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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER

Dear families,

www.bundoorapreschool.com.au

Facebook.com/BundooraPreschool

With only a month or two of 2019 to go, we continue to ask that parents consider joining our kinder committee for 2020. The kindergarten Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 14 November, 2019. A renewed Committee of Management will be elected. If you are considering putting your hand up and being a volunteer on our committee, I do understand that committing to being on the kinder committee may not at first be something you feel you can fit into your already very busy life; I know how that feels. Early on, I wondered if I could contribute in a meaningful way. A lovely and unexpected result from volunteering was to have met so many others who are like-minded. I may say with confidence that I have formed some wonderful and supportive friendships, I have learnt many, many new things and that sense of contributing to a greater process, with such noble intentions (as well as donating cardboard boxes and time at my computer) along with other invested parents feels pretty humbling and pretty fantastic.

So, please come along to the AGM with an open mind and think about whether you can support the kinder to continue to be great. It is extra work, but the benefits are life-long. Not long ago we had our Assessment & Rating completed. Lots and lots of work went into preparing the required documentation submitted to the Department. Then we had an Assessor attend kinder during our Possum and Koala sessions taking notes and speaking with myself and with the staff present. I have to say, everyone was so professional and represented out kinder proudly. With that, I am so so proud to let everyone know (I'd shout it from the rooftops if I could!) that we successfully retained our EXCEEDING rating. Well done to the Staff and Committee that contributed, it just goes to show how well we all work together. It is a huge achievement.

There are a few great things happening this term inside and outside of kinder. Our grounds project is in its final stages with the Cubby house building to start this weekend.

Our biggest and best Fundraiser of the year, Halloween Twilight Market is on 31 October, Watsonia Hall on Lambourn Road, 6pm - 9pm. Flyer attached to this newsletter. Our Fundraisers work tirelessly behind the scenes creating great things for our Kinder and they can't do it alone. We need volunteers to help on the night for as little or as long as you can. It would be much appreciated. We can't keep running it if we can't get our Fundraisers some support on the night. Also, our kinder is taking orders for Calendars, Diaries and Tea-towels to commemorate your child's artwork and time at kinder. Always a staple for Christmas presents!

As always, any questions, comments or suggestions may be emailed to me at president@bundoorapreschool.com.au. We look forward to we seeing you at the AGM.

Kind regards

Corrie Quigley

Committee President (2019)

October 2019

TERM 4

7 Oct - 20 Dec 2019

Upcoming Events

31 Oct -

Halloween Market

Public Holiday Melbourne Cup - Tues 5 Nov AGM Thurs 14 Nov

Working Bee

Sunday 17 Nov

Pre-school Orientation Day

Friday 22 Nov

Thankyou BBQ Fri 22 Nov

Final Session Dates

Joeys Mon 16 Dec

Possum’s Tues 17 Dec

Koala’s Wed 18 Dec

A message from our President...

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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Joey Group News

Our Joeys sessions have been buzzing with lots of social interactions and activity. The children were excited to start the new term and are enjoying both the indoor and outdoor environments and really taking ownership of their kinder and all there is to offer. It’s really lovely to be a part of it!! Thank you to those who were able to attend Marvelous Men’s Night and the Parent and Teacher Meetings. We hope you gained much from these experiences as we did. It was wonderful to gather ideas from the meetings that we can implement into the program.

As part of group time, we have all been enjoying ‘share time.’ Some children have been bringing in pictures they have drawn at home, photos from the weekend and of family events, or items from home. This helps to further develop the communication skills of the children. The child talking practices conveying and constructing information with purpose and confidence. This also helps to build on their feelings of identity and positive self-esteem. The children who are the audience are often engaged by using active listening, showing interest and

contributing ideas, asking questions, taking turns and recognizing the contributions of others. Please feel welcome to send work the children do at home or email any photos the children would like to share with the group so that your child can have a turn to share. Over the past couple of weeks, the children have been enjoying the sensory experience of ‘Goo’ (made with equal parts of water and corn flour), large floor puzzles, creating with Lego using the new Lego pieces and practicing cutting on playdough and paper just to name a few activities. Soon we will plant alfalfa sprouts and the children can practice their cutting on them as well!

Egg hatching program – The chicks were 2 days old when the Joey’s saw them on Friday. They used gentle hands and demonstrated a caring attitude. It’s been lovely to hear them talk amongst themselves about how ‘cute’ the chicks are. Other comments made were: ‘they are so cute, very soft, oh – he pecked me! His feet are yucky, he’s sleepy, yuk - she did poo! He’s running away!’ We looked at a diagram and discussed the life cycle of a chicken. They really loved holding the chicks. Drama toolbox will be attending on Monday 25th November from 9am to 10am. It is a Drama incursion with ‘Dinosaurs’ being the theme. All children will have the opportunity to participate and enjoy in an interactive story and dress up. Photo Day went well on Monday. Unfortunately, we went over time and we apologise for this as it was challenging to have a variety of photos taken of each child in the short 2 and half hour session!! We can’t wait to see how they turned out!

