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MESSAGE FROM THE OFFICE.

Last day for children Thursday 22nd Dec 2016 First day for children Tuesday 17th January 2017 No fees will be charged between these dates Re-Enrolments: All re-enrolments must be given into the office by 30th November 2016. Any family which does not hand the form in will have their spot cancelled for 2017. FEES ALL OUTSTANDING FEES and Final fees for 2016 MUST BE PAID BY FRIDAY THE 9TH DECEMBER 2016. TO RE-CONFIRM BOOKINGS FOR 2017 A MINIMUM OF ONE WEEK FEE MUST BE PAID IN ADVANCE BEFORE THE 16TH DECEMBER 2016 In 2017 we will be looking for members to join our subcommittee . If you are in any way interested in joining or coming along to meetings please see Thao or Olivia for more information. As always, all parents are welcome to come along to our committee of management meetings as the C.O.M. is responsible for all three centres in Fitzroy, St Albans and Richmond. The Date for the Next Committee of Management (i.e. Parents) meeting will be confirmed in January. Minutes of the meetings are available to read in my office.

ACACIA’S NEWS

December 2016

Important Date for

2017

Re-Open……Tuesday 17th January

Australia Day…Thursday 26th.January

Labour Day…………Monday 13th. March

Daylight saving

ends………………Sunday 2nd April

Good Friday…………Friday 14th April

Easter Monday……Monday 17th April

Queen’s Birthday……Monday 12th. June

Daylight Saving starts…Sunday 1st

October

Grand final….Friday 29th September

Cup Day……..Tuesday 7th November

Holiday closure

Close

Thursday 22nd Dec

6.15pm

Open

Tue 17th

Jan 2017

6.30am

Coming up events:

Christmas Party Thursday 22nd DEC

3.pm

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Events Orientation and Transition day On Tuesday 6th December we will have an orientation day for all children moving to the next room. On this day your child will spend the morning in their new room with their new educators for 2017. The educators will give you an information pack about their room.

Any new families will also have an opportunity to come and spend a few hours. If your child does not attend Tuesdays, you are more than welcome to come in and orientate your child in their new room on that day. All children will have more opportunity to spend time in their new room on other days in December.

End of year concert and celebration

On Thursday the 22nd December 2016 at 3pm we are having a concert, graduation ceremony followed by a supper. We ask all families to bring a plate of food to share with each other. Please be mindful of allergies, so we ask not to bring food containing nuts or seafood. All parents are welcome to join us. Children who normally attend on other days are welcome to come at 3pm for the party as long they are accompanied by the parents.

We also may have a special visit from the

man in a red suit.

Educators for 2017

Baby room: Evelin, Fiona, Milena,

Toddler room: Nadia, Thao, Saveena,

Pre-kinder: Trang, Maneet, Gracie

Kinder: Suhkjit & Anna

Relievers: Stefania, Nhan, Lucy, Jomana,

Circelina, Melani

Photos

Thank you to all the families that have purchased any photos. We were able to get $170 to our fundraising monies.

Donations. Thank you all for the donations we have received throughout the year. We have put them all to creative use. A special thanks to Bailey, Luis, Alannah and Levi’s family for donating resources regularly. A huge Thank you, goes to Dawood’s dad, Hazel’s dad and Alanna’s grandpa for helping us out on odd jobs here and there. We like to thank all the parents who have contributed their time to help us out throughout the year, both in the children rooms and helping by fixing our broken toys. So once again thank you

WORKING BEE

Thank you to all the families that came to our working bee on 5th November.

We were able to get many things done especially to our gardens that arte almost weed free.

MONDO RECYCLE

Recycle all your unwanted household items in Our MONDO RECYCLE BIN in our car park.

Acacia will gain a donation for everything donated

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Health News Travelling with children

Suggestions for travelling with children

General tips to make travel with children a little easier include:

Ask your travel agent for suggestions.

Choose appropriate accommodation, such as self-contained apartments with two or more bedrooms.

Hire baby furniture items, such as pram, stroller, cot and highchair, rather than lug your own.

Take a good supply of disposable nappies and wipes.

When visiting attractions with older children, try the ‘trade-off’ method – activities for adults in the morning

balanced with activities for the kids after lunch, for instance.

