Reduce, reuse, recycle

Our learning has been inspired by the festival of Channukah, whereby we invited parents to come and spend some time with their children designing and making a Channukiot using recycled materials. The variety of materials and designs being used has been just fabulous. The parents have been incredibly resourceful and creative, and the collaboration and partnership of parents and child working side-by-side towards a common goal has been very special. The children are so proud of their creations. The Channukiot will be on display at the concerts for everyone to enjoy and appreciate. What a great way to make children aware of the wonders of reusing materials to create something new and beautiful.

Hatching chickens

Once again we have been privileged to witness the hatching of our little chicks. The excitement was so palpable throughout the Pre-school. After all, the birth of a chicken is not something you get to witness every day! The experience of watching the chicks hatch and learning to care for them in a gentle manner teaches the children a life skill and has numerous benefits for them.  

Fascination and curiosity are the best words to describe the children’s feelings about the chicks. As the first chick hatched, Jack who watched this amazing gift of nature announced: “Let’s call him Jack!”

Being able to witness the chicks coming out of the eggs has been a very rich experience, but has also triggered more curiosity, such as, where is the mummy? Why isn’t she with the babies? Are they all her eggs? Where will the chicks go after Kornmehl?

The children have done beautiful visual representations of the chickens using mixed media.

Volunteers thank you

We thanked all our wonderful parents and grandparents on Thursday afternoon. Parents and grandparents have all helped us during the year with so many tasks, big and small. Without your input and support our days would not run as smoothly. We value the opportunity to work collaboratively with parents and grandparents on various aspects of our program. These included fundraising events, social events, baking, shopping, cutting up fruit, laundry roster, reading to the children, accompanying us on excursions, gardening and sharing a special talent.

A big thanks to Nadia Kaye and Debbie Lyons for running our Parent Club so capably during 2016. Your support and input have been invaluable and very much appreciated by us all.

Excursions

On Tuesday and Friday last week, both the Starfish and Dolphins went on an excursion to Taronga Zoo. The children and teachers travelled on the Emanuel School bus, Otto, which was a huge highlight of the trip. On our arrival we found a shady picnic spot to have our morning tea. We attended a workshop, one called Living and Dreaming on the Land and the other called Bird Patrol. During this workshop the children were lucky enough to see some wonderful creatures up close. These included a bearded dragon, a children’s python, a shingle back lizard, a green tree frog and a ring tail possum. The workshop was interactive and the children all got to touch and feel the animals. We walked around and saw the elephants, lions, giraffes, gorillas and lots more animals. We also got to see the bird show, which was quite spectacular.

Just before we left to come home the children went on the Sky Safari. The views were spectacular. We all had a great time!

Many thanks to all our wonderful parent helpers. We really appreciated you joining us on these excursions.

Orientation visits

The Dolphins and some of the Starfish have been enjoying their orientation visits to the Year K classrooms over the past four weeks. The groups had a conversation about how they are feeling about going to school, what they are looking forward to, what they are thinking and wondering about?

Mixed feelings are being shared amongst 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” and “I know the School because I’ve been there before”.

We’ve also been discussing how we feel about this being our last term at Kornmehl. 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. 

These are some of the children’s thoughts and comments:

Nava: I’m excited to be in a new classroom.

Lily: I’m happy to make new friends.

Sol: I don’t know what to do, maybe play games. I feel sad because I’ll miss Kornmehl.

Jack: I feel shy because I will meet new people and I won’t know who they are.

Ori: I feel good to play with more of my girlfriends and I get to meet new teachers.

Sophia: I’m going to the same school as my brother and doing the same as him.

Shayna: I’m sad and nervous because I don’t have my best friends there.

Aaron: Happy because I’m going to make new friends.

Tali: Shy, because it’s my first time going to big school.

Liam: Good, because I know how to read and I know it’s going to be fun.

Manu: Shy, because I don’t know my teachers and I only know one teacher.

Eve: Happy, because I get to see my brother and his name is Noah.

Jessica: Good, because I’m the oldest in the family and I’m going to live across the road from big school and Mummy can see my new classroom from the new house window.

Nathan J: I feel like I’m going to have fun. I feel like the teachers will be kind to me.

Lola: I am a little bit nervous, but I really want to go. I am going to do drawing, play outside and have snack time.

