Yamanto

September/October
2014
Newsletter


2-4 Deebing Creek Road
Yamanto QLD 4305
07 3294 0111
yam@goodstart.org.au

From the Office

Apologies for the delay with our September/ October Newsletter.

Firstly can I please draw everyones attentions to the safety in our centre
carpark. It is against the law to leave a child or young person in a motor
vehicle without proper supervision. Apart from being against the law this is a
very unsafe practice.
Can I please ask that all families read and adhere to the attached Family
Rights and Responsibilities Requirement.
An update on our Kindy staffing, Sheree was the successful application for
our Educational Assistant in our Kindy Room, Congratulations Sheree. I know
Sheree is very excited about her new role.
Allergies in our Centre, please be aware that we have recently enrolled a
Child in our Centre who is Anaphylaxis to nuts. Can I please ask that all child
do not bring nuts or nut products to the Centre.
If you have not returned your booking information form for 2015 please do so
as soon as possible. If you have not received a booking information form for
2015 please let me know.

Take Care, Ellen

Upcoming Events September/October

September
2nd Water Safety Show, 9:15am to 9:45am
3rd Father Day, making something special for someone special
12th International Chocolate Day, making something chocolatey!
20th Big Day Out, Centre Picnic Outdoors, families are all invited. Bring a plate to spare



October
5th Word Teachers Day
6th Labour Day Public Holiday
24th Day for Daniel, come dressed in red
31st Halloween, come dressed in your scariest costume

Toddlers
Firstly we would like to welcome some new children and families to our
room. Mahlee, Bayden, Hunter and Crystal. They are all setting into their
new environment very well and are already beginning to learn our
routines. We are very sad to be saying goodbye to our little friend
Jacob who is moving away with his family.

This month we have been really focusing on teaching the children

about healthy hygiene practices, eg-washing our hands and not
touching other peoples food. With the last outbreak of Gastro we have
received some tips for our room rom the health department. One of
these is about our milk bottles. These will all from now on need to be
clearly labelled with the childs name. All bottles must also have a cap
on them to stop cross contamination.

Please dont forget to check out your childs journal, feel free to add
anything.
Thankyou Miss Julie, Miss Bec and Miss Mandy

Pre-Kindy with Miss Jo & Miss Tammie

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to all of the new families to our room. We hope you enjoy your time in the PreKindy room.

It looks like winter is finally over! Yay! The weather is getting warmer so please
ensure the children are wearing sun safe clothing. This includes shirts with
sleeves and a wide brimmed hat. Please apply sunscreen to your child
before coming outside in the morning.
The children have been doing a lot of role-playing in home corner. They love
to get dressed up and pretend to go to work, to the shops or play pretend
teachers. We also have a lot of little mummies and daddies in our room.
This is great for social interaction and developing friendships with the children.

We have been exploring lots of experiences over the last couple of weeks such as, fine brush
painting and hand painting. We made Play dough with the children and they enjoyed
playing with the texture of it. We have done some cooking and with both creative
experiences and messy play happening most days, it is essential your child has spare labelled
clothes in their bag.
We have been focusing on music over the last month. We have been listening to various
types of music and practicing our skills on a variety of musical instruments. The children love
songs such as 'Five Cheeky Monkies', Open Shut Them and Bee Bee Bumble Bee. We
especially like Miss Polly Had a Dolly as the children get to knock on the wall and a
constant favourite would be Sleeping Little Bunnies which is definitely Miss Jo & Miss
Tammies favourite! Anyone who knows how this song goes will understand why!
We would love to hear more about whats happening at home and the things that your
child is doing outside the centre. This parent input is one of the main connections that we
have to build new experiences to extend on the childrens other interests. Your input allows
us to discover all the great things we have in common and learn from the things that are
different in each family. The information you provide will enrich the childrens learning as well
as your own. We will share the information with the children at group time.
Please remember to view our What we did today Book which is written up daily to inform
you, as parents and caregivers, the events your child has partaken in on the day he/she is
here.
Please make sure your childs lunch box is filled with healthy nutritionally balanced food,
giving your child enough energy to get through a busy day in Pre-Kindy.
Thank you to all of those parents who have been labeling their children's belongings. It can
be quite difficult to remember what twelve different children were wearing during the day. If
you have any items missing please let us know so we can try and locate them for you.
By now you may have noticed Miss Tammies tummy has been getting bigger. We are happy
to announce she is expecting her second child in December. We are very excited for her.
Miss Jo will be taking leave in September, October and November for medical reasons. Miss
Tammie will still be here so the children have a familiar face.
Until Next Time
Stay Safe
Miss Jo & Miss Tammie xoxo

