Wellington Point Early Learning Centre ABN 40 050 920 520
MARCH/APRIL 2015
– Situation –
“Angela, if you throw that ball one more time — we’re leaving!” “Benjamin James, what did I say? If you can’t share the sandbox toys, we’re going home!” “Micah, I warned you we’d have to leave if you took that toy away from your sister. If this is the way you behave, we aren’t coming back to Auntie Cathy’s again!”
So leave already!
Do those statements sound a bit too familiar? Children everywhere hear such messages all the time: then little Angela will toss her ball — again; while little Benjamin James will continue to stockpile the sandbox shovels and wily Micah will snatch first a rattle, then a spinning top, and next a cuddly bunny out of his baby sister, Lucy’s, tiny fingers. Their parent’s messages and the children’s behaviour will continue — but nothing changes. No one stops. And no one goes.
Say it — do it
Doing what we say is called follow-through and most of us aren’t very good at it. The reason that what we say and what we do often fail to match is because most of us suffer from the ‘Too Much’ syndrome. This syndrome comes in three recognizable forms. We Ask ‘Too Much’, Say ‘Too Much’, or Say We Will Do ‘Too Much’ (more than we are willing to really do). ….. Cont Page 4.
Also on Page 4 Photos “Around The Centre”.
Welcome back to our Newsletter and a special welcome to our new families. I hope you enjoy your time with us, and we meet your expectations. Please remember that all families are very welcome to provide any input that may help us plan a program for all our children or an experience, activity etc. If you have a clean out at home we would welcome any kitchen utensils, dress ups etc. Congratulations
We wish to congratulate Kimberley, Darcy’s mum (Toddler Room), on the safe arrival of her baby boy Elijah born at the end of March.
We also want to wish Bonhee’s family all the best as they move interstate. Bonhee will be missed by us all.
Reminder
Well Easter has passed, and I hope you all had a nice break. Since the Easter break we’ve had cooler weather, but please remember to continue to apply sunscreen to your children and pack warmer clothes in case of a cold changes.
Mother’s Day
We now have Mother’s Day to look forward to, when we can spoil our Mums. I hope you have received your invitation to our afternoon tea for Mother’s Day. By the way, any Grandparent/Parent is invited if the Mums can’t make it, and if it is not your booked day you are also welcome to come along. Please RSVP by 30th April so we
can cater for you.
SU
CHILDCARE ARTICLE: Time to Go: If You Say It
Newsletter
— Do It
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK
UPCOMING EVENTS
APRIL
25th
ANZAC Day
MAY
1
st– 7
thMother’s Day activities and
present making
7
thMothers Day Afternoon Tea
2:30pm
19
thRSPCA Patches the Dog
Upcoming events
On the 15th of May, the RSPCA is coming to visit us and
talk to us about looking after our pets and the role of the RSPCA. There is no cost for this educational visit, however they do ask for a gold coin donation. Your donation would be greatly appreciated and would assist the RSPCA to continue their vital work.
We also, look forward to having Magic Mike on the 28th of
May. He has visited us in the past; and the children always get a laugh.
Another busy month, I hope you and your children enjoy it. If you have any concerns, questions or input to the program, please don’t hesitate to contact me by phone 3822 5222 or Email [email protected] and if you love us please tell your friends, encourage them to come and have a look. Please also direct them to our website where they can find out more information regarding the Centre and look at our past newsletters. Until next time, stay safe,
Lone DIRECTOR
TODDLER ROOM NEWS
Welcome to another newsletter, we hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, spending it with family and friends. Family Photos
Thank you to those families who have brought in their family photo. We are still waiting on several families to bring theirs in. The children have enjoyed sharing the photos with their peers during mat time and seeing their picture on the Toddler family tree. By having family photos displayed contributes to a sense of belonging to our classroom community. (Learning Outcome 1) Farewell
It is with great sadness we say goodbye to our friend Bonhee, who will leave us in early May. We are going to miss you very much and we wish you and your family all the very best with your move to Melbourne. I hope you have got lots of warm clothes!
Group Time
We have been allocating a 15 min block within our day for us as a group to come together and share ideas, family photos, discuss our day
or share a story. During this time we also sing finger rhyme songs that have consisted of numeracy skills such as counting to five. Throughout the day the
children will start singing along. We can see the children are taking on roles of numeracy users in their play and transferring their knowledge from one area to another. (Learning Outcome 4.3G & 5.2D).
Last Month
This was a very busy month for us with Crazy Hair Day, St Patrick’s Day, Harmony Day and the Fire Engine visit. Later in the month there were Easter arts and craft and a special visit from the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt. The children were not too happy to see the Easter Bunny with everyone becoming upset, but we LOVED the chocolate Easter eggs he gave us.
