Newsletter - August 2011

Welcome

Welcome to Linclayr Ogle, Zsalea Mair, Zoe Carter, Zoe Wallis, Tilly McKeran, Arianna Holding, Rafael Maria, Evyn-Shae Utiera, Khaea Tukaki-Johnson and their whanau. (Please remember to bring in our immunisation certificates).

Farewell to Pippa Flett, Jessica Rae and Josh Inglis who have started at Pahoia School and to Daniel Carter who has started at Katikati Primary. We wish them all the very best.

Thank you

Thank you to Miaki who has kindly offered to teach us the secrets of Asian food preparation and cooking.

Thanks to Catherine Schnackenburg (an ex Pukeko Corner Kindy mum) who owns the local florist. Catherine is regularly donating very beautiful paper, ribbons etc, for us to use. Please support Catherine and her team, by purchasing locally, as she continually supports our learning and teaching environment here.

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.

THANKS Grandpa Gary for all the work you do during the holidays and on the weekends. Grandpa washes all the carpets, rugs and mows the lawns, fixes everything and more.

THANKS to Kim for always arriving early in the morning and setting up before anyone else arrives, and for her unfailing kindness.

THANKS to Jody for all the special little treasures you bring in for the children to explore and for the little dead things, and live ones that you and the children adore!!

THANK Di in the office who makes things tick over so easily!!!

THANKS to Corina for always bringing the Lord into our hearts and our kindy, and for always being an inspirational teacher who is positive about everything.

THANK YOU Di for your sense of humour, your co teachers have been laughing their heads off!!! Laughter is food for the soul.

What's going on at the Corner?

Healthy eating, healthy bodies will be an ongoing learning process for us here, so be ready for your children to share their new recipes for life with you.

Outdoor Area

YAY!!!! We want a bit of a change outside. The area either side of the playhouse needs some help. You might have noticed a letter in your parent pocket asking for your ideas about what you would like to see happen here!!! We would like something eco friendly, sun smart, child friendly, low maintenance, and cost friendly!!

Marae Visit

We have once again began our Kapa Haka group, and learning about our New Zealand heritage. We have decided that it is finally time to visit our local Marae for the day. Our visit is planned for the 23 September. Gina will confirm our date at a later stage. As we will be spending all day there we would like all the families to bring your children to the Marae in the morning and pick them up again at 2.45pm at the Marae. Or even better stay with us for the day or part of the day. We will send out more information later, permission slips and requests for parent help on the day. If you have any experience in Maori Culture and protocol for this area, we would love your help to prepare our children beforehand.

Profile Books

Profile books are yours to take home whenever you like. Your teachers work especially hard with your children to ensure their learning is documented beautifully.

Please add your own stories/photos to the profiles at your leisure. It is always a thrill for us to see and for your child to show off...

Please remember to bring back the book so your teachers can place in any new learning stories for your children.

Do you want to learn how to write learning stories?

Would you like to understand your children's learning at home better and then document them in a valued story? Please see your teachers, we can help you! Children constantly bring so much of their learning from home to show us, then we document this precious learning.... We could document learning together in partnership this would be a wicked combination.. If you are keen please see one of your teachers.

If you need to borrow one of our cameras to take photos of that special moment to put into you and your child's profile book, just ask the teachers and we can arrange this for you.

Nut/Nut products and children's drinks

Please remember that Nuts/Nut products are poisonous to a couple of our children. We appreciate your ongoing support in keeping all these foods at home.

Nutty foods include: Nutella, muesli bars with nuts, peanut butter, pesto etc.

Water is the best fluid your child needs throughout their busy day.

PLEASE keep all fruit drinks, ribena, Up and Go and milk drinks for treats at home.

Graduation Day

Graduation Day was a huge success! Many of our graduated students returned to kindy. They shared their school experiences and some lovely food. It is always a complete thrill to see our past children still active and excited in their learning.

