EPPING VIEWS KINDERGARTEN NEWSLETTER

Term Three is in full swing and it has been another busy term at Epping Views Kindergarten.

The children have been learning about occupations and jobs are in our community. Our four

year olds last week went on an excursion to Woolworths. They learnt about the different sec-

tions of the supermarket and had some fresh fruit. We also started this term with celebrating

NAIDOC week and a variety of activities that the children were exposed to in order to discover

more about the aboriginal culture and our local community. They did symbol drawing, pattern

painting, cooking damper and playing in our gunyah (aboriginal house). They listened to vari-

ous dreamtime stories but the favourite was Bunjil the Eagle who is the story of the Wurundjeri

people.

Our three year olds also a had Rhythm Fun drumming incursion. The children enjoyed this

session with the instruments and being able to play the on the drums too.

Name assessments and gross and fine motor skills have just been completed for this term and we have noticed a big difference in the children’s ability. Children are now able to write and copy their names, or write the first letter and many can now write their names independently. We will continue to work on their name writing during our literacy groups. Our fine and gross motor skills have also improved and we use our planning time to ensure that we are covering these areas each week in our programs. This term we begun our transition program with EVPS and all groups have been visiting each

week. The children participated in PMP and ICT classes and some grade 6 helpers. This new

addition to our routine is already a favourite of most children with only some becoming upset

with the new surroundings. Next week we will moving onto Visual Art classes. Each group

have had an opportunity to spend some time on the play equipment and in the big sandpit and

feed the chickens. This is a positive experience, the children benefit from heading over to

EVPS, and it is great opportunity to help prepare the children for school regardless of which

school they will be attending.

We conducted interviews with our four year old families to discuss the children’s progress at kinder and to share their goal for this term. It is an opportunity to share and find out infor-mation about their child and to discuss what school each child is attending and what goal each family has for this term. This term our whole group goal is to assist the children with separating from their parents at the door and walking into the kinder room independently. We received a lot of positive feedback from parents regarding our program we provide, additional specialist programs, school visits, incursions and homework packs that were handed out. We had 111 interviews out of our 132 on our list, which is a fantastic success rate.

Term Dates

29th Jan – 29th March 16th April – 29th June 16th July – 21st Sept

8th Oct – 21st Dec

We have children who

are at high risk of Ana-

phylaxis.

We ask that you do not

send nuts or nut products

in with your child.

Te r m Th r ee Augus t 2018

15 Lyndarum Drive

Epping, Vic, 3076

Phone: 8405 3227

Diary Dates AUGUST

22ND - Book Week Dress Up 3 Year Olds

24th - Book Week Dress Up 4 year Olds

27th - Father’s Day Night Joey & Echidna Groups - 5.30pm –6.30pm

28th - Father’s Day Night Wombat & Koala Groups - 5.30pm—6.30pm

29th - Father’s Day Celebration Kookaburra & Rosella Groups - 8.30am-9.30am

29th - Father’s Day Celebration Magpie & Cockatoo Groups - 3.30pm-4.30pm

SEPTEMBER

14th - Dinosaur Incursion 4 Year Old Groups

19th - Footy Dress Up Day 3 Year Old Groups

21st - Footy Dress Up Day 4 Year old Groups

21st - Last Day Term 3

OCTOBER

8TH - First Day Term 4

11th - Wild Action 4 Year Old groups

Four Year Old News

Koala Group

We started off our Term Three with celebrating NAIDOC week and a variety of activities for children to explore and discover more about the Indigenous aboriginal culture and our local community. Some of our favourite activities have been symbol drawing, pattern painting, cooking damper and playing in our gunyah (aboriginal house). We listened to various dreamtime stories but our favourite was Bunjil the Eagle who is the story of the local Wurundjeri people. We are also researching Australian animals and learning about them and their characteristics.

At the start of Term Three we began our transition to school program. Each week we visit Epping Views Primary School exposing the children to a variety of activities as well as becoming familiar with a school environment. We have participated in their PMP program and ICT program where the children are learning how to use Netbooks.

We visited Woolworths on Thursday 16th August and took a look behind the scenes. Some of highlights were eating watermelon, visiting the great big freezer and discovering how very cold it is. The children were fantastic, asking many questions and taking in lots of in-formation. Each child was given a piece of fruit, we used this to make some yummy fruit salad.

Looka from the Responsible Pet Program came to kindergarten to teach us all about dog safety. The children learnt what signs to look to ensure a dog is safe and how to approach the dog safely and how to know when a dog is angry. We each practised approaching Looka allowing him to smell us and giving him a nice long pat.

We celebrated Teacher Dani’s last day with a baby shower full of games, cupcake decorat-ing and lots of laughs. Thank you to everyone who spoilt Dani with all the gorgeous gifts for her baby. We are going to miss her and look forward to her visits.

