Brunswick Kindergarten Newsletter Term 1, March 2016

IMPORTANT KINDER DATES 2016

Brunswick Kindergarten on Facebook

Did you know you can follow Brunswick Kindergarten on

Facebook? ‘Like’ us to keep updated on everything that’s happening

at our kinder, from fundraising events, to ways you can help out. It’s a great way to stay updated with what the kids

are doing.

Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/

BrunswickKinder

Activity Group Casual Sessions

If you are interested in your child attending an Activity Group from time to time, please let your kinder teacher know. 4 Year Old groups- (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri- 1.5 hours) $22.50 a session 3 Year Old group- (Wed- 4 hours) $60.00 a session Term placements are also available at lower costs- please see the posters at kinder for details.

Term Holidays- Saturday 26 March- Sunday 8 April

Monday 11 April – Term 2 commences

Tuesday 12 April - Committee meeting #3

Tuesday 10 May – Committee meeting #4

Tuesday 14 June – Committee meeting #5

Friday 17 June – Winter Solstice Night

Term Holidays- Saturday 25 June- Sunday 10 July

Monday 11 July – Term 3 commences

Tuesday 12 July – Committee meeting #6

Tuesday 9 August – Committee meeting #7

Tuesday 13 September – Committee meeting #8

Term Holidays- Saturday 17 September- Sunday 2 October

Monday 3 October – Term 4 commences

Tuesday 11 October – Committee meeting #9

Saturday 22 October – Fete Day 10am-4pm

Saturday 5 November – Working bee #2

Tuesday 8 November – AGM

Tuesday 13 December – Handover Committee meeting #10

Tuesday 20 December – Term 4 concludes

Executive Committee

Kelly Jack President

Jess Hutchinson Vice President

Helen Brasier Vice President

Sarah Kidd Secretary

Samantha Kinmond Treasurer

General Committee

Libby Harper Enrolments

Brett Paterson IT sub-committee

Tracey Talko Grants

Mireia Perez Social sub-committee (Pizza Night)

Kiera Dingle Social sub-committee (Pizza Night)

Renee Burns Policy sub-committee

Tracey Boadle Mother’s Day cake stall

Cam Clifford Maintenance

Peter Dawson

Jamie Bernardi

Melanie Corrigan

COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT

Are you gifted with fantastic organisational skills? Love working in a team? Drawn to community work?

If you have said ‘yes’ to any of these questions, the Committee would love to work with you to get our Fete planning up and running.

The Fete is set for Saturday 22nd October, and is the main fundraising initiative for the kinder. We don’t do plate decorating or chocolate drives, and instead focus our attention on our Fete to raise money for opur much-needed (and fast-approaching) bathroom and entry renovation.

There’s already a sizeable team to do the work- we just need an exceptional leader to guide us through it! If you are interested, please contact the Committee at brunswickkindergarten@gmail.com.

Call out for a Fete Coordinator!

DIRECTOR’S NEWS

Hello all!

Gosh, we seem to have hit the ground running this year- hard to believe we are one term down already!

A warm welcome to our new kinder families, and a welcome back to those returning for another year at our wonderful kinder.

I’d like to thank the Committee of Management for their support and willingness to get on with the plans and events for the year. Thanks to Cam for organising the Working Bee a few weeks ago- the kids have reaped the benefits of new , springier tanbark and extra river rocks in the yard.

And what a night last Friday was at Pizza Night! Such a lot of dancing to the fabulous All Night Fritz, not to mention the yummy pizza, sausage sizzle and cake stall. The weather didn’t exactly cooperate, but we all made the best of it. Congratulations to the winners of the raffle prizes, and to Zareen in winning the CD in the energetic dance-off! Mireia and Kiera from the Committee did a superb job organising the night as I’m sure you’ll all agree.

A big personal thanks to the staff team, the Committee and the kinder families for making my first term in the Director’s chair such an easy introduction to the job.

For those who celebrate Easter, may you have a wonderful one. And to all, enjoy a couple of weeks break from the kinder routine, and see you back and ready for Term 2!!

Sophie.

REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

The beginning of the year is always an exciting time. The executive team has some new faces joining those who stayed on from last year. We would all like to say a big welcome to both new and returning kinder families. We hope that you have all been settling in well. With Easter occurring early this year, term one certainly has gone very fast! Even with this short term, we have had a lot of exciting things going on.

Our first working bee of the year was held in February. A big thanks goes out to Cam Clifford and his group of volunteers for all of their hard work in replenishing the tan bark, aerating the soil and topping up the sand in the kinder yard. A lot of hard work by everyone on the day went into making the yard look fresh and clean. There were happy faces all round from the staff and children with these improvements.