Administration

If your child is going to be absent from kindy for the day please ring and let us know as soon as you can.

If you are going to take an extended holiday with your child, can you please let Di in the office know or Gina.

You may from time to time be asked to sign a frequent absent form, as part of Ministry of Education requirement. Please check that your contact numbers are updated and correct, as many times the teachers have tried to contact families and some numbers we have are now changed.

Arts Festival 

We are once again entering the Arts Festival for our town. The first category is the photo competition. Our children have their own camera here at kindy, and they are very skilled on how to use this. Our children take some really amazing photos during their day. We will have a selection of their photos to choose for entry, however if there are photos of children in the shots permission will be sought before we display these in public.

The second Art Festival category is Butterflies. Once again our children are experts in this field. We thought about this being a group entry. Our idea is to make a large wire mould and weave different kinds of fabrics and mediums into it.

If you have any ideas please bring them to a table so as we can create an artistic meal and make mincemeat out of the other competitors! We have till October to present our winning entries.

School Visits

This term Diane has the pleasure of school visits. Cathy wil be assisting Diane and the children with their transition to school.
School visits will take place every second Friday beginning 12 Aug. If you have any queries please see Di or Gina.

Christchurch Raffle

Our raffle was drawn at the end of last term and Dianne Ward (our office administrator) won the prize. Thank you for all your support. Our cheque of $252.30 has been posted to South Brighton Kindergarten.

Numeracy for our children

Kim is always thinking of new and creative ways to encourage children's learning. Her latest fantastic idea is have the children photographed in front of their letterbox, showing the number of their house. We will then display all these photos and begin a huge numeracy learning experience. If you need to use our camera please just see one of your teachers and then take it home.

Professional Development

Last term Jody and Corina embarked on a course called Teacher Talk. This course sought to help teachers encourage children to speak. They enjoyed the course so much that Kim is going to attend this term. Kim will be away studying for three Mondays, beginning 29 August.

Parent Survey

Thank you everyone who filled out and returned their parent survey. We are compiling all your suggestions/requests and will be able to use your imput to improve our service and proceedures.

Thank you all for your positive comments concerning your teachers. It is wonderful to know that our hard work and aroha is noticed.

If you are still holding on to your parent survey we would love you to complete it as your feedback is so valuable. For those who may have misplaced their form or for new families who have just joined us - there ae spare copies available by the sign-in sheet.

Head lice

Head lice is an ongoing concern for any parent and kindergarten. The best way to know if your child has contracted head lice is when your child is...

1.  Constantly scratching (complains of itchiness)

2.  Has rash behind ears and nape of neck

3.   Has what looks like dandruff, but is stuck to the hair (eggs)

4.  Has live kootie (obviously)

Treat immediately, withTea tree oil (not essence), chemist brought products or health shop alternative products. Many parents use a variety of different products. You simply find one that suits your whole family.

You MUST remove all the eggs from the hair strands (a very tedious, time consuming task).

TIPS

I find putting a few drops of Tea Tree oil into shampoo bottles and water spray bottles helps reduce the likelyhood of reinfestation.

If your child has long hair and constantly infected, I used to tie my daughters hair in a tight bun, french plait and then hair spray it. She smelled of Tea Tree all the time and looked like Michael Jackson after plastic surgery, bit it lessened our treatment hours, and infestations. Headlice are a pain, vigilance is the only true method of winning against this pest.

Jump-A-Thon

Skipping in early childhood centres! Surely not. But yes, at a Sports BOP workshop that we held here for the teachers earlier this year we were advised other kindy's in the Bay of Plenty were skipping. The challenge was laid and we ordered some jump-rope resources from the Heart Foundation, in preparation for a JUMP-A-THON on Friday 23 September. The children will be practising over the next 6 weeks, som come and see your amazing children's skills. More information coming soon.

Celebrations

Happy Birthday

Joshua Inglis 5 years

Madeline Taylor 4 years - 31 July