ELC Newsletter - St Andrews Lutheran College

ELC Newsletter
Issue 5 / May 2016
ELC News
Well what an amazing month May has been. We hope that
everyone had a fantastic Mother’s Day and we feel very special that you celebrated with us on Thursday 5 May. It was a
very relaxing afternoon.
possible start to the school year with strong connections
with teachers and learning environments. From Term 3, Prep
students and teachers will visit on a regular basis in the ELC
to assist with this.
From this week we will be emailing the daily program to
your email address so you can feel more connected to what
is happening in the rooms. We value your input and partnership. Please contact me if you do not receive these emails.
Rating and Assessment – We will have a visit by the Authorised Officer from The Department of Education and Training
on the following dates. Tuesday 7 June, Thursday 9 June and
Friday 10 June. The officer will be observing, discussing and
viewing evidence and practice of our service operations. This
is an exciting opportunity for us to show our amazing Centre
and wonderful children and families.
Health and Safety – Please wash your hands and your children’s hands on arrival at and departure from the Service.
We have recently installed additional sanitisers based on
your feedback from family surveys. You will find another
sanitiser in the office near the entrance and outside the door
in JK veranda.
The Little Kids to Big Kids Raffle was exceptional. Thank you
to everyone for your support, from your donations in the
Raffle, to ticket purchases. We raised $2368 which was a
fantastic result.
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$600 Premium Scratch Removal for Car – Jasper (PP1)
Chanel Sunglasses valued over $600 - Luxottica – Liz (JK)
$300 Billabong Suitcase – Marlow (JK)
Billabong Backpack, Towel & Headphones – Kade (PP2)
$250 Pilates Voucher - Pilates & Co – Kylie (JK)
$110 Carpet Cleaning & Pest Control Service - PHJ
Cleaning Services – Rick (PP1)
$100 Event Cinemas Voucher - Kris A (College Mum)
3 x $100 Myer Gift Cards - Gisler Family, Debbie B &
Lesley (2 x PP1 & JK)
$50 Manicure & Spa Pedicure – Melita
$15 Bakery Voucher - Foster’s Bakery – Marlow (JK)
Hamper of Goodies – Haydn (JK)
Moet – Louise (PP2)
Brut – Volan
This money raised has been given to the Senior School to
support students who lost equipment in the recent J Block
fire.
Transition to Prep – Jess, Jaime-lee and myself recently met
with the Prep teachers and Joy Schloss Deputy Head of Junior School (P-3) and discussed how the new cohort of Prep
students transitioned to Prep this year and how future Prep
students can transition to ensure that they have the best
Once again with the cooler weather please keep your children home if they are unwell. If your child has been unwell
please do not bring them back to the Centre until they are
well and have not had a fever for at least 24 hours. We can
only administer medication that has been prescribed by a
doctor with the correct labelling on it. Medication forms
need to be completed and you must hand the medication
to an educator so we can store correctly and check details.
Staff changes and new members of the team – Last week we
welcomed Olivia to the team who is a Year 11 student who
is undertaking her Certificate III in Children Services Education and Care as a school based trainee. Olivia will be at the
centre on Thursdays and over the school holidays.
We also welcomed Alison back to the team for relief work.
She is studying her Bachelor of Education at Southern Cross
University. Alison was with us fulltime last year. We have
also had Ashley join our team who is studying her Diploma
of Children Services.
Over the next few months my very hard working and dedicated staff are taking some Annual Leave. Sophie will start
this leave on 31 May for two weeks with Kim relieving these
days and joining the Junior Kindy room regularly from then
on. Jaime-Lee will be absent for June with Jana working with
Stacey in PP1. Ashley will replace Jana in Junior Kindy. We
endeavour to inform you on staff changes and are always
trying to provide stable and consistent staff that your children have built relationships with. Change in staffing will be
displayed on your child’s classroom door. Please come and
see me if you have any concerns.
Suggested parent reading on screen time for young children:
www.kidsmatter.edu.au/families/enewsletter/screen-timeand-sleep
www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2015/03/23/4203084.htm
Thank you to the families that completed the recent Survey
Monkey giving feedback. Below are some of the comments.
Thank you for your honest and reflective feedback.
“We feel truly blessed to be a part of this ELC community!
Staff work beyond for the benefit of our children. Thank you
for all you do every day.”
“We love the ELC. Our child enjoys every day and runs up to
the gate. We know the difference in centres as she has been
in another centre now for over 2 years and it nowhere near
measures up to the ELC. Keep up the good work and thank
you for all the hard work and effort that goes into running
a quality centre.”
Sustainable Practices and Lifelong Learning – Last week in
the afternoon I was blessed to do some gardening with the
children, preparing the soil and planting new plants. The
children amaze me each day with their knowledge. We were
talking about caring for the garden and looking after the
plants when one of the children said “that’s what the worms
do, we need to add more worms”. It was wonderful to be
able to use some of the worms from the worm farm with the
children and seeing our sustainable practices coming to life.
