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Welcome to our March Newsletter!

We are well into the new year now and the children have settled securely into their new environment. This month, all three classrooms have commenced utilising the Australian Government ELLA program. ELLA is a digital, play-based language learning program for preschool children, inspiring children by driving a genuine interest in a new language and culture. Banjo and Friends have chosen the Japanese program in line with A.B. Paterson College. All the ELLA Apps are aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the Australian Curriculum: Languages (Foundation–Year 2). Our Early Childhood teachers incorporate the Japanese program and culture from the App into the weekly program with experiences including songs, colour recognition, counting, social interactions activities, and incursions. This month, the children experienced an interactive and educational Authentic Japanese Cultural Show engaging the children in the language, traditional clothing, stories, dancing and more!

Carlie Dawson, Assistant Director of Banjo and Friends

Inside this issue

Welcome! 1 Franky Hair Day 2 Harmony Day 2 Kangaroos 3-4 Lorikeets 5 Wombats 6-7 Outside School Hours Care 8-9 Walking on Country 10 Recipe of the Month 11

Important Dates

1 April: End of Term 1 1 April: Easter Bonnet Parade 2 April: Good Friday Centre

Closed 5 April: Easter Monday Centre

Closed 19 April: Centre Closed for

Professional Development 20 April: Term 2 begins 22 April: Earth Day 26 April: ANZAC Day

A.B. Paterson College Banjo and Friends PO Box 460 Helensvale, Qld 4212 1-5 A.B. Paterson Drive Arundel, Qld 4214 Phone (07) 55 614 155 Fax (07) 5574 5422 Enquiries elc@abpat.qld.edu.au www.abpat.qld.edu.au ABN 68 067 085 388

A.B. Paterson College

Banjo and Friends Early Childhood Centre Newsletter

March 2021 Volume 2, Issue 2

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Funky Hair Day

Harmony Day

Harmony Day acknowledges the contributions of multicultural communities within Australia. Banjo and Friends focused on harmonious relationships and the celebration of our very multi-cultural community. The children came dressed in something that represented their family ancestry and all three classrooms opened their doors with children free to roam and engage with all children and educators in planned activities throughout the Centre.

Banjo and Friends acknowledged the Leukaemia Foundation by raising money

and having fun with funky, crazy and wacky hairstyles! The children participated in aged

appropriate discussions, activities and stories on Leukaemia. Thank you to all the

families for your contribution – we are honoured to share between both Services

raising $163.50.

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Kangaroos Classroom

Learning about Cultural Diversity

Who would have thought that we could travel the world in 2021 and explore the cultures of people from all around the world? As Andrew B in the Kangaroo class reminds us of often, “We can do anything with our imaginations”, and that is exactly what we have been doing.

At the start of the year, I issued each child with their very own Australian Passport and promised the children a year of seeing the world – using our passports to record our travel and all our special memories too. We spent the most amazing week in China where we engaged in daily activities that taught us about the fascinating traditions and celebrations that were associated with the Chinese New Year. We have several children in our class with Chinese heritage and several of our families jumped on board with sharing their culture. We enjoyed tasting Chinese food, witnessed the excitement of the dancing dragon, explored writing in Chinese with Christopher’s Mum, marvelled at the beauty of the lantern filled streets and then making our very own. It was certainly a week that we will never forget.

When Harry shared a picture of himself snow skiing in ‘Show and Tell’, he told us that his family could not go snow skiing because of the Corona Virus. Of course, we can Harry! We can go anywhere with our imaginations! So, off to Switzerland we went to snow ski and better still, Harry was our ski instructor! We had a wonderful time skiing in Switzerland – getting all dressed up, finding some skis and poles and practising our skills on the mountainous slopes of Switzerland.

We also dropped into Japan for a short stay for Hina Matsuri, which is the Japanese Girls Day on 3 March. Learning about special days in other countries is a great way to learn more about the cultures and traditions of a country. Our day in Japan inspired us to try our hands at the art of paper folding called origami. We are really looking forward to returning to Japan again on 5 May for the Boys Festival called Kodomo no Hi.

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Kangaroos Classroom

We have big plans ahead too. We are off to visit the Queen in England soon, a day in Disneyland when we learn the letter Dd, Canada, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Iran, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Holland are all on our list. We are so lucky in the Pre-Prep Kangaroos because we, ourselves, have such broad and diverse cultural backgrounds. Learning about and sharing our family’s ancestry opens up so many doors to broader learning experiences.

