Kornmehl
Terry Wizen – Director Kornmehl
Transition to school
Starting school is a significant event in the life of children and their families. We know that strong relationships and information sharing between families, early childhood settings and schools help support a child’s successful transition to school. It is a period of change that can be both challenging and exciting.
At this time of the year we focus on the children’s transition to school. We believe the more we discuss ‘going to school’ and the feelings and emotions associated with starting school, the better prepared and equipped the children are. For this reason, a lot of focus is being given to the children’s transition to school this term. We spend time talking about what to expect, how we are feeling as well as go on walks with the children through the campus.
The transition from Pre-school to school offer opportunities and challenges. We acknowledge that different places and spaces have their own purposes, expectations and ways of doing things. For this reason, we aim to build on the children’s prior and current experiences to help them feel secure, confident and connected to familiar people, places, events and understandings. We are all important contributors (the children, families and early childhood educators) to a successful transition to school (EYLF, 2009).
We need to think about giving children a positive understanding and experience of school as a safe, enjoyable place. We need to acknowledge that children have individual needs, interests and skills and allow and encourage positive communication between children, families, child care professionals and school educators.
We asked the children how they are feeling about starting school:
Leo – What if you fall over cause everyone comes out the classroom at the same time?
Jade – I feel scared of being with a new teacher for the whole day.
Kobe – I missed my old school when I came here. I’m scared of going up here and growing.
Samara – I feel excited that I have my sister there to play with.
Josh – I’m excited to meet my new teachers.
Leo – I’m excited to do new stuff like reading, learn really high numbers.
Will – Same as Leo.
Bianca – I’m excited to see the new school.
Tom – I’m excited to do homework.
Ben – I’m excited of playing.
Amalia – I am feeling nervous about starting school because I won’t know the children. I will need to ask them what is your name?
Eliana – I was feeling happy, nice and calm when I went up to the big school.
Saphira – I was feeling shy at big school. I read a book..
Eve – I was feeling excited because I wanted to go up to big school.
Halle – I was feeling happy. The happiest I could ever be.
Eva – I was feeling happy because I will make lots of new friends.
Jack – I was feeling shy because it was a bit different to my home and my pre-school.
Gidon – I am feeling happy. I learnt about frogs and met my teacher.
Volunteers Thank You tea
We held an afternoon tea on Tuesday to thank all our wonderful and amazing parent and grandparent helpers this year. Each one of you have contributed in so many special ways to ensuring the success of our programs and making sure everything runs smoothly.
One Mum said to me in the afternoon that she is so happy that Kornmehl creates many opportunities for parent engagement at many different levels and what a special and valued community it was. She feels privileged to be a part of such a caring, warm and inclusive environment, that makes parents feel valued, involved and appreciated in their child’s Pre-school journey.
From our side as the Educators, we too feel so lucky that we have the support from parents and we love the happy, warm feeling our Kornmehl family creates.
A big thank you must go to Mrs Gail Stein for her input this year to ensure all events ran smoothly, our Kornmehl Karnival was a great success and of course the incredible thought and energy that went into the planning of the car park project was a huge undertaking. We appreciate deeply your unwavering support, commitment and dedication to the Pre-school.
New Parent Information Night
We welcomed all our new families for 2020 into the Pre-school on Thursday. 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 Wednesday 11 December 2019 for an orientation visit from 9.30 am to 11.00 am.
PJ Library Concert – Rebecca Schoffer
Rebecca is the Director of Jewish Family Engagement and Shababa at the 92nd Street Y NYC. In addition to being an experiential educator, singer and songwriter, she is also a playwright.
Rebecca uncovers the connection between physicality and spirituality, and guides participants through music, movement and soulful play! Using fundamentals of improv and theatre, Rebecca weaves imagination and ritual together in the Jewish space.
On Tuesday morning forty excited Kornmehl children made their way by bus to join Mount Sinai and Emanuel Woollahra children for a forty five minute interactive concert. The children enjoyed the singing, dancing and Jewish links that Rebecca showcased in her concert. It was also lovely to be a part of such a great community event. Many thanks to PJ Library for organising the concert.
In the evening five Kornmehl Educators attended an Educators workshop run by Rebecca, where we learnt lots of new songs and dances to share with the children in our care. What a special opportunity to engage in a Jewish concert of this nature for both children and teachers.
A special Shabbat
Last week Friday Rabbi Ninio brought in a beautiful Torah to show the children for Shabbat. We got to see the all the parts of the Torah up close – the yad, the keter, the parachot, the breast plate and of course all the beautiful letters carefully scribed by a Sofer telling the stories of the Jewish people. Rabbi Ninio and Rabbi Kamins read the parsha of the week from the Torah to us all. It was a special and meaningful Shabbat.
Shabbat Project
On Friday morning this week, Kornmehl was a hive and buzz of activity as children and parents engaged in a shared Challah bake as part of the Shabbat Project weekend. The Pre-school smelt delicious as the Challot baked in the oven, ready to go home with the children to enjoy at their Shabbat tables. Thank you to Jesse’s bakery for donating the challah dough for us to use for our Kornmehl challah bake.
Happy Birthday
We wish a very happy birthday to Amanda Schrock and Justine Robertson, who both celebrated a very special birthday this week and to Terry Aizen who celebrated her birthday on Saturday. We also wish a very happy birthday to Avital Levy (5) and Saphira Davis (5). We hope you all had a great day.