Don’t forget:

Fathers Night (Tuesday 28th)

Don’t forget to pack appropriate clothing for all weather.

Parent helpers are welcome

Please ensure you are on time to our sessions so that your child does not miss out on important parts of our program.

If you have questions please let us know,

Casey and Asma

Wombat News

Over the past few weeks the Wombat children have been learning all about the Indigenous and

Aboriginal culture in Australia. The children have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of

play spaces such as tracing symbols in sand and making damper to explore this culture further and

the children even learnt how to do the Hokey Pokey using indigenous words. We have now

moved onto the topic of Occupations. The children are learning all about the different occupations

that are out there in our local community and what tools they use in their job.

Whilst we have started talking to the children about this, we will introducing four helper jobs in

our room which are teacher helpers, weather/day, cleaning inspectors and nature helpers. Each

day two children will be given one of these jobs to do whilst they are at kindergarten for their ses-

sion. This will give the children a sense of responsibility and encourage them to work together as

a team to ensure that our kindergarten environment is clean and tidy.

We have recently been talking to our group about the topic of Weather. We have firstly introduced

this to the children by having a discussion with them about what they already know and showing

them a clip on the interactive television about how rain is made, what types of weather there is

and demonstrating to the children how to make rain in a jar by doing a science experiment using

water, food dye and shaving cream. We have placed a rain gauge outdoors to catch the rain and

we check this each session with the children. We will be continuing to speak to the children each

day about the weather and introducing a song about days of the week.

The children participated in the Responsible Pet Ownership Program, where they had the oppor-

tunity to meet Janina and her dog Pepper. The children learnt about how to be safe around dogs,

what to do if they came across an angry dog and some new songs about what to do when meeting

a new dog for the first time.

We would like to welcome Radha our student who will be on placement with us every Tuesday,

Thursday and Friday until the end of the year. Parents please feel free to introduce yourselves to

our new team member and make her feel welcome.

Each week the children look forward to their library session with Catherine. They listen intently to

the story book being read to them and take their time to choose a book by looking at the front cov-

er pictures for clues. The children that have not received a library star award yet are eagerly wait-

ing each week to see if they are going to be the chosen. This term our specialist focus with Casey

is Science. The children started off their first session by experimenting with primary colours and

using torches to explore colours on white material.

We have started off our first lot of specialist visits over to Epping Views Primary School with

PMP. The children had the opportunity to practise their balancing jumping and catching skills. Af-

ter three sessions of PMP, the children will be moving onto Digital Learning where they will be

using a computer and navigating how to use the mouse. We will be finishing off our specialist vis-

its over at the primary school with the children doing Visual Arts.

Families please remember to be on time for each kindergarten session to allow your child to com-

plete their start of day process and participate in our first mat time. If you are late it can disrupt

your childs kindergarten routine and the rest of the groups concentration.

Amanda, Melinda and Alan

Joey News

It has been yet another busy term and time sure is flying by!

Our new topic we have introduced this term is Occupations. The children have been learn-

ing about what an occupation is, the role of different occupations and the tools that these

occupations use. We have had discussions about what occupations they have seen and that

some of these occupations are also community helpers. The children have been drawing on

their own knowledge and experiences by sharing the occupations of their family members

and community helpers they have seen such as the Police, Mail Carrier and Doctor.

As the children have been showing an interest in role play we have provided some further

opportunities within the room linked to this topic including the VET area where the chil-

dren have cared for animals and our Bakery where the children are using playdough to

make cakes, cookies and doughnuts. They have since requested to set up our own kinder

supermarket since our excursion to Woolworths.

The children have enjoyed our weekly visits to Epping Views Primary School where they

have so far participated in PMP, Digital Learning and in the coming weeks will be attend-

ing Visual Art lessons. It has been great for the children to meet a variety of teachers, par-

ticipate in a variety of experiences and explore a school environment. After each visit we

have been utilising the school grounds by playing on the play equipment, eating our snack

on the picnic tables and visiting the Prep area.

Earlier this term we conducted our parent interviews. It was a great opportunity to discuss

the children’s progress at kinder with you and to share their individual goal for this term.

Our whole group goal for this term was to assist the children with separating from their

parents at the door and walking into the kinder room independently. We are very happy to

report that this is going well and would like to thank you for supporting your children in

this change of routine.

Some important reminders:

Please be on time for each session to allow your child to complete their start of day pro-

cess and participate in our first mat time. If you are late it can disrupt your child’s

kinder routine the rest of the groups concentration.

DON’T FORGET to check our reflection book to keep up to date with the Joey

Group.

