Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director Kornmehl

Bush School Family Picnic

We invite all Kornmehl families to join us down at Centennial Park on Tuesday 11^tDecember for our final Bush School experience of the year. This will take place from drop off at 8.00 am until about 11.00 am. Please bring some snacks and drinks. Come and experience the wonders of nature with your children.

Kornmehl Art Auction

The foyer of the Pre-school is looking beautiful and has been adorned with all the lovely group art works created by the Kornmehl children.

The art works convey a deep respect and love for the creative arts that we inspire and develop in the children.

Parents will be bidding on their favourite art work during this week and into next week. The winners will be announced at our end of year concerts on 5 and 6 December. Andrew Watt came down on Monday to cast his vote on his Principal’s choice.

Concerts

All three groups have been practicing for their concerts next week. They are all very excited to share this special time with their Mums and Dads.

The Seashells concert is on Wednesday 5 December at 9.30 am in the Pre-school. This is for parents only. Morning tea will be served after the concert and will conclude at 10.30 am.

The Dolphins and Starfish will have their concert and graduation on Thursday 6 December at 6.00 pm in the Lehrer Family Building (MPH). Parents and older siblings are invited to join us to celebrate this special time together.

Dinner will be served for the children after the concert and light snacks for the parents. The evening will conclude at 8.00 pm.

Nahal Oz comments and messages

In January this year, five teachers from our Pre-school were privileged to visit Kibbutz Nahal Oz on a JNF Educators Study tour. We found the visit to be incredibly inspiring and it gave us an insight into the stressful and trying circumstances that families in the South, near Gaza are living with daily. Coming from Australia, this was confronting and overwhelming but at the same time helped us to understand the conflict and the daily stress that occurs in the life of Israelis living near the Gaza border.

When we visited the Kibbutz, we also spent the morning teaching in the Gan with their lovely educators. It was a memorable and special time for us all. In light of all the trauma happening in Gaza the past few months, we have spent time discussing with the older groups in our Pre-school, what the children in Nahal Oz are experiencing and how they are having to spend so much time in the bomb shelters. We discussed how sad it is for the children of Nahal Oz as they are suffering at the moment with conflict in Gaza. We used role-plays to convey the message of the importance of using words instead of being physical to solve conflict. The children were able to process and internalise what is happening for the children and families living in Gaza, and we share some of their deep and meaningful comments below, which highlights the depth of their understanding as well as them wanting to share messages of hope and love with them all. We sent these messages, as well as a video and some drawings with the help of Michelle Favero to the children on Nahal Oz.

Savannah – I think they should be kind to each other, the people living in Israel and the people living in Gaza. I hope the adults stop fighting soon and you can play outside.

Tali – I feel sad for everyone who is fighting and can’t go outside to play. I hope you can come outside soon.

Dalia – I hope you are safe inside the shelter and I hope you like the shelter very much. The people who are fighting should stop fighting.

Josh – I don’t want them to fight over the other people and I don’t want them to be hurt.

Ariella – Maybe I can send them the song that I wrote. I think they should talk to one another instead and come up with a plan and work that together.

Amelie – So they’re fighting together. I don’t know what they are fighting about. I think they want the world. I think they don’t want Israel to have a world. I think that’s what happened in the last Israel’s war. I want to say “have a good time in Israel in that house (shelter)” because I can speak in Hebrew.

Clemmie – I want to ask them ” Why are you fighting? You need to be talking to each other. I hope you can go out to play soon.” I wish you could fly up in the sky, so you could get rescued by a superhero.

Tali – The shelter is very strong. It will be safe to play when they stop fighting.

Zella – I want them to feel very happy and for their heart to feel warm. People should stop fighting. Breathe in and breathe out, use their words and turn their red light on. And then the children in Israel and Gaza could go out to play. I really hope that when they stop fighting you can go outside and forget about all the bad things that happened.

Jemima – The people living in Israel should go on an aeroplane to another country. I hope you can play outside soon.

Harry – Maybe they have to agree to stop fighting and agree with the problem. Maybe they could solve the fight by talking to each other. You can go outside and have peace.

Leah – I hope you feel better soon, and I hope you sort it out soon. They could just try and stop.

Hannah – I hope you feel better when your teachers give you a hug.

Sophie – I hope you can play with us. Are you ok? I hope you can play on the equipment soon. We would love to give you a hug.

Coby – Be happy, be good and don’t fight.

Parent Information Night

Last week Tuesday, we welcomed all our new families for 2019 into the Pre-school. We spent the evening discussing our values, philosophy, what makes Kornmehl special and how we engage and learn together with the children. We discussed a few housekeeping points and how to settle children into their new space. We hope parents enjoyed the evening. We look forward to welcoming all our new little Kornmehl kids on Friday 14 December for an Orientation visit from 9.30 am to 11.00 am.

Parent/teacher interviews

The Dolphin and Starfish have now completed all their parent/teacher meetings. We hope that the parents found the time productive and meaningful. It is a lovely way to bring closure to a very busy year for your children and we value this important time to reflect and chat to parents.