newsletter - Silky Oaks Child Care Centre

Silky Oaks Childcare Centre
“For
little people, not big profits”
NEWSLETTER
March 2012
A word from the Director
Welcome to our first newsletter for 2012. The year has certainly started at great
speed with a lot of events occurring within the first 3 months of the year.
Parent Learning Evenings
As part of our commitment to supporting families,
the Centre organizes Information/Learning Evenings
on topics our current families indicate they would like
to know more about, need help with or are simply
interested in.
To get us started, we really need your feedback to tell
us what topics you are interested in. For example, are
you interested in:
• Speech & Language
• Toilet Training
• Behaviour Management
• Sleep Management
• Nutrition, Allergies & Intolerances
• Face Painting
Please keep an eye out for a list of possible topics next
to the sign in sheets during April. We will provide a
list for you to locate your name, tick topics of interest
and/or add other topics of interest. Once collated, we
will then attempt to source
suitable trainers and work
out possible dates and
times.
Family Input
into Programming
We love and encourage all
members of our families
to provide new and
interesting ideas to the
Centre’s programming. This
can take the form of sharing
photos and anecdotes of
family trips away, birthday
and family celebrations,
visits to attractions or
general information about a topic your child/ren are
particularly interested in. As you continue through
this newsletter, you will read about the various topics
of interest each group are following. At the moment,
many of the children are learning about insects,
arachnids, music and instruments from different
cultures as well as cultural and religious celebrations
such as St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. If you have any
books, pictures, skills, etc. you would like to share with
us, please email or send them in or write your name
down on the Parent/Carer roster and spend some time
with us.
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A Big Hi from the Joey’s Room
Well, we have had a very busy couple of months with
helping the children settle into the room. I am pleased
to say the children have really done a great job settling
into the group and all the children are separating
from parents/carers so much more confidently than
the first couple of weeks when we started. Settling
and forming close attachments with carers has been
a main focus for us as it is very important that the
children feel safe and confident with their new carers
and build a close a loving bond with us.
As the children are gaining in confidence, we are now
seeing some very interesting and funny personalities.
The children are developing socially, working on
building friendships with the other children in the
group, which is great to see.
As we get to know all the children better, we are
observing that a particularly strong interest of theirs
is group times with singing, finger puppets and
stories. The children are now able to sit for up to
and over 20 minutes at a time, which is a very long
time for toddlers, but an amazing opportunity to
work on our language and communication skills.
The skill of attending for longer and longer periods
of time is very important for preparation to enter
school, but also assist the development of fantastic
observational and auditory learning, not to mention
the social learning of turn-taking, listening, sitting
next to each other cooperatively and sharing in fun
experiences. We will be further developing this with
small and simple group games to enhance each
child’s ability to turn take, share and negotiate in
play with their friends.
Another source of great enjoyment for the children
are dramatic play experiences with dress ups with
a particular child-initiated focus being caring for
babies. We are currently extending this interest
by providing more baby props and dress ups. One
particular way to extend this interest and is always a
hit with the children, is when a parent comes to the
centre to bath their own baby in front of the group.
This was a wonderful experiences enjoyed by last
year’s group when Jo’s Mum, Cassie, bathed
baby Eve. We are hoping to share this
experience with this year’s children
and are wondering if there are any families out there
who would love to bring in their baby and bath them in
front of the group. Please let us know if you’re available.
Thank you to the wonderful parents that where able
to come to our parent information night. We were very
overwhelmed with all the positive feedback we got
from you and it was a great way to catch-up with you
all. If you where unable to come, we have provided
a handout for you which you will find in your child’s
information pocket.
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Housekeeping
Food
We are still having a large amount of food coming in
un-named. Please remember if it’s not named, we are
unable to give it.
Please provide your child with morning tea, lunch
and afternoon snack, plus one piece of fruit that will
be used for shared fruit at afternoon tea. If your child
is here after 3:30pm, they will need late snack. As we
have very limited space in the fridge, please insure
that containers are of a minimal size for the food they
require to store this will hopefully alleviate some of the
congestion with space in the fridge.