It is never too early for children to be made aware that different cultural experiences are not scary, they are amazing and exciting. In Pre-Prep, we adopt an openness to exploring differences in our lives and our experiences. In the early years, children build on their understanding of cultural diversity. We often get asked those “why” questions which is helping children to establish their world view. If our children can hear and see acceptance and feel able to talk about difference, it helps them make sense of and accept the world around them.

"It is through play that children construct their understandings of the social world in which they live and learn to value themselves and others".

(Freer, as cited in MacNaughton, 2003, p. 58)

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Lorikeets Classroom

This month, the Lorikeets have been attending numerous excursions throughout the school for Library lessons with Ms Siberry and PE lessons with Mrs Mitchell. The children have been so excited to attend these lessons and we believe they are highly beneficial for the children’s transition into Prep next year. When walking throughout the school, the children have the opportunity to have a look at the Prep area, say hello to some of the Teachers and sometimes they get to see some of their siblings along the way.

We are also lucky enough to have some incursions throughout the week. Each Wednesday, Mrs Newcombe attends the centre for a music lesson. The children have been practising their singing voices and getting to know Mrs Newcombe.

Another favourite part of the week is having Hey Dee Ho each Thursday. The children absolutely love their yoga and music lessons with Hey Dee Ho. What I love most about these lessons is how the Educators relate each lesson back to important topics, such as: recycling, sun safety, stranger danger and many more.

Over the past month, the children have been extremely engaged in our gardening project. This project stemmed from the children’s interest in donating their spare seedlings from Woolworths. From there, Miss Jacqui planted some beans in a fish tank for the children to observe the root system. The children have loved using their magnifying glasses to examine the roots. Due to the children’s interest in the gardening, Miss Jess from the ELC invited us to visit the Community Garden. One Wednesday, we walked down to the ELC and the Lorikeets explored the garden. We even picked some ripe vegetables and fruit to take back to the Centre. This learning experience was very special, especially for the Lorikeets that helped Miss Jess build the garden last year. To extend on this project, the children will be each planting their own seedlings.

Miss Bekky Happy Gardening

We have loved watching the children’s curiosity grow and blossom throughout this gardening experience. Miss Jacqui and I look

forward to seeing where this project leads us next!

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Wombats Classroom

Jingeri and Hello Families! This month has saw us explore so many exciting and wonderful things. It has been fantastic to see many families accessing the ‘family story’ part of our Kindyhub tool. This provides the children with a great opportunity to share their interests and adventures with their peers, to build on their confidence and their communication skills by being up the front and speaking to their peers.

To follow on from this, I have been reading through and collating the parent questionnaires with regards to children’s interests and what parents’ goals for their children throughout the year were. The most common goal for parents this year is for their children to develop their social skills with regards to relationships, friendships and building on these to assist them when they move to Prep.

Creating consistency between the home and the Pre-Prep environment builds on relationships for the children. As a team, we can help with developing social skills in our children that is going to help prepare them for a lifetime of healthier interactions in all aspects of their lives. We do this at Banjo and Friends by encouraging the children with their manners, communicating effectively with each other, being considerate of the feelings of each other and expressing our personal needs for one another. We also encourage play with the children in many different forms as this everyday play is where the children can learn to interact, communicate and then foster these developing social skills. By giving your children the opportunity to play with others, to communicate with children and provide opportunities for them to do this, this is going to encourage them to learn about their place in the world and to help build on these skills.

I have added a link from the ‘Scholastic’ website below that shows ways your child can build on these social skills outside the classroom to compliment what we are doing with forming relationships whilst they are at Banjo and Friends.

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/learning-toolkit-blog/preschool-readiness-5-ways-to-build-social-skills.html

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Wombats Classroom

The Discovery Garden has become a huge interest within our classroom where every child has become involved. The children have been involved by watering the plants in the outside environment, using the watering cans, filling the water cans with the hose unassisted, exploring the worm garden and hunting for various insects within the environment. We also had some great family stories being sent in from the children becoming interested in gardening in their home environment as well. The next step for us is to transfer poor plants to our ‘Vege Pod’ in the OSHC playground before heading down to the Community Garden at the ECC next term. The gardening tasks have provided your children with endless learning opportunities.

