Newsletter - February 2011

Welcome
James Farrell and his parents Heather and Clinton.  Pippa Flett and her parents Olivia and
Shane.  Janaea Sykes and her parents Chrystal and Duane.  Jakub Watson-Crooks who is the
younger brother of Jurnee.  Azraf Kadir and his parents Fonzareen and Abdul.  Charlotte
McCready and her parents Jenna and Andrew.  Daniel and James McKeran and their parents Barry and Donna.  Fletcher Rapson and his parents Dan and Alana.  Addison Rogers who is the
younger sister of Matthew, and Charlotte Sadler and her mum  Kerri and grandmother Mary. 
(Please remember to bring in your immunisation certificates)

We are lucky to have Louna and Palemia return to us this year.  They are a very special part
of our family here.
We also welcome Lily from Bethlehem Tertiary Institute.  Lily is in her third year of
teacher training, and we are her final placement before she begins her incredible journey
teaching young ones.

Thank you
To all the parents and children who gave the teachers wonderful Christmas treats at the end
of last year.  We absolutely loved  and appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Thanks to Jan (Kara’s mum) who helps us each morning with our set up, and often our end of
day tidy up.
A big thanks to all the parents and families who constantly bring in boxes and bits and bobs
for our children to use. We are very grateful.
A great big thanks to Tom, Jo, Dave and Eva for having our precious goldfish over the break.

 What's going on at the corner?
Holiday posters
We have been discussing what we did in the holidays, where we went, who we saw and what we did when we got there.  Once again we have invited people to bring in photos of their
adventures.  Many children have done this, they talk about their holiday poster usually at
first mat, and throughout the day if they are discussing the final details with others.
From some of the discussions we heard that many children flew lots of kites.  We decided to
have a kite day.  Children brought kites from home and made some at kindy.  The college gave
us the OK to use their back field, and away we went.  From this it seems that the children
and the teachers wanted to learn a little more about wind.  So.............  Diane is
convincing her husband (who trained as a meteorologist) to give a presentation to our young
and old learners here.  We have also been discovering the many objects (like Lauchlan’s
harmonica), fans which use power and propellers to generate wind, and wind as a power
source.  Oscar described wind/air inside a parachute and the strength wind has.  We have
been making iceblock boomerang sticks, windmills, and propellers.  Grandpa is even steaming
large tongue depressors to show children how to shape the propellers for maximum useability.
Watch out for our walls, they are soon to be plastered with your children’s interests,
learning and inventions.

Baby watching
Baby watching continues with Cathy and Tamara.  Tamara is growing so quickly.  She is now
picking up her rattles and moving them about.  She is starting to move about more on the
floor , showing us the beginning  movements to strengthen her muscles up ready for crawling.
 Much to the children’s delight she is beginning to respond to the children voices and 
laughter.  There is still a lot of pregnant children within our centre with many of the
babies being born and being called Tamara. It will be interesting to see how the play
develops as Tamara grows and develops new skills over the coming months.

Clothing
Please ensure you put an extra set of clothes in your child’s bag for them to change into.
Many children are bringing their togs to kindy for sprinkler runs and splashing under the
hose.  We think this is a great idea and encourage all children to follow suite.

Health notice
Please ensure that you sun block your children before coming to kindergarten, and we will
sun block for the afternoon.  A wide brim sunhat is the best hat protection for you child. 
We are asking parents to help us move forward and have these types of sun hats only.

As usual please remain vigilant with checking your children’s hair for headlice. We have a
robi comb to lend should you require it.

Hand washing techniques are extremely important.  Please encourage your children to wash and
dry their hands thoroughly.

Rest time
We have been trialing having ‘no formal’ rest time for children, instead each child makes a
decision whether or not to have a quiet rest or story after lunchtime, or not.  So far this
change has agreed with the children and the teachers.
A newsletter placed in your info pocket briefly describes our trial of rest time.

Fees
Most of last year, we were informing parents about the change of fees to $6.98 per day. This
change became effective with our returning to kindy.  We have tried our hardest to keep our
fees extremely low, and believe so far we have been successful. 
If you have any queries regarding your accounts please see Gina or Dianne Ward.

Healthy Food
Please remember to encourage healthy eating.  At kindy we encourage children to eat first
their sandwich followed by their fruit, and then eat their other food. Water is the only
drink we encourage children to have here as well.
Roll ups, sweets, lollies, chockies, and anything that resembles gummy bear texture is asked
to remain at home.
Some questions to ponder when preparing lunch boxes
Would I eat that?                                             Is most of this food healthy?
Is there too much food in here?                      Can I recycle the wrappings?
Will the food stay nice till lunchtime?               Is it brain food?
Can they open the containers themselves?