Drink bottle
Many of the children are still coming in with unnamed
or with siblings names on their water bottle. As with
all food and drinks, we require a clear and correct
name of the child attending in the Joey’s room on the
bottle to stop confusion and things being given to the
incorrect child. It is also the parent’s responsibility to
make sure there is fresh clean drinking water in the
bottle each day they start. We will refill during the day.
Please ensure this water bottle is taken home at the
end of every day to be cleaned as mould begins to
grow in it if you do not clean and air dry it.
Clothing
There is still a large amount of children coming in
unnamed clothing. We often engage in water play
on warm days where children’s clothing is removed
and hung out to dry afterwards. Unfortunately we
are unable to work out who owns what clothing at
the end of the day.
Any clothing unnamed will be placed in a lost property
basket above the sign in desk and at the end of the
month all items unclaimed will be donated to the opshop at Silky Oaks Children’s Haven
Bedding
The children require a fitted cot sheet and one flat sheet
for sleep time that is stored in a named pillow case. This
is to remain in the children’s lockers and taken home to
be cleaned on the last day they attend childcare.
Lockers and nappy baskets
Please ensure you are using only your locker and
nappy basket. Also please remember to remove all
your child’s belonging from the baskets and lockers
on the last day of their week they attend child care as
often these are being shared with other children who
require it free on the days they attend childcare.
To ensure the smooth running of the daily program
we appreciate your cooperation in these areas.
If you have any concerns or questions about any part
of the program, routine or your child, please do not
hesitate to talk to Jodie or Kylie in the Joeys room.
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Hello to all the Cuddly Koalas Parents
First we would like to welcome all our new families and
existing families to the Cuddly Koalas. We have been
very busy getting to know each other and familiarising
ourselves with the routine.
During the past couple of months, we discovered we
have a very talented group, keen to play music and
some very good dancers! So this month we have used
musical instruments to further expand on their interest.
In January we introduced a few different instruments
such as castanets, more bells and tambourines. The
children enjoyed this experience as they participated
with much enthusiasm.
Then Gail brought in some culturally diverse
instruments for the children to explore and investigate
- rain sticks, clapsitcks, and bongo drums were added to
our music corner. This was a great success, we all took
turns of expressing our creative side with much noise
and lots of smiles. Charlotte, Heather, Thomas, Koby,
Felicity, Harper, Sophie.B, Lachlan, and Halle were all
very keen to try out the different sounds and noises
made by the instruments. Music from other countries
has also been played for the children to hear the
different beats and rhythms.
Through this experience the children showed a strong
sense of wellbeing by engaging in musical instruments
to express their creative ideas through music. Adding
the different instruments the next day followed
Thomas’s interest in musical instruments and extended
the whole groups experiences with the instruments.
Our follow up for this experience was to continue and
extend the group interest in music and instruments,
with different styles of sounds and music. So, on the
23rd of February we had the “World of Percussion”
visit the centre. The fabulous musician played
various drums, talked about what his instruments
were made of, explained about the Brazilian Carnival
and shared his photos with us. In the end, he invited
us all to play his musical instruments, which was lots
of fun. The show was incorporated into our program
and we all learnt about other cultures too.
Gail, Anna and Elisa.
BUSY BEES
Hello and welcome to the Busy Bees newsletter
To begin with Welcome to everyone as you are all new
to Busy Bees this year and what a wonderful bunch
you are, children and parents alike. The children have
settled in really well with most happy to say good bye
to their Mums and Dads each morning.
Below is a story from the room that we thought you
might like. It shows not only parent participation, but
also the group interacting in stories and art and craft.
My name is Elisa Hernandez, I have moved from the
Cuddly Koalas room to Busy Bees in March, taking
over Trena’s position. Many of you will remember that
Trena has left the service to complete a Bachelor of
Education. We will see her back again from time to
time when she comes in to relieve other staff whilst
they are on holidays.
WITH AVA ANTOS’ MUM, MELISSA.
I will be your group leader Wednesday to Friday. I
have been at the centre for 9 years now and I am very
excited to work with your children and to get to know
you all better.
I am married, with two boys who keep me very busy
and young! Due to my family commitments I will be
job sharing with Julie, but please feel free to approach
me any time. I am very happy to be back in Busy Bees
and hope we have a great year together!
