To all our kinder families – on behalf of your 2017 Committee Members, I would like to extend a warm WELCOME to you all. Term 1 seemed to have disappeared fast and school holidays have come and gone! We hope that all our kinder families have transitioned well into the year and are enjoying their new routines and making new friends. Our annual welcome BBQ which was held on the 2

nd March was a great success.

It was a balmy evening with a wonderful turn out. Thank you for your support and thank you also to our Fundraising Team, Committee members and Educators, who helped out on the night setting up, supplying us with dinner, cleanup and our door prizes – Congratulations to the winners! We are looking forward to an exciting 2017, both during kinder days along with fundraising activities planned for the remainder of the year. We welcome any feedback and are always looking for support from our families so please feel free to contact any of the Committee members, Teachers, myself or Vice-President Jen Kay if you have any suggestions. In addition I encourage you to support the kinder with stay & play during kinder for our 4yo and fruit duty for our 3yo. This is a great way for you to see firsthand what the children are doing whilst they are at kinder so you can encourage discussions about their day at home. Our Fundraising team have some exciting plans for the remainder of the year and ask if we can all support the kinder with these. Given how busy our lives are, any amount of help goes a long way. I hope you all had safe and exciting school holidays and Easter break and I look forward to seeing you all during Term 2.

Tracey Perry, President

Monday 17th

April: Easter Monday

– Kinder Closed

Tuesday 18 April: First day of term

Tuesday 25 April: ANZAC DAY -

Kinder Closed

Sunday 30 April: Working Bee

Monday 1st

May: Committee

Meeting

Sunday 21–Saturday 27th May:

Education Week

OPEN DAY – To be confirmed

Monday 29th

May: Committee

Meeting

Monday 12 June: Queen’s Birthday

(no kinder)

Monday 26th

June: Committee

Meeting

Friday 30th June: last day of term 2

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President’s report Newsletter 1, 2017

Term 2 key dates:

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3-year-old report

From Jo and Denise

Welcome to our first newsletter of the year!!! Your children have settled in very well with a few stray tears here & there. Denise & I have managed to distract the children when you leave with either, feeding the turtle, collecting the chicken eggs or cuddling my hand puppet Tiny Tim. As your child begins to feel safe & secure & that they know you will always come back to pick them up all the rest will follow. Children thrive on routine. During the start of our kinder year the best way to make the children feel safe & welcomed is to establish some routines that they become familiar with. Upon arrival the children will always wash their hands. Our sharing of fruit will always be the same each session & we have a group time where the children will, for most of the first term, have their own ‘magical mat’. This encourages the children to have their own space on the mat & to help them to achieve their own physical space when sitting close to their friends. 3 year old children aren’t ready to sit for long periods of time. We will start to enjoy short group times on our mats where we will encourage them to listen to others & start to discuss topics of interest.

Gawa happenings so far …

We have had some interest shown in Dinosaurs, Sharks & Chickens. To follow on from the interests of the children we have included these topics in our program. You can see around the kinder some of the art masterpieces that your children have created. Numbers... For the last couple of weeks of term 1 we introduced basic numbers to the children. We will communicate this to them through songs, pasting, books & counting activities. This will help them to start to recognise & grasp the concept of counting. When we line up I have started to get them to count with me too.

Thank you......

We wanted to say a BIG thank you to those of you who helped us so in Term 1. We would be lost without a parent

helper each session as it takes some time to cut up the fruit & clean up the dishes, etc. It just enables us to spend more time

helping & assisting your children. It has been a pleasure to have played & worked alongside

your children so far. They are an amazing group of children that have settled so well & have exceeded our expectations

already!!! Denise & I look forward to watching them flourish throughout this year. If you have anything you would like to discuss with us please feel free to come & have a chat (preferably at the

end of the session as we are caught up during session times).

Jo & Denise

3 Tecoma Preschool Newsletter 1, 2017

4-year-old report Bullen Bullen, Bunjil, Mirram, Wareen and Gurrborra

From Lauren, Jo & Noeleen

Preschool photos Welcome to all new and returning families.