Please keep bringing in those recycled products.
The Family Church Service on Sunday 22 May was fantastic.
The children’s video and the amazing actions and singing
was a real highlight. It was so lovely to be able to catch up
with families outside of the Centre and to share a beautiful
morning tea. We hope you enjoyed your morning and thank
you for attending.
Japanese News
Making Connections - Pre Prep Skype Sessions with
Fuzoku Elementary School in Shikoku Japan
For many years now the Junior School students have been
able to Skype with Fuzoku Elementary School. A strong connection has been created with teachers from that school visiting our College earlier in the year.
Our Pre Prep classes have now been able to experience a
Skype session with Fuzoku Elementary. This experience
shows that we are able to make connections and communicate with people who live far away. Students were also
able to use their Japanese skills by introducing themselves in
Japanese, singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and the Japanese greeting song.
Prior to the Skype session, students listed their inquiry questions to ask at the Skype session - What do they want to ask
children in Japan?
Some examples were:
Do you have beaches in Japan?
What do you do at school?
Do you have lots of students at your school?
Do you have gardens at school?
What does your school look like?
Bronwyn Waters
ELC Director
Dates to Remember
7, 9, 10 June
Rating and Assessment visit from The Department of
Education & Training
Wednesday 8 June
P & F General Meeting – CRC 7.00pm
Thursday 23 June
Parent Information Night – CRC 6pm – Parent Resilience &
Raising Children, Presented by Child & Youth Psychiatrist Dr
Nigel Collings and Child & Youth Psychologist Jodie Watkins
Friday 24 June
Red Nose Day Little Red Rockers Disco
Skype has been able to enhance this inquiry process for our
youngest learners. We look forward to many more Skype
sessions.
Sharon Taki
ELC/Junior School Japanese
Junior Kindy News
Junior Kindy have been expressing their increasing knowledge of environmental awareness. Their constant inquisitive
wonder has provided opportunities for intentional teaching
to occur. We have been discussing the importance of saving
water, recycling our paper and cut offs, putting our food
scraps into the chicken bin and reusing yogurt containers
and lids. We have continued to get the children involved
in respecting and caring for their environment. While supporting this, we have also promoted the use of natural materials, that have fallen from trees and are available to us
without breaking or interfering in the growing of nature.
The children have spent time exploring our sensory table of
natural and recycled materials, where they are encouraged
to be creative and lead their own learning through questioning and further investigation.
perimenting with a variety of instruments, actions and body
movements. Feel free to share some of your child’s songs
with us. It’s been an opportunity to connect with others, as
small groups have formed, moving to the rhythm and sharing humour with one another.
We are continuing to add to our family tree - please email
through a family photo or bring it along, for us to support
the children’s sense of belonging and community.
As the weather is starting to cool down, please remember to
label everything to help us send these items home. We are
working on encouraging the children to put their belongings straight into their bags. In the afternoons, we will be
ensuring the children have socks and shoes on and will be
reminding them about this need with the weather changing.
Miss Stephanie, Miss Ali, Miss Jana, Miss Sophie & Miss Sarah
We celebrated Japanese Children’s Day in our room, spanning across the week. With Sensei Sharon sharing her Japanese Lesson’s each Tuesday, we have noticed lots of recall
of colours, words, songs and greetings. We supported this
learning, and knowledge of culture, by making sushi with
the children. This was an exciting hands on experience, with
everyone sharing in the taste testing.
With lots of involvement and shared small group experiences
we have been focusing on negotiating social situations. We
encourage children to develop strategies, providing them
with language to use. If this doesn’t work, we support the
children in coming up with new ideas and solutions. Building
strong resilience is needed in all areas of development, to
become strong, and confident individuals.
These skills will develop and strengthen over time. We have
been introducing the children to acknowledge their feelings
and express what makes them feel a certain way. It’s important for the children to be able to recognise these emotions
to work through them and that all feelings are ok. We are
using flash card pictures and sharing in group discussion,
reading books and singing songs.
Our wonderful social corner has provided lots of opportunities to put these skills into practice, as we have designed a
Dentist Surgery to extend the children’s interests further. This
started from reading a book, about brushing teeth, which
lead to questions, stories and experiences that were shared.
The children have continued to role play and share their own
recent experiences at the dentist. We have learnt lots of
new words, and the children are recalling the importance of
good dental hygiene. We have connected this learning with
healthy food choices, which have an influence on the health
of our teeth. What an amazing job all the children have
done, sharing their teeth brushing skills at kindy. After each
meal time the children were invited to brush their teeth. This
has been very positive and exciting to have so many families
on board and we thank you for being involved.