It’s so hard to remember all the wonderful things we
have worked on in the Busy Bees there have been so
many already. The children have been exploring the
garden and the plants, watering them, pulling weeds
and yes, eating the cherry tomatoes we grew,they
all loved them. Dancing to music has been a regular
experience, as has the many,
many meals cooked in the
Chinese Restaurant we had set
up in home corner. The group
have also been working on
opening their own lunchboxes
and containers and they are
getting better, also putting
their own shoes on and off,
washing hands and wearing
hats in the sun.
THE WONKY DONKEY
6 February, 2012
We had a special visit from Ava Antos’ mum, Melissa
today. She decided to treat us with a story called the
Wonkey Donkey and an activity to go with the story.
We made some donkey ears so we could all join in
with the story making lots of fun donkey noises. First
Melissa asked us what our names were and how old
we were and then what our favourite animal was. Ava
A said “a donkey”, Harper said “duck”, Saxon and Lucy
said “Zebra”, Jake and Jamie both said “tiger”, Ava S said
“chook”, Jakob said “a dinosaur” and James was a little
shy and nodded when I asked him if he liked horses.
We then went over to the art table and decorated our
donkey ears and stuck them down on paddle pop
sticks before going back over to the mat ready for our
donkey story.
After the story we danced around to the Wonky
Donkey song and had a great time. It was great fun
having Ava’s mum visit us and share her story with us.
Thanks Melissa
BUSY BEES
The children had a great time with the story and
showed lots of confidence to tell everyone what their
name was and their favourite animal. Most children
enjoyed the story and all joined in making their ears.
We all used our fine motor skills to hold the felt pens
to draw. We enjoyed being a large group together
while dancing and pretending we were donkeys.
In the future we would love to encourage more
parents to visit us and share something with us
e.g. Cooking, reading a story. We are also going to
encourage the children to make more things in art
area to help act out stories and then record these
in photo and written form for us to share with
everyone, just like the Kindergarten children do.
If at any time you want a chat about your child or
anything else, remember we are here to help. If you
think it might take more than a couple of minutes,
please let us know and we can arrange to be
replaced in the room so we can give you our total
attention and know the children are being looked
after as well.
Bye til next Time
Julie, Elisa and Nicole
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Welcome to all our Families, both new and old!
Dear Parents, Grandparents and other
Family Members,
where they have been, like the giant holes in our
cabbage in the vegetable patch.
What an amazing year we have had so far!
Coming inside we found more information on these
creatures on the Queensland Museum web site and
printed them out. Later on we found a small mini film
on you-tube showing a hedge grasshopper - how it
moved and what it ate. We also found out that a baby
grasshopper is called a nymph!
Australia Day sparked an interest in our national
identity, finding where we are in relation to other
countries in the world. Group discussions enabled us
to share what is known collectively and extend ideas
through shared experiences, stories and photographs.
We focused on both a world map and map of our island
continent. Australian animals were explored discovering
how they move and live, enjoying an animal movement
obstacle course we changed to incorporate new
animals over the week. Exploring our beach culture
and creating a beach picture made with images we
associate with the beach, cut out person image adding
goggle eyes, clothes cut and glued or shaded in with
pencils or felt pens, colouring and placing images
enabling children to practice skills such as cutting,
gluing decorating, holding a pen and developing ideas
about aesthetic placement of images to fit inside their
picture. Overall, a wonderful and interesting celebration
of Australia.
Insects a fascinating discovery - Out in the
playground and amongst our fruit and vegetables, we
have gone on numerous bug hunts. Discoveries have
enabled us to capture and study rhinoceros beetles,
looper caterpillars, worms, lady beetles, hedge and
vegetable grasshoppers. Like detectives we have
discovered evidence
Books both factual and story, have intrigued the
children further into insects habitats and how they live.
Together we are writing small stories that incorporate
this knowledge, both old and new, about flies,
grasshoppers, bees, butterflies, ants and spiders.
