Newsletter #2 NGEYC - Newport Gardens Early Years Centre

Newsletter
#2
[email protected]
Welcome families, children, staff &
service providers —
It has been a busy term for NGEYC with
Easter holidays now over, a new term settled
in, the start of fantastic spontaneous outings
and our first educational visit to the Hobsons
Bay Library. Thank you to all the many families
who attended our fabulous social sausage sizzle it was a huge success. A big thank you to
the staff who stayed after their work hours to
assist with the cooking and clean up afterwards also. It was great to chat and get to
know the families here at NGEYC. We do plan
more of this type of fun activity in the future.
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Congratulations to Jane, Nancy, Stephanie and Evelyn (In photo order) our first members of the NGEYC PAG. We have had our first
PAG meeting with Myself (Patty) Centre Manager and Sue the LDC Coordinator to support.
The ladies of the PAG will be looking at clarifying their focus for 2014 in regards to fundraising, ideas so far are: to compile a list of needs
from the staff and families, create a classroom
contact directory and a community classifieds
directory for families, staff & service providers
who wish to advertise their trades, swap & sell
products, share helpful hints and numbers e.g.
IMPORTANT DATES
babysitter register etc. it really looks like a terrific group of motivated and positive parents
Queen’s Birthday 9th June — WHOLE
who wish t o embrace the community ethic of
CENTRE CLOSURE
the centre. We look forward to supporting this
Kindergarten groups term ends Fri 27th June group. The next meeting is the 22nd July
and 3rd term starts Monday 14th July
at6pm.
NAIDOC week 6-13th July centre will be
programming for experiences around this
important week
Pyjama Day Tues 23rd July $1 donation to
the City Mission (Give to class educators)
Grandparents Afternoon Tea **August**
Wednesday 6th from 3pm Waratah
Thursday 7th for Wattle from 1:30—
2:30pm and Bilbies from 11:30am.
Friday 8th from 4pm in Long Day Care,
Banksia from 12:30 and Lilly Pilly from
1:30pm.
All staff ECMS Conference— FRI 15th AUG
WHOLE CENTRE CLOSURE
Attachments
Updated Calendar
Bernie Nott—Chief Executive Officer, ECMS
Parent survey letter ** please complete**
 2015 NG Primary School enrolment form
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Parental Advisory Group (PAG)
Kindergarten & Long Day Care News
Wattle / Bilbies Group
3 year old Kindergarten Group
We have been really enjoying our excursions
into the school playground to investigate and
explore their vegie gardens and learning
about herbs and fauna within our environment. The children are loving their growing relationship with the NG animals in the bush garden. The children are discussing the importance of turn taking and we would love this
to be extended into the home as a conversation with your children to support this message.
The children are feeling particularly inspired to
paint and this is positively prolific at the moment! What fun we are having painting up a
storm! We have set up a shop keepers area to
engage the children in dramatic play. Melissa
& Sarah
Starfish room
3 - 4 year old integrated Kindergarten
Welcome to all the new families using the Starfish Room. We have quite a number of new
children who are all settling in very smoothly.
We also welcome a new educator to the
team, David who is in the room full time.
In the week 19th-23rd May we celebrated Education Week and this year’s theme of science by exploring lots of science experiences.
This included making slime, making our own
water colour paints, exploring balloon rockets,
exploring the scales and heavy and light
items, making volcanos and many other experiences. Have a look at our reflection book for
all the photos and details.
We have been so excited to go out on regular
spontaneous excursions to the school playground. The children have particularly enjoyed
the playground with the big boat and tyre
which has inspired lots of dramatic play about
sharks and crocodiles with the tyre being a
mystery island.
As the weather is getting colder and wetter,
please remember to pack a waterproof jacket
of some sort and plenty of warm clothes as we
do play outside every day, rain or shine.
As always please feel free to come and chat
to us if you have any questions about the program. Kate, Becca, David and Lilly
Banksia
4 year old Kindergarten Group
Monsters have been a key focus over the last
few weeks, beginning with children drawing
various monsters. This interest was fostered
with the inclusion of books and songs about
monsters and discussions relating to what
monsters look like, how they sound and how
they move. We documented this information
and then set about making a song book, ‘I’m
not afraid of monsters and our own monster’.