Use the babysitting facilities at your hotel from time to time so you can have a break.

Remember that the price of ‘kids’ clubs’ at some resorts is an extra expense.

Older children will like having their own (disposable) camera and holiday diary so they can record their own

impressions.

Meal routines for children travelling

Toddlers and young children are often fussy eaters. Travelling to unfamiliar places with new foods and

different mealtime routines can further disrupt your child’s eating habits. Suggestions include:

Relax and remember that a healthy child will never voluntarily starve themself. Trust them to eat

when they’re hungry.

Try to keep a little bit of familiar mealtime routine, such as having breakfast in the usual way.

Don’t assume you’ll always find something they’ll like on a restaurant menu. Carry plenty of their

favourite snacks and drinks when touring around.

Ring ahead and see if the restaurant you’re planning to visit has a children’s menu

For more tips on travelling with children please visit the better health website at:

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Travelling_with_children

Being safe in our Car park Please be aware of children in our car park.’ Keep to the speed limit of 10kmh Follow the arrows and only exit through the exit gate. Park in designated parking spots

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Road safety over the holidays

Learning to ride a bike

Learning to ride a bike is an important step in a child’s development. This page provides information about teaching your child how to ride a bike safely.

Tips to help your child ride safely

To get your child started follow these tips.

Right size

Parents should ensure that a child’s first bike is the right size and be prepared to change the child to bigger bikes as they grow.

Supervise

When introducing a child to riding, parents should be prepared to spend a lot of time supervising while the child masters the skills of balancing, steering and braking. Choose a flat, open space away from traffic with a surface that is suitable for falling on. A helmet should be worn whenever the child rides.

Lots of practice

Once the basic skills are mastered, the child should be given as many opportunities as the family can manage to ride under supervision. Use shared paths and bike paths. If a child is under 12, an adult supervising them can legally ride on the footpath. Remember to give way to pedestrians on footpaths and shared paths.

Be aware of driveways

Parents should demonstrate to children that driveways and intersections must be approached with caution. Riding on to the road from a driveway is particularly risky for children as parked vehicles can block the presence of oncoming vehicles.

Christmas Raffle

Look out for our annual Christmas raffle. All tickets are $1 and it will be drawn on December 22nd. All money raised will be put towards buying new resources for our centre to benefit our children. Please donate a small item to go in a hamper, such a chocolates, biscuits, Christmas goodies, etc

SUN HATS

Please remember to bring

in a labeled sunhat for

your child.

Please bring back any

spare hats that may have

gone home.

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Medical Conditions If your child has any medical condition, we advise that all families must update the information provided in the healthcare plan at the beginning of 2017. So please during these holidays, can you please check with your doctor that the current information is correct. This will guarantee that we can take the best possible care of your child whilst in care with us.

Staff Training All our staff including our cook keep abreast of current procedures when dealing with medical conditions, such as asthma, anaphylaxis and allergies. This means that all staff employed at acacia undertake training for managing these conditions for all the children in our care, whether they have been diagnosed or not. We currently undertook our CPR training with STICHES First Aid where each educator revised and practice the procedures involved. If any family would like information on CPR, 1st Aid training or any other training please speak with us or visit: http://www.stitchesfirstaid.com.au/first-aid-at-home/

Expression of interest.

We will organise a first aid session for parents early next year. Please email me if you are interested in

learning first aid.

Chickens Our Chickens have been a great success with all our children. The children have learnt to care for their environment by feeding them and collecting their eggs. We are looking for any family that may want to assist us in looking after them on the holidays. Please come and see how you can help us out.

Rodger the Rabbit

We are also looking for a family to mind Rodger in on the holidays.

If you are interested please come and see us.

