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CELC NEWSCELC NEWS June 2013

Diary Dates: July - Multicultural

Celebration month.

Reminders: Overdue Fees - please

finalise any outstanding amounts by June 30th.

Farewell Maxine Adams has been part of our CELC team for six years. During that time

she has developed close relationships with many of the children and families here. Maxine is having a well-deserved break before pursuing other interests. She will be greatly missed and we wish her all the best for the future.

For the month of July, we will be celebrating the wonderful cultural diversity we have at CELC. We are currently planning the activities and experiences for the children and are hoping to get lots of input and involvement from families. Being involved doesn’t have to be a big commitment. You could spend just an extra 10-15 minutes at the centre when you drop off or pick up your child, or you may be able to send something along for the educators to show/use with the children.

You could:

Show the children your national dress/traditional costume

Send along some traditional recipes for us to cook, or join us during our cooking class

Share some photos from a holiday or visit to another country

Teach the children a song in a language other than English or send along some traditional music

Teach the children how to count to 5 or 10 in another language

“Show and Tell” some artifacts or souvenirs from another country

If you can help, please talk to your child’s room leader or email office@croydonearlylearning.com.au

Multicultural

Celebration

Month

The Babies have been exploring Music and Dance this month. They have been given a variety of instruments to discover, and we have enjoyed observing their reactions as they experience the different feel, shape and sounds that they make.

Gross-motor skills involve the large muscles in our bodies, and we have been working closely with the babies to help strengthen these muscles in order to help their physical development.

Some of the older babies have been encouraged to try feeding themselves at mealtimes. This takes quite a bit of coordination on their behalf and can be time-consuming (and messy!) but persistence pays off. This is often one of the first things a child can do independently and it’s great to see them willing to have a go at this skill.

Carmen & Elisa

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The Babies

The Marine Animal incursion was thoroughly enjoyed by those who attended and we have followed up this special event with some activities and experiences about sea creatures.

The sudden cold start to Winter has seen us spending a bit more time inside, but the Toddlers have enjoyed participating in lots of art and craft activities linked with Winter.

We have a new scaly friend in the Toddler room - Blueberry the Blue-tongued Lizard ‘migrated’ from the Kinder yard recently, so that he could be a little warmer. The children are enjoying watching him as he comes out from under his rock to eat. Those who are brave enough get to have a pat and feel the cool texture of his scales. And of course, his bright blue tongue is fascinating.

Jess & Elisa

The Toddlers

The Kindi Kids also loved the Marine Incursion, as it followed up from activities that we had done earlier in the year. The close encounter with the crabs, seahorse, shark and sea stars re-ignited their interest and we spent more time investigating this theme.

There has been some interest in Firefighters among the children this month, and they had a great time making their own fire hats.

Their dramatic play was very ‚Fireman Sam‛ focused as they ran around putting out fires and rescuing people.

The Kindi Kids have also been learning (or reinforcing) their knowledge of colours. We are doing this mainly during group time, but also during the day as the children are involved in art and craft experiences, or during play.

Cassie D & Kiran

windows, and we are also patiently waiting for our ‘Hairy Harry’ grass heads to grow. We watched alfalfa and a mixture of other sprouts grow in damp cotton wool, which was quite interesting. The children also helped to put some new plants in our garden outside, including some jonquil bulbs which have started to shoot up already.

Many of you are starting the enrolment process for Prep next year. Just a reminder - please fill in the sheet next to the sign-in folder to indicate which school your child will be attending (or if they will be attending CELC in 2014).

Cassie M, Kiran & Briony

The Marine Incursion was definitely the highlight of this month for the Kinder Kids. They have enjoyed different activities linking to this and have also managed to recall information or facts that they learnt during the incursion.

Another focus has been on plants. You would have seen our ‘magic beans’ sprouting in little plastic bags on the

smccmc@bigpond.net.au / www.croydonearlylearning.com.au

The Kindi Kids

Kindergarten

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Xavier from Wildlife Xposure wowed us with his fantastic presentation on Wednesday 5th June. The children got up close and personal with an interesting variety of marine creatures including: sea stars, crabs, sea cucumbers, a seahorse, a baby Port Jackson shark, a blue-ringed octopus, elephant snails and sea urchins We also got to see shark eggs, a shark jaw, an assortment of shells, coral and a turtle skeleton.

The children got to touch most of the animals except, of course, the octopus. Even the shark and the seahorse were allowed to be touched and we were all quite surprised by how rough the shark’s tail felt and how tiny the octopus and seahorse were.

Xavier was wonderful at capturing the children’s attention and getting them involved. Anybody who was losing focus, however, soon snapped back to concentration when he put the little crab on the ground. That thing moved fast! The larger crab was a big hit too and we were all fascinated (and scared) by it, with its huge nippers.

Marine

Incursion

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Seahorses are

actually fish and

quite poor

swimmers. The

male seahorse

gives birth to up

to 1500 babies

at a time.

Xavier’s baby

Port Jackson

shark will live

at Melbourne

Aquarium when

it is older.

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The blue-

ringed octopus

has a horny

beak sharp

enough to

pierce through

a crab’s shell.

Sea stars are not fish,

do not have blood and

can re-grow an arm if

it falls off.

Happy Birthday to You!

Jaiya turns 5 Rosie turns 1 Nevindi turns 2

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As of July 1st, there will be a slight increase to the daily and weekly child care fees at CELC. This is in line with the increase to Child Care Benefit (CCB). The new fee structure will be:

Weekly: $395

Daily: $92

Given the rise in CCB rates, your out-of-pocket expenses will be $1.08 for the daily rate. After the Child Care Rebate (CCR), this ends up being 54c. (Weekly/full-time out-of-pocket expenses remain unchanged.)

Please remember to update your income estimates with Centrelink for the 2013-2014 financial year so that your CCB/CCR are adjusted accordingly.

Price Change In mid-June, CELC went through its annual Food Audit. This process involves reviewing our food handling procedures. We received a high rating, only needing to replace the thermometers in the fridge with newer models, and to update the food handling training for staff.

Food Audit

We are hosting a First Aid course on Monday 8th and

Tuesday 9th July at CELC, at 6:30pm. We still have some places available if you would like to join us.

Full Course (Mon & Tues) - $110

CPR/Epipen Update (Mon only) - $50

First Aid

Dr Jill will be away for the month of July

We are still collecting plastic bottles for our garden project, as well as any old pots, boots, wheelbarrows etc… THANK YOU to Karyn Campbell for her dona-tions and for the other families who have been collecting bottles.

We are currently reviewing and updating our Centre Policies and invite parents to have input into these. Our policies are written to reflect and guide the day-to-day running of the Centre. Please see Shameem or Cassie Mackenzie if you would like to be involved.

Please note...

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It’s time for our annual Cadbury Fundraiser - our first one for the year (our only other fundraiser will be at the end-of-year concert). Parents are well aware of how expensive toys and equipment can be. With so many children using them at CELC, our equipment needs to be high quality, super durable and enough to share! We are looking forward to using this money to purchase new resources for the children.

Each box sold raises $20 profit. We are aiming for a total of $2000 ($500 for each room). We will be keeping a visual tally of the funds raised so that the

children and families can see how we are working towards that goal. There will also be a prize for the family that raises the most money. Some tips for selling your chocolates:

Take the box to work and leave it in the staffroom, reception area or other prominent place. Remember to collect the money regularly. Take the box with you to Auskick/Basketball/Dancing/Swimming. Visit the neighbours (especially the ones who visit you when it’s fundraising time!).

We sincerely thank you for your support

and effort in this

FUNDRAISING TIME