If you have any questions regarding the educational program or your child’s progress,

please feel free to make a time to speak with us.

Catherine, Donna, Asma and Jennifer

Echidna News This term the children have been enjoying our visits to Epping Views Primary School. We are currently

taking part in Digital Learning where the children are learning how to use a laptop. Many of the chil-

dren can navigate an iPad but using a laptop requires different skill that they will use in prep. Over the

next three weeks the children will be learning how to use a computer and navigate using the mouse and

keyboard with the help and guidance of Jaimee Lee.

We were very lucky to have had our Responsible Pet Program visit where Danielle and her pet dog Lu-

ca came in to teach the children how to be safe around dogs and the right way to approach them. I am

very proud of all the children who had a go at approaching Luca in the right way and were able to give

him a pat.

The children have been showing a strong interest in numeracy particularly rote counting above ten, rec-

ognising numbers and playing numeracy games. We have been playing small and large group games

and extending their knowledge and interest in our Maths area using dice, matching games, number writ-

ing cards, bingo and counting games on the interactive television. Alphabet recognition has also been of

interest with the children developing their awareness of upper and lowercase letters and practising

matching these letters at activities and during our small group times. The children’s knowledge of the

days of the week have developed over the past few weeks as we are discussing this daily as a part of

first group time at the beginning of our sessions.

We have many exciting events scheduled in this term and are looking forward to providing the children

with these opportunities. This week we will be going over to Woolworths for a discovery tour as part

of our occupations topic of exploration and are going behind the scene to learn about the different de-

partments. We will also be having our book week dress up day along with our Father's night.

I would like to thank our families who attended our mid-year interviews. It was great to speak to you

all and to those parents who have not returned their parent goal please do so as soon as possible.

Some important reminders:

* Please be on time for each session to allow your child to complete their start of day process and par-

ticipate in our first mat time. If you are late it can disrupt your child’s kinder routine and the rest of the

groups concentration.

*Our parent helper sheet is next to the sign in book. We welcome you to join up and come and spend

time with your child and our group during one of our sessions.

* Starting from Monday the 20th of August we will be implementing our drop off at the door policy

DON’T FORGET to check our reflection book to keep up to date with the Echidna Group.

If you have any questions regarding the educational program or your child’s progress please feel free to

make a time to speak with us.

Jamie, Priti and Laura

Cockatoo Group

You may have noticed that over the last couple of weeks we have been starting our session on the mat

where we have been conducting a group time including anything from a song, to a game or even a story-

book. This will continue on for the rest of the year to encourage a smooth transition into the room and to

introduce any new activities to the children that we have planned for the session. It is important that your

child is arriving on time to ensure they are involved in this part of our routine.

The children have shown an ongoing interest in art and craft experiences including painting, pasting and

cutting. Each week we are planning different activities to continue their interest and develop their skills in

this area of play including painting using a variety of mediums and introducing the two part concept of cut

and paste. The children have also been engaging in a variety of colour and shape related activities within

the room and we have a new game that we will introduce with a similar concept to their favourite game

Little Mouse.

We had a visit from Rhythm Fun where Joe introduced the children to musical terms such as rhythm, beat

and tempo through the use of songs and musical instruments. They used a variety of instruments and

played along to different songs while exploring concepts such as fast and slow and high and low. The

children then had the opportunity to have a go on Joe’s drum kit where they chose sticks or brushes to

use. This was a very popular experience, with the children all getting up and having a go!

This term we will be continuing to focus on the children’s independence skills. It is important that you

support your children in becoming independent by allowing them to carry their own bags, place their bag

in their locker and put their drink bottle on the trolley. Throughout the session the children’s independ-

ence is fostered by them opening their snack containers, putting their beanies and jackets on and packing

their bags at the end of the session.

Some important reminders:

Please ensure you are packing spare clothes in your child’s bag. We encourage messy play and may

require to change your child during the session.

If you have any questions regarding the educational program or your child’s progress, please feel free to

make a time to speak with us.

Catherine and Alan

3 Year Old News

Kookaburra Group

The Kookaburra children have been continuing with their shape and number knowledge,

and participating in many group songs which include numbers. It is great to see the children

begin to extend on their friendships branching out and playing with other children. The

Kookaburra children enjoy the Rhythm Joe incursion learning about rhythm and tempo and

different sounds some are high and some are low sounds, the children had the opportunity

to play different instruments such as maracas, triangles, tambourines and the best of all the

large drums.

Over this term we will be focusing on helping the children extend on their independence

skills and allowing them to be responsible for their belongings making sure they collect

their things at the end of the session before going home. We will continue to encourage the

children to extend on their friendship groups and provide small group games to help extend

on this.

Looking forward to another fun filled term with the Kookaburra children, feel free to come

and speak to myself or Priti if you have any concerns or queries.

