Inside this issue

News from the Office ............ 1

Nursery and Toddler News .... 2

Pre Kindy and Kindy News ..... 3

Reminders and Upcoming Events ............................................. 4

Important Dates

13/6 Kindy Excursion to SA Museum

20/6 Animals Annonymous Incursion

Newsletter June 2017 Edition 1

A big hello and welcome, to all our families here at Confident Kids. We hope

that you’re settling in well to our new Centre. It has been wonderful getting

to know you, and all of your gorgeous children’s individual personalities! It has

been a really fun and exciting time for our educators.

We currently have spaces available in all rooms, so if you would like extra days

booked for your child please let us know.

News from the Office

Signing in and out

We have now changed software programs for signing your child into and out of care. Thankyou for

your ongoing support in this process. Please delete “myxplor” off your phones as it is no

longer in use.

We have set up 3 kiosks in the Reception area specifically for you to sign your children in and out

each day. If you’re unsure of how to use the kiosk, feel free to ask one of our friendly staff.

Keptme

You may have already received the Keptme email inviting you to join. If you haven’t already,

please accept the invite. If you haven’t received an email, let our staff know, and we can organ-

ize your invites to be sent to you a second time. If you have multiple children at the Centre you

need to accept all individual verification emails issued to you from Keptme. By using the Kep-

tme app you will receive Daily Updates from your child’s room each day. You will also be able see

your child’s learning journey through regularly written observations and assessments com-

pleted by our friendly Educators.

Immunisation Records

We are currently updating children’s Immunisation records for 2017. According to the National

Immunisation Program Schedule, children need to receive immunisations at Birth, 2 Months, 4

Months, 6 Months, 12 Months, 18 Months, & 4 Years. If your child has received any

immunisations since beginning at Confident Kids, we must be notified.

Introducing

Blackie

We would like to

introduce our new pet

Rabbit ‘Blackie’. Blackie

is a cute and cuddly

three year old Rabbit.

She is very friendly and

gentle.

Blackie visits all the

children in the different

rooms and provides

them the opportunity to

interact, observe and to

learn how to care for

B l ack ie and h e r

environment.

Blackie loves to get

cuddles and pats from

all the children.

Nursery News The Nursery Educators have been so excited to welcome

new friends to the nursery room weekly. Our Educators

have been busy working on developing relationships with

the new children and helping them to feel safe, secure and

supported within their environment. Through making

secure connections, your child is able to then explore

their environment and with the support of our Educators

strive to reach their developmental milestones and of

course their full potential.

We have been having tonnes of fun, with

Educators providing all sorts of activities and

learning experiences to help our babies reach

their individual milestones of crawling, walking

and verbal communications. Our little Explorers

have been growing and developing so fast, that

we now have lots of crawlers and walkers in the

Nursery Room!

Recently our Nursery has contributed to our Reconciliation week Celebrations, paint-

ing with our hands and bodies using the colours of the Aboriginal flag– Black, Red

and Yellow. Our babies loved exploring paint inside Ziploc bags to create our own

Aboriginal flags, and have a look at our friend Hamish who is loving exploring paint

while laying on his tummy! Sensory experiences such as these encourage babies to

explore, extending tummy time which is important for developing the gross motor

muscles necessary to encourage babies to crawl and then walk. What fun!

- Caitlin and Alliana

Toddler Room News

In the Toddler room, we have been focussing on our self-help skills and healthy eating.

We have been learning to scrape our bowls, sort out our dirty dishes after each meal and

to clean our own faces independently. By teaching and supporting our toddler friends to

feed, dress and clean themselves we give children a sense of confidence in their own

abilities which also leads to children becoming confident and involved learners.

This includes further developing fine motor skills to manipulate tools, just like William who

in this picture is learning how to hold the tongs and push the two sides together in order to

pick up a piece of food. What a superstar!

Educators and children have spent learning, group times and meal times discussing healthy eating

– what sort of foods are yummy and healthy for our growing bodies and minds. Following on from

these discussions, Educators and the toddler children have together established our very own

vegetable garden, planting and growing some winter vegetables as well as interacting with

various fruits and vegetables during group time.

The Educators would like to thank our families for their valuable input, and as such we have been

extending the learning of our children through introducing some early phonics work, and the

Toddlers have really enjoyed watching and singing along with phonics videos.

The children have also been very excited to see some new climbing

equipment coming into the Toddler yard! A climbing frame, ladder and plank

has led to lots of exploration, helping to further develop gross motor skills

including climbing and balancing. This period of development for our friends

is all go, go, go!

The Toddler children have also been really enjoying their favourite book

“Where is the Green Sheep?” Through this book the children have been

discovering and learning more about colours and emotions.

We were lucky enough to be able to borrow the light table from the kindy

room and explore some of our magnetic shapes and geometric shapes

through the light table. By providing children with the opportunities to gain

knowledge normally not taught to children in this age group, we expose the

children to new words and experiences which they would not have

otherwise. Children are viewed as competent learners from birth, capable

of co constructing their own learning with the support and assistance of

Educators. Just have a look at our young friends exploring the light table!

- Avani and Bianca

Pre–Kindy News

As our numbers have been growing in recent weeks, the Pre-Kindy children have finally moved into

the Pre-Kindy room! This move has been very exciting and also very daunting for some of our Pre-

Kindy children, who now have a new room and equipment to explore each day. As numbers are still up

and down throughout the week, Educators in both the kindy and pre-kindy rooms are working to-

gether with the children combined some days and separated on other days which will lead to a

smoother transition as new staff begin to develop relationships with the pre-kindy children while

still maintaining the close connections children have already formed with their elder Kindy friends

and their teacher.

