A Word from the President

Hello Benwerrin Families

How time flies! Another term is almost over and we have had yet another busy 3 months at the kinder. In May we all had our Mother’s Day celebrations. I wanted to say a huge thank you to our teachers, Shenel, Toni and Renata and our wonderful assistants Trish, Bronwyn and Fi. Thank you for helping the children make their mummies feel so special. I loved watching the children sing for us and seeing those huge smiles on their faces as they were so proud of the gifts they had made. What a special day for all of us.

We have had some wonderful community initiatives this term with our families getting involved. Especially the “save the reef” campaign the 4YO’s have undertaken. It is wonderful to see how talking about what is happening in our country can inspire action in our children. As they say, every drop of rain makes the puddle. So every action we take can help protect our reef. I understand a photographer from the leader was out to see what was done, so look out for an article soon.

Our fundraising team have done a great job again this term. We are looking forward to the wine orders being delivered. There is a Bunnings BBQ in the school holidays on the 12th July. It is really important we get help from our community to run this event. There is a form on the whiteboard, so if you have time on the day we would really appreciate your help. Also, lock in the 16th August for our Trivia Night. It is going to be lots of fun. The money we are raising this year is going towards our outdoor space, making it more sensory for our little explorers. We raised over $4000 at last year’s trivia night and it was the social event of the year. So it is definitely worth the time and money spent to come and have fun!!

The kindergarten sent an email last week in regards to an online petition to keep our 15 hours of funded kindergarten next year. The Commonwealth Government have committed to funding 15 hours of 4 year old preschool only until December 2014. Ongoing funding is subject to Commonwealth/State review which is due to be finalised by the end of June 2014. The Federal Government has allocated funds for the continued arrangement until the end on 2015. Therefore, at this stage we are doing our 2015 offers and timetables based on this funding continuing as it is until the end of 2015. We will know the outcome of their review in the first few weeks of next term and will let you all know of the government’s decision. However, if you would like to have your voice heard, hopefully to ensure we have continued funding, both for the quality of our children’s education and for their readiness for school, please visit https://keep15hours.org.au/

The start of next term we will be distributing our parent survey. Please take the time to fill it in. Your views help shape our kinder and are vital to the future planning of our centre.

Thank you for taking the time to read the newsletter and don't forget to visit our website at

http://www.benwerrinkindergarten.org.au

Have a safe and happy break and we will see you in Term 3!

Gillian MoonPresident

4yo News – Toni (Echidna Group)

Today I facilitated a cooking experience with the children. We made apple muffins in response to our on-going discussion about healthy eating. Why are we making apple muffin? Apples are healthy, everyday food. Why is the butter in a liquid form?

It’s melted,. We added the ingredients into the bowl and waited to have a turn mixing. Emilio read the instructions and made sure we didn't forget anything. The children love sensory cooking experiences because they are learning through ‘doing” they make observations and use reflective thinking to consider why things happen? We were also engaged in meaningful conversations and learned to count up to 24. Children are learning to be confident and Involved Learners as they use their literacy and numeracy skills and reflective thinking to why things happen.

For the past few weeks we have been engaging in discussions about healthy eating so we thought we would make vegetable soup at kinder. Engaging in sustained conversations with children about things that interest them, we are in tune to children’s thoughts and support the development of a strong sense of well being.

Today we made vegetable soup. We had picked the silver beet and herbs from the kinder outdoor vegi patch and placed all the vegetables onto the table. The children identified the different vegetables, noted the different characteristics, counted and classified them into colour, size and texture. Many of the children read the names of the vegetables and identified the different letters and words.We then cut up the different vegetables and placed it into the slow cooker and watched it cook throughout the morning. Finally it was ready many of the children had a taste and some even had two – three helpings of soup.

For our reflection the children wrote the names of the different vegetables and drew their own pictures. Teaching is wonderful - I can use my knowledge and skills to engage children actively in learning. I am able to identify children’s strengths and interests, choose appropriate teaching strategies and design the learning environment. That is being intentional in what and how you do it.

We have been learning about Australian history and the first Aboriginal people. Learning about a different culture encourages

children to appreciate and respond to diversity with respect. We have also read Dreamtime stories, learning about Aboriginal art and listening to didgeridoo music. We made our own Aboriginal Flag using coloured paper tiles and learned about the significance of the different colours and utilised small brushes to extend fine motor skills, concentration and eye hand coordination. We created our own Dreamtime story about the First Aboriginal people living in the outback and learned about culture through movement, dance and storytelling. As we begin to explore diversity of culture, heritage, background and tradition this diversity presents opportunities for new understandings as well as to share knowledge of their own culture and become aware of connections, similarities and differences within their kinder group. The children demonstrated spatial awareness and orient themselves, moving around and through their environments confidently and safely.