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Owl Room 1 Wow! How time flies when your having fun… We have come to the end of the year and its been very eventful. We had many projects to teach the children different things throughout the year such as water, light, autumn and many more. During the last term we learnt about the body. This included the senses as well as the bones. We also learnt how to keep your body healthy with food and physical exerise. We are currenty focusing on Sun Smart and encouraging children to slip, slop, slap, seek and slide. We feel it is very important for children to learn about sun protection from a very young age. We have also focused on language and communication. We have discovered a few books that the children love to listen to. They are, “the very busy spider’ and ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’. The children repeat the words and listen very intently. Routine times is also a great opportunity to encourage children to communicate and say words. We use this time to emphasis words so children will repeat them. Many of the children are communicating and using language which is great to see. Dancing and singing has also been a very enjoyable part of the program. We have played a particular CD so many times that I’m sure it is waring away… We have met and got to know so many lovely families and children throughout the year. Children with different personalities, abilities, and all at different levels of development. They are all unique individuals and we loved watching them grow. We’ve seen them crawl, stand and walk. Listened to their babbles turn into words and tears turn into smiles. We have all formed strong bonds with all the children and have enjoyed being part of their lives. Caring for and educating your children has been our pleasure. We look forward to seeing them next year as we set new challenges and goals to help them further their development. From Nadia, Fiona, Milena and Anna we wish you and and your family a wonderful Christmas and a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

THE Monkey ROOM ROOM 2

Wow! Can’t believe we already come the end of the year. The time flies so quickly! It is good to see in

the past few months all the children have grown and achieved a lot. All the children have settled in the

room well and are comfortable in the routine. We would like to welcome all the new families and the

children who have moved up from 0-2 room.

Over the past few months the children had their hands on many different experiences and projects.

In the month of September, the children celebrated the special person day. The family were invited to

attend the special afternoon tea made by their children. During the end of the month, we also

celebrated footy day. The children come dressed up in their footy colours.

In the month of October, we celebrated Diwali festival also known as ‘festival of lights’’. Children were

engaged in variety of experience such as decorating the rooms with multicultural materials like

candles, cloth piece (Indian costumes). They also enjoyed traditional flower painting experience at the

front door and had snacks in the afternoon tea with Indian traditional food.

Children also learned about some yoga’s techniques. Now they are able to combine gross and fine

motors movements and balance to achieve complex postures in yoga.

For the next year the children who are moving to pre-kinder will be orientating in pre-kinder with the

educator to get familiar with the new room routine and the educators.

As weather is warming up and you want to start toilet training of your child please let us know and so

we can work in partnership.

The team of the toddler room would like to thank you for all the support and cooperation that you have

provided us throughout the year. We wish you all a merry Christmas and a very happy new year. May

you have lots of fun in the holidays and see you all next year

Thank you

Room 2.

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Amazing! Our year is coming to an end and we are writing our last room newsletter. We look

back at what an amazing year it has been, working as a very united team of qualified and dedicated

educators, and learning with a fantastic group of children who have become curios, capable and

involved learners. We have aimed to teach children independence, curiosity to explore their

environment through play and imagination, through enquiry and wonders in their surroundings.

We implemented two strategies to assist us to better plan for our room Goals and room learning,

Our Educational Program which is teacher guided and Our Room Projects which can be children

or teacher guided.

This term we have learned about colours, from how two or more colours can be mixed to make

other different colours, how we can use different consistency of colours mixtures to paint. We

have involved children in two different science experiment’s using different objects, ingredients

and materials to continue to explore colours. One was using skittles and warm water, where

children were able to witness colours run and make a rainbow inside our round plate, two was

using milk, food colouring and dish washing liquid where children how colours dance around our

bowl. Before we continued with our experiments, children were asked to guess what they thought

would happen during our experiment’s, and without even knowing children were learning to make

predictions, they learned to express interest and wonder in what was happening, they became

enthusiastic participants, we investigated, used our imagination and then explored our predictions.

Our second main project was our weather project which came from a child’s interest in learning

and predicting our daily weather. We thought it would be a great idea for children to be able to

play the role of our “Tiny Meteorologists” and predict our daily weather. We have sat every

morning for the past 3 to 4 months in front of our weather chart and made daily weather

prediction, we have predicted and learned words for our daily St. Albans weather; words such as;

raining, wet, cold, windy, sunny, hot and cloudy. Again children have learned to make

predictions, cooperate within a group setting and demonstrate enthusiasm being part of our group.

During our morning group times, we were also lucky to have on display for children to learn days

of the week, months of the year and dates of the month. Children were able to recall the recurring

days of the week and even though sometimes not in the order they happened, children slowly

learned to recognise the letter each day began with. At the same time children were able to learn

the meaning of “yesterday was…., Today is…, Tomorrow will be…” and learning numbers in

sequence by learning the dates.

