2019 Newsletter Term 03 | Issue 03

Spring is coming! Elouera have been busily preparing our gardens for spring! We have loved watching the apple, orange and blueberry trees come into bloom and even made a scarecrow to keep the birds away! We’re making recycled newspaper pots to cultivate our seeds, if you have any spare newspaper or would like to donate some seeds we’d be happy to have them!

– Corinne, Debbie & Sarah

We celebrated Science Week in Week 5 with experiments from all the 3-6 teachers. The mornings were spent on the deck conducting experiments studying air pressure, converting liquid to solid, generating electricity from different fruits and vegetables, soluble and insoluble liquids and different methods of filtering water. The children had a great time being scientists for the day.

Book Week was celebrated in Week 6 with the children bringing in their favourite books to share with the class. Each child had the opportunity to share their book with a small group of peers which resulted in plenty of discussions and questioning.

Last Friday we welcomed our Dads to the classroom. It was lovely to see so many Dads taking part in presentations from their children and getting to use some of our favourite Montessori materials. We are looking forward to welcoming more Dads this week. We hope you all had a fantastic Father’s Day.

– Amanda & Teresa

Children learn about themselves by participating in celebrations that are part of their culture and the world community. The celebration of Father’s Day at school gives the child the opportunity to share their school environment with their family. This helps the child to develop a sense of belonging across home and school. The children were so proud to share their classroom with their fathers and the morning was a buzz with excitement and lots of love.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads.

– Jenny, Jo & Angela

Life is full of risks and challenges and our role as adults is to help the children learn how to navigate these sometimes difficult, sometimes thrilling and exciting situations. Risky play helps to develop a child’s resilience and persistence.  It encourages creativity, inventiveness and enables them to help to understand the consequences of their actions.  Overall it helps to build confidence and self esteem. We try to provide the children with opportunities to challenge them, develop new skills and push their own boundaries.  We are lucky we have trees they can climb, monkey bars they can swing and hang from and with instruction the children are able to use real tools at the work bench and real knives in the kitchens.  The biggest reward is when you hear a child exclaim “I did it!”

– Dawn

Children love nature. When they are in touch with nature, there is curiosity in them asking questions. Such as, what are the natural features of a place? How do animals use vegetation? How do I record observations? We have been working outside the classroom where the children examined the damage caused by invertebrates and their interaction with the leaf. They trace and draw a particular leaf then colour it with colour pencils. The children were able to describe invertebrate damage on a leaf. Also, they accurately draw a representation of flower and describe similarities among them. It was a great experience where the children can be seen spending a reasonable amount of time quietly on their own in their work. We shared their experiences with their peer during group discussions.

As part of the health and physical education, we continue to encourage the children to eat healthy and be creative in preparing their lunch box at home. Recently, the children were given a few ingredients to create something of their own. To my surprise, their creativity can be seen throughout the food art decoration. There was a lot of giggles and laughter throughout the activity with children helping each other by giving and exchanging ideas.

We want to say a big thank you to all the amazing dads’ that came for the Father’s day breakfast. It was lovely to see the children enjoying the company and present of their dad showcasing their work proudly. I hope you all enjoyed the breakfast we prepared for you and had a lovely morning with us.

Book week was another fun event for the children. Children enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book character. They are getting so creative each year, and we love their costumes. Each child got to talk about their favourite character. We also had author Elizabeth Mary Cummings come to visit us. Elizabeth read two of her favourite books to the children. The children got to play some games and asked plenty of questions in regards to publishing a book. Some of the children even spoke about the book they have been creating and showing it to Elizabeth.

– Samantha & Laura

It was book week on Wednesday 28 of August 2019, there were great costumes like Where is Wally, Amber from The Midnight Gang, a Star from The Little Prince, Hagrid from Harry Potter and so much more!!! We had an author named Elizabeth Mary Cummings come in to read to us. She was selling her books that were called Brave and Strong All Day Long, Dinner on the Doorstep and The Forever Kid which she signed for us.       

Milly, Mena, Claudia and Isabel went on a going out to the Lifeline Book Fair at Warriewood and bought lots of books for our library.

On Friday we had Father’s Day Morning Tea everyone had their own station/table to show their dads the work they have been doing and showed them some of the materials and resources around the classroom and how to use them.

by Isabel and Toby.

– Claire, Jessica and Philippa 

Dear Families,

I would like to bring your attention to the importance of our feedback system. By providing us with feedback you are highlighting areas where you think we could improve on. Your opinion matters and we want to be sure we are meeting the standards you would expect for your child whilst in our care. Through your suggestions we are able to effectively further development of our centre and practices. This feedback can be given through completing surveys, emails and happy sheets and all is greatly appreciated. Please keep in mind that it will remain confidential. Thanks for your participation if you have any questions on where to access these forms/ how to provide it please do not hestitate to ask!

This week began with our wellness Health & Well-being program. The children did various  activities surrounding the importance of giving and receiving, including a circle massage train! This week the children have also enjoyed the start up of arts and crafts club. Activities have included, creating build a bears, decorating mugs and seeing who could create a bridge using only paddle pop sticks, rubber bands and sticky tape. The children are all eager to start walking and exploring club as the weather starts to warm up!

Next Week Events:

Fruit and Veg month
25th Aug- 30th Aug: World water week
1st Sep: National wattle day
2nd Sep: Fathers day

If you would like more information about Primary OSH Care or our centre and how to enrol, please visit our website www.primaryoshcare.com.au

From Amanda, Kim, Jack and all the OSHC staff at Farmhouse Montessori OSHC Centre