Lexham Park
On the 23rd of March we are visiting Lexham Park residence.  We have a long standing
relationship with Lexham Park stretching back to the very beginning of opening our doors. 
We will be leaving kindy at 10am to arrive at 10.15.  Each child shares their profile book
with a resident or two and we usually sing songs, or put on a performance.  It is a very
heart warming occasion for everyone. 
You are all welcome to come and share in the wonder of our morning.  Please ensure that your
child has their profile book back at kindy, so they can share all their wonderful learning
stories with some one else.
Lexham Park residence then reciprocate our visit by visiting us the next term, it really is
a special relationship that we share.

Bus trip/Beach trip
A verbal survey has been done amongst parents (sorry if I missed you) as to whether families
would be interested in a beach trip on a Saturday at Shelly Bay, Bowentown as an alternative
to the  family b-b-q at kindy. Grandpa Gary has offered his boat and extensive experience as
captain for rides . Shelly bay is shallow with opportunities for fishing and snorkelling
with shade available. Bring a picnic!  The date would be the 12th of March, 10am onwards.
The response from parents was positive so lets just do it!

                                      Beach Trip– Shelly Bay, Bowentown
                                             12th March, 10am onwards
                                    Boat rides, swimming, fishing, snorkelling!!!!!
                                      Treasure Hunt, Sandcastle challenge,
                                                       Bring at picnic!
The Bay of plenty is one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand, lets go and enjoy our
own back yard together.

Professional development
There has been only a few weeks into this term and Kim has already attending her first aid
course in Tauranga.
Diane and Corina will be attending a course about how to support student teachers.  They
both are supporting Lily our new student, but wanted to strengthen their knowledge base. 
Lilly is very fortunate to have two very strong and committed teachers to mentor her.
There are many parenting courses available as well.  Many parents find them extremely
worthwhile.  For more information please check out your parents information shelf.

Littlies magazine
This magazine is available to you free.  It is usually kept on the outside lockers by your
notice pockets.

Book Review
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – How we can fulfil our potential           
By Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
This book was recommended to all of us teachers when we participated in         
Professional Development in 2009.  As soon as I started reading this book I saw how valuable
it was not only to me as a teacher but as a parent.  I even learnt more about myself so I
had to buy my own copy!  This book is available from our parent’s library and I highly
recommend you read it.Carol Dweck writes about the power of our mindset to bring us success in all areas of our life– not just our abilities and talent.  With a fixed mindset you believe your qualities are carved in stone.  Alternatively with a growth mindset you believe your basic qualities (intelligence, personality, artistic talent, sports ability etc) are things you can
cultivate through your efforts. This growth belief  creates a passion for learning and for
stretching yourself and persevering, even when it is not going well.  This I am sure is what we all want for all our children (and ourselves).  The good news is that we can all change our own mindset and our children’s. 
When things go wrong do you or one of your children feel powerless and incapable?  This is a
symptom of a fixed mindset.  Don’t we all want our children to have the growth mindset that
turns a failure into a gift?   Our children need to know that their brain is like a muscle –
changing and getting stronger when it is used.  The more it is challenged to learn, the more
brain cells grow.So how do we get the growth mindset message across?  Don’t praise your children on their intelligence and ability – instead acknowledge their effort in learning.  Talk about the skills you now have because of all the practice you put in.  Or what you’re struggling with but making progress.  Ask questions like the following:
    What did you learn today?
    What did you try hard at today?
What mistake did you make that taught you something?
As Carol Dweck discovered in her research – The view we adopt for ourselves profoundly
affects the way we lead your life.
Reviewed by Corina

Calendar of the term and year
Term 1  Tuesday 25 January     to     Thursday 21 April
Term 2  Monday 2 May              to     Friday 22 July
Term 3 Monday 1 August           to      Friday 14 October
Term 4  Tuesday 25 October      to      Friday 16 December

For Sale
Passion Fruit and Pears for sale $2.00 bags please see Gina



Celebrations

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Azraf  turned 4 years old on Tuesday 15 Feb
Jody turned an undisclosed number on 18  Feb
We wish these people are very happy year with many more returns.

Congratulations Kara who caught the biggest snapper she’s ever caught.

If your child or a member of your family has celebrating something special, please let Gina
or Dianne Ward know and we can put it here!!