Images of insect faces have been stuck onto head
bands, small stage sets have been created with simple
pieces of furniture, and fabrics to suggest habitats
where our story characters live. The stories are written
together, children’s ideas are collected and added
into the story line. Children are encouraged to help
spark an idea and extend on it. We are working on
encouraging children to use their own words as much
as possible in conversation. Prompted with comments
and questions some children have been able to carry
on short, simple, repetitive and logical conversations
with other characters in the story. Other children are
developing nicely building confidence acting in front of
other children in the group. Language development is
explored using repetitive sentences and helping to say
the words with me as we tell our story.
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Are you my Mum?
Story by Monday’s Group 5.3.12
following lines, naming letters in their first name and
assisting with the correct pencil grip.
Encouraged children to become familiar with insect
habitats and looking at similarities and differences
between insects.
You can help encourage this skill development at
home by using the copy of the Queensland Beginner’s
Alphabet that was included at the back of yellow
covered Kindergarten handbook provided to families
at the Information evenings held in November and
February. If you did not receive one or have misplaced
it, please ask a member of the Kindergarten Team or the
Directors for another copy.
How do you Move?
Story by Tuesday’s Group 6.3.12
As the title suggests, explored the movement of
different insects
Friends to the Rescue!
Story by Wednesday’s Group 7.3.12
Looked closely at cooperation working together to
solve problems and how wonderful it is to have friends
who look after you and help you when you need it.
These insect stories will be displayed on the lockers –
please spend a little time reading these amazing titles!
There will be more to come!
The Amazing Treasure Hunt with Isa and Tania - Great
excitement as children rushed out into the playground
to discover coloured shapes hidden in the playground.
Skills such as listening to instructions, discriminating
between objects to discover shapes, stopping,
observing, racing back to teachers and classmates to
tell them where they were hidden and identify the
name of the shape and the colour were all incorporated.
It sounded like lots of fun!
Writing our names is developing nicely. A Writers
Wall is being created near our room’s entry gate and
is displaying children’s wonderful attempts at their
individual stages of development. Teachers are assisting
with name recognition, developing the shapes of
letters,
Percussion instruments – Recently, children enjoyed a
music show that encouraged them to think creatively.
The musician suggested children create sounds using a
variety of objects from nature. We would like parents to
help us collect a range of these objects so that we may
continue with the interest generated in the children.
Could you help us with coconuts (cut in half would be
wonderful), gum nuts, Poinciana or jacaranda seed
pods, pine cones, lotus seed heads. I am going to find
some gourd seeds we can grow and dry, they make
really good shakers. Man-made objects too such as
dowelling sticks (25cms long would be great), biscuit
tins, plastic bottles, whatever you can think of would be
fantastic and will help us create our own instruments.
Show and Tell - This has been amazing so far, thank you
Parents! We have had some wonderful photo stories of
family experiences, amazing creations children have
made at home, stories, factual books, objects children
have found on a walk, etc. We always look at ways to
extend on the interests children present for us. Abigail
brought in some shells to show us and amongst the
shells was a cuttlefish bone! We were all curious, what
was a cuttlefish? What did it look like? Where does it
live? We discovered that cuttlefish look very like a small
squid. Beau told us that Cuttlefish change colour and
this made us eager to investigate further. We were
amazed at what we found - over plants it changed
green and over sand a mottled yellow - what amazing
camouflage. Scientists showed us they can even try to
copy in a small way the black and white squares of a
checker board.
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The children thoroughly enjoy their show and tell
experiences and we learn so much from the interesting
facts they have to share BUT PLEASE REMEMBER:
Only two children each day AND please ensure you
write your child’s name on the Show and Tell roster
above the children’s bag cupboard as the children
who are written on this calendar for each day will
be the only children who share the news on that
particular day. Please remember all children need
opportunity to practice there orating skills and thus
you MUST ALLOW two weeks between your child’s
last turn so others can have a go thank you!
It has been an amazing start to 2012 with many
fantastic opportunities arising each day for eager,
inquisitive children to explore and enjoy interests. In
fact it has been exciting times for everyone, Teachers
too! We look forward to sharing, learning and teaching
each other so many more amazing things throughout
2012 and invite all parents/carers and other family and
friends to write their name on our roster located above
the lockers and spend some time with us at Kindy to
share their skills and knowledge or just to come and
play and have some fun with us. We look forward to
seeing you!
