Terry Aizen, Director of Kornmehl Pre-school

Buddy reading

We enjoyed our first Buddy Reading lessons of the year with Year 2 Yerushalayim and Mrs Esra on Thursday last week and Year 2 Tzfat and Mrs Strub on Wednesday this week. If was heart-warming to welcome back many ex-Kornmehl students into the Pre-school. They were equally excited to come back and show us how well they can now read.

It was lovely to witness the start of some beautiful relationships and friendships developing throughout the remainder of the year. This is a lovely program encouraging both a love of literature and a strong sense of belonging within the school community.

Mother’s Day

We celebrated Mother’s Day on Monday morning with a special breakfast for all our wonderful mums, grandmothers and special friends. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast prepared by some of our talented dads. A big thank you to Neil Shilbury, Ilan Miller, Danny Stein, Harley Mackenzie and Peter Vines. Thanks also to the mums who came in on Friday to bake – Ella Lizor, Edith Lawton and Odin Kaye. Your support is very much appreciated.

We also thank Huw Lambert for giving up his valuable time to come and take professional photos of all our special mums, who were lucky enough to visit the Kornmehl pamper parlour to have their nails done as well as a relaxing massage. In the Seashell room parents enjoyed sharing activities together. There was a choice of beading, decorating heart shaped doilies, or decorating branches with coloured wool. The children were so excited to serve breakfast to their mums. It was a morning of pleasure, fun, connections, special and shared moments.

Having a morning like this reinforces the importance and value of the connection between families and the Pre-school. The children gain so much pleasure from sharing this experience with their mums and having time together in this relaxed setting enhances their feelings of belonging and connections to the Pre-school.

A word of thanks from a parent:

Tanya Leibovitch: “Thank you so much for a beautiful Mother’s Day brekky yesterday! Please thank all the wonderful staff too for all their incredible work putting the morning together and the creative stations!”

Bush School

On Friday and Wednesday respectively, the Dolphins and Starfish enjoyed their first visit to Bush School. The children were very excited and coped very well with the walk down to Centennial Park and into our Bush School classroom. They spent time familiarising themselves with the space, its rules and wonderful opportunities to engage with nature and all that it has to offer. The children enjoyed the opportunity to play freely, without interruptions, in a natural setting. It was lovely to watch their appreciation and respect for the land and we witnessed so much learning and new social interactions occurring. Bush School offers a different type of learning, wonderment of the ways of the world, of nature and developing a love of it.

The Dolphins enjoyed celebrating an earthy Shabbat at Bush School with candles in the soil and a delicious challah too.

Why is it special to have Shabbat here?

Sierra: It’s at Bush School.

Kobe: Because it’s so special, we get to climb trees and then when it’s over we have Shabbat.

Sierra: Because we never had it like this before.

Levi: Because we are here in nature and we can sit here.

Susan Sweller, past Kornmehl Grandma: “It’s part of our life and maybe the Aboriginal People did their own special things and we can do our own special things in the same place.”

Care Packs

Our Care Packs have started to come in and we are extremely grateful for the support from the entire Emanuel School community for this worthwhile cause. Our goal is to collect 500 Packs. Please drop your Care Pack either at the Emanuel School Reception area or down at Kornmehl by the end of next week.

Biggest Morning Tea

Next week Wednesday, the Kornmehl Parent Club will be hosting their own Biggest Morning tea for all Kornmehl parents from 9.30 am to 11.00 am.

Dina Savitz will be the special guest at the morning tea.

Dina is a naturopath, fitness and wellness consultant with over 12 years’ experience helping people to improve their health and well-being. She aims to inspire her clients to take time out in the day to look after themselves and use more natural remedies. Her consultations and online programs integrate traditional natural medicine with current scientific research, and she loves to simplify things as she believes that being healthy should not be difficult – especially when it comes to ours and our children’s health. 

Israel Expo

A big thank you to Daphna Levin-Kahn, Head of High School Jewish Studies, and all the Year 8 students for inviting us to their wonderful, engaging and interactive Israel Expo.

The Starfish and Dolphins were excited to connect with the school children and to be able to see some of the places in Israel we had been discussing in our own explorations of Israel. The students engaged the Kornmehl kids beautifully, explaining their projects and allowing them to interact with the materials. This was a wonderful exhibition, that included different aspects of Israel: from science and technology, to food, sports, music, politics, history, economics, archaeology and more. Some of the children got to play games, practise their soccer skills and dance to Israeli music. 

This was a wonderful experience that linked beautifully to our research project on Israel. Kol hakavod to you all and thank you for allowing us to visit.

Yom Ha’atzma’ut and Israel projects

The Educators set up an airport scene in the Dream room as part of our Israel week celebrations. It invited the children to travel to Israel with their air tickets and boarding passes. Video clips of the teachers’ recent JNF Educators study tour was used of the plane taking off and landing as part of this wonderful experience.

Children could pretend to check in through the bag and body scanner machine. Refreshments were served on the plane too and the pilot needed to fly us safely to Israel. The area encouraged creativity, imagination, social interactