The term has begun with lots of exciting investigations and projects underway. The children have all returned after their holiday refreshed, full of energy and confidence and ready to go. The term is no doubt going to fly by very quickly and soon we will be at the end of another year! Already so much learning has occurred over the past few weeks and the classrooms are a buzz of activity, investigations, learning and researching.

National Children’s Week

Children’s Week is an annual event celebrated in Australia to bring about an awareness of children’s rights, wellbeing and talents.

We discussed and shared our thoughts about Children’s Week and what this means and were blown away by some of the children’s insightful comments:

What does Children’s week mean?

It’s a special week…It’s like a party, a week is one week to celebrate stuff! To celebrate big stuff and little stuff! Lola (age 4.10)

Adults are at their work and children go to school to play. Nathan S (age 4.4)

You have to celebrate Children’s day. It’s fun! Zoe (age 4.10)

What is a child?

Mayan: A boy and a girl

Jordan: When you are a baby you are a child and then you grow up

Ella: A child is a children

Sienna: You must be at school

Aaron: I like being a child cause I get to do craft

Manu: I get to do painting

Shayna: I get to go to the Easter Show

Jack: You’re lucky that you have a mum and dad. We’re lucky we have toys cause not much people have toys

Nathan: Going to school

Aaron: I like being a kid cause I get to have my day off on Wednesdays with Oma and Opa and have treats

How is a child different to an adult?

Toby: We are smaller

Zoe: We have different hair colour

Maayan: We wear different clothes

Ryan: We wear different shoes

Tyler: Some people have dark skin and some people have light skin

Nathan S: Some are fair

Maayan: Adults go to work and kids don’t, they go to Pre-school or school

Aaron: Adults are older

Jack: Children have smaller eyes

Ori: Children are smaller, adults are bigger

Jessica: A child has shorter hair than their mummy

Jack: They do different things. They get earrings. Children don’t get earrings.

What is it like to be a child?

Mimi: It’s fun, you can have fun at a birthday

Zoe: Children play

Henry: Children play and Dads fix

Ella: Children can do pretend things

What can we do to celebrate children’s week?

Elly: We can have a party

Maayan: We can have a show, like puppets, music or dancing

Stella: We could go to the movies

Nathan P: We could make our own stage and put decorations on the roof and dance to music

Nathan S: Adults can take you wherever you like. I would like to go to the cinema and watch a movie again

Mimi: We could play outside

Henry: We could watch our iPad in the night when our parents are sleeping

Tyler: I would like to see the dinosaurs at dinosaur land

Maayan: We could go on a ferry

Ella: We could go to a fair

Care Packs

A big thank you to the Kornmehl Pre-school and Emanuel School families for their generous support of our Care Pack Project. We collected a record 1630 Care Packs, from 23 different schools. These have all been collected and distributed to 24 Pre-schools in outback NSW. We also set aside 30 Care Packs to send to Jilkminggan Pre-school when the Year 6 families and teachers went during the holidays. I am told they appreciated the packs very much and we can all feel very proud for the amazing Tikkun Olam we have participated in with this special project.

Seashells Excursion

On Thursday, the Seashells went on an excursion to the Botanic Gardens. They participated in a workshop called Mini Beasts. During the workshop the children got to see a variety of small creatures and learn about their habitat and special features. After the workshop, the children had a lovely ride on the little red train that takes you through the beautiful gardens and explains what you can see on the way. The children loved this train ride. We had a picnic lunch on the lawns of the garden, surrounded by beautiful plants and a spectacular view. Many thanks to our wonderful parent and grandparent helpers who accompanied us – Serge Smagarinsky,  Zoe Boothman, Natalie Tanne, Leora Ross, Nicola Berkovic, Zvi Berkovic and  Bassina Farbenblum. Your help was much appreciated.

Orientation Visits for Year K

Orientation visits to Year K started two weeks ago and will continue for the next two weeks.

The children were all very excited to walk up the hill and meet their teachers from Year K. Ms Buzo and Mrs Yunis were very warm and welcoming and all the Kornmehl children settled very easily and soon selected an activity to participate in at the table.

We have been discussing starting school. Mixed feelings are being shared among the children…feelings of excitement, feeling worried because they won’t know their teachers and classmates, a bit anxious because: “I don’t really know what happens at school”, feeling reassured: ” I know a lot of people at the School”, ” I know the School because I’ve been there before” and so on. We’ve also been discussing how we feel about this being our last term at Kornmehl. We believe that when children share their feelings and thoughts, they realise they are not the only ones feeling that way. This exercise is helpful and reassuring for the children. 

National Recycling Week

We are very excited about National Recycling Week coming up soon. This will take place next week from the 7 -14 November.

We hope that your collection of recycled materials is growing as well as your ideas and plans for your own unique and special Channukiah made out of recycled materials. At the start of recycling week, parents are invited to come in and spend time with their child, making and creating their Channukiah. These Channukiot will then be on display at the end of the year concerts for all to view and then be taken home in time to celebrate Channukah.

National Bandanna Day

Last Friday the Pre-school was filled with the colour of children wearing bandannas. We raised money for Canteen to help support teenagers suffering from cancer. Many thanks to all the families for their wonderful support. We raised $240.

Student Visitor

Please join us in welcoming Jessica Avino, a stage two Diploma student from TAFE. We hope her time with us will be rewarding.

Make time to play by Brene Brown

When you look back at your fondest memories, you may find they are often memories of times when you played, times when you found yourself having a good belly laugh, when you played games or did something fun with others! Each person has their own memories and those happy, playful times interwoven into the day to day stuff of life add interest and vitality.

What do you remember from your childhood? Was there time spent camping, fishing, playing board games, swimming, playing tiggy, water fights? The list of possibilities is endless and most of these activities are inexpensive. Children are wonderful teachers and they remind us when we most need to take time out from the responsibilities of living, earning and raising families. We miss out on moments of connection when we tell them: “We’ll play later or I don’t have time right now”.

Playtime creates connection

It’s so easy to place greater value on working hard or getting everything done and forgetting about the equal value of enjoying healthy fun and laughter. This is a big part of the work-life balance equation. Working too much can result in too little sleep, short tempers and strained relations. The antidote may be simply making time to play. These moments of connection build memories that last a lifetime.

Can you put a play date on the calendar this week? Decide on an activity and honour it as top priority. Ideally, it will involve others in the family. Perhaps it will be a picnic on the weekend, simply making a game out of the veggie preparation or spending an hour playing games with the family. Whatever it is, it will be time well spent!

“A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.” Roald Dahl

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to Eden Marczak (4), Poppy Berkovic (4), Amy Speiser (4), Ryan Janet (4), Nava Weiss (5) and our special teachers Lindi Bloch (Starfish) and Renee Schneider (Dolphins). We hope you all had a very special day.