few of our children noticed the passionfruit vine in the yard had begun to flower, Stella told us about the new veggie garden they are putting in at her house and Samuel brought in a mini orange he had collected from his orange tree at home. This sparked lots of discussions amongst the children and teachers about how plants grow, what plants are and what they are for. After collaborating with the children we came up with some ideas on how to extend on this interest over the following weeks.
Across the month we’ve seen a big interest amongst the children in construction based activities. We began a focus on how various structures are built after Teale brought in photos that showed the stages of his family’s house being built. We discovered that a lot of work goes into building a house! We looked at several time lapse clips that showed houses and high rises being built and we added the hard hats and vests to the home corner so the children could pretend to be builders as well.
This focus saw us spending a bit of time in our garden planting some new plants for the ladies at The Hub to use in their cooking. We are really looking forward to the herbs being ready to harvest so we are able to take them up to The Hub to be used. The children have had a ball planting and watering the plants. This focus has prompted lots of fun activities! We created our own grass people which the children had fun making unique by cutting out a variety of options of eyes, ears, noses and mouths. The children have loved watching these grow and can’t wait until they are able to style their hair in the coming weeks! The children have also created little bean sprout houses which they have watched grow over the last few weeks. The children have been taking observations and drawing their progress on an observation template. These will be going home in the next week or so to be planted at home in the garden. Through this focus the children have been able to learn and develop in an environment where they are encouraged to ask questions, observe and develop their own working theories. This means that the children are able to confidently and competently discover the world beyond the early child setting and bring these discoveries back to the setting to share with others. They have therefore been contributing to their own learning journey along with their peers. Through exploration, the children have been able to learn useful and appropriate ways to find out what they want to know and begin to understand their own individual ways of learning and being creative. These experiences enhance the child’s sense of self-worth, identity, confidence, and enjoyment.
KATIE MATHESON Early Childhood Teacher 4 | HILLCREST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE KINDY CAPERS 2016
Over the weeks we also looked at famous structures such as the tower bridge in London, the Eiffel tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa as well as houses from around the world to see what people from other countries call home. In particular, the tower bridge took the classes interest and we began to focus more on how bridges are constructed. We looked at a variety of bridges from around the world and saw the varying materials used, from bricks, wood and even tree vines! This was a very hands- on focus as the children used their problem solving skills and trial and error to design bridges using a range of materials. We added extra challenges such as the bridge being able to hold weight or being able to get a lego person across water. We were amazed at the creativity and ideas that the children came up with! As we have moved on to other focuses, we have continued to see bridge building amongst the children’s play. This included Westin using his friends lunch boxes to make a bridge and Connor, Nate and Emilia digging a hole in the sandpit and laying shovels over the top as a bridge.
ALANA HURST Early Childhood Teacher
KINDY 3 NEWS We were amazed at how much the children seem to have grown in both height and confidence following the Easter break. They are demonstrating such a strong sense of belonging as they enthusiastically share their ideas, attempt new tasks, share what they know and can do, and relate so well with their peers and teachers. This term we are setting up some intentional teaching opportunities through challenges, communicating high expectations, supporting independence, and providing some interesting provocations to promote imagination, creative thinking, and problem solving behaviours. Through this, the children are developing a wider interest in different learning areas, and building a sense of identity critical to school-readiness. This month the children’s main interest has turned to dinosaurs. Throughout the past few weeks our classroom has been transformed into a “Jurassic world” straight from the imagination and contribution of the children and their families. We have vines strung from the ceiling, palm trees “growing” from the ground, a cave for the cavepeople (where ‘cave doctors’ can often be found treating patients), many dinosaur creations plastering the walls, and even a nest full of dinosaur eggs hanging above the activity tables. We have also enjoyed having our faces painted like dinosaurs to engage in dramatic play. All of the children love “Terry the triceratops” who lives in the cave so that he doesn’t get burnt by the lava from our brilliant box volcano. We even made a real erupting volcano in the sandpit using a recipe suggested by Jemma – baking soda, vinegar, and red colour. We have continued to scaffold the children’s interest in literacy at the writing table with the provision of many dinosaur themed games, activities and story-telling. We have been focussing on the sound /d/ for dinosaur, and /t/ for triceratops, and practicing the formation of these letters on the blackboards. We have been brainstorming other words that begin with these sounds also, and adding them to our word walls. We look forward to investigating some more letter sounds throughout this focus – perhaps /p/ for palaeontologist, and /f/ for fossil.
HOPE GATELY Early Childhood Teacher
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