To keep things rolling, we held our first fundraiser of the year with our annual Pizza Night on Friday the 18

th March. The rain

held off for a night of delicious pizza, sweet treats, great music, drinks and a trusty sausage sizzle. It was lovely to be able to meet and chat to other families and staff outside of the often-rushed pick up and drop off. Thanks to All Day Fritz for the music, Bakers Delight Barkly Square for the bread and Back In Motion Sydney Road for the incredibly generous raffle prizes.

Most importantly we would like to thank Mireia Perez and Kiera Dingle for all of their work in organising the Pizza Night, along with co-ordinating the volunteers on the night. To those who volunteered on the night - Thanks!

The running of the Kinder relies heavily on these fundraising events and volunteers to organise and run them. We really couldn’t do it without you! There are plenty of opportunities coming up to be able to lend a hand. We have our Mother’s Day cake stall at Barkly Square (Yum!) along with the return of our Winter Solstice night, trivia night and our annual Fete. The social committee is always open for new people to join and help out. As well as the Fete committee, which is our biggest fundraiser of the year. It is such a great and fun way to get involved in the Kindergarten that your kids enjoy so much. It is also a fantastic way to get to know other Kinder families better and make new friends within the Brunswick Kinder community.

The staff members do such an incredible job with settling in the children to what can be an overwhelming new experience for many, especially during term 1. We see lots of happy (and often dirty!) faces on pick up. The sign of a good day! We thank our team of teachers for the diverse opportunities they provide for our kids along with care and support everyday. They all do such an inspiring job! Our thanks to all staff and volunteer parents for all that you do each day.

Have a happy and safe break and we look forward to seeing you all in Term 2.

PURPLE GROUP

Hello to our families in Silver group! It has been great to see your children settle in very quickly and smoothly, building relationships with their teachers and peers and establishing interest in joining many experiences offered.

This term children have taken opportunities to learn about many things; such as imaginary play in playing with dinosaurs to discovering and investigating how volcanoes erupt! They resourced information about this through sourcing books and joining group discussions to share perspectives about their world around them. We have also observed children’s increased interest in reading books, creative art experiences, manipulating play dough and experimenting with paint and materials in our art and box construction corner. The children have also strongly interested in being explorers, drawing maps and finding hidden treasures. Therefore one of our highlights this term was taking children out into the community to our local park to collect natural materials and also hunt for treasure.

Our children also engaged in learning and understanding about our Aboriginal people, being our first traditional owners of Australia. During group time, Frances joined them in learning a traditional Indigenous song and recite our acknowledgement to country as a sign of respect to our indigenous culture. Next term teachers will continue to gradually increase their learning and awareness to include indigenous art and culture.

In closing, we excited that Rose will be back next term on Thursdays and is looking forward to seeing and spending time with your children. Kerry will continue working in our group on Fridays. We hope you have a lovely and safe holiday!

Kerry, Rose, Frances, John, Cate and Angela.

SILVER GROUP

Term 1 didn’t start out as expected with Rose breaking her arm. She has found it very frustrating not being able to be at kinder and working with the children. She can’t wait for the beginning of next term!

The children have settled extremely well and have coped with various relief staff. We need to say thank you to Betty who has filled Rose’s shoes for the past 5 weeks. She has been fantastic with the children, has provided great ideas for the program and been wonderful support for Robin.

We have also had the expertise of Jess, a student, who works at the Zoo. She set up a dramatic Zoo/Vet play area which the children have absolutely loved. She even brought in x-rays and books from the zoo to extend the experience.

Other interests of the children have been: Volcanoes, writing, construction activities, Star Wars, collage activities particularly box construction, sand play, the trampoline, swings and monkey bars, sand play and panning for gold.

Thank you Betty and Jess who have made 1st Term a smooth start to the 2016 kinder year. Your help has been greatly appreciated!

Robin.

What a wonderful time the Blue group has had getting to know each other throughout this first term. The children have been curious and creative learners who through play have made many new friendships and respectful relationships with each other. Term one is all about creating a sense of belonging- that is the children feeling confident and happy in their new kindergarten environment.

Zareen and Cathy have been doing lots of small and large group work getting the children to learn and interact together; we have been exploring songs, games and dance through singing circles, practicing yoga and even doing daily mindfulness as a group. The children have been very responsive to these new practices and enjoy having the choice to participate in these activities.

Together at group time we have been acknowledging the Wurundjeri people who have been kind enough to share their land with us and this has generated many thoughtful questions from the children. We hope to continue learning together about the traditional owners of this land and their culture throughout the year. We can't wait to see what the Blue group will want to do in term 2, have a wonderful and safe break.

