A Word from the President

Dear Families

Welcome to all our new children and parents for 2014 and welcome back to everyone who was with us last year. Kinder marks an important milestone in yours and your child’s lives. It’s exciting, scary and fun all at the same time. We hope you have enjoyed your first term with us.

This is my third year at Benwerrin and on the committee. I was a general member my first year, and have been the President both last year and this year. To new committee members, a big thank you for the commitment you’ve made to the kinder this year, and to the committee members who have stayed on for another year, thank you for recommitting your time and effort. A list of your 2014 committee members is on the notice board, so please feel free to talk to us about any concerns or suggestions you may have. We also welcome our new 3YO Teacher Renata. I know she is loving her time here and is a wonderful asset to our teaching staff.

Over the summer we had a facelift in the 4YO room. Last year’s fundraising committee worked very hard to get the funds to replace our flooring in the 4YO room, bathroom, kitchen and office. We also had new toilets and taps in the 4YO bathroom as well as a fresh coat of paint, inside and out! Last year’s grants also gave us a mobile garden unit and wooden storage boxes for the sand pit. I’m sure you will agree the kinder is looking great.

Our “Welcome to Benwerrin” BBQ was a big success with over half our families attending. Thank you to all the committee members and volunteers who organised and helped out at the event. I'm sure you will all agree that it is great to be able to socialise with other kinder parents and get to know them. I saw a few dad’s get taken on tours of the kinder by their children, they had such pride in their faces. It was so lovely to see.

Fundraising has started and I have to say our families have been very thoughtful and generous in the gifts for the kinder Easter raffle. It is fantastic to see lots of arts and crafts given. The winners will need those in the school holidays! The children will be drawing the raffle in the classrooms this week so good luck to everyone. Thank you to everyone who has supported our fundraising efforts. Our main event for the year is the Trivia night.

It has been booked for the 16th August so start getting those babysitters ready for a great night out.

The Department of Early Education and Childhood Development has implemented a National Quality Framework for all Kindergartens across Australia. To ensure we are meeting these standards we are required to develop a Quality Improvement Plan which addresses how we are currently meeting the standards and it will assist our service to continuously improve the quality of education and care we provide for children and families. Our Improvement plan is on display in the front foyer. I encourage each family to read this plan and provide us with feedback. If you have any ideas for improvement or development, please contact either your teachers or myself so that we can take this on board.

Thank you for all your support so far this year and we look forward to an outstanding Term 2. Enjoy the upcoming school holidays and spending Easter with your families.

Gillian MoonPresident

4yo News – Toni (Echidna Group)

I cannot believe that the end of term is approaching so quickly the children have grown and are feeling confident in their kinder environment. I have taken the last week of term off due to my son getting married and need to organized myself. I will be back for term 2 with so many wonderful experiences for the children. I welcome Anna Mitsakis (Merine’s Grandma) to relieve for me and of course Bronwyn and Fee to continue their work with the children.

Thank you so much to all the families that volunteered their time to help during our sessions your help enriches the program and everybody’s kinder experience and is greatly appreciated. I look forward to an exciting term 2.

WE KNOW WE BELONG

Starting a new year in a new environment can sometimes be difficult emotionally so we have created …

OUR BELONGING TREE

The children were very excited to hang their photo frames on the tree. Our belonging tree aims to extend our work on identity by teaching children that they are all special individuals that make up a family; Our “Kinder Family”.

These experiences are to facilitate and contribute to a child’s sense of belonging to their new environment and social group. Children can also explore and share their self identity which contributes to a child’s feeling safe, gaining confidence and developing a strong sense of well being

Upon reflection of the term so far, Bronwyn, Fee and I feel that Echidna children have developed such a strong sense of identity and belonging to our Echidna group.

The children found some centipedes while playing in the outdoor environment. I discussed with the children about making an enclosure for the centipedes to live in so we can observe them. We set up a glass aquarium for the centipedes. I asked the children. What do centipedes need?James said “They need leaves to eat.” The children collected leaves and placed them into the enclosure.