Paint, boxes, sticky tape, wool, lollypop sticks
and lots of eager, busy children brimming with
ideas saw the creation of ‘The Banksia Group
Monster’ over a fortnight. It is now taking pride
of place in our hallway. Significant learning
took place as children made decisions, problem solved, worked collaboratively with the
guidance of their teachers, followed their interests and extended their knowledge. Current
interest relates to the picture book, ‘Wombat
Stew’. How will this unfold? Leonie & Amanda.
Lilly-Pilly
4 year old kindergarten Group
Our excursion to the Altona North Library was
a big success. The children enjoyed catching
public transport to and from the library. Sarah
the librarian read a story on how we look after
books and Chloe’s first library card. Music and
movement was incorporated which the children enjoyed. At the end of the library session
the children had an opportunity to choose a
book of interest to read. Excursions as such
promote a connectedness with the community and the environment beyond the early
childhood setting. A very big thank you to all
the parents who were able to assist on the excursions. We are enjoying our spontaneous
excursions over at the primary school. So far
we have used the play equipment, oval, picnic area for lunch and played games on the
basketball court. Safiyah a student from Victoria University is completing her final placement
in education with us. The children have built
strong relationships with her and enjoyed interacting at experiences together. We wish Safiyah all the very best as she completes her
Penguins
studies and joins the teaching profession.
0-18mth classroom
Thank you for all the hard work you have put
into your placement. Julie and Alana
Hello to all families, we have had science
week this week from the 19th to the 23rd. The
penguin’s room have made sensory bottles
and have watched and learnt how water
does not mix with oil. Very cool and we have
displayed them outside for others to see and
explore. We have had our first spontaneous
outing with a few children where we had a
lovely picnic outside on the school oval with a
story book. We met one of our relievers in the
school yard and she came over to say hi. The
penguins have been achieving great learning
in their independent skills with washing hands,
our younger children in the room are self feeding and helping to pack away their activities.
Sea Turtles Room
The past few weeks we have been very pro- We have gone out to the bush garden to feed
ductive in the Sea Turtles room! We have said the rabbits and guinea pigs and to explore the
goodbye to a few children moving up to the environment and we love doing this. We have
Starfish room and welcomed some new fami- had a student Ricci who is completing her
bachelor of teaching and she will be on her
lies to our room so we have been very busy.
We have been lucky enough to have the op- four week placement as of the 26th of May.
portunity to go and play at the primary school We will also have another student completing
playground a few times. We are planning to her bachelor and her name is Diana and we
continue these trips and thank all the relieving would like to wish them well in their studies and
staff for their hard work and support through please say hi when you see them in our room.
these exciting times! When the weather hasn’t Cheers from Diana, Stephanie and Janette
been as nice we have been spending our
Possums
time inside making our room look beautiful.
18-2yrs classroom
Arts and Crafts is a big part of our room and
Hello
to
all
families,
the possums room is wonthe children have loved making a range of
masterpieces ranging from A3 posters to paint- derfully settled, having welcomed in the last
children and families into the room before
ing Gum Nuts.
There is never a dull moment in the Sea Turtles making our possum crew places all full up!
room and we are looking forward to the cold- The last few weeks children have been enjoyer months to really tap into our creative ing a variety of science and sensory based exthoughts and produce some really crazy work! periences not only in support of science week
but because let’s face it it’s imaginary, fun
Feel free to come and check out our work!
and MESSY! Goop, playdough, waterplay, and
Laura, Maria, Katelin, Roz & all the kids
various pastings using natural and art based
materials are just some examples of what the
children have been exploring. We look forDonations please for…
ward to exploring many more of children’s in Double or Triple prams for
terests in the coming weeks.
As the cooler months are now upon us please
baby room outings
ensure you provide appropriate clothing for
your children for outdoor play e.g. Beanies
 Milk bottles for our garand jackets. Thank you.
den project
Jenna, Natalie and Michelle.
Waratah
4 year old kindergarten Group
The children have participated in several outings to the Primary School. The outings have
been to the library, playground and kite flying.
We visited their library where we had a special
grade 6 buddy each who read us a story and
helped us to choose a library book to borrow.
The large playground was a challenge for us
at first. We were amazed and a little scared by
the size and the difficulty of the equipment.
However after we had time and encouragement the emotions changed into determination and pride at our achievements.