Cathy and Zareen

RED GROUP

Hello and welcome to our families in Red group. As term one concludes, it’s great to see how well the children are settling in and becoming confident with their new teachers and peers. They are also increasing their confidence each week and becoming familiar with our environment.

The highlight for the children this term has been learning about our Aboriginal culture. Through conversations during group times we have discussed the importance of respect of our Australian culture and land. The children have embraced our conversations and storytelling, and have been curious about indigenous art displayed in these stories. Therefore we plan to extend these interests further next term by drawing on Indigenous culture and art.

This term children have also been making great use of experimenting with creative arts experiences including play dough, painting and decorating boxes with collage in the craft corner. They have liked making use of tools and materials to manipulate, such as scissors, sticky tapes and glue. Construction experiences have also been popular, especially the train and block construction areas. These experiences are great ways for children to learn skills to work cooperatively and negotiate different ways to share with their peers. Outdoor play is also another favourite space, especially jumping on our new trampoline and mud play!

We hope you have enjoyed your first term with Red group. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday break!

Kerry, Maria and Mary.

BLUE GROUP

YELLOW GROUP

How quickly the term has flown by! The children have settled in quickly too, navigating their way from activity to activity and experiencing the independence of the indoor/ outdoor program. The daily Kinder routine has become second nature with the children transitioning smoothly into snack and group times.

Singing Circle is a big hit with most of the yellow group and hopefully the children are sharing the songs with you at home. We have discovered some real puzzle experts and some excellent tree climbers! We have started with some cooking experiences and realized things don’t always work out (our failed icy poles) but that’s ok! There will be more cooking next term as the children were enthusiastic participants.

Celebrating our friends’ birthdays was fun and added a feel of belonging to our little group first decorating the cupcakes and then eating them together.

We wish you a safe and happy holiday and look forward to another fun-filled term.

Frances, Sonia & Zareen

This has been very busy term with the children settling in, getting to know the teachers and the routines of the group. For many of the children this is the first time away from parents for a long period of time and takes some adjusting to the new adults in their lives.

We have an Orange Group flower arrangement with the children’s faces and names attached. This helps give the children a sense of belonging and being part of a group.

The children have been very creative with the playdough making cakes and biscuits. This has been extended to cars and train track being added to make prints in the dough. The last 2 weeks bugs and natural materials have been included with the children’s imagination running wild making homes and environments for their bugs!

The collage table encourages the children to strengthen their fine motor skills and creating some amazing pieces of art using craft bits, natural materials and glue! Sometimes there is more glue than materials! We have some amazing artists!

With the weather being sunny most of the term, the children have been utilizing their gross motor skills outside with the trampoline, swings, monkey bars, climbing trees and jumping board. Water play, sand play and the mud patch have also been of interest.

Robin, Katerina and Louise

ORANGE GROUP

PICK UP ETTIQUETTE

Just a friendly reminder to be mindful of finishing times for your child’s kinder session, and prompt collection of your child is greatly appreciated.

We understand that life can throw up surprises at times, and we welcome a quick call to let us know if you are running late.

While Activity Groups do run after each kinder session, these are staffed only to cater for the number of children booked into the session. The Kinder teachers concluding your child’s kinder session have obligations they must attend to after all the kinder kids have been collected or transferred to Activity Group. These include meetings with parents or the teaching team, and program planning for the next session of that kinder group. If there is a delay at pick up times, then these activities are delayed also.

Please bear in mind that in line with our Fees Agreement and policy, late fees can be charged if you are consistently late at pick up time.

We welcome casual attendees at our Activity Groups- just let us know as soon as you can if you’d like your child to attend on any given day. Information on Activity Group fees is available at the kinder or on the front page of this newsletter.

PICTURES FROM THE KINDER PIZZA NIGHT!

NEXT TERM

Remember that we still need to wear hats outside until the end of April.

Make sure you provide a change of clothes as the weather turns wetter- the kids LOVE water and rain puddle play!

LABEL all clothing and shoes that your child wears or takes to kinder- it makes the end of the day much easier to manage!

Lego figurines

We know this is a tall order, but if you’re in a household that isn’t as keen on Lego anymore, and you have a few of the figurines lying around, the kids at the kinder would LOVE to make use of them!

If you have any to spare, please give them to your kinder teacher. And a big THANKS!

Call for Donations!

Once next term commences, we will

need a few of the following items:

Nuttelex

Salt

Jam

Vegemite

Plain Flour

Tissues

Hand wash

Wipes

Earthcare dishwashing

liquid

Please check with your kindergarten teacher about

any dwindling supplies.

Thanks!