April 2019

Battle of the rooms @ Erina Kindergarten

We need our families local business support for a new challenge for our wonderful Educators at Erina with a Bi-Monthly battle of the rooms @ Erina Kindergarten starting 1st May 2019.

From the 1st May until the 1st July we will be commencing a new workplace incentive program for all our wonderful educators within each room at Erina kindergarten.

Every two months we will nominate a new category for each room to compete against each other at Erina kindergarten.

Only one room will be selected bi-monthly as the winner and the winning room/staffs within the room will win a prize of their choosing from a selection of local Erina kindergarten community family/staff businesses on the Central Coast e.g. local coffee van morning coffee for the staffs within the room, platters from local selected restaurants/cafes, group fitness vouchers etc.

As a long-standing member of the Central Coast community we want our families local business support within our Erina kindergarten community and will be asking staff and families for ideas that their businesses could provide as a prize for our winning rooms and Erina kindergarten will pay the bill on behalf of the room/staffs and promote the participating businesses.

Our Category for the Month of May & June will be;

Best room set-up

In order to be the winning room the following criteria must be met;

*Indoor and outdoor spaces must be set up using natural environmentally responsible resources and support children to become environmentally responsible

*Resources, materials and equipment must allow for multiple uses, are sufficient in number and enable every child to engage in play-based learning

*Outdoor and indoor spaces are organised and adapted to support every child’s participation and to engage every child in quality experiences in both built and natural environments

*Premises, furniture, resources and equipment set up are safe, clean and well maintained at all times

*The design of the setups are suitable for the applicable age group and accessible for access of every child

*All educators within the room are actively engaging and participating in each of the indoor and outdoor setups and using each other’s strengths and skills to enhance each child’s learning and development

*Room setups are set up throughout the day for continued access and use and set up according to child interests to enhance children’s learning and development.

*Each set up must be reflective of each rooms weekly program including an extension of learning intentional teaching spontaneous learning children’s ideas and interests – munch and move, plus literacy

*Children are supported to collaborate, learn from and help each other

*Indoor and outdoor areas and equipment and resources must be maintained and kept clean and tidy throughout the day and set up for the following day

*Effective partnerships support children’s access, inclusion and participation in each of the setups and program
Please ensure you are including the EYLF and NQF

We will be nominating a winner every 2 months and will be asking our families to provide constructive feedback throughout the period to assist us with selecting the winning room.

We need our local families to participate & ask if have they know of local businesses that they feel would like to participate as a prize for the winning room please email info@erinakindergarten.com.au before 30th April so we can include them in the winning prizes.

We look forward to your support & feedback.

Easter Hat Parade

Thank you to all our beautiful families for making our annual Easter hat parades such a huge success! So much work went into creating these beautiful hats!! Happy Easter to all our families!!!

Birthday Cake Policy

Dear Families,

Thank you for all of the feedback we have received over the past week, we had some really constructive suggestions.

We did have an overwhelming response in favour for healthy cooking experiences, but we had some concern over the two week notice period.

We propose that families will not bring in cakes from home but each room will have a cooking experience each week that the educators will pair with the children’s upcoming birthdays.

We are also excited about embedding more cooking experiences within our curriculum as the benefits for your child as Cooking Promotes Development and Learning that has been used for years as an important teaching and development tool for all ages. These benefits include:

Social-Emotional Development – Hands-on cooking activities help children develop pride and confidence in their skills and abilities. The act of following a recipe can encourage self-direction and independence, while also teaching children to follow directions and use thinking skills to problem solve.

Physical Development – Chopping, squeezing, spreading, and mixing are all cooking skills that help develop a child’s small muscle control and eye-hand coordination. It’s impossible to separate hands-on cooking activities from physical development for young children.

Cognitive Development – Cooking inspires children’s curiosity, thinking, and problem solving, offering new opportunities to make predictions and observations. Additionally, cooking offers authentic opportunities for students to understand and apply their knowledge of measuring, one-to-one correspondence, numbers, and counting. As they follow a recipe, children organize ingredients, follow a sequence, and carry out multiple directions.

Language Development – With its own vocabulary, cooking is a great opportunity for language development. Take advantage of opportunities for children to match pictures to words and articulate questions inspired by their new experiences.

Staff Changes

Dear Families, We would like to inform you that May 1st will be Miss Kiera’s last day at Erina Kindergarten. Miss Kiera will be leaving to pursue a different career path. Kiera has enjoyed her time with us over the past 6 years. Miss Meg will be taking over Kiera’s position as shared room leader. Miss Meg is diploma trained and is looking forward to taking on the role. We are also excited to announce that Miss Chloe will be staying on in the Bush Babies room after the completion of her traineeship.

Deputy Director

We would like to formally introduce our lovely new Deputy Director Miss Kylie to our management team at Erina Kindergarten. Kylie is proving a wonderful addition to our team. Kylie brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in early childhood to share with the team. We look forward to working with miss Kylie.

Beautiful Butterflys

We are lucky enough this month to have the Ladybug academy’s butterfly garden in our Koalas room in which the preschool children have been learning about the life cycle process of these beautiful insects. From caterpillar to chrysalis then emerging into life as a butterfly. Over teh duration of a two-week cycle, our preschool children are learning about these amazing creatures and studying their behaviour

Naturally Organic

Our beautiful Koala preschoolers have also been busy gardening and picking the last of our organic lettuce crop @ Erina Kindergarten! The Koala preschoolers have been learning how to grow organic veggies and how to harvest and prepare them for a yummy healthy meal.