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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

Spring has arrived which means we are almost at the end of the term! We survived the cold Melbourne winter and have had a wonderful, exciting and memorable Term 3! This term has seen the children involved in a number of events and experiences including an incursion “I Can Dance”, celebrating Daffodil Day, book week celebrations and Father’s Day and other special people celebrations. The 4s also had the opportunity to go on an excursion to Essendon Traffic School which was definitely the highlight of the term! Each group has also seen the involvement of our parent community in the program. Parents in each of the groups have come to kinder to share their special skills, dancing, skate boarding and their culture including aboriginal culture and engage in other special activities like bathing a child’s baby brother. You’ll get to read more about this below!

In term 3 we also welcomed Miss Sarah into our kinder community. Miss Sarah has loved being here and has developed warm and

meaningful relationships with the children in the Yellow and Aqua groups! The educators also engaged in their all-staff Professional Development day at the start of the term which was on the topic of “Intentional teaching in a play-based environment” presented by Dr Shona Bass in the morning and “An Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder” in the afternoon conducted by AMAZE. It was a wonderful day of learning that left the educators inspired and encouraged. The children and educators would like to thank all the parents and families that have contributed and been part of our learning journey in term three. Thank you for those who participated in the working bee and your help to keep our learning environments clean, tidy and inviting is much appreciated! Enjoy the term break! Stay safe and see you all back in Term 4!

ORANGE GROUPThe Orange group has had a fantastic term 3! We’ve had to say goodbye to a few friends which has been hard and sad but we’re always thinking of them and missing them dearly. We have had lots of special events this term including a memorable excursion to the Essendon Traffic School, an uplifting incursion called “I Can Dance”, a Yellow Day in celebration of Daffodil Day, Book Week Dress-up Day, Tony sharing with us all about his Skateboards and teaching us skateboarding and a celebration of our Dads and other males in our life with “Dessert with our Special Guests”!

The highlight was definitely our excursion. We couldn’t contain ourselves as we boarded the bus and there was lots of chatter and squeals on the way there. When we

got to the traffic school, Lori told us how we can be safe road users then we put on our helmets and got on the bicycles. We even got to go on an old Melbourne tram and pretend to drive it. It was an exciting trip out of kinder and now we’re confident and safe road users! Our kinder days have been filled with learning experiences and we’ve been up to lots of different things. The children have been very interested in construction and creating masterpieces and are all eager to share them with their friends at mat time. We even started filming ourselves describing and sharing what we had built. We always have lots of children waiting for a turn to share at mat time. The educators and children have come up with a special way of sharing our creations; the “Look What I Made Book”. The educators take

pictures of the children and their creations then print them out to put into the book. The book now sits on the book shelf for everyone to look at. This way, everyone has the opportunity to

show off their work and take pride in their achievements! We also really engaged in our Airport imaginary play area recently and everyone pretended to go on holidays. The educators had put out stamps as well as cards that had the flag and country name printed on them. The children were making their own tickets and applied their own experiences of travelling, sitting in the seats, serving drinks to the passengers and flying the plane. Recently, the educators have introduced clipboards and writing materials in imaginary play areas to encourage children to engage in literacy activities all over the learning environment. Some of the children have been using tools to write words, draw pictures of their construction and even write stories. During book week, the educators challenged the children to write stories and use their imagination! As a result, lots of children have been working on creating books. They have been drawing their own illustrations and then narrating their stories to the educators to scribe. We’ve got some amazing budding authors and illustrators in the Orange group! This term we’ve also been great at looking after our vegetable patch, sorting our rubbish at snack time and putting our food scraps into the worm farm! The vegetable patch has finally recovered from our possum attacks and is growing beautifully. We can’t wait till we can harvest the beans and the chard that we planted. Thanks for a great term Orange group! Enjoy the holidays and stay safe. Miss Lynsey, Miss Emily, Miss Mary & Miss Melanie

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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

RED GROUP Red group have been extremely busy this term! The children enjoyed the “I Can Dance” incursion and enjoyed learning about dances from different parts of the world including Indian, Greek, Hip hop, Spanish, bush dancing and aboriginal dance. The theme was for children to practice and practice until “I Can Do It” and to build confidence in their abilities and to be challenged in all things. The Traffic School excursion

was also very much enjoyed by children and parents. The children enjoyed the ride on the bus and learning about road rules and safety at the traffic school and putting what they had learned into practice on bikes and various road scenarios. We have followed through this important learning at kindergarten using various activities both indoors and outdoors along with discussion reminders.