Outdoors the children have enjoyed planting a ‘round’ variety of cucumbers and geranium ‘cuttings’ from our homes. Staff will support the children to care for them. If you have any plants at home that the children can plant as cuttings, please send them to kinder. Please remember to keep a hat in your child’s kinder bag and it would be helpful if you applied sunscreen to your child before the beginning of the session.

Dani and Grazynka

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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

POSSUM Group News

Hi everyone and welcome back to term 4. We finished Term 3 off with a celebration of Footy Colours and Hot Chip Day. We chatted about the football codes and shared stories. We read ‘Jackson’s Footy’ about a little boy who loves footy so much that he sleeps with his football. The children found very funny. The hot chips were clearly the highlight and we enjoyed these sitting on our new grass area! It was a great opportunity to talk about working as a team and sportsmanship. Thanks to Mrs Clarke who went and got our hot chips!

To support mathematical skills we have included a numeracy table which will be modified regularly to engage children in a range of numeracy skills: counting, numeral recognition, spatial relations, one to one correspondence and measurement. The children have also completed two tasks to consolidate spatial relations and shape discrimination. The children have continued to enjoy games such as dominoes, Connect 4 and matching games. It is wonderful to see the independence in following the ‘rules’ of the activity and completing the task as well as the independent counting and numeral writing.

We are beginning to look at lifecycles. Living Eggs arrived last week and we now have 11 chicks that have hatched. The egg hatching program provides so many opportunities for learning and we look forward to observing this unfold over the next two weeks. It was wonderful to see the children’s attention as the process for hatching was explained and so many great questions were asked. This demonstrates a wonderful interest and great capacity for processing the information and extending thinking to further investigate. Such an amazing process which we as adults take for granted at times. We are also focusing on time and

measurement as we develop awareness of lifecycles and await the hatching of the eggs. The children will be encouraged to record the chicken’s growth and behaviours over the next 2 weeks.

Play dough area has been a busy play space. Educators have encouraged children to make their names and other words from the dough. This is an excellent fine motor activity as well as supporting language and cognitive growth. We have extended this by using small stickers to stick over the letters of their name on cardboard.

It is important to take advantage of numeracy all around us and to draw children’s attention to this. Practising mathematical skills in relation to children’s interests and to their everyday experiences makes is more meaningful and fun. Puzzles will also incorporate numeral recognition and patterns. The children’s literacy interests have grown through letter writing and games such as Hangman and Patty Cake Baker’s Man. We have also had a growing interest in languages other than English and we are enjoying practicing greetings in other languages. Thank you to Sarita’s Mum Jennifer for reading to the class ‘My Days of the Week in Mandarin’. The children were so engaged and loved repeating the words in Mandarin.

In the coming weeks we have a visit from the Heidelberg Police with their ‘Run to us , not from us’ program, Healthy Bites will be back for their second visit and preparations for the end of the year celebrations.

Many children are starting their school transition days. This is an exciting time however can be unsettling for young children. Please be patient with your little ones. As we know children can experience anxiety with experiences/places that are unfamiliar to them. Some may also express this anxiety in their reactions to coming to kinder. Some children may need some extra TLC from parents and educators in the coming weeks.

Thanks to all our Possum family helpers and our wonderful Committee.

The Possum Teaching Team.

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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Koala Group News Welcome to term 4! Although the weather is unpredictable, we are enjoying the days when we get slightly warmer weather! It is time again for sun hats and sunscreen so please remember to pack sun hats every day. As you have probably noticed, there have been some changes to the outdoor space. The koalas are really enjoying the bike track and we have been talking about giving way to pedestrians. We have been so excited to see the eggs that have come to kinder. We kept them warm by placing them in an incubator. The incubator had a fan that blew warm, moist air all over the eggs. The possum group had numbered all the 11 eggs and we all had a guess of which egg would hatch first. Lots of the children guessed egg number 5 because it already had a big crack in it.