Kindy
Hello from the Kindy room!
Last month we sadly had to say goodbye to Miss Jess as she ventured onto a career
change. We do hope that she comes back and visits us and does some relief work
down the track J
With Miss Jess leaving and Miss Kelly still on leave, Miss Nicole and myself (Miss
Sheree) will be in the room until permanent arrangements have been made.
We have had a room change with lots of new, fun and exciting areas and activities
to investigate and explore.
The science and nature area, including light box, mirror play and our very own
indoor play garden, with real dirt, will help the children develop a range of skills and
processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, researching and
investigating. Over the coming weeks, we will also be introducing magnets and
magnifying glasses to the area and exploring with these.
The children showed a huge interest in the ice cream scoops and cups, so we
extended the childrens learning by making our very own ice cream shop. It has
appeared to be one of the favourite activities for most of the children, as they use
their imagination, creativity and role playing skills to make and sell yummy treats to
their peers.
We have brought in some of our own resources from home and introduced the
Request (ask to use), Respect, (look after) and Return (put back) guidelines, which is
teaching the children to be considerate and respectful of others belongings. Well
done to all of the Kindy children for doing really well so far!
Halloween is fast approaching, so this month we will also have a variety of
Halloween themed activities including, messy sensory experiences, spooky art and
craft, creepy crawlies and not to forget our dress up day on the 31st of October.
To end off the year in the months of November and December we will be getting
into the festive spirit of Christmas and starting our gifts for the ones we love. If you
have any Christmas item donations or ideas that you would like to see incorporated
into the room, we would love to hear them.
If you have any requests, questions or concerns, please dont hesitate to have a
chat with either Miss Nicole or myself.

Keep Smiling Miss Nicole & Miss Sheree

Preschool
Wow, time has flown by and weve been up to so much that Ill
just keep it short and sweet and let the Pre-schoolers fill you in on
the rest, we all know they love to share stories.
We are nearing the end of our year and this last few months will
be spent refining and reviewing what weve already learnt in
order to be ready for Prep in 2015. I have spoken with majority of
principals and head of curriculums in the area and they have
given some very positive feedback about what we have been
doing and the progress we have made this year and believe that
our children will be well and truly ready and socially/emotionally
able to cope with the demands of school life. Some of you have
started your school orientations and we would just like to wish you
all the very best and know that you will all do well and we look
forward to hearing all about it.
Transition statements and parent-teacher interviews are
underway, so please if you have not already done so please see
me to make an appointment. They are being held on Thursday
afternoons for the month of November from 3:10pm to 5:10pm.
Should Thursdays not work for you, just let me know as I am happy
to make alternative arrangements to suit your needs. Thank you
to everyone for the whiteboard marker contributions,
unfortunately our whiteboards have yet to arrive, so we are
putting them to good use, with the children exploring the large
whiteboard in the room to practice writing skills and explore their
creative representations (drawings).
I would like to let you all know that due to some unfortunate
attempted abductions in the local area, we have been focusing
on stranger danger in the classroom and have talked about
several different scenarios children may face, what we should do
in these situations and to be aware that stranger some in all
different shapes, sizes and age and may not necessarily be a man
but could be a woman, teenager or even look like a
grandparents. We have talked about a respond, react and
report approach. The children are being encouraged by staff
and each other to stay away from the fences when playing and

to not call out to passers-by as this invites strangers in to our safe

spaces. We have also had some plants removed from our garden
to assist visibility in spots we thought posed a threat, so please be
assured we are doing everything in our power to provide your
children with the necessary tools to keep themselves and each
other safe to help prevent the unthinkable. Please keep talking to
your child about this, its a community effort to keep our children
safe. The more we work together the more awareness we raise
and the more our children can spread the word to help others
and deter these types of people as much as possible.
For now, Ill leave it there as I know this time of year is busy for
everyone and we look forward to what is left of a great year in the
Preschool room. Graduation day will be the 11th December 2012
from 10am. Invitations will make their way to your child/parent
pockets soon.
Keep smiling and stay safe xxx Robyn M, Susie and Robyn H.