General News

Barefoot Yoga

Bearfoot yoga this morning in our beautiful snugglepots room!

All in a day’s play

Another new addition to our gumnut yard a brand new sandpit, extensive yard & organic veggie patch along with the new nature walk to the new meditation & relaxation hut!

Our new purpose built bird sanctuary is ready for the new members of the Erina Kindergarten family bruiser & Ella! The new bird sanctuary will be located in between the gumnuts yard & the bush babies yard! Please come & say hello to us we can talk & are very friendly!! We love to cuddle!!!

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea

Mother’s Day celebrations including high tea & personalised photoshoot fit our beautiful mums at Erina Kindergarten!

Pasta Perfection

Pasta making with miss Micah in the gumnuts room

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.

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.

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.

Halloween 2018

Halloween celebrations at Erina kindergarten again on the 31st Oct, this year we will be making some scarecrows so please donate some cloths or hats for decoration if you can spare!