When we came to kinder on Wednesday, 5 of the chickens had already hatched so we didn’t know which had hatched first. We watched two more chickens hatch out of their eggs, and by the end of the session all 11 chickens were hatched! First the chicks pecked at the shell. This is called pipping. When they finally broke the shell open and came out, they were wet and very tired. The warm air soon dried them out and they all went fluffy! After the chicks were stronger they were moved into the brooder box which had a light inside to keep the

chicks warm. They have special drink and food containers. Each day these are refilled and the paper changed so the chicks can stay clean and healthy. After two weeks the chicks will go back to the farm. They might find their parents and friends and they will have lots of room to grow and exercise and practice all the things that chickens need to know. We are using this opportunity to look at lots of different oviparous animals (animals that lay eggs) and the different life cycles. We have lots of exciting things coming up, including: Wednesday 24th October – Police visit Tuesday 29th October – Dentist visit Friday 8th November – Rescheduled school/ letter box walk Term 4 is an exciting term, but also a busy one with children having school orientation sessions and practicing for our end of year concert. Please try to give the children (and yourselves) space and time to rest and recharge. Kind regards, Marijke

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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Committee Members wanted for 2020 Later in 2019 we will have elections for our new incoming 2020 volunteer committee. Some of our current committee members, will vacate our positions early next year because our youngest child will start school in 2020. Some members will remain on committee in 2020 so a handover of material is certainly available. Support is always available and access to a computer is essential. The kinder committee is very much a team. There is a need for high-quality technical skills on our committee and I encourage you - if you are remaining a part of our community in 2020 - to put your hand up and have a go. If volunteering in some part on a committee such as ours is something that you would consider, please do think about how you might be able to play a part. Please email me for more information at president@bundoorapreschool.com.au

Save the Date

You are hereby invited to attend Bundoora Pre-school’s Annual General Meeting

Date: Thursday 14 November 2019

Time: Sign in from 6.30pm. Meeting at 7.00pm sharp

Venue: Hall, located in Admin building

Bundoora Primary School

Balmoral Avenue, Bundoora, 3083

Please note: children are NOT required to attend the AGM.

Orientation Day Our Pre-school Orientation Day will take place on Friday 22 November 2019. Information distributed to families at the AGM will contain more details, but if you have a child enrolled in 2020, please mark this date.

Thankyou BBQ 2019 Our annual thank you BBQ will take place on Friday 22 November from 5.30pm, with Charlie Silly Pants performing, $5 per adult, children no cost.

Look out for invitations with lucky door prize tickets in the coming weeks!!

Dates to note for Bundoora Pre-School: Term 1, 2020 Important dates for 2020 families, term one 2020 to note:

Interview Days begin Wednesday 29 Jan, and last for three days. Kindergarten sessions begin Monday 3 February 2020. Pre-school Open Day (Banyule) is Saturday 22 February 2020. Information distributed to families at the AGM will contain more details about your child's starting dates and times.

Additional Calendar Dates: Joey’s Party/ Final session end of year: Monday

16 December Possum’s Party/ Final session end of year:

Tuesday 17 December Koala’s Party/ Final session end of year:

Wednesday 18 December

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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Logo Clothing Order forms will be available within the AGM Information Packs, items will be available for purchase on Orientation Day.

Fundraising News

The Halloween Market is approaching fast. We would really appreciate any help we can get to make this event run smoothly and be successful.

We will be asking families to contribute in a variety of ways - whether that being by collecting and donating glass jars, sharing our Facebook posts, baking for the cake stall, distributing flyers, volunteering to help or attending on the night. Please consider what your contribution could be?

You could sign up to volunteer some time right now! Follow the link below to let us know that you have some time to donate on the day.

Sign up by clicking on this link: https://signup.com/go/qjmcYri

Term 4 - Sun is out! Sunsmart Policy is In!

Please make sure all children have their hats with them for each session.

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BUNDOORA PRE-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Bundoora Preschool

Committee Members 2019

Additional Dates for your

Calendars…

Victorian 2019 Term Dates

Term 3: Mon 15 Jul– Fri 20 Sep

Term 4: Mon 7 Oct– Fri 20 Dec

Victorian Public Holidays 2019

Tue 5 Nov – Melbourne Cup Day

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Thursday 14 November

Committee Handover Meeting

Thursday 28 November

President – Corrie Quigley

Vice President – Stacey Collins

Secretary – Amy Armstrong

Assistant Secretary – Melissa Favata

Treasurer – Gaya Tharmendra

Assistant Treasurer – Hannah Landreth

Maintenance Rep – Steve Surdoski & Riley Wills

BCCKN Rep – Rachel Harnetty

Grants Officer – Alanna Quigley

Group Rep Possums – Shana-Sandra Collins & Shelley

Simm

Group Reps Koalas – Narelle Conway & Rebekka Kennedy-

Lambert

Group Rep Joeys – Dayna Rixon & Megan Wills

Fundraising Committee – Amy Armstrong, Rebecca

McKenzie, Narelle Conway, Stacey Collins, Alison Potter,

Megan Nikoleris & Nicole Ithier

Parents Please Note:

Copies of all committee meeting minutes are kept in the Parent Library and Kinder Policies are held in the Parent Library at the Kinder. The Parent Library is housed on the shelves in the bathroom area. There is a small range of books available that parents/carers may wish to borrow. Please complete any entry in the ‘Parent Library Borrowing Book’. If you would like to leave a review of any books you read, please speak to staff.