Best wishes from the Kindergarten Staff,
Tania, Isa and Caroline
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Parent Information Evening
Thankyou to all those Parents, Grandparents and
Carers who were able to brave the terrible rain and
attend our Parent Information Evening on February
22nd. It was an enjoyable evening and we really
appreciated the opportunity to speak with so many
of you at such a relaxed and casual evening. We hope
that you all found the evening very informative and
the handouts useful.
Unfortunately, the rain altered the events for the
evening and we were unable to hold the whole group
meeting under the stars, as planned. To catch you all
up, the agenda for that part of the program included
the following:
Our History
Silky Oaks Child Care Centre is just one program run by
Silky Oaks Children’s Haven and it has operated for just
over 20 years.
Silky Oaks Children’s Haven was initially born in the
heart of a retired missionary, Miss Betty Cornell, who
was concerned for children in Queensland who didn’t
have a supportive home environment. Her conviction
was put into action and the original Children’s Home
was set up in the Brisbane suburb of Toowong in
August 1940.
In January 1947, Silky Oaks moved to its current
location in Manly. Since that time, Silky Oaks has
extended its range of services to families within the
local community.
Our Curriculum & Programs
The centre’s program development is based in
Emergent Curriculum theories and is guided by the
Early Years Learning Framework
and Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines. It
is based on the developmental needs, interests and
experiences of each child and is designed to take into
account individual differences of each child.
We see children as competent human beings, and our
programs are designed to create opportunities for
them to make decisions for themselves. The educator’s
role is to facilitate their decisions and provide support
and assistance when needed.
Our holistic, inclusive programs are responsive to
children’s lives, interests and learning styles and
promote children’s physical, personal, cognitive, social,
emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
To give children this opportunity the environment
needs to support this and therefore the design of this
environment is critical. In our learning environment
basics are available to children every day. These
basic areas have been adapted from “Programming
to Excite” by Carrie Rose and include Dramatic Play,
Creative Space, Music Area, Construction Area, Eating
Area, Relaxing Area and Outdoor Area. Each area has
a basic equipment list and materials in these areas are
easily accessed by all children.
Educators regularly observe and record
documentation of individual children as well as
groups of children - their play, their interests, how they
engage with their peers and other adults and how
they engage with the environment.
Documentation/Observations of individual children
can take many forms including written anecdotes
or conversations, photos sequences, collected
work and family knowledge and contributions. This
documentation is saved to children’s journals and used
for individual planning and extension of experiences.
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Each journal requires an index to indicate the child’s
progress against the outcomes of the education
program, the National Early Years Learning Framework.
It is also a reference to keep track of each child’s
progress in relation to their developmental needs,
interests, experiences and participation in the program.
Journal indexes are made up of the 5 Learning
Outcome Areas of the National Early years learning
Framework, which are:
1. Children have a strong sense of identity
2. C
hildren are connected with and contribute
to their World
3. Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
4. Children are confident and involved learners
5. Children are effective communicators
Children’s digital journals are made available to
families and can include contributions from all
educators, children and their families. These digital
journals are recorded to disk twice yearly and
presented to families as a record of their child’s
learning whilst at the centre.
Educators use curriculum webs/forms to map learning
possibilities and record curriculum for individual
children or project work for groups of children who
have shared interests.
Any activities that emerge throughout the day can
also be added to webs so the web will show planned,
educator initiated activities as well as activities that
emerged from the children’s play and ideas and/or
family contributions.
When children are engaged and want to investigate
a topic or educators want to introduce a concept or
resource, a project may be initiated. Project work
will evolve over indefinite periods of time based
on the children’s interests in a topic or concept and
current documentation will be displayed in children’s
rooms. When projects are completed an evaluation of
children’s learning through the project is written.
Critical reflection and evaluation of children’s learning
and development is used as a primary source of
information for planning and to improve effectiveness
of the program and teaching strategies.
The Preschool/Kindergarten planning and evaluation
process embraces the National Early Years Learning
Framework and the Queensland Education
Departments, Kindergarten Learning Guidelines
with specific emphasis on Literacy and Numeracy.
These frameworks and guidelines compliment Prep
programs in schools and we believe assists children to
make a successful transition to their Prep year.