Ben said “They need dirt too”. Lucas found some dirt and added

it to the leaves. I asked ‘How about water?’

James said “Not too much.”

Victor said “We can call them Toni and Bronwyn.”

The children are engaging in an inquiry based experience to investigate, imagine and explore their ideas without giving them the answers.

We placed a centipede on the drawing table to encourage a small group discussion using probing questioning technique to engage their thinking and knowledge about the centipede.

The children were invited to draw their observations of the centipede. We had many long shapes with small legs representing the shape of the centipede. They also drew the dirt, leaves and a rock in their drawing. This learning experience presented opportunities to strengthen children’s fine motor skills such as hand control and pencil grip as well as develop observational and drawing skills.

Teaching 4yo’s is wonderful, I can use my knowledge and skills to engage children actively in learning , identify children’s strengths and interests, choose appropriate teaching strategies and design the learning environment. (EYLF p9) That is being intentional in what and how you do it.

Today Bronwyn facilitated a cooking experience and made play dough with the children. Before beginning she asked them to identify all the ingredients on the table. Victor, Rahul, Shibei William W and Merine all waited their turn to assist with the stirring, measuring and listening carefully to Bronwyn’s instructions.

During the mixing process the children noticed the water change to orange and the oil floated to the top of the water. They finally placed the play dough mixture into the tin ready for the oven. Bronwyn asked the children “What needs to happen?” Victor said “You need to put it in the oven to make it like play dough.”

This experince further supported the children’s sensory development, science concept development through exploring how substances change texture and appearance when mixed together, as well as numeracy concepts through weight, measurement and number of ingredients (Learning Outcome 4: Learning).

4yo News – Shenel (Kangaroo Group)

As we settled into our first term, the children have been confidently and enthusiastically engaging with social and physical environments through their relationships and play. They have been establishing new friendships, re-establishing old ones, and developing a sense of belonging and community amongst their ‘Kangaroo’ peers.

Experiences to explore and support children’s sense of identity and belonging this month have included, drawing and discussing self-portraits, created our Kangaroo belonging tree friends, children engaging in ‘signing themselves in’ using the photo board, celebrated birthdays, made Kangaroo stick friends, displayed photos of our families on our kinder tree, read our family stories and a range of small and large group experiences to encourage participation and discussion.

To support friendships and belonging, the children have engaged in a variety of small and large group experiences/games to encourage problem solving and cooperation with their peers while practicing to turn take and share. Some of these experiences

include, the snail pace game, large mat puzzles, collaborative weaving, Dinosaur bingo game, teddy bear game, coloured peg sorting, outdoor group games, just to name a few.

We welcomed ‘Tilly’ our new member to the Kangaroo group. We thank all our wonderful parent helpers for their support throughout the term. We value the role families play in supporting children’s education and development.

We have been engaging in a wide range of experiences to support children’s healthy physical and emotional development. These include imaginative fairy garden, pirate imaginary light table, home corner with dress-ups that reflect our families, fairy music, tweezers and pegs, washing ponies, play-dough, climbing frame, cooking, tweezers and pegs, water play, bikes, large fall mats to jump on, stilts, flowers and pots in the sand pit, firefighter hats, ladders and hoses.

To strengthen independence and self help skills, we have begun implementing ‘Clean Up Captains’. This allows the children to become responsible for cleaning up their own areas while developing their independence and leadership skills. Other

opportunities to develop self help skills include, self dressing, helping wipe tables, open snack/lunch packaging, progressive morning tea, file artwork, accessing items on self serve collage trolley.

Swim World Glen Waverley came to visit our kinder this term. The children showed enthusiasm and interest, while becoming aware about water safety and importance in the

‘Never Swim Alone’ message. The children met Squirt the Swim safety mascot, tried on various floating aids, learnt a water safety song and recieved a free show bag.

The children continue to show that they very knowledgeable and are curious and enthusiastic participants in their own learning. Our sensory cooking experiences this month have included, making play dough, icy poles, popcorn and Easter chocolate making.