Harmony Day
The Centre celebrated Harmony Day on Friday 20th of March. This day
celebrated
inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging. We did
paintings, drawings, made a fabulous Harmony sign and had a celebratory, inclusive morning tea altogether in the pre-school room. (Learning Outcome 1, 2, 3 & 4).
Fire Engine Visit
The firefighters and fire engine came to visit us at Kindy on Thursday 26th of March. We closed the gate in the car
park and the children wee able to explore the fire engine. We found ladders, hoses and axes. The firefighters gave us a sticker and let us listen to the siren. It was very loud!
(Learning Outcome 2.1D).
Planting Project and Nature Display
The Toddlers have now decorated their recycled milk bottles with stickers and textas and filled them with potting mix. If anyone can help us with herbs or flowers to plant we are now ready. So far we have planted coriander, rocket, basil, oregano and parsley. We are also looking for natural items to place on our Hessian wall hanging display.
Ideas include paper bark, interesting leaves and gum nuts, birds nest, palm fronds. We have found some feathers and are talking about which birds they might come from. (Learning Outcome 2). Until next time Di and Sue
JUNIOR KINDY NEWS
Hello and welcome to another edition of our newsletter. First we wish to welcome Poppy L, Arman and Timarra to our room. We look forward to getting to know you and your families. We have known Poppy for quite some time, because both her older brothers have attended our Centre. They are now attending school and we have the pleasure of Poppy’s company in Junior Kindy. As a matter of fact, we just celebrated Poppy’s 3rd birthday and in the same
week we also celebrated Mabel’s 3rd Birthday.
Show and Tell
Eric has been bringing in show and tell lately and has been so proud to stand up in front of the class. So we were thinking of getting a show and tell roster up and running. If you have anything to share we would love it.
Goodbye
Samuel has become of age and has had a smooth transition to the Pre-School room, where Miss Arlene runs the Kindy Program. We wish you all the best Samuel; we know you will have fun.
Last month
Easter has come and gone in the blink of an eye. We trust you all had a nice break.
Our children really enjoyed the visit from the Easter Bunny, although some
were a little nervous to meet him, until he offered the children an Easter egg. We really appreciate Darsea’s Grandmother Rhonda for helping with making the children’s
Easter baskets. We know the children had a truly good time. I think the highlight of the week was the Easter egg hunt in the backyard.
Before Easter on the 12th of March, we held Crazy Hair
Day. Thanks to all the families for making their donations. The children had such fun in showing off their crazy hair. We offered the children a full length mirror so they could see how ‘cool’ they looked.
We also had fun doing activities for St Patrick’s Day (17th March) and Harmony Day (20th March). Then that big red
truck came to visit all of the children, who were so excited to see the firemen and their big truck, Junior Kindy was no exception, and we all had a turn to hold the hose. “It’s heavy!” Eric told us. When back in our room, we read some stories about the firefighters roles, which lead into some role play. Home corner sprouted a few kitchen fires, which “firemen” Oliver, Samuel and Aykus were able to extinguish. The subject of fire fighting continued for quite a number of days. Each time it came up their imaginations added new scenarios.
Over the Easter holidays, a few of our families had gone camping and the children were excited to tell us about their experiences. After reading a story about camping and comparing the stories to the children experiences, I have decided not to go camping if the Junior Kindy children are in charge of supplies! The children enjoyed having the ‘tent’ in our room and started to combine camping and fire fighting in their role play.
Colour Recognition
At the moment, we are looking at colours and what happens if you mix them together. We will continue to explore colours and why some are useful. We have already learnt that if a traffic light is green it means go and red is stop.
Next big thing on agenda is to get ready for Mothers Day activities.
So bye for now, Katrina and Lone
PRE-SCHOOL ROOM NEWS
We have finally jumped into some cooler weather as April has arrived. We encourage parents to pack a jumper and/or pants for the children during these times as we only have a small range of spare clothing .
Fire Engine Visit
As some parents are well aware, we recently finished up a project on the topic of fire engines. This then led to the topic of fire safety within our centre which included participation in a fire drill and discussions on the fire equipment we have available. This captivated the children’s interest for a long period of time and proved to be a fascinating topic for learning. We then concluded the project with a visit from our local fire department before we started on our Easter festivities.