It was a windy day outside and one of the children suggested we could make a kite. Her
suggestion was accepted and all the children
throughout the day took the opportunity to
make a kite. Later in the day we went to the
Primary School oval to test out our creations.
The kites were a success and everyone enjoyed the fun. The children discussed with
each other how high their kite flew and how
fast they were running. Tracey & Sarah.
Staff news
Congratulations! To Stephanie in
the Penguins room who will be expecting her first baby in September
2014 with her expected maternity
leave date from the 4th August
2014. We are all very excited about
her news & committed to supporting
her & her growing family.
Sad farewell to Amanda...
We say goodbye to the very lovely Amanda in
the Banksia Kindergarten group Friday 6th
June. Amanda has been given the opportunity to take on a private business venture and
although she leaves early years she is going to
a new and exciting opportunity— we would
like to thank Amanda for her fantastic contribution to the successful transition from Hobsons Bay Kindergarten over to Newport Gardens and the brilliant work she has done with
supporting the Banksia group. You will be
dearly missed. Good luck Amanda!
We have recruited for this position & the new
staff member will be announced when all is
finalised and she will start next term. In the
meantime and until the end of term Tracey
the teacher from the Waratah group is kindly
doing extra hours in addition to her group to
work with Leonie. This is a great result as she
knows the children and our high standard
which Amanda has handed over will be maintained — thank you Tracey!
Service Providers Committee update
Newport Gardens Primary school— Please find
via the link below the Newport Gardens Primary School newsletter page & school website,
click the link below to access. Complete your
school enrolment for 2015 NOW!
See our attachment.
www.newportgardensps.vic.edu.au
Toy library— for information please visit or contact: [email protected]
MCH—MCH have Open Sessions running at
the centre to chat to a MCH nurse—see timetable at front reception desk.
If you wish to join a small talk playgroup and
your child is 1-4yrs old please contact Jenny
Rukuwai at Hobsons Bay City Council (HBCC)
on 9932 1516 or email her on
[email protected]
Yooralla West Children’s Services if you wish to
chat to a Yooralla therapist please leave them
a message at the front desk.
Other services running at our centre...
Reading bees— now providing this service
from her home.
Kangatraining : Australia's new
postnatal workout for Mums &
Bubs has arrived at Newport
Gardens Early Years Centre!
Kangatraining provides safe, overall
fitness while your baby can relax and enjoy
being close to you. Kanga Sessions are commencing Wednesday 16th July. Wednesdays &
Fridays from 10-11am. Registration for classes is
essential and spaces are strictly limited.
Contact Kylie now to secure your spot. Email:
learning taking place for your child at NGEYC.
We will endeavour to have this operational by
the 1st of September 2014.
During Education Week it was delightful to see
each of the rooms explore elements of Our
Scientific World. From the babies to the preschoolers, there was investigation, exploration,
observation and experimentation and intentional teaching as educators guided and
planned for learning. This learning took various
forms- volcanoes, static electricity, food science, planting seeds and sensory experiences
including goop and slime.
[email protected] Mobile: 0432 884 102
or Facebook: Kangatraining Melbourne
Sue the LDC Coordinator brought in her new puppy
‘Bella’ for a centre visit Friday — Welcome Bella!
Quality Improvement Plan
Tiny Tackers 0-3yrs Playgroup
We welcome on a Monday 10am-12noon a
new playgroup in our community room, come
& join in! Pop in, call Veronica on 0408250324
or email [email protected]
Educational Leader News - Leonie
Our teachers and educators have begun using the online system QKeYLM to document
and reflect on children’s learning. This system
allows us to incorporate photographs and observations of learning of both individuals and
of the group and reflect on the learning in light
of the Early Years Framework.
As we continue the documentation of learning
and build on child and room reflections we will
implement parent access via a Parent Portal in
the QKeYLM system allowing you to view the
Our web site is an important communication tool
and this has been a priority for NG this last term.
Please look at www.ngeyc.org.au and feed back
any improvements or suggestions for us to continue to develop our web presence.
www.ngeyc.org.au
In order to fill a small amount of gaps in our LDC or
Kindergarten groups we will display a banner outside the centre for a few weeks and you may also
see us in the Newport Leader.
Don’t forget to view the attachments
and…
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Update your 2014 Calendars
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Complete the ECMS Parent Survey
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Complete your 2015 enrolment form if you
wish to attend Newport Primary School &
drop it into the school **

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