Our discussions this term have included, ‘Days of the week’, ‘’Who’s at Kinder Today’, Summer and Autumn seasons, Our Family Stories, reflections from ‘Skippy the Kangaroo’ home visits, ‘What have we learned at Kinder’, ‘I am Special’ and ways of being kind to each other. To celebrate International Mother Language day the children helped make a “Hello” sign written in different languages spoken by families at our Kindergarten.

Popular new songs this term have included, “Fire Truck”, “Brush your teeth”, “Jungle Walk”, “Mrs Bunny”, “Shake My Sillies Out” and “A Sailor Went to Sea”.

3yo News – Shenel (Koala Group)

It has been a busy and productive Term. The Koala children have settled into their new play and learning environment with much interest and enthusiasm. Many have formed meaningful friendships already and it has been wonderful to watch the children engage in learning experiences and with one another with such confidence.

This term we have aimed to provide a warm and friendly environment, attending to each individual child’s needs and wants, to help children and families feel comfortable in approaching familiar educators at all times. We also strive to

provide consistent routines to help make the transitions as smooth as possible.

To support children sense’s sense of belonging we have completed our Belonging Tree prints and displayed on our tree for all children to observe and recognise their right to belong to the Benwerrin Kinder community.

We have set up experiences to support interests such as the train set, dolls, wiggles music, vehicles, dinosaurs, play dough, puzzles and books. We have provided a self-selection of items in our home corner for children to role-play aspects of their families. We have celebrated some of our children’s birthdays that turned three this term. We have invited parent helpers to the Koala program. Thank you to all our dedicated families for your contributions to our kinder program so far.

Intentional small and large group experiences have been set-up both indoors and outdoors to encourage awareness for others, discussion, partcipation and negotiation skills. These include washing dolls/ponies, collaborative art projects, plenty of music and movement, bikes, train set, imaginary play table, dress-ups, homecorner, playdough, water trough and drawing table just to name a few.

To support children’s wellbeing we have continued to engage in consistent daily routines and transitions as a large group such as morning activities, group mat time, snack times and outdoor play. We have provided opportunities for quiet play such as the dolls house, train set and book area where children can enjoy moments of solitude especially for some children who were a little bit shy or are happy to just observe others play before joining in. Sensory experiences such as water, sand, play, cooking, finger painting and cloud dough were provided to support children’s transitioning smoothly into the program. These experiences become therapeutic for children who are still feeling overwhelmed and unsettled.

The children are enjoying their time outdoors with plenty of physical play as this is important for their health and physical wellbeing. Outdoors is where they can make new discoveries, such as exploring the natural environment and sensitively challenge their individual efforts and achievements on the equipment outside such as the obstacle course, scramble net, fort, trampoline and climbing frame.

Opportunities to further develop independence and self help have included encouraging children to put their own socks, shoes and art-smocks on, placing completed work in basket, open/close snack boxes and

engaging with the self-serve puzzle table and paper/collage trolley.

The children have enjoyed making play dough and popcorn at kinder. Cooking experiences encourage sensory exploration, language skills, turn taking and enabled us to explore mathematical and science concepts such as weight, and changes to consistency when ingredients are mixed/cooked.

To further develop literacy and language development, we have been and will continue to provide our children’s ‘sign in’ board each morning. A range of books have been intentional placed on the book shelf and read at story time, with topics based on intentional teaching topics and children’s interests. These have included stories about colours, numbers, dinosaurs, school, animals, family, sharing and friendship. We continue to share our ‘ Family Stories’ for the Koala Lou Album. The children have enjoyed acting out the songs ‘Three Jelly Fish’ and ‘Old McDonald’.

Other popular songs this term include; ‘Tiny Tim’, ‘Open Shut Them’, ‘Once I caught a fish alive’,’ Popcorn’ song, ‘Bee bee bumble bee’, ‘Triceratops’ rap and ‘Little Peter Rabbit.