We talked to the children about Daffodil Day and what it means. To acknowledge this day the children were asked to participate in a still life drawing of a bunch of daffodils in a vase. We also celebrated Book Week, with the children dressing up as their favourite book character. We will be discussing again the importance and value of books and reading. This is a constant throughout the year (our group Book Week mural). We also talked about borrowing books from the library referring back to our Hobson’s Bay Library incursion.

The children are still tending the seedlings we planted and are watching them grow and eagerly waiting for our harvest. The children have also been busy with body paintings. Educators trace around their body which the children then paint and cut out when dry. We have been discussing our bodies and how various body parts and organs work and the need to eat healthy foods, get enough rest and to exercise for optimum health.

The children have also been learning a little about aboriginal culture, trying dot paintings and playing

the didgeridoo and tapping sticks. We have used aboriginal music “How the didgeridoo was born”, puzzles and stories. Lachlan’s mummy came to

kindergarten to bathe baby Sienna with the children following through with bathing dolls. Matilda’s mummy also came to kindergarten to talk to the children about her ballet dancing career. We have followed this through by discussion, classical music for spontaneous dancing with ballet costumes as well as related books and puzzles.

The children are busily preparing for “Dessert with Dad” this week. They are reflecting on

the roles of fathers and are happily making a present for their dads to show how much they love them for our “Dessert with Dad” at kindergarten. They are all excited to come to kindergarten “when the news is on”. Thank you to all our parents for their continued support in making their child’s kindergarten year one to remember. Grace and Helen

BLUE GROUPWhat a pleasing and busy term three we have had in Blue Group. The

children have recently enjoyed our first excursion to the Essendon Traffic School where the children had access to a mini road set up complete with road signs, railway bells and traffic lights. It was great to

explore the road rules and ride our bikes in a safe and secure environment.

We have also celebrated a very

successful dress up in yellow for Daffodil Day. The children enjoyed arriving to a sea of yellow for the day.

All the activities were dressed in yellow and included a variety of activities that supported the children

to practice their developing literacy, fine motor and gross motor skills.

Blue group have shared a general interest in coconuts

for the past few weeks which has made way for many fun and exciting learning

activities. These have included making coconut smoothies, learning how to

open a coconut, drawing a coconut and then later enjoying a picnic in the fairy garden sharing pieces of coconut. It has all been very exciting. The children have also enjoyed learning how to decorate the trees in

winter so their trunks don’t get cold! They have learned how to yarn bomb. This has made way for wonderful moments for conversation, problem solving, tactile and kinaesthetic learning and has provided our

kindergarten with something unique for our outdoor environment. It has been great to see the yarn bombing take off and provide the children

with a new curiosity that supports individual learning, creativity and care

and concern for our environment. Blue group have also been introduced to the proverb of a

“silver lining” and what this can mean for us. We learned that a silver lining is a concept of

looking on the bright side of life. We were each invited to illustrate what it is that makes each of us

happy. Some of the children were happy to illustrate one special thing that makes them

happy, such as their family or a rainbow. Others were happy to illustrate many different things that make them happy, like riding their bike, playing with their baby brother or playing in the sandpit! The

children were eager to illustrate what makes them happy or what makes them feel positive. All the children illustrated their own and later shared what they had done during our group time.

It has been a terrific term and we

certainly have covered many topics that support the natural flow of our busy lives. Thank you

for all of the parent helpers that have helped throughout the term and for all your support and

encouragement. We are all very excited to welcome our final term

as we begin to prepare for school and become proud and independent

of ourselves and others. Miss Kelly, Mrs Dianne, Miss Melanie & Mrs Grace

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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

AQUA GROUPThis term has flown by and the Aqua Group children have welcomed Miss Sarah with open arms. The children have been really busy this term going on two excursions, participating in the ‘I Can Dance’ incursion, Going for Gold participating in a netball session, learning about the Commonwealth games and been provided with the chance to hold a Commonwealth Games Gold medal with Eloise (Finn’s Mum), learning about our local community, creating beautiful flowers for the book fair, wearing Yellow and raising funds for Daffodil Day, participating in EnviroWeek learning about sustainable practices and bringing Nude Food to kinder and our fantastic Book Week dress up day.

The children have participated in a variety of different music and movement experiences combining their fine and gross motor movements to

achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity, by playing musical mats, musical statues, musical chairs, learning a variety of yoga moves watching cosmic yoga on the projector screen, participating in our own corroboree and learning about Dreamtime. The children have become fantastic yogis and it is a great way to relax and unwind after playing outside!