We hope that your family has settled into the Tecoma Preschool Community and

that your child is enjoying the opportunities and learning that our kinder provides. Each Term we will attempt to provide a quick update on the new and exciting things

the 4 year olds have been up to. We hope that you already have an idea from the conversations you have been having with your children and any quick glances you

have taken of our Reflection Book. Below are a number of points we explored in Term 1.

We have been out to visit our front garden on numerous occasions and have been busily taking care of the worms, chooks and fairies. Daisy, Rosie and Tulip keep us busy counting their eggs and we have been taking care of our capsicum growing in the veggie patch.

The children have been very excited and taken ownership of their own lunchboxes. They are now quite skilled in working out what we eat for “fruit time” and what we eat at “lunch time”. Please continue to be aware of our “aim to be a nut free kinder” when packing your child’s lunch.

Lunar New Year allowed us to explore one of the many celebrations we recognise in our Multicultural Society. The kinder children were very interested in the Chinese Dragon and those that were keen, made a lantern to hang out on the balcony.

Dingah & Targoot have been introduced to the group and have begun their home visits. These dolls are Australian Indigenous Dolls and encourage children to begin their exploration of Australian History. We aim to encourage children to take care of these dolls, treat them with respect and look forward to their turn. Everybody will get a go.

Being Sunsmart is something we like to explore in term 1. Please encourage your child to be aware of the 5 S’. (Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek & Slide). We made a large SID the seagull for our kinder wall and have been exploring our cutting and pasting skills on this topic.

Firemen & policeman dress ups and dramatic play has been a hit both indoors and out. Children are able to use their past knowledge of what they have seen/heard in their life experiences and then put this into their play episodes. It has been great to be able to link our “Practice Emergencies” into these discussions and prepare ourselves for anything that may arise in the future. 000 was also discussed as an important thing to remember.

Lauren has also been busy assessing various skills of each child. So far she has explored hand preference, circle cutting skills & number and colour recognition. Please see your child’s portfolio for their assessments.

We finished the term off with a little Easter exploration.

Photo’s will be returning soon!

We hope you find some nice photos to purchase to remember

your child’s kinder year.

We’re using the ‘tiqbiz’ app as a way

to communicate with you. You’ll be

notified of our news, messages, events and other communications.

Simply download the tiqbiz app to

your phone or tablet. To download,

search tiqbiz in your app store. You

can also download tiqbiz on your PC or

Mac at www.tiqbiz.com/register Once downloaded, locate and select

Tecoma Preschool in the Early Learning section. You can then choose

to get updates from the ‘General’ section as well as your child’s group

name. Find out more at

www.tizbiz.com

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Thank-you to those parents that have helped out at “Stay & Play” duty already! It has been wonderful getting to know you and we look forward to having you back again and also meeting more of you. Please remember that you don’t have to stay for the whole 5 hours. Any time you can share with us is wonderful!

Please remember to regularly check your child’s filing cabinet on the decking to collect newsletters, artwork and reminders.

Parent – Teacher interviews will occur in early Term 2. This is a time for your to ask Lauren any questions you have and see how your child has settled into kinder.

Just a quick reminder: if you feel you want to share a special talent or have a family member/relative that has something to share, please approach the educators. We love learning about who is out in the community and what they do!!!! Eg – special occupation, cooking, play an instrument, arts/crafts??/

Jo, Lauren & Noeleen have been very busy developing an exciting and creative ‘interests based’ program for your children. The process involves observations, planning and reflections on individuals and groups. Please also take the time to

re-read your information booklet (About our preschool program) to remind yourselves of how the educators develop these educational programs.

The educators look forward to planning and organising excursions, incursions,

special nights, birthdays and a whole lot of fun for 2017!!

Please remember to check your child’s portfolio’s regularly to gain an understanding of your child’s involvement in the program. They will love to

show you their work and photos!! (portfolios are located inside kinder in wooden shelf and are slowly but surely starting to fill up.)

When signing in and out, please read the reflection book to see what we have

been up to.

“Young children benefit when teachers and families establish healthy partnerships and define common goals for children”.

(NAEYC – National Association for the Education of Young Children) We look forward to a wonderful year full of learning, fun and laughter!!