Ella: I am excited for my new school. I can make new friends. I can say: “What are you doing?” That’s how I make new friends. I am going to do writing and letters.

Zoe: I am feeling a little bit excited and a bit nervous. I hope my sisters won’t be mean to me up there. I am going to do homework.

Jake: I am feeling so happy because Zoe will be there. I want to learn Maths.

Playball

Playball this term has continued to provide the children with many different gross motor activities and ball skills. The coaches Bev and Al challenge the children physically and extend their skills. This term parents are invited to an open session of Playball to observe what their children have been learning this year.

The Seashell open lesson will be held on Monday 28 November at 9.30 am.

The Starfish open lesson will be on Monday 5 December at 9.30 am.

The Dolphin open lesson will be on Monday 12 December at 9.30 am.

Parent Survey

We thank all the parents who took part in our Parent Survey over the past three weeks. Surveys are a great way for us to gain your feedback on our effectiveness as a Pre-school.

We will analyse the results of the survey to help us further develop our practice and standards.

Just as we value families’ feedback, ideas and thoughts about the Pre-school and suggestions on how we could best improve the service provided, we also value the children’s voices.

So we decided to ask the children to share their ideas, experiences and suggestions. As you can see the children’s responses are very thoughtful, meaningful, honest, heartfelt and revealing.

Mayan: I like drawing. We play with each other and we care for each other. So here is a Jewish Pre-school because every Friday we do Shabbat. I like going down the slide.

Alfie: You play inside and we have garden beds outside with flowers, Jasmine flowers. They have a hot smell. I like to play with the Lego. I like to build things.

Ryan: We do climbing stuff. I like painting and blocks.

Maddie: We love each other. I like to play in home corner.

Ruby: We have a heart. I like inside – drawings and painting.

Toby: We have a beautiful garden. I like the sandpit. The teachers care about all the children. They keep us safe. I have learnt to draw a monorail. I learnt to write a ‘y’.

Jordan: I like to read books and play dinosaurs. We have to say sorry and are you alright.

Henry:  I like to play in the block corner and make stuff.

Nathan S: I like the block corner. I tried a new food.

Nathan Prosser: I like playing at Pre-school. I like to play outside. I like to play inside.

Eli: We love the teachers and we like to play with them. We give them nice hugs and kisses. They care for us.

Kiel:  It has fun toys, lovely witches’ books and lovely pictures in the classroom and beautiful paint. The outside is full of beautiful things like flowers and grass. The trees are big. I love playing with all my friends. I like to play outside. I like to play where the kitchen is inside. I love everything. The teachers are so fun. I love all my teachers. I learnt to do things, like write my name.  

Lola: I really like being at Pre-school and doing fun stuff. I like playing with my friends. I like really playing in the home corner.  

Jake: I like playing outside and building inside with Tyler, Jordan and Henry. I like building battle ships. I learnt about Rosh Hashanah – apples dipped in honey.

Jemima: I like playing with all my friends and I like all the Pre-school. I like playing down the side. I learnt how to write my name. At first I needed to find my name card but now I don’t even need it.

Zoe: I like playing with all my friends. They are kind. I like to play in the home corner with Lola, Ella and Jemima. I don’t like down the side. I learnt to read books by myself.

Sienna: I love to paint and I love to draw and I love to build a tower. I like to build castles. There are balls outside. There is climbing. You have to take off your shoes for the sandpit because you don’t want to get your shoes messy. The teachers play with you. They help you to cut with the scissors. I learnt to do writing and to draw a family.

Concerts

The children from all three groups have begun preparing for our end of year concerts. They are getting very excited to perform for their mums and dads.

The Seashells concert will be held on Wednesday 7 December at 9.30 am in the Pre-school. Morning tea will be served after the concert.

The Starfish and Dolphin concert and graduation will be held on Thursday 8 December at 6 pm in the Multi-Purpose Hall of Emanuel School. A light dinner and snacks will be served afterwards in the Pre-school. The concerts are for parents only.

Bush School family picnic

We invite all Kornmehl families to join us at Centennial Park on Friday 9 December for our final Bush School experience of the year. This will take place from drop off until about 11 am. Please bring some snacks and drinks. Come and experience the wonders of nature with your children.

Happy birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to Manu Pittorino (5) and Miri Kuper (4). We also wish a very happy birthday to Justine Robertson and Terry Aizen who both celebrated their birthdays this week.