After our fantastic traffic school excursion, the children became very interested in different aspects of their community. To extend on this interest we introduced the concept of creating our very own community. The children jumped on this idea and we have been very busy being Google Map ‘ninjas’ looking

at our houses on the projector screen, learning about and creating different types of maps, collaboratively planning what to include in our ‘Newport’, going on a walk to Digman Reserve and taking photos of our journey, making houses, buildings, a train station, shops, trees, animals, trains, roads, cars, Port Phillip Bay, creating a block version of themselves and much, much more!

This term we have introduced a few tools to assist the children with their pro social behaviours and strategies to

deal with conflict. We have introduced ‘Space Invader’ which helps the children learn about and respect the personal space of themselves and others, and ‘Feelings Detective’ which scaffolds children’s understanding of feelings and ways in which to be more socially aware of their impact on others.

We have lots more special experiences coming up within the educational program to see us off until the end of the term. With Father’s/Special Person Dessert Night on the 4th of September and Footy Day on the last day of term. A big thank you to all of the Aqua Group families for welcoming and supporting me during this term, it has been great getting to know everyone. Also another big thank you to all of the parents who have taken time off to come to kinder for a play and those who have helped us out on our excursions! Miss Sarah and Miss Amelia

YELLOW GROUPWe can’t believe it is nearly the end of Term 3! The Yellow Group children have adapted fantastically to the changes that have occurred and have welcomed Miss Sarah with open arms. A big thank you to all of our families for your understanding and support! The children are continuing to develop friendship groups and pro social behaviours, becoming more independent each session. We have focused heavily this term on continuing to develop the children’s sharing, negotiating and communication skills. Learning about pro social behaviours through modelling and scaffolding such as “our hands are for playing, not hurting or hitting” and

providing opportunities for the children to become more socially aware of their impact on others.

This term, the children have been very busy engaging in a lot of sensory, imaginative and colour investigation learning experiences. They have created

colour mixed play dough, played with slime, learned mathematical concepts with pouring and measuring with the Frozen themed sensory bin, created shaving foam prints, explored what primary colours create secondary colours with food dye pictures, utilised scientific concepts with the arctic animal ice melting experience, became palaeontologists searching for dinosaur bones and making fossils, made butterfly pictures for the book fair and baked yummy rainbow biscuits, just to name a few!

We have lots more special experiences coming up within the educational program to see us off until the end of the term. We celebrated Book Week last week, Father’s/Special Person morning this week on the 5th of September and Dress Up Day on the last day of term as our favourite characters.

A big thank you to all of the parents who have taken time off to come to kinder and do kinder duty. We really appreciate it and are looking forward to continued involvement from families next term! Miss Sarah and Miss Melanie

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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

GREEN GROUPWhat a wonderful term! It’s been such a privilege this term to watch our children grow and see their personalities really shine in the group. So many of our children have further developed their sense of identity and their independence and

it’s been great to reflect on how far they have come since the beginning of the year. Our children have really thrived this term and have begun to attempt more complex activities and develop their skills. The children still

thoroughly enjoy messy and dramatic play and we always wonder why everything in our room turns green! We had some special events during term 3 and it was a busy one! Earlier in the term the children raised money to support Daffodil Day. The children all dressed in yellow and contributed a gold coin donation. It was wonderful to see all the families getting behind a great cause. We also celebrated book week. The children all brought their favourite book to kinder during the week and each child was given the

opportunity to share their book with the group. We also held a special morning for Father’s Day. It was truly fantastic to see every child bring a special Dad to kinder, whether it was their Dad or Grandad. We also had a special visitor to kinder earlier in the term; Ember, Finley’s Customs puppy came to kinder for the day. The children absolutely loved following her around and making some tanbark treats for her (not sure if Ember enjoyed eating them!). Still to come on the last day of term we will be

having a dress up day. We can’t wait to see what all the children will come as! It’s been a wonderful term and we thank all the families for their constant support. Miss Philippa & Melanie

PINK & PURPLE GROUPSWe have welcomed Ms Gwen as Teacher for both Pink and Purple groups while Miss Alyce completes a Primary School placement for her final year of her Bachelor degree. Ms Gwen has been working hard with the help of other educators to ensure a seamless

transition.