Outdoor EnvironmentToday I set a dirt digging construction experience so the children

were encouraged to dig with spades, carry tyres, mix water and

dirt to make mud for their play.

It was wonderful to see Ben, Jack, Thomas, Zack, William Y, Emilio and Jack engage in cooperative play, working as a team to achieve their shared creative vision. Working with soil also gives children a chance to experience a texture that is different from sand. In some digging areas children also had the chance to discover different types of soils such as clay, dry and wet dirt and found insects and earth worms. Fewer and Fewer children have the opportunity to spend time simply digging in the dirt anymore. Experiencing the rich feeling and aroma of soil can be calming and beneficial to children

4yo News – Shenel (Kangaroo Group)

Our FamilyThis term we have been developing our work on strengthening children’s identity by exploring ‘Family’. We begun our inquiry by drawing our families on an A4 piece of paper within a roof outline. The children placed individual touches on their pictures, adding family members and pets and sharing this with

teachers and peers. Mothers Day

The children worked so well together in preparation for our Mother’s Day luncheon and concert. What a lovely Mother’s Day luncheon we had! The children were very excited to treat their Mummies to a special afternoon of a concert, pampering (brushing mums nails, placing hand

cream on her hands, making mum jewellery, massaging using various tools, spraying mum with perfume and mum to guess which portrait is her. We thank everybody for helping to make this special day a success! We hope this was a memorable day for all!

DancingDuring Term 2 the children started dance sessions with Vanessa! The children enjoyed this opportunity to express themselves creatively through gross and fine motor movement and dance, showing great enthusiasm and skill is moving their bodies to different kinds of music, imitating various animals and practicing the dance poses and steps that Vanessa taught us.

Autumn Season

This term we have discussed the seasonal changes in our environment. We have talked about Deciduous and Evergreen trees. We were able to look at a variety of leaves from both of these tree types. To further broaden learning about the season of autumn, we have provided a range of creative art experiences. These include: Autumn

coloured paints at ease/table, leaves from our gardens for our group collage, and individual autumn tree collages.

Water Cycle

This term we invite Johanna Harding (Tilly’s mum) to contribute her ideas to enrich our kinder program. Johanna read a picture book to the children about the water cycle. To extend on the children’s growing enthusiasm we engaged in a ‘Rain Clouds in a Jar’ experiment. The children were able to make connections with real life experiences,

and develop science concepts such as cause and effect, predicting, observing, gathering information and evaluation.

Journals

We have begun our library and Show and Tell sessions in our 4 year old program, and our Skippy Mascot home visits will continue for the remainder of the year.

We have begun introducing Journals to the program as we invite children to independently write or draw a picture and then dictate their thoughts and stories into their individual journal to an adult.

We continue to actively involve our families to contribute their ideas to present opportunities to explore the diversity of cultures and new understandings. Theo (Peter’s Dad) bought his Greek National instrument the ‘Bouzouki’ to kinder. He played the ‘Bouzouki’ while Peter played his played another instrument called the ‘Baglama’. We learned more about the string instrument the ‘Bouzouki’. We enjoyed listening to the tunes played by Theo while we engaged in a traditional folk dance called the ‘Zorba’.

3yo News – Shenel (Koala Group)

Mother’s Day

During Term 2 the Koala children were busy bees preparing gifts, cards and making shortbread and were very excited to treat their mothers/visitors for a special morning. Thank you to all the Koala Mums and special visitors, for helping to make our Mothers’ Day celebration so wonderful! Thank you to all our parent helpers who supported us on the day. We hope you enjoyed yourselves on this memorable day as much as we did!

Role-play

This term the Koala children continue to engage in small group play as they get to know each other and develop friendships. Outdoors the Koala children have demonstrated keen interest in dressing up and role playing pretending to be brides and princesses. These child initiated

experiences allows children to reflect and assign roles through their own experiences and act them out. Role play further develops social skills, cooperation and turn taking. Children also become effective communicators when they share their ideas, listen to each other as they build an understanding of the world around them.

Threading again proved a popular activity at kinder this term as many children wanted to have a turn. We offer this activity often in various forms throughout the year. So far we have offered it using the shoelaces to thread cotton reels, and threading coloured pasta using pipe cleaners at the play dough table. This time we were using blunt large plastic needles, wool, cut up straws, patty pans and a variety of autumn coloured cellophane strips, which require finer control than last time. This activity requires concentration, eye-hand co-ordination, persistence and fine motor. The children enjoy having an end product that they can take home or display at Kinder.

Healthy Eating

This term we have engaged in group discussions about healthy eating and good nutrition. These intentional teaching experiences aim to educate young children about eating healthy food and being responsible for their own health and wellbeing .We have extended this group experience with making our own ‘Everyday’ and ‘Sometimes’ food displays. These visuals will be displayed in our room for a short period before children will be able to take them home. This will further support children’s learning assisting them in becoming better informed and make wiser decisions in their home environment.