The garden is a great environment to explore and discover new and exciting ways for things to grow, and to continue to learn and discover new things in the environment.

Yours in learning,

The Wombat Team!

The gardening activities were a great way to encourage the Wombat children to accept responsibility for their plant.

This will encourage your child to adopt a positive attitude to caring for plants,

being responsible and accountable, and will also help your child take pride in

their accomplishments when the plants begin to grow.

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Outside School Hours Care

We are almost at the end of a fantastic Term 1 and we have been introduced to so many wonderful new faces to After School Care. Our team are already preparing ourselves for the April School Holidays and we are very much looking forward to new experiences with new friends!

It is very important to us that we incorporate the children’s interests into our programming, and to ensure the children’s voices are being heard, we ask that they write down their suggestions and reflections for us.

We introduced our ‘reflection table’ last year and it is still popular as ever. The children have noticed how their ideas and feedback are being listened too, and this has encouraged them to put their thoughts forward. We understand that the children have different interests, and so by receiving all different sorts of ideas, we have the ability to create a fun and engaging program for all!

Listening to the children’s interests within an early childhood setting is beneficial to both children and educators. For children, sharing interests will guide play, exploration and discovery which are all used to foster children’s holistic development. Sharing interests will enable educators to think intentionally about how to organise the space and involve the children to provide accessible materials that engage children and enhance their play experiences.

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Outside School Hours Care

Recently, the children have shared their interests towards the arts and crafts and sensory activities we have been planning. Children, who cannot express what they feel and think and how they view their world in worlds, may be able to do so more readily through art, whilst sensory experiences enable children to use their senses to explore and manipulate objects. Touch, smell, sound, seeing and tasting contributes to a child’s overall learning.

There is always a way to incorporate the children’s interests into activities that will also benefit towards their learning. Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning!

If you would like to be placed on our waitlist for Vacation Care. please complete the required documentation and hand it in at Banjo and Friends reception or email to: oshc@abpat.qld.edu.au

There is always a way to incorporate the children’s interests into activities that will also benefit towards their learning. Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning!

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Acknowledgement of Country

The Early Years Learning Framework which is the national standard of education for pre-schoolers advocates for all children to be meaningfully connected with and contribute to

their world, to not only have a positive sense of self-identity, but also to experience respectful and responsive relationships with other people and places alike.

An Acknowledgement of Country is a way of showing respect to the Traditional Owners of the land. Reciting a daily Acknowledgement of Country is important because it

encourages children to engage with diversity and respect.

We would like to acknowledge the past, present and future custodians of the land we stand on today.

Here is the land. Here is the sky.

Here are my friends. And here am I.

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Recipe of the Month

Zucchini and corn fritters Easy 6 servings

10 serves of veg 25m preparation

20m cooking

Ingredients • 1 medium zucchini, grated • 2 small red capsicums, diced (put 1/3 aside for salsa) • 400g can no-added-salt corn kernels, drained • 2 spring onions, (including green tops), chopped • ½ cup chopped basil • 1 cup grated reduced-fat cheddar cheese (80g) • freshly ground black pepper, to taste • ¾ cup self-raising flour • 3 eggs • ½ cup low-fat milk • olive or canola oil spray

Salsa • 2 avocadoes, diced • 1 large tomato, diced • juice of 1 lime • ¼ cup chopped basil

Method 1. Squeeze zucchini of excess liquid and place in a large bowl with 2/3 of the capsicum and the corn, spring

onions, basil and cheese. Season with pepper. 2. Sift flour over vegetables then mix to combine. 3. Pour milk into a jug, add eggs and whisk together with a fork. Add to vegetables and stir well. 4. Heat a large non-stick frypan over medium heat and spray liberally with oil. Drop heaped tablespoons of

mixture evenly spread around the pan and spread using the back of a spoon to 8cm diameter. Cook for 2 minutes or until firm and golden. Flip and brown on reverse side for 2 minutes.

5. Transfer to a plate, keep warm and repeat cooking process with remaining mixture. 6. To make salsa, combine remaining capsicum with avocado, tomato, basil and lime in a medium-sized

bowl. 7. Divide salsa between plates and serve with a stack of 3 fritters each.