For those of you unable to attend, please check your
communication pockets for booklets and factsheets
that were given out on the evening. If you have any
questions or queries you would like followed up or you
would like to have the opportunity to speak to your
child’s Teachers, please let me or Mandy know so that
we can make the necessary arrangements.
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Nursery Rhymes in Japanese for 3 to 5 Year Olds
A representative from Nursery Rhymes in
Japanese has recently approached the Centre
enquiring whether or not families at the service
would be interested in signing their child up for
Japanese lessons.
This extra-curricula activity would work in the
same way as the other activities we offer at the
centre, such as Physikids, Gingersports, etc.,
whereby Parents choose to sign their child up for
a weekly lesson and all aspects of this business
relationship are between the Parent and Japanese
tutor only and not with Silky Oaks Child Care
Centre. The service only provides the space to
enable the lessons to occur.
At this point, a FREE TRAIL LESSON will be held on
Wednesday 11th April 2012.
The Providers of this service need a minimum of 3
children to continue on with the weekly lessons.
If successful, then lessons will formally commence
on Wednesday 18th April 2012 at 10.30am in a
room of the Busy Bee area.
Lessons are $10 per child and are 30 to 40 minutes
duration. Payment is made on a termly basis and
is made to the Providers directly.
If you are interested in having your child partake
in the free trial, please let Tracey or Mandy know
by Tuesday 10th April 2012.
Baby Congratulations
To Breeze (Joeys), Kylie, Matt and Kaitlyn on the birth of Gemma.
To William (Cuddly Koalas), Arash, Brooke and family on the birth of
baby boy number 3.
To Isaak (Joeys) and Lachlan (Kindergarten) Geoff, Ellen and family
on the birth of Gabriella.
To Scarlett (Cuddly Koalas), Melissa and
Aaron on the birth of a baby boy.
Reminders
•P
lease place your ch
Thankyou!
o have
Thankyou to all of those families wh
useful
kindly donated many wonderful and
m.
resources to the Centre the past ter
and
s
We are very appreciative of your gift
donations of your time.
ild’s named water
cup/bottle into the esky
upon arrival
and collect it from the
esky at the end
of the day.
•P
lease name all food
containers, cups /
bottles and dummies.
•P
lease send at least tw
o spare sets of
named clothes, a named
hat and named
shoes each day your ch
ild attends.
•P
lease ensure you ap
ply sunscreen to
your child before you co
me to childcare
or before you leave the
service each
morning your child atte
nds.
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Calendar of Events
MAR
26
APR
5
March
Monday 26th March to
Thursday 5th April
Henny Penny Hatching
Henny Penny Hatching has been
designed to give all sections of the
community the experience of observing
first hand the birthing of baby chicks in
a safe environment.
APR
6
APR
April
Friday 6th -Good Friday
CENTRE CLOSED
9
Monday 9th - Easter Monday
CENTRE CLOSED
25
Wednesday 25th - Anzac Day
CENTRE CLOSED
APR
MAY
11
JUN
11
JUN
20
May
Friday 11th May
Mothers & Grandmother Morning Tea
at the centre
June
Monday 11th – Queens Birthday
CENTRE CLOSED
Wednesday 20th June
Ocean Life Education Show
Nursery & CK - 9.30am
Busy Bees & Kindergarten – 10am
Birthdays
We wish the following children a great big
HAPPY BIRTHDAY for February, March, April
and May, and hope they enjoy wonderful
celebrations with family and friends
Joeys
February – Jackson (2),
March – K
ody, Nicholas, Samuel, Charlize
(all turned 2)
April – Cillian (2)
May – Matthew (1), Myah (2)
Cuddly Koalas
January – Halle (2)
February – Conrad (2)
March – Laila (3)
April – Reece (3)
May – William (3)
Busy Bees
January – Winston (3), Alannah (3)
February – Jamie (3), Rebecca (3)
April – Ava S (3), Harper (3), Lincoln (3)
May – Bailey (3)
Kindergarten
January – Abigail, Orlando, Charlie, Syanii
(all turned 4)
February – Vipul (4), Tia (4),
March – Lucia (4),
April – Owen (4), Connor (5), Joel (4), Hannah (4),
May – Jesse (4)