Both Pink group and Purple group celebrated Daffodil Day on the 20th and 21st of August. We celebrated by dressing in yellow and bringing in a gold coin donation for the Cancer Council. The children had the opportunity to investigate some living daffodils. They

were also able to paint some daffodils using bundled celery stalks as a stamp and the stem/leaves were used as a paintbrush.

Ms Gwen brought in her Ukulele for an outdoor concert on the 14th and 15th of August. The children enjoyed singing songs such as; You Are My Sunshine, ABCs and Old MacDonald. We experimented with different tempos and volumes as we sang together.

The children were excited to take turns strumming the ukulele after the concert was finished.

We have been preparing gifts and songs for Father’s Day and had great fun celebrating on September 1st and 2nd! Purple group has had some new children join our class this term. We have Charlie, Tahlia and Xavier S who have been welcomed with open arms by the children. The children are currently interested in enjoyed building with blocks, imaginary play (firefighters, builders, princesses, dogs and cats).

Pink group is currently interested in dressing up as princesses or veterinarians, making jewellery, dinosaurs, colour mixing and finding the letters that make up their names.

Ms Gwen, Mrs Grace and Ms Krissy

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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

CENTRE INFORMATION Committee News: Thanks to funds raised from our recent fundraising efforts, we are continuing our work on the front and entry area of our kindergarten. Synthetic turf is being installed this week in the bike parking area and front garden, so hopefully no more mud! Then, with the help of a wonderful kindergarten family and our kindergarten children, a fabulous tiling project will be underway in Term 4. The front garden has had a makeover with the installation of a brand new sensory garden and we hope to compliment this in the near future with the construction of a mini outdoor classroom / seating area, which will be a great learning resource for our kindergarten community. We wish to thank Brittany Miller (Orange group parent) for assisting us with landscape drawings, plant recommendations and a working bee pulling it all together.

3yo 2015: 3yo enrolment packs with group allocations for 2015 will be sent out next week, apologies for the delay. Any enrolment queries, please contact Carly Conlan.

4yo 2015: First round offers have been sent by Council and they are preparing to send second round offers out. Once offers are finalised, Council will send the 4yo list to our centre. It is anticipated that group allocations and enrolment packs will be sent out early in Term 4.

4yo Funding: Allocation of government funding for 4 year old kindergarten for next year has still not been confirmed. We continue to plan to provide 15 hours of 4yo kindergarten for 2015 and will update families with any new information. If funding for 15 hours is not maintained for next year, we will need to amend our timetable and will advise our families.

If you haven’t already, we strongly encourage all parents to complete the Early Learning Association Australia (ELAA) petition, please click here to register: https://keep15hours.org.au/

Scholastic: Thank you to everyone who has supported Scholastic Book Fair & Book Club this year. We sold just over $800 worth of books at the Book Fair and with credits from

sales through our Book Club this year, we have raised approximately $800 for the kinder to spend on extra Scholastic resources for our children and centre. A big thank you to all the children for their amazing art work which was displayed during Book Fair. Adele Aldridge (Scholastic officer)

3yo Photos: Proof sheets have been distributed and orders are due back by this Friday, 5 September. Please place orders in the red safe.

EVENT UPDATE: On Wednesday 13 August we held our Fundraiser Movie Event. Our chosen charity this year was Amaze. Amaze is a member-based-not-for-profit organisation and is the peak body for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the state of Victoria. They represent around 55,000 Victorians who have ASD and work for the benefit of all individuals and their families. The night was a huge success with 88 Home Road Kindergarten parents, families & friends attending to watch a screening of “Begin Again” at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville. We were delighted to be able to donate all proceeds (which the kinder raised to an even $1000) from the night to Amaze. I would like to thank our amazing sponsors for their warm generosity and well received door prizes. Also, a big thank you to everyone who contributed and helped to make the night very successful. Abby Short (Events Coordinator)

FUNDRAISING NEWS: Term 3 for fundraising had all 3 year old groups having fun with paint to collaborate handprints from all the children and educators for the HRK Tea Towel 2014, they are being distributed this week!

Toy Catalogues have been handed out so have a look through and plan your Christmas shopping. With your purchases we will receive credits to then purchase new fabulous things for HRK. Orders are due back in the red safe by Monday 15 Sept.

We are pleased to report that our Entertainment Book fundraiser raised $1,129 towards our Shade Sail. Thank you to all families that have supported our fundraising activities.

Danielle Reid & Andrea Holland (Fundraising team)

CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER!

