Newsletter - November 2009

Our Montessori preschool program caters for children up to six years of age. Children may remain with us until school age, then before, after school and vacation adventure programs are available

Please refer a friend and be eligible to receive $50.00 off your fees. We have vacancies in the 3 years and under groups and in the new year limited places for 4 years plus.

CK Bus: Our bus CK has been operating for several months now and the children love going to and from their homes on their bus. We are picking-up and dropping off from the child’s home or School. This courtesy service is available to all children who attend the centre. If you would like to know more about the bus, please contact the office. The area we cover is Broadwater, Glen Aplin, Applethorpe, Storm King Dam and Town.

END OF YEAR CONCERTS: All rooms will be holding end of year concerts which all parents and family members are invited to attend. Invitations will be handed out soon, please see your group leader for further information.
Dates & times for End of Year Concerts:
Room of Peace; 11am, Wednesday, 16/12/09
Harmony; 10am, Tuesday, 8/12/09
Bambini; 4pm, Wednesday , 9/12/09
Daisy Corner; 9:30am, Thursday, 10/12/09

What’s New:
LUNCHES: Here at Country Kids we realise that most parents are extremely busy, so in order to cater for these individuals from the start of the school year Country Kids will be providing lunches to our children. This is an optional extra, but for a small cost parents will be assured that their children are eating a healthy nutritious lunch without any hassles.

GRADUATION: Children from the Room of Peace who are going to school next year will be having a graduation which will be held on the 20th January 2010. Invitation will be given out soon, please see Mel for further details.

EXITS: Children who will be exiting over the next 6 weeks please complete an exit form.

RE-ENROLMENT: Blue ENROLMENT FORMS have been issued for the coming year, please complete and return to secure your bookings on the days you want.

BLOG: Please visit our blog to see our promotional incentive for next year enrolments.

FEES: Please check that your fees are 2 weeks in advance as per fee policy. 4 weekly Statements are issued at the end of each month.

NEWS FROM THE ROOMS

Daisy Corner:
Hello from the Daisy Corner,
We would like to welcome Dan, Zack, Angus and Colin. This month we have been focusing on painting and other creative activities. Now that it is hot could you please bring hat and spare clothes. Please make sure your children are wearing appropriate clothing for outside sun safe play. We are all excited by the progress many of the infants have been achieving lately, some of the children are starting to walk and crawl in our room. We would also like to thank our business owner John for installing two safety rails which the children have been pulling themselves up on and practicing standing. There are mirrors that they can see themselves in when they stand. It is all very exciting in the Daisy Corner at the moment as all children are growing so fast and for many, words are beginning to flow. Teresa, Ellen & Evonne

Bambini Room:
Hello there folks,
Your children have been doing lots of learning in our room over the last month. We have been focusing on musical activities; this has been inspired by our morning music program created by Katrina and the up coming end of year concert. We have been singing lots of action songs like, “Cuddly Koala”, “Everybody Clap”, “If You’re Happy and You Know it”, “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Open Shut Them”. The children have been practicing very hard for the end of year concert, invitations will be handed out very soon, and we are all looking forward to seeing you there. Along with music we have also been concentrating on creative sensory play, like finger painting, collage, screen painting, shaving foam art, blue goo, wet chalk, drawing and making lady beetles. The books we have been reading this month have been Mem Fox’s ‘Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes’, Eileen Browne’s “Handa’s Surprise, Lucy Cousins “Hooray for Fish” and Graeme Base’s “The Waterhole”. Tracey, Elysia and Tanya

Harmony Room:
Hello to All,
This month the Room of Harmony has been focusing on counting 1 to 10. We have also been encouraging children to use “Please” and “Thank You” at all times, this is the beginning of our Grace and Courtesy lessons which is part of our Montessori focus. We have been hearing stories from around the world (e.g. Bangladesh). We are also encouraging the children in the Room of Harmony to take, use and put away and to encourage children to look after their own belongings like lunch boxes and bedding. We would like to welcome Connor, into the Harmony Room, he is making new friends fast and having a ball. We would also like to welcome Rachael Dunn to our staffing team at Country Kids. Rachael she is working as the Trainee Assistant in our room, Joshua has also joined Harmony Room. We are also preparing for the End of Year Concert which all parents are invited to. Invitations will be handed out soon. Angie, Rachael and Joshua

Room of Peace:
Howdy All,
Over the last month the Room of Peace has been working on getting pictures and labels up around the room to improve the children’s take, use and put away skills. We have also been concentrating on handling our Montessori Equipment with the care. Building up these skills of responsibility is a life long skill which we want children to be able to use and build on. We have also included labels for the equipment so parents and classroom visitors can use the same terminology that the teachers and children use in the classroom. We hope you find it useful. The Room of Peace would like to welcome Jack; it is always exciting to have new children come to our classroom, Welcome!!! Over the last 2 weeks we have been doing a lot of practicing for our end of year concert. We can’t wait to show you all of the songs and dances room of peace children have learnt. Melanie is away this week enjoying a nice relaxing holiday. So we have Katrina, Ellen and Teagan working in the Room of Peace, so please feel free to ask them any questions you may have. Mel, Katrina, Ellen, Teagan

Policies reviewed 4th October were:
Administering First Aid, Anti-bias, Asthma, Medication, Nappy Change Policy, Natural disaster, Snake policy, Staff sickness, Visitors handbook & Parent handbook.
Policies to be reviewed 1st November 6pm here are on display in the Hall:
Administering Medication, Administering Paracetamol, Death of a Child, Exclusions Policy, Manual Handling & Back Care, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Service Participation, Telephone Usage & Intruder Alert/Emergency Lockdown Procedure.