Laura & Priti.

Magpie Group Can you believe we are already half way through Term Three?

Our Magpies have been very busy exploring different sensory activities such as water play, shaving cream and water beads. During these experiences we use our senses to describe what we can feel and use ‘juicy’ language such as soft, gooey, cold, wet and slimey.

Our craft and painting area is still as popular as ever. The children have been creating some beautiful paint-ings and it is great to see how much their pictures are developing. At the craft table the children have been practising using scissors by cutting up straws, streamers and paper. Using scissors is an important skill chil-dren use in four year old kinder and in prep. Exposing children with them in our three year program means they have plenty of practise to master this tricky skill.

Joe from Rhythm time came to visit bringing along his musical instruments and his drum set. Children were able to play and sing along with Joe as he taught us about different musical instruments and some important musical words like tempo, rhythm and high and low sounds. We even got to have a turn playing the big drum set.

Don’t forget:

Fathers Day Afternoon

To forget to pack appropriate clothing for all weather.

Parent helpers are available for sign up.

Please see Casey or Asma if you have any questions.

Casey and Asma

Rosella Group Wow, we only have a few weeks remaining of Term Three, and what a busy term we have had. We have been starting our sessions on the mat and the children have responded positively to this change in their rou-tine. Our groups times have been consisting of stories, music and dance or used to introduce new areas in the room. We have had an ongoing interest in the arts and crafts area, decorating boxes, making clouds or practising our fine motor control through cutting and pasting. Another strong interest we have had is col-ours, to further extend on this we have been making bubble paintings and creating coloured bubbles in the outdoor yard. The children also enjoy outside play especially in the sand and dirt pit and having fun on the pirate ship.

Joe from Rhythm Time visited the children. He bought along a variety of instruments, but the children’s favourite was his drum kit. Joe let all the children have a play on it and taught them new musical words such as rhythm and temp.

Reminders

Our Session begins at 8.30am - please ensure you are bringing your child on time. As of next Term the children will begin their session with a group time on the mat.

We go outdoors every session regardless of the weather. Please pack appropriate clothing.

Father’s Day Morning Weds 29th August 8.30am—9.30am

Parents helper sign sheet is out every session, please put your name down to join in one of our sessions.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to come and see us.

Thank you

Melinda & Alan

Healthy Snacks Thank you to the families that have given their child healthy snacks in their

lunchbox. Keep up the great work!

Ali Al Badry

Scarlett Alessi

Sukhnaaz Anand

Georgia Damtsis

Justin Davceski

Louay El-Hage Has-

san

Ali Hamadi

Yasemin Kulekci

Fatimah Adeli

Marcel Dimeski

Abeer Nandi

Cody Paterson

Tamara Sutherland

Ayaan Tawfiq

Zak Trajcevski

Alexia Triantos

Mia Alessandrino

Mihindukulasuriya

Fernando

Archer Glover

Eleanor Glover

Aarthika Jeevithan

Anthoni King

Avika Manik

Eshita Rana

Meharvan Singh

Amelia Sutter

Benjamin Becerra

Nunez

Leon Cattapan

Oliver Cattapan

Jada Del Mastro

Fatima Mustafoska

Daniel Olivieri

Mastak Bhandol

Reminders Signing In and Out – When signing your child in and out of each session please remember

to actually sign in and out and please ensure that you are signing in the correct place. It is important that you do not sign out until the end of the session. While you are waiting in the foyer to collect your child please remember to check your child’s art box for any art and craft that your child has completed. Before you leave check your child’s hang pocket for notes so that you are kept up to date with our information.

Clothing– Please remember to pack a warm jumper or jacket for your child to wear whilst outdoors. Also a warm beanie for them to put on. If your child would like to play in the digging patch, we suggest that you dress your child in gumboots or pack them in their bag so that they can change their shoes if they choose to play in this area of our outdoor envi-ronment.

Emergency Exit Door— Just a reminder to all families that the emergency door exit is for emergency’s only, it is not to be used for exiting after dropping off or collecting your child.

Disabled Parking – Please remember you must have a disabled sticker to park in this car spot. Just because it is raining or there are no other car parks does not mean you can park there. Please leave these places for people who need them.

Immunisation Forms – If you know you have only provided us with a copy of your child’s immunization records from their green maternal health book we now need a copy from your My Gov account. If you could print this off and send it in with your child or pass on to their teacher, please.

Teachers – Just a reminder that teachers often have meetings before and after their sessions so if you are wanting to speak with your child’s teacher make sure you have contacted them and made an appointment.

Toys – Please ensure that you are not sending your child to kinder with any toys from home. While they are at kinder they have plenty of resources and toys they can use both inside and outside.