Strengthening scissor skills

This term the Koala children continue to practice using the scissors. Cutting requires muscle control, concentration, accuracy and eye-hand coordination. Each session the children are invited to free cut narrow colour strips into small tiles for pasting onto our umbrella shaped collage. To complete, each child has been encouraged to have proper hand placement. This is achieved by placing a smiley face on each child’s thumb as a reminder to point to the ceiling. Cutting allows the child to use both sides of the body at the same time while each hand is performing a task (bilateral coordination). The left-handed child needs to use the green scissors and the right-handed the red scissors. Each child also needs to remember to point the scissor away from their body to stay safe.

PortraitsThis term the Koala children’s strong sense of identity continues to develop as they explore their features and appreciate each other as individuals whilst they made portrait puppets. Many used colours that corresponded with their own colour features such as their eyes and hair colour. Others focused on placing their facial features within the face shape provided. The children then assisted in placing shredded paper like stuffing to fill our paper bags to complete our face puppets.

When we look at their self-portraits we see a child as they see themselves. Children begin to develop deeper sense of identities when they participate in activities that support diversity and culture in an inclusive manner.

3yo News – Renata (Possum Group)

The Possums have had a very busy and successful Term 2. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered as helpers this term; we value your assistance. This term, it has been great to see the children developing feelings of confidence and security within their kinder environment.

The Possums have enjoyed engaging in physical activity related to sport, such as shooting hoops with a basketball, playing totem tennis, football, and scoring goals for “World Cup” soccer! These activities have enbaled the children to practice ball handling, motor skills, hand-eye coordination, sharing, and turn taking. As confidence is developing, it has been great to see the children celebrating their own and others’ achievements. Outdoors, the children have been celebrating their scoring of soccer goals by giving each other and myself high fives!

Indoors, the children engaged in detailed exploration of faces and identity. We started by making “funny faces” with magazine cut outs and potato head dolls. The children then explored their own facial features. They looked in mirrors and used collage materials to create self-portraits. It has been wonderful to see children’s knowledge of faces being expressed in their drawing and painting!

This term, the Possums have shown a keen interest in their own names and in writing. This is being supported through a range of name recognition and beginning writing activities. For example, the children have looked closely at their name cards. They have identified/recognised letters in their names and “spelt” their names with both Lego and magazine letters.

Grants

Over term 2 Benwerrin has enjoyed participating in a Facebook competition for the Bendigo Bank and although we didn’t place as prize winners, we were very generously given $500 from the bank as a contribution towards our upcoming trivia night.

At the end of June we will hear if we were successful in receiving a grand from Landcare Australia to go towards a dry creek bed feature in our outdoor play-space.

We are about to apply for a government grant to contribute toward and exciting makeover to the outdoor area, featuring a Balinese hut/cubby, sand pods, paths and plantings to create an exciting, stimulating new environment for the children.

Fundraising

At the moment we are selling Entertainment Books – please contact the kinder if you would like one.

The wine drive has just finished up, with deliveries on tues 24th. Don’t forget to collect your orders before the end of the week so you have them on the holidays.

We also have the Vermont South Bunnings BBQ on Sat 12th July. We are looking for volunteers, so if you are able to give up 2hrs of your afternoon to help us, it would be greatly appreciated. The roster is on the whiteboard to put your name on a shift. Thanks.

Upcoming Fundraising events:

Vermont South Bunnings BBQ July 12th (during Term 2 School Holidays)

Trivia Night August 16th - book in your babysitters! Kinder Christmas Disco in Oct/Nov – date TBC

If you want to join all the fun on the fundraising committee, Please let either Melissa or Gillian know.

Thanks again for all your support with Fundraising!

Dates to remember

Start of term 3 – Monday 14th July

Bunning BBQ – 12th JulyTrivia Night –16th August

Fees are due on the following dates:Term 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

Kid friendly recipe

Vegetable Nuggets

2 large (600g) potatoes, peeled, chopped1 teaspoon olive oil1/2 small brown onion, finely chopped1 medium zucchini, grated1 medium carrot, peeled, grated1/3 cup reduced-fat grated cheese1 egg1 tablespoon reduced-fat milk1 cup dried multigrain breadcrumbsOlive oil cooking spraySweet chilli sauce, to serve

Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.- Cook potato in a saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain. Mash. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.- Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until softened.- Squeeze excess liquid from zucchini. Combine zucchini, carrot, cheese and onion in a bowl. Add mashed potato. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine.- Whisk egg and milk together in a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon egg mixture to potato mixture. Stir to combine.- Place breadcrumbs on a plate. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into 30 nuggets. Dip 1 nugget at a time into remaining egg mixture, shaking off excess. Coat in breadcrumbs. Place on prepared tray.- Spray nuggets lightly with oil. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.(recipe & photo from taste.com.au)