As such, when the Pre-Kindy children are separated from Kindy, we have been focussing on unifying

the room and establishing the rules and routines of the room, looking after our toys/educational

equipment and building relationships with one another.

In order to give the Pre-Kindy children a sense of continuity, we have

continued with our self-help skills from the Kindy program. Each day be-

fore mealtimes children are encouraged to wash their hands independ-

ently using soap and running water, wiping their hands using the paper

towels and putting these in the bin. After meals, the children scrape

their own bowls, keeping food waste out of the main bin so that it can be

taken home by Educators as food for domestic chickens. Prior to going

outdoors in the morning and afternoon the children are encouraged with

assistance to apply their own sunscreen. After rest/sleep time our Pre

Kindy children are continuing to assist Educators in packing up their beds.

We are currently in discussions with the Pre-Kindy children regarding some room projects that

interest them, which we will start in the upcoming weeks. We would love to hear any suggestions

our families may have to contribute to the Pre-Kindy program. Please feel free to speak to our

friendly staff should you have any questions.

- Sarorn and Chelsey

Parent/Educator

Meetings

Very soon we will have

our Educator/Parent

meetings where parents

have the, opportunity to

discuss how their child

has settled in, their

learning journey so far

as well as any learning or

developmental goals.

Kindy News

In the Kindy room, we have been very busy learning! Recently

we have been doing some project work on rainbows– learning

about all the different colours of the rainbow, and through

brainstorming we talked about what the children already know

and what they want to learn. We have discovered primary and

secondary colours as a result as well as learnt a little about

sunlight and the eternal 4 year old question “why is the sky

blue?”

Our Jolly Phonics Program has been established and going very well, with many children now able to

identify letters through sight and sound. Now that the Pre-Kindy children are separating, the Kindy

program is going to become more focused on letter formation, recognition and writing. Watch this

space for all the new and exciting learning the kindy children will be doing!

Within the Kindy program we have a strong focus on school readiness skills. While we do have some

focus on the academics such as letter and number recognition, counting, mathematical and scientific

experiences– this is not our primary focus. Through our curriculum we strive to foster each child’s

independence, emotional strength, social relationships and readiness for routine. When starting

school academic skills are a plus, however being able to form and maintain social relationships,

understand rules and boundaries as well as use the vitally important work of play will lay a strong

foundation necessary to launch each child’s unique learning journey.

This term we have been working very hard on learning more about hygiene, through our story of

Handy the Octopus. Over the last couple of months we have discussed how germs can make us

very sick and washing our hands is the best way to keep our bodies healthy and safe. Recently,

Educators utilised glitter as a representation of germs to demonstrate how well we need to wash

our hands to remove germs, and practiced singing twinkle twinkle to determine how long and in

how many places and ways we should rub our hands to remove the germs. The children were fas-

cinated by this demonstration and this has led to children becoming more aware of the need to

wash their hands regularly.

Our group projects continue with our Belonging Tree, which the chil-

dren are using pieces of yarn to wrap around and decorate our tree.

We would like to ask our families if they could please bring in a pic-

ture of their family to add to the ones children have already drawn so

that we can add these to our tree.

Also, if you have any old t shirts or magazines please bring these into

Kindy, as we have lots of other projects coming up in the next few

months.

We can’t wait to see your child learn and grow with us at Confident

Kids!

- Melissa

On the 20th of June from 9:30-

10:30am the Centre will be host-

ing Animal Anonymous for a fun

filled incursion. Each room will

have the opportunity to get up

close and personal with lots of

Native animals.

The children will encounter a

hands-on native wildlife show with

around 12 friendly Australian

animals including Bettongs,

Potoroos, Gliders, Dunnarts,

Crocodiles, Goannas, Dragons,

Geckos, Turtles, Pythons, Frogs,

Falcons, Frogmouths, Parrots and

more.

By giving the children the

opportunity to learn about native

animals they will develop

knowledge of and respect for the

natural environment, learning

about conservation and animal

care.

If your child is not booked into

child care on this day, you are

more than welcome to book your

child into care. Otherwise you

are of course welcome to bring

your child into the Centre for the

incursion however we ask that you

remain with your child throughout

the experience.

Just a few reminders....

Please clearly label all of your child’s belongings. A lost property box is located just

outside of the Nursery door- if your child is missing any items; please have a look

through this box to see if it is there.

Please send an appropriate change of clothes with your child., including several

changes of jumpers, tops and bottoms. Now that winter has arrived, we want to

make sure your child can play safely and happily no matter the weather! We also

engage in messy play experiences from time to time, so please try not to send your

child in their very best clothing as we wouldn’t want your child to miss all the fun!

For all the new families, we have a parent committee here at Confident Kids, if you

would like to join. We have meetings each quarter; to discuss how to better our

Centre for your children, and we love our families to get involved! Please feel free to

speak to Avani who is head of the Parent Committee, if you would like more

information on how to become involved.

Thank you for taking the time to read our Quarterly Centre

newsletter. Please remember our door is always open and that

we value family participation across all aspects of our program.

Until next time!

Belle, Olivia and the Team at Confident Kids Team