Please continue to assist your children’s learning at home, by continuing to ask them about their

learning, or the weather or simply asking them what they did during their day in their room. As

this will encourage an open communication between our centre and your home. You are also

welcomed to join us during the day, whether it is for our morning weather session, our meal times

or to set up an activity from home that your children enjoy to play with.

We take this moment to thank all our parents for allowing us to teach and learn with your children.

We have had great experiences, both up and down moments and unforgettable ones as well. We

wish you a safe and enjoyable Christmas and a peaceful and wonderful New Year.

Evelin, Gracie, Nhan, Stephania and Jomana. .

The Kangaroo room Rm3

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KINDER ROOM Hello everyone,

Can you believe it is the end of the year already? All of our children who are off to school next are busy

preparing for their graduation. They have also expressed how excited they are to go to school in 2017.

We wish them all the best as they prepare to take that next step into primary school.

The children participate with extreme enjoyment in the construction area. Their imagination have been

running wild. They have demonstrated a great understanding of numeracy and technology concepts as

they create towers, bridges, houses and roads.

From the start of this term, children have been exploring rocks and soil.

Throughout this science project, children engaged through many in-depth learning experiences such as;

counting, sorting, classification and created replicas of rock formation. They turned rocks into characters

and created stories and/or performed puppet shows. By this the children demonstrated mature language

skills in both expressive and descriptive language. This was extended when the children made artistic

composition using a variety of natural materials, some collected from outside, some brought from home.

Children enjoyed participating in all the incursions and excursions we had this term. Our incursions on

“Pet responsible” gave all the children a chance to learn about the facts about dog attacks and ‘how to

safely and respectfully interact with dogs’ at home and outside.

We have also had an abundance of art and craft. Lots of Christmas collage, free art from art and

natural trolley and exploring different mediums and tools such as magazines, paper, textas, rulers, leaves, sticks, shells, sand and mud.

As the warmer weather is now here, please remember to bring hats and spare shorts and t-shirts in their bags. No singlet tops as

children’s shoulder must be covered under our sun smart policy. We hope you have safe and ‘Happy holidays’ and look forward

to another great year in 2017 with the children returning to Acacia. We wish a tearful goodbye to our first Kindergarten Graduates. Good luck in your 1st

Thanks for a great year!

Sukhjit, Circelina and Jomana SUSTAINABLE BOOK SHOP

Second-hand textbook & uniform trading systems

Families/students from all schools can buy and sell

Free to register and search all the ads

Sell your items

Register on the Sustainable School Shop website www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au

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CHRISTMAS ICE CREAM CAKE INGREDIANTS 1 VANILLA BEAN ½ CUP SULTANAS ½ CUP CURRANTS ½ CUP OF CHOPPED RAISINS 120g RED GLACED CHERRIES, HALVED 395G CAN SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK 600ml CREAM 150g NESTLE DARK MELTS

METHOD:

1. Split vanilla bean in half lengthways, scrape out seeds. Place vanilla pod and seeds in large bowl with fruit, cherries, cover and stand 1 hour.

2. Place condensed milk and cream in large bowl of electric mixer, beat until thick.

3. Discard vanilla pod from fruit mixture, fold into cream mixture.

4. Spoon into 6 cup or 1.5 liter capacity pudding basin, freeze several hours or overnight, until set.

5. Turn mould out onto serving plate, remove plastic. Pour melted chocolate over pudding, decorate as desired.

STORAGE Can be stored in freezer for up to 2 weeks

KITCHEN NEWS A reminder that if you have a great family recipe that we could use or share with other families here please write them down and place it in the suggestion box Here is a great recipe for you to make at home with your children. This will give you lots of energy which you will surely need to play and keep up with all your children these holidays.

Play Dough

Ingredients

½ cup salt

1 cup plain flour

2 tablespoons cream

of tartar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon oil

Food colouring

Method

1. Mix all

ingredients together

in a medium sized

saucepan.

2. Stir over heat

until dough is

pliable.

3. Allow to cool and

store in a well

sealed plastic bag or

container.

Recipe notes

This makes enough

for 2-4 children to

have a good sized

lump to play with. I

keep it in the fridge

and it lasts for 6

months or more.