We have noticed an increased interest in music and movement within our room. The children have been practicing ex-
Reminders:
• Please check and remember to collect
your child’s wet or soiled clothes
• Please ensure you apply sunscreen on
your child on arrival or let an educator
know that they do not have some on yet
and we can assist
• Please ensure you sign in and out
Pre Prep 1 News
In Pre Prep 1, May started with a strong interest in patterns
which developed as the children explored the pattern boards
that were available in the room. The educators took this as
an opportunity to extend the children’s awareness and interest in patterns as it is a basic math skill upon which many
mathematical concepts are based. Many experiences were
embedded throughout the daily routine to allow the children to practice creating patterns; like using natural, concrete and collage materials to create patterns. During these
experiences, the educators often worked one on one or in
small groups in order to scaffold the children’s learning by
either extending or supporting where needed.
This month in the ELC we have been reviewing our sunscreen policy; “In Queensland the levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from the sun are high enough to damage your
skin all year round, so it is important to use the five recommended sun protection methods whenever you are outside
(QLG Government).” Please assist the educators by ensuring
your child has a hat, sleeved shirt and sunscreen on in the
mornings before they come out into the yard. As you arrive
in the mornings please greet an educator outside and sign
the sunscreen register to ensure all children are protected
from the sun.
The children in Pre Prep 1 have been very interested in Aboriginal culture after we utilised the yarning circle outside to
read dreamtime stories. This month John came to do an Aboriginal Incursion with the class, where he played the Didgeridoo and taught the children about many Aboriginal tools.
After the show, the children’s interest was stronger than ever
which led to many experiences within the room; musical circles, creating a message stick for our yarning circle and Year
3B from the College, even came and read some dreamtime
stories that they had created.
Towards the end of May, the children in Pre Prep 1 were
lucky enough to witness the miracle of the life cycle of a butterfly, after Tayla brought in a caterpillar for show and tell.
Watching the caterpillar go through each stage of life has
been a truly magical experience for not only the children but
also the educators. As we have just started this topic, we will
continue it throughout June. Please encourage your children
to bring in any books, photos, experiences or resources that
relate to this topic for show and tell.
Miss Jaime-lee, Miss Stacey, Miss Kim and Miss Shelly
Reminders:
• If your child has Tuckshop, please write it
in the Communication Book
• Please ensure your child has clothes in
their bag for warm and cool temperatures
as the temperature in the yard varies
depending on the time of day we are
outside
Community Links
& Services
Gold Coast Community Guide – Great resource for families
www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/gold-coast-community-guide-4378.html
Beyond Blue
Support Service Support. Advice. Action: 1300 224 636
www.beyondblue.org.au
SIDS and Kids
www.sidsandkids.org
Pre Prep 2 News
We have had a fantastic month! We were very excited to
start our nature walks. This has been such a positive experience for the children. The children have loved the freedom to
explore the environment. As a group, the children have collected large and small sticks that had fallen on the ground.
They made a large pile and climbed on the sticks. Next visit,
the children made boats and bridges with the sticks. We also
painted the sticks and turned them into Indigenous Australian clapping sticks. The following trip to the bush, the sticks
turned into fishing rods. They tied string to the sticks and
fished off their boat.
Research has proven the benefits of nature, unstructured
play are boundless and some of this includes:
• A positive attitude to exercise and movement
• The desire and ability to interact with other children
• Fine and gross motor skill development
• Enhanced ability to interpret and use sensory information
• Strength, agility, endurance, coordination, balance and
muscle tone
• Ability to focus and pay attention
• Physical and cognitive development and well being
• Awareness of their own and other’s ability and skills.
Whilst on our nature walks, the children do take risks with
the uneven surfaces, lifting large sticks, climbing on the
sticks and at times steep terrain. Children naturally seek out
risk and challenge and they are very good at knowing what
a manageable risk is, what they are capable of and when
they are not ready to take a particular risk, either physically
or emotionally. Assessing and managing risk helps develop
children’s emotional resilience by evoking fear and helping
them develop skills to manage these feelings. Research indicates that as free play involving risk has declined, we have
seen an increase in childhood mental health disorders. The
natural environment has lots of variety and an unpredictability that is appealing to children and challenges them to seek
out and accept risk.
Exploring the bushlands will happen sporadically throughout
the week, depending on the children’s current interest, time
and staffing. Again, please remember to always bring closed
in shoes with good grip. These may be kept in our room. We
have a basket labelled, ‘nature shoes’ under the children’s
sign in book, where you can leave the shoes. If the children
do not have the appropriate footwear, they will not be able
to participate and have to stay with Pre Prep 1.
We have also been busy with learning about rainforests and
Indigenous Australian’s perspectives. We are still incorporating the letters of the week. We have also been concentrating
on shapes and emotions and feelings.
It has been a privilege working with your children this month.
Miss Jess, Miss Mardi, Miss Kim & Miss Shelly