IT’S A GIRL! Our kinder community would like to

congratulate Leanne and her family on the safe arrival of Elizabeth Mila

Papadopoulos on 9 July! Leanne and Ellie have visited kinder a few times and

the children were very excited to see

Miss Leanne’s tiny new baby

In July, we celebrated Grace Tedesco’s 19th anniversary

working at Home Road Kindergarten!!

Grace started with us in 1995 and is our longest serving staff

member. Grace is an extremely valuable and passionate

member of our team, who loves working with children and families. We wish to thank

Grace for her wonderful years of service and we look forward

to celebrating her 20th anniversary next year!!

DONATIONS NEEDED Our kinder is in need of the following:

Cushions (x10)

Old trains for wooden train tracks

Match box cars

Measuring cups and other baking tools If you have any of these items to donate, please

give to Lynsey or your child’s educator. Thank you

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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

From September, 5 things to remember Slip! Slop! Slap! Seek! Slide!

From September, Victoria’s UV levels are on the rise, so it’s time to dust off the sun protection gear and Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide whenever you are outside. Check the SunSmart UV Alert for daily sun protection times – you can find it on the free SunSmart app, online (sunsmart.com.au), in the

weather section of newspapers, or on our HRK website. If you can’t check the UV Alert each day, make sure you use sun protection every day from September to the end of April in Victoria. Don’t just wait for hot, sunny days. Remember these 5 SunSmart steps during the sun protection times, even if it’s cool or cloudy

1. Slip on covering clothing. If you can see skin, UV can reach it. Is your child’s skin covered with cool clothing today?

2. Slop on SPF 30 or higher broad spectrum sunscreen. Apply sunscreen before going outdoors and reapply every two hours. One application is not enough. Has your child had sunscreen applied and reapplied today?

3. Slap on a sun protective hat. The best hat shades the head, face, eyes, ears and neck. Does your child’s hat protect all of these areas?

4. Seek shade. Shady spaces help block some of the sun’s UV but not all so you still need to wear hats, clothing and sunscreen even in the shade. Does your child have shady places to play?

5. Slide on sunglasses labelled AS 1067. If practical, help protect your child’s eyes with sunglasses. Are your child’s eyes safe in the sun?

A note about vitamin D

The sun’s UV is the best natural source of vitamin D.

From September to April in Victoria, most people need just a few minutes of sun exposure to the face, arms and hands (or equivalent area of skin) mid-morning or mid-afternoon on most days of the week to help with vitamin D. Even with sunscreen you can still get some vitamin D. Sun safe outdoor play throughout the day should not put your child at risk of low vitamin D.

Children with naturally very dark brown or black skin need even more sun exposure to help with vitamin D. These children usually don’t need to apply sunscreen but they should still use the other SunSmart steps during sun protection times. For further information contact: SunSmart Ph: 9635 5148 Email: sunsmart@cancervic.org.au Web: sunsmart.com.au

DATES TO REMEMBER Father’s Day activities Week commencing 1 September

Water safety incursion – all groups Tuesday 9 September – Green & Aqua groups Wednesday 10 September – Red & Pink groups Thursday 11 September – Blue & Purple groups Friday 12 September – Yellow & Orange groups

3yo Dress up day – Last session of term Wednesday 17 September – Pink group Thursday 18 September – Green & Purple groups Friday 19 September – Yellow group

4yo Footy Day – Last session of term Thursday 18 September – Aqua group Friday 19 September – Red, Orange & Blue groups

Term Four Commences – Monday 6 October

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TERM 3 NEWSLETTER 2014

NATIONAL QUALITY UPDATE We want to remind families about the National Quality Framework (NQF) which applies to early childhood education and care services. The NQF brings together many important components, including National Quality Standards, Assessment and Rating system, National Law and Regulations, National curriculum (learning

frameworks) and much more. See below for a brief description of National Quality Standards and ratings.

As part of our continuous improvement process, we encourage families to view our Quality Improvement Plan (available in the foyer), contribute to our NQF feedback board (in front entry area) and view our National Quality page on our website

http://www.homeroadkindergarten.vic.edu.au/NationalQuality/tabid/126/Default.aspx. Feedback from families and children is an extremely important part of our self-assessment and continuous improvement cycle, so we welcome you to participate.

In addition to this, we have attached some information about the early childhood learning frameworks incorporated at our centre. Families are also reminded of our policies, available in the foyer and on our website. Our website is a great tool for keeping updated on many things happening at our centre and important

information for families. Please visit our website regularly http://www.homeroadkindergarten.vic.edu.au/Home/tabid/38/Default.aspx