Lauren, Jo & Noeleen

A few notes …

Working bee!

Sunday 30 April

Our group names

The Tecoma Preschool educators felt it was important to name the 3- and 4-

year-old groups with meaningful names. In consultation with a member

of the Yarra Ranges Council who specialises in Indigenous knowledge,

we decided on the following: Bullen Bullen – Lyrebird

Bunjil – Eagle Wareen – Wombat Mirram – Kangaroo Gurrborra – Koala Gawa – Echidna

These names are from the traditional Wurundjeri language – Woiwurrung. The traditional owners of the Shire of

Yarra Ranges are the Wurundjeri people. The Wurundjeri people have inhabited the land for at least 35,000

years. We felt it was important to acknowledge the traditional

landowners and begin to share this with our community.

5 Tecoma Preschool Newsletter 1, 2017

Fundraising … The fundraising team has been busy planning activities for 2017, and welcomes any suggestions from families. We’re looking forward to a fun year ahead! Thanks for your support. - We held a sausage sizzle at Belgrave Farmer's Market. Thanks to all the parent helpers who came down to cook or serve a sausage on the day! - We ran an Easter raffle of gourmet goodies, which were won by the following lucky people: 1st prize – Xavier Gibbs 2nd prize – Noeleen Koller 3rd prize – Sandra Zaia

TRIVIA NIGHT - We locked in the date for our annual Trivia Night spectacular - Saturday 29th July 2017.

The Trivia Night is a great night out, and sells out every year. Tickets are in higher demand than ever because many parents from Tecoma Primary still attend, even when their little ones are no longer attending Tecoma Preschool!

As such, we'll be offering early bird tickets to Tecoma Preschool families to ensure everyone has a chance to get their ticket before opening it up to the broader public.

These Early Bird tickets will be $15, and each table will seat 10 people...so start wording up the people you want on your table! If you can't fill an entire table, don't worry - just buy your tickets and we'll make sure you're on tables with other Tecoma Preschool parents. It's a great way to meet people!

Scholastic books

The Scholastic Book catalogues will be beginning

in Term 2.

You will find these catalogues in your child’s

drawer on the deck.

A proportion of the funds raised from orders help

to provide resources for the preschool, so please

take a look and see if there is anything you want

to purchase.

Can you help us???

We are looking for some soft wood off cuts for the children to begin some

woodwork at kinder. Something easy for children to hammer nails into.

Anyone know of where we can source

this wood from??

Please see Lauren

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WORKING BEE………

SUNDAY 30TH APRIL

9am - onwards

We need your help!

Please come along to help keep our kinder looking great!

All families who attend will receive a $50 refund off their maintenance levy.

Jobs to be done:

o New Mulch spread in playground

o Second coat of paint on the swing frame

o Pressure clean deck and re-oil

o Replace the hooks in bag room

o Clean lights and windows

o Teepee wrapping in wool

o Clean BBQ

o Chicken coop maintenance

Request for families to donate colourful wool to weave into the

TEEPE.

Belgrave Lantern Parade

Saturday 24th June 2017

This year we are encouraging Tecoma Preschool Families to walk together in the parade with

one BIG lantern. There will be 3-4 workshops to develop our very own Cinderella Pumpkin Carriage. Please keep

your eye out on these upcoming workshops. We would love your help!!!!

Tecoma Preschool Newsletter 1, 2017

Just a reminder! Please send your child to

kinder wearing clothes that are suitable for play. This means

clothing in which they can safely climb and jump and

which does not increase the risk of tripping when running

or playing.

Please try to dress your child in warm clothing as the colder

weather approaches us. Jackets are a must when

Winter is here!

Thank you to the following families for their generous

contributions to our kinder so far:

Stamatis & Schroeder Families –for kindly offering their time

to take care of the chickens over the Easter Holidays

Tobin Family – Taking care of Charlie the bird

Thanks heaps!

We’d love to talk to you! We know it can be tricky to talk at the start/end of sessions, so feel free to make a time to see us to chat more!

ENROLMENTS Places at Tecoma Preschool fill fast, so if you have any

siblings or know of friends or family that would like to

attend in the future, be sure to complete an enrolment

application ASAP.