Happy Birthday to these children who have recently turned another year older! Flynn, Jamie, Ollie, Lucas, Violet R, Abbey, Josh, Lusia, Rosie, Jesse and Cooper.
A big welcome to Violet, Cooper and James who are beginning their transition from the Infants and Toddlers Room, and to Leela, Kiya, Arlo Luka and Ellie who are new to our Cherry’s family.
We’re feeling very excited for Amber who is almost at the due date! We’ll keep you posted when we have news. Mel is settling in well, filling Amber’s shoes for the year. We’re very lucky that Mel is already very familiar with our children and routines having done a lot of relieving with us.
In March, we took a group of our 4-year-olds to the Primary School’s Garden Show at the Horticultural Hall. It was a valuable experience seeing the efforts of the school groups (including West Spreydon School, not far from here), and thinking of ways we could possibly incorporate some of the ideas into our outdoor environment.
In the last school holidays, we went to the Court Theatre to see a very clever rendition of Alice in Wonderland. It’s fabulous to see the children transferring some of the knowledge gained on these trips, to their play back at Cherry’s. This production definitely gave the children ideas of how to use props to tell stories, and to be creative and expressive!
Our focus continues to be on “Discovering the Great Outdoors”. This covers both their interaction with the environment and their physical skills. You’ll notice learning stories on our planning board that reflect the focus. As teachers, we are always working hard to capture the learning that goes on for your children, and thinking of ways to develop and extend their capabilities.
Perhaps your children have filled you in on how we acknowledged Anzac Day this year…? We have talked about what the holiday represents, and what it means to people. Verity brought in photos of her father who fought in the war that sparked conversation with the children. Gillian also brought in photos of her father and his war buddies on a tank, and his medals as well. At 4-year-old group time, the children helped to make a wreath, which went outside in our garden to mark the occasion. The children helped to make up a song about war times, and we’ve been doing lots of poppy crafts as well.
It is great to see everyone’s lunchboxes are full of healthy and nutritious food at the moment. We are on track to gaining our bronze award for Healthy Heart. It is so rewarding to see children eating healthy options which give them energy to play all day. Thank-you for your support!
Thank you very much to Anna and Juno who brought in some yummy peaches to share with the children. Thanks also to Freya for the big bag of apples she brought in, and to Allegra who kindly brought in some beautiful grapes – there’s something very special about fresh fruit grown in a home garden!
Thanks also, to everyone for supporting our raffle for the Barrington Playground. The efforts of everyone at Cherry’s has raised $1000 towards building a new playground. We are proud to be making a contribution towards the ‘rebuild’, as we know how many of you utilise that playground, and our community is important to us.
The following people were the lucky winners of a prize
JJ Phillips – Grocery and Homewares Hamper
Daniel Collins – Grocery and Homewares Hamper
Diane Gowland – Grocery and Homewares Hamper
Janita Te Haara – Life Pharmacy Hamper
Debbie McFarlane – Oderings Voucher
Barbara Larsen – Fresh Meats Voucher
Do you have a 4 or almost 4-year-old?? When you receive your ‘Before School Check’, please make sure you give it to us at your earliest convenience. We like to spend time completing them as a team at our meetings (which are fortnightly), to get an accurate overview of your child.
We are going to have a Transition to School Evening in the Winter time aimed at all parents of children aged 4. It’s a great opportunity to learn about the ways to prepare your children for school. We have new entrant teachers from a few of the local schools talking, and we also talk about our curriculum aimed at the older children. We’ll keep you posted when we have a date for the evening.
Our next Family Evening will be a chance to celebrate Matariki, and for families to get to know each other better. This will be on Friday July the 10th, so pop it in your diary and keep it clear.
Please pack a winter hat for your child on cold days. We like for them to be nice and warm while they are enjoying the great outdoors!
And a few quotes to finish (because children really do say the cutest things).
Upon being asked if he needed help with his shoes Luke replied “Yes please, my lady!”
“Ooh, look, a feijoa!” Julia said, to which Tomas replied, “What’s a Fiji-joa?”
Josh says to Amber, “Why is your tummy so big?” Amber tells him there’s a baby in there, so he pulls her top out from round her neck peering down and says, “Can I see?”
Elena looks around in the classroom after lunch and says, “Not my friends are here!” They were all in bed!
