ANGASTON CHILD CARE & EARLY LEARNING CENTRE
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU
Your child’s enjoyment is our number one concern.
Each of our team will take personal responsibility to ensure that your child has an enjoyable experience at our Centre.
Please let us know if anything is wrong as we will endeavour to fix it for you, or if we can do anything to you’re your child’s experience more enjoyable. We hope you and your child enjoy your time with us.
NEWSLETTER April 2017
NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR
I would like to welcome Suzy Linke to the under 2’s room as the Team Leader. Suzy has worked at the Centre for the past 2 years as a relief educator and is a valuable member of our staffing team.
Suzy is a mother of 3 children who have all attended our centre since they were babies.
I will be taking a week’s leave from the 10th and will be returning to the centre on the 18th of April.
My wonderful educators are here to support you whilst I am away.
Sharon
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
During the last month, I was given the opportunity to be a part of a training session on Marte Meo (On one’s own strength – Latin meaning).
We looked many things such as follows:
• how children and educators use daily communication to effectively support children’s development and wellbeing
• How children naturally connect and learn to become cooperative
• Making the most out of daily interactions to support cooperative behaviour and build relationships.
This was such a great experience and I learnt a lot.
Andrea
CHILD HEALTH
Is your child up to date with immunisation?
Remember that children who are not immunised will be excluded during any outbreak of a government scheduled preventable illness within the centre
School Dental Service
All babies, children and young people under 18 years are welcome to attend the School Dental Service. Dental care is FREE for most children.
SA Dental Service participates in the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. A small fee may apply for children who are not eligible for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.
All dental care provided is FREE for preschool children.
To locate your local School Dental Clinic, or for more information about the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, please visit www.sadental.sa.gov.au
CATERPILLAR ROOM
This month has been an exciting adventure!
With Kristy going on parental leave and Suzy stepping in and taking over, there has been lots of fun and positive changes happening in our room.
We have been supporting our transition children into the toddler room and getting them ready for their next adventure. The babies have been involved in group times before meals, washing hands before and after meals in the toddler room bathroom, reading books quietly on the mat and practicing sleeping on big beds.
Educators have also introduced music and dance. The children enjoy getting up and wiggling to the beat of the music.
In the babies’ room, we have also been focusing on balance. We have set up obstacle courses for the children to enjoy and practice their balance with the assistance of their educators.
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners – Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
Obstacle Course:
Suzy, Carissa & Jess
COCOON ROOM
This crazy weather we have been having this past month has been great for our vegetable garden!
The toddler children harvested our very first ripe pumpkin, cooked it and had a taste. Some of the children really enjoyed the taste and was excited that the pumpkin came from our very own garden.
We have been doing a lot of fun things as of late; having tea parties, learning German words and progressing with learning the language and making a tree to decorate our room made from a tree branch and decorated with leaves in which the children threaded onto string and hung from the branches.
In the past weeks, we have been looking further into science and experiments. The toddler children were given balls of ice in containers, salt, colored water and teat-pipettes. They placed the salt on top of the frozen ice balls before dropping some colored water on top to create patterns in the ice.
For Harmony Day, the children took turns in tracing each other’s silhouettes on to big pieces of paper. The children decorated their silhouettes and glued them onto a long piece of cardboard next to one another. They then were asked if they knew which one was theirs. This helped with establishing self-identities and recognition.
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity – Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities.
The toddler room would like to ask for some donations of old clothes, shoes, hats, straw, etc. for the children to be able to create their own scarecrows. This would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Andrea & Nikita
PRESCHOOL
This month, we have spent a lot of time enjoying the vegetable garden and seeing our vegetables grow! The tomato plants have been growing so fast, we have had to leave some aside for our families to take home and enjoy. Our pumpkins are growing rapidly and are almost ready to be picked and be made into pumpkin soup YUMMY!
As we start approaching the cooler weather, the children have been interested in how rain clouds form and how rain actually falls from the sky. This has led to forming hypothesis, investigating, experimenting and researching. We decided to test some of our theories so we gathered our resources and equipment to make our very own rain clouds which consisted of water, shaving foam, droppers, blue food colouring and a glass jar. The children were able to try out the experiment without assistance to see if the experiment would work.
There was a lot of time to ponder and understand the importance of trial and error. But in the end we were able to create our very own rain clouds. The shaving cream represented the cloud and the blue food colouring represented the rain falling. The children now have a clear understanding that when rain clouds are formed, they create rain. This has also led onto our discussion on recycling and how rain can be se-used and recycled to help our farms, land and water supply strengthen.
The children’s vocabulary has broadened and they are now using scientific words such as; liquid, cloud formation, sunlight, wind, cold, climate, re-use and recycle. We have also added into our room the three coloured recycling bins (Green, Yellow and Red). The children are now confident in being able to describe what each bin represents and what sorts of materials are to go into the correct bins. We are excited for what the next couple of weeks will bring and our science experiments will be moving on to looking at the process of making liquid into solids e.g. crystal formations.
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world – Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners – Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.
Making Rain:
Emma & Amanda
FOOD AND NUTRITION
Quick Chicken Sausage Rolls
Ingredients
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, just thawed
4 chicken sausages
24 baby spinach leaves (optional)
1 lightly beaten egg
chutney or barbecue sauce, to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Place puff pastry on a flat work surface and cut in half. Snip the end off sausages and squeeze out the sausage mince in a straight line across the middle of each pastry strip on the longest side. Top with a couple of baby spinach leaves, if desired. Roll up pastry to form a long tube, trim the edges then cut each tube into three pieces. Place the sausage rolls on prepared tray. Brush lightly with egg. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to stand for 5 minutes. Serve with chutney or barbecue sauce.
OUR COMMUNITY
We are continuing to build strong community bonds with the wider community as we look to continue providing high quality care and a sense of belonging.