Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director Kornmehl

Purim

What an incredible time we had on Friday morning. The children have enjoyed learning about the Purim story and making Mishloach manot, masks, rashanim and Hamentashen.

We had some wonderfully creative costumes which were just right for all our young charges. It was lovely to see some brave parents come dressed up too and getting right into the spirit of the day.

The children enjoyed shaking their rashanim very loudly as we sang, danced and clapped to the Purim music.

A big thank you to Philip Einfeld from Puppetoons for a fantastic, entertaining and interactive puppet show. The puppets were magnificent and both the children and parents enjoyed the show and a delicious morning tea of hamentashen. We exchanged our Mishloach Manot baskets with a friend, thus fulfilling one of the mitzvot of Purim. A big thank you to all the staff and parents who helped make the day such a resounding success. We thank all our parent helpers who came in on Monday and Tuesday to bake Hamentashen with the children – Ilana Gellert, Wendy Botsman, Janice Eliovson, Rebecca Jacobson, Gina Becker, Naomi Benko and Janice Benko. Your help was very much appreciated.

Open Day

On Wednesday, we held an Open Day for the Pre-school. We had about 70 visitors who enjoyed their time in the Pre-school as well as having the chance to spend time in our beautiful indoor and outdoor environments, observing the children engaged in play and learning with their peers and educators.

Thank you to the four Year 5 students from the Primary School – Ava Rose, Jordin Sank, Sol Biton and Tobias Topolinsky – who helped us to welcome our guests. They were beautiful ambassadors for the school and capably welcomed our visitors and assisted with registration. All of these lovely students are past Kornmehl students. That makes us feel very proud to think this is where it all began for them.

Many thanks to Deborah Beder and Gail MacKenzie for all their hard work and support in making sure the day flowed smoothly and was such a success. We thank the Maintenance team for all their efficient help as well.

Parent Club meeting

Our first Parent Club meeting for the year was held last week Friday. We discussed fundraising, social events, baking and catering in the Pre-school.

The staff relies heavily on the help and support from the parents during the year for all sorts of tasks such as baking, shopping, wrapping, cooking, gardening and sewing.

We hope over the year that all the Kornmehl families will volunteer a small amount of time to help us in the Pre-school.

The Parent Club is a great way parents can be involved and contribute to the program. We value the support and help we get from parents to ensure the smooth running of the Centre. If you cannot come along but would still like to be involved and help please let Terry know and we will be more than happy to accommodate busy work schedules. The Parent Club co-ordinators this year will be Gail Stein, Sharon Miller and Lissa Prosser.

Two dates to reserve in your diary are: Sunday 18 June for our Kornmehl Movie Night from 5.00-7.30 pm in the MPH and Sunday 27 August from 10.00 am-12.30 pm for our Recycling Buddy Challenge.

A visit from the Montefiore Home

On Thursday, we enjoyed a very special visit from seven lovely friends from the Montefiore Home in Hunters Hill who joined us to bake hamentashen with the children.

It’s difficult to express how heart-warming and special this visit was. Our visitors were thrilled to be around the children and were also eager to share with us where they had come from and how old they were!

Whilst baking, there was lots of chatter, discussion about how to fold the dough into a triangle shape and then a big decision about what to put inside – jam or chocolate chips. Yummy!

We hope they will come back again soon. What a special way to connect with the elderly members of our community.

Programs and documentation

It’s important for parents to know that the educators spend time each week having a team meeting where the program for the week is discussed and planned, taking into consideration the interests of the children and the group. The needs of individual children are also discussed and much time is spent reflecting and reviewing goals for each child as well as group dynamics. This program is available for all parents to view, next to the lockers for each group. Please feel free to contribute ideas to our program by writing on the parent feedback section of the program or discussing it with the educators.

The educators also have non-contact time off the floor each week where they write up observations and reflections and post these on Educa for parents to read and enjoy. Educators also use this time to plan goals for each child as well as to write up documentation to make learning visible for parents.

Music at Kornmehl

Each week the children look forward to their music lesson with Mrs Longney.

Mrs Longney has started the lessons by teaching the children a name song, whereby each child introduces themselves through song and the use of a little bee toy. We will be focusing on developing in-tune singing skills, echo singing, keeping the beat in our bodies and with instruments, playing games, singing folk songs, memorising speech rhymes with actions and moving to music.

The lessons are fun and interactive and we thank Mrs Longney for her enthusiasm and wonderful lessons.

Year K visit for Shabbat

On Friday, Year K Haifa visited Kornmehl for Shabbat. How wonderful it was to see so many familiar faces and siblings. Our Shabbat table consisted of a mix of Kornmehl children and Year K children. How happy and proud they all were to sit together and share in the special songs and brachot of Shabbat. We are very lucky and privileged to all be on one campus so that special times like these can be shared together. We will be welcoming Year K Eilat on Friday 17 March too.

Mazal tov

Please join me in wishing our special educator Lindi Bloch and her family, a hearty mazal tov on the occasion of her son Brayden’s Bar mitzvah this coming Shabbat.