Kindergarten Framework
At Wellington Point E.L.C, we believe in co constructive learning. As Educators, our interactions focus on responding to and building on children’s interests, ideas and intentions. This is a key practice for Kindergarten
teachers as outlined in the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines. The fire engine project began from an observation of children pretending to be a fire engine on the balancing beams during outside play. This then led to a discussion about the properties of fire which was written on a mind map. The children’s talk and discussions then led to the topic of fire safety gear and equipment, which we explored deeper by reading the borrowed library books. Children are more inclined to be active participants in the learning process if they feel empowered in constructing the program alongside educators.
After our fire engine project, we excitedly dived into our Easter arts and crafts experiences. The children were very excited about Easter, and most of the children were ecstatic when the Easter Bunny came. At the end of the festivities, the
children gladly enjoyed the chocolates and Easter egg hunting that took place. Easter proved to be an enjoyable time for all involved. Miss Arlene
Saying ‘too much’ (Cont from Page 1) Ask ‘too much’
When we tell a young child that there will be dire consequences if he or she does something “one more time,” we have spelled out almost certain disaster. Why? Impulse control. Young children don’t have much impulse control or are working on acquiring it. Throwing that ball one more time is almost a reflex action. A better plan would be to say what to do with the ball: “Keep the ball on the floor. Please roll it along the ground.” If that fails to work — ask the child how she needs to play with the ball when inside. This method gets the child engaged in the problem and makes it easier for her to comply. If the problem continues, act. Take the ball away. Assure her she will have a chance to try to use it in an acceptable way later that day (or the next day, or whatever seems reasonable). If after you have done these things and problems continue, it is time to leave. You said it. Now do it. So go.
Does Benjamin’s Mum really believe he doesn’t know what she said? His mum has become very practised at repeating things, and Benjamin knows that she will keep saying ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ was this time) until her voice reaches shriek level, at which point he might respond. Mum’s flow of words has long ago become background noise to Benjamin, because mum says a lot more than
she does. Follow-through is rare. The words flow — but
actions don’t.
Say less — and mean more
Try asking a child what he thinks it is that you are going to say, in this case, about sharing the sandbox toys. Most likely, he will thrust a shovel in his playmate’s direction while muttering, “I can’t have them all.” Or, “I have to share.” (Big sigh).
Let the child have a chance to say something — which will make his ‘doing’ that something far more probable. They do KNOW! Try asking. Here is a good self-check. Try to say what it is you want from a child in ten words (or less). Example: “It is time to leave. It is really cold today, so you need to get your coat on and then we will go outside” (24 words). Replace the above with: “Coat,” (1 word). Maybe add, “Cold,” (2 words). He will know what you mean. Now go!
Saying more than you will do
This final category of ‘too much’ includes the ‘grounded for life’; “Get down from that tree or I’m coming up to get you”; and the “This is the last movie I am ever taking you to” category of comments. These all inclusive statements are so over the top, even we hear how silly they sound as they slide out of our mouths — like overgrown chewing gum bubbles popping and splattering all over our faces. That ‘we’re not coming back’ threat is one that Micah and his Auntie have probably heard more times than either of them can count. Of course Micah will be coming back to his Auntie’s. Isn’t this where the family will gather for Christmas? When we say things like the above, we become less credible. And what about Auntie Cathy? Isn’t this threatened banishment of her favorite nephew punishing her as well?
The moral here is: If you say it — be prepared to do it. Therefore, be careful of what you say.
Leaving — or not?
If it is time to leave — be prepared to do so. Make leaving real — not a dangling threat. And remember — leaving as punishment may be punishing others besides the child. Try to deal with misbehaviour in other ways, such as going into another room to help a child calm down or reviewing expected behaviours once more. If the misbehaviour continues, then leave, while reassuring everyone that you are confident there will be another, more successful opportunity to behave better on the next visit. Save announcements about leaving for the few minutes before stepping out the door. ‘Time to go’ needs to be linked to (newsflash!) — going. One of my daughters once told me that when I said “time to go,” she knew she had at least a half hour to play, because I would take forever saying good bye. You know what — she was right. I had to work at getting my own good-byes said, before I made that final leaving announcement. Then, when I said it — we left.
Follow-through works
If we want our children to hop up and leave when we say it is time to do so, then we need to be prepared — to go. This is true of leave-taking, or anything else we say. If
we ‘Say It’, We need to ‘Do It’. That is follow-through —
and follow through works. Therefore — Beware of what you say . . . .
Parenting
March/April 2005 Childcare Exchange35 “Around The Centre”.
Di, Nate and Natasha looking for some yummy chocolate eggs
Samuel found an egg!
Good spotting Kiara, look how many you found!
Bonhee and Nate working together to match shapes
Annabella”s Crazy hair
Harper and Poppy’s Crazy hair
