Terry Aizen – Director Kornmehl Centre

Parent Club Meeting

Our wonderful Parent Club co-ordinators – Mrs Gail Stein, Mrs Sharon Miller and Mrs Lissa Prosser have been working together to plan some exciting events across the year. Their first social event was held on Monday morning at Waverly Park Kiosk. They had the privilege of listening to Mandy Sacher – a Paediatric Nutritionist speaking about school lunches and different options for parents. She provided so much “food for thought.” The feedback was extremely positive and the mums who attended found it extremely valuable and useful. The next Parent Club event will be a basketball event for dads on Sunday 2 April from 3-5pm at Waverley Park oval.

Two dates to reserve in your diary are: Sunday 18 June from 5-7pm – Kornmehl Movie Night in the MPH and Sunday 27 August for our Recycling Building Challenge.

Randwick Council – Recycling Workshop

On Wednesday morning, the children enjoyed a wonderful workshop from the Randwick Council on Recycling. The presenters educated the children about why we need to recycle and what the different coloured bins are for at home and at school. The children enjoyed this interactive and educational workshop very much.

Supporting Bilingual Children in Early Childhood

Early Childhood teachers support children who are bilingual in their classrooms in many different ways. An important starting point is to find out all they can about the families’ culture. It is important to acknowledge the child’s first language and to observe what the children are interested in and what motivates them, so these activities or experiences can be included in their program.

It’s important to recognise how these children might feel in the classroom and that they initially could be silent and need time to adjust to the new language being used. At this time educators do not pressure children to speak, but rather give them warmth, care and understanding to help them through this silent period. Educators will encourage children to join in activities and provide them with praise and encouragement. Bilingual children will learn through play, routines, books, songs and games. As part of these activities, Educators will support language development by modelling and repeating meaningful words and phrases, for example, “wash hands” and “come play”.  Educators will use gesture and visual materials to assist children’s understanding of language and their acquisition of words. Another strategy is to use non-language activities that stimulate a range of senses. These activities allow children to demonstrate their competencies and participate without language. Interactions with peers are also encouraged to further support these children. Educators spend time looking at each child’s strengths and needs and in this way help children’s communication and language development to be a positive and rewarding experience.

From our experience, it does not take very long for children who are bilingual to feel comfortable and to begin to use English comfortably in their everyday interactions. It amazes us how quickly they can grasp a second language and communicate with their peers.

(Source: Supporting Bilingual Children in Early Childhood by Jane Purcell and Michelle Lee, Speech Pathologists, and Janette Biffin, Early Childhood Educator)

 Pesach Seders

All the children will be participating in a Pesach Seder in the Pre-school on Friday 7 April.  This event is for the children only.

The Dolphins will be joining the Year K Pesach Seder on Thursday 6 April from 9.30am in the LLC. The children will need to wear their red Kornmehl T-shirts.

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to Isaac Greenberg (4), Maddison Green (5), Maayan Symonds (4) and to our special Educator, Joanne Woods. We hope you all had a great day.