Volume 24 Issue 27 02 Sep 2016 29 Av 5776

Kornmehl Centre

Jewish Educators Conference

Alex and Terry attended the ZFA Jewish Educators Conference in Melbourne on Sunday and Monday last week. The conference was for educators from Pre-school to Year 12 and was held at Mount Scopus College. The conference provided wonderful opportunities for educators to network, as well as to hear a wide variety of speakers on topics ranging from Bible Stories, the mystical power of Hebrew letters, through to Jewish Identity, Zionism, youth movements and Israel. We presented to a group of educators on how we link Bush School and Shabbat. The workshop was interactive, informative and very well received and was a wonderful opportunity for us to share what we do at Bush School.

thumbnail_20160823_120717_resizedBurger Centre Visits

On Tuesday and Thursday last week the Dolphins and Starfish visited the Burger Centre to entertain the elderly visitors. The children were confident, comfortable and performed so well, making us very proud and bringing so much joy to the appreciative audience.

 

IMG_3421Care Packs

Care Packs have been flooding into the Pre-school over the past two weeks and the foyer has been overflowing. On Monday and Tuesday this week, we began the task of sorting, counting and collating the Care Packs. My sincere thanks and appreciation goes to a group of special parents, who came in to help me with this daunting task. Many thanks to Mrs Zoe Boothman, Mrs Evelyn Marczak, Mrs Nadia Kaye, Mrs Simone Rappaport, Mrs Sharon Miller, Mrs Danielle Siegal and Mrs Joanne Sank. Your help was very much appreciated.

 

We have set aside 30 Care Packs for the Year 6 children from Emanuel School to take to Jilkminggan when they go in a few weeks’ time. These will be given to the Pre-school children in Jilkminggan.

The Olympics

The Children have been excited to follow the Olympics and are now learning about the Paralympics. The Dolphins watched a beautiful film clip on You Tube recommended by Alisa, Harry’s mum called Swimswam, superhuman, Rio, 2016. It was an amazing video clip about the Paralympians and their fantastic achievements set to wonderful music played by a band of musicians with disabilities. One of the saxophonists was a Neil Duncan, who used to teach the Klezmer band at Emanuel school. The song was called Yes I can! The children were quite fascinated with what they saw and had many questions.

Jack: He does a running race with no legs.

Nava: That’s the Olympics!

Tali: No arms, only feet! Only one leg hopping!

Nava: The man was playing the drum with his feet.

Aaron: Why did the drummers who played with their feet have no hands?

Nava: They said yes I can, because I can do it.

Aaron: They can do it and they’re really good at doing stuff. I liked it when he brushed his teeth and he said, yes, I can!

Noah: If you’re in a wheelchair, your leg will be broken, because I saw someone in a wheelchair who had a broken leg.

Manu: If you don’t have any legs to run, then you can use your hands.

Nava: If you can’t walk on your feet, then you can do a handstand and walk on your hands.

Ori: If you have hands, but you don’t have any feet, you could just walk upside-down on your hands.

Over the next two weeks we will be learning all about the different sports played at the Olympics and Paralympics and designing our own Olympic torch in preparation for our Mini Olympics on Sunday 18 September at 10am.

Preparations for going to school

Each child responds differently to changes and each child will deal differently with the transition into school. Children need help to adjust to the rules and way of doing things that school offers. Some of these changes include:

  • Physical environment is bigger with playgrounds that are shared with older children and facilities spread across a wide campus.
  • Routines may be a lot more structured, with set times to eat, play, go to the library or the toilet. 
  • Relationships may be more complicated than previously, where the child will have to learn to relate to different teachers, specialist teachers and lots of different children across many age groups.

Children who make a positive start to school are more likely to feel comfortable, relaxed and valued, good about themselves as learners and develop a sense of belonging to the school community.

It is important for parents to talk positively about going to school, without building up unrealistic expectations. Try to listen to any concerns your child may have and answer any questions. Make sure your child attends the School’s orientation programs usually held in Term 4. If necessary take them for a walk around the School, pointing out their classroom and mapping the journey from the room to the toilets, library and other key facilities.

Below are a few tips to think about: 

Personal skills include the ability to look after yourself and your belongings, to manage your time, get tasks done and understand that particular rules and routines apply in each situation.

Relationship skills – include being able to join in games, take turns, make and maintain friends and learn how to talk with less familiar adults.

Learning skills – include being able to keep going with a task, knowing how to ask and answer questions, how to listen to and follow instructions and having a positive disposition or attitude towards learning new things.

Parents are the safe base from which children can move out to explore the world, to learn and grow and become socially confident, responsible young people.

Things you can do to build your child’s personal, social and learning capacity:

  • Gradually ask your child to take responsibility for organising their belongings e.g. setting out clothes for the next day.
  • Give your child small manageable responsibilities at home, such as cleaning up, setting the table, clearing their plate, putting their toys away.
  • Involve your child in family decisions according to their age and ability; offer them choices about what to wear, what they want to eat, or where the family could go on an outing.
  • Talk about the different rules that apply for different situations e.g. wearing a seatbelt in the car, crossing a road, in the park, at the pool and so on.
  • Play games as a family and remind children about rules and turn taking.
  • Invite children over to play and guide your child into joining in and making friends. It’s important for parents to model kindness and respect.
  • Sit with your child doing small tasks, encouraging them to persist and solve problems.
  • Read books and develop your child’s listening skills, concentration, comprehension, thinking and conversation.
  • Encourage your child to explore, be curious, come up with questions and investigate how things work.
  • Encourage your child to be independent, believe in themselves and take some risks in a protected way.
  • Teach your child that things don’t always work out the way we want them to, but that we can learn from every situation and to keep trying until we succeed.

Taken from Your Child’s First Year at School – Getting off to a good start. A guide for parents – Jenni Connor and Pam Linke, 2012

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to Eve Revelman (5), Noam Greenberg (4) and Elianah Brock (4). We hope you all had a very special day. We also wish our special educator, Marlene Einfeld and our wonderful office assistant, Maria Moses a very Happy Birthday.

Terry Aizen

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