3yo News – Renata (Possum Group)

Thank you for a wonderful Term 1 together! The Possums are all settling into their routines and are managing transitions with confidence. This term, the children have enjoyed having parent helpers in the room; their presence has helped to enrich our

program.

Indoors and in the sandpit, the Possums have shown continued interest in pretend cooking and making ‘ice-cream’. We plan to

further this interest in Term 2, setting up imaginative play spaces for ‘cooking’ both indoors and out. Indeed, imaginative play supports children to develop their social and language skills as well as symbolic and abstract thinking.

The Possums have proven to be a very artistic bunch! They have

explored communication and expression with various media/art forms. Furthermore, they have worked on building their hand-eye coordination, concentration, dexterity and hand strength through fine motor activities such as fishing with magnetic rods, jigsaw puzzles, play dough, pasting/collage and play with construction blocks and Duplo.

Grants

In Term 1 Benwerrin has seen some wonderful additions to the outdoor area with the installation  of wooden sandpit storage boxes and a mobile garden bed that ensures some new seedlings and plants get to maximize their exposure to the sun throughout the day.These projects have been achieved with the help of the 2013 Grants from the Blackburn South Community Bank ( Branch of Bendigo Bank), Telstra Kids Fund and City of Whitehorse Council. So far this year we have applied for grants from both the Box Hill

Rotary Club and the Whitehorse City Council to fund a "Dry Creek Bed" feature that will further enhance our outdoor play space. We look forward to hearing whether we have been successful. We are also excited to have been invited to participate in a Facebook "Like" Campaign to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Blackburn Community Bank (Branch of Bendigo). We will need votes from families, relatives and friends for the kinder to help us win money towards an exciting makeover to the raised turf area outdoors so please be sure to keep an ear out for the project.

Fundraising

Fundraising has started really well this year. As we had 2 Easter event’s it seemed to all come at once! Our gold coin donation for Sausages at the Welcome BBQ raised just over $200 for the kinder. Though this is not a fundraising event, more to welcome the families to our kinder, it is a fantastic start. Thank you to all our fundraising committee member who were involved and the two Mark’s for cooking the BBQ.

Another thank you to everyone who has supported the hot cross bun drive (Yummy!!). Your buns will be ready for collection on Thursday and Friday of this week. We have also had a lot of generous donations for the Easter raffle. The hampers look fantastic. The children love the anticipation of seeing who won so I’m sure we will hear all about it from them when the time comes.

Our fundraising efforts this year will be put towards our outdoor play space. These include diversifying the areas, equipment and natural wonders. So in advance we thank you for the continued support of our events.

Our main fundraising event this year is the annual Trivia night. It is booked in for the 16th August so get your babysitters ready for a fun night full of laughs!

Upcoming Fundraising events:

Entertainment books will be available to purchase in Term 2

Wine drive Vermont South Bunnings BBQ July 12th (during Term 2

School Holidays) Trivia Night August 16th Possible Chocolate Drive? Kinder Christmas Disco in November.

If you are wanting to join all the fun on the fundraising committee, Please let either Melissa or Gillian know. We will need lots of helpers to make the Bunnings BBQ a success so we will let everyone know as we get closer to the date.

Thanks again for all your support with Fundraising!

Dates to remember

Start of term 2 – Tuesday 22nd April

Bunning BBQ – 12th JulyTrivia Night –16th August

Fees are due on the following dates:Term 2 – 22nd AprilTerm 3 – 14th JulyTerm 4 – 6th Oct

Our Facebook Group page will have reminders, comments, suggestions etc on it. It is YOUR page, so please send an invite request to join & start chatting with kinder parents & teachers.www.facebook.com/?sk=welcome#!/groups/456592417711375/ Or just search ‘Benwerrin Kinder Group’ on Facebook.

Please remember to….

Support your kinder by shopping at retailers that support us. - Airstream Café at Century City, Glen Waverley gives you 5% off your bill as well as 5% to the kinder. The following shops donate 5% of your purchase to the kinder:- Gloria Jeans at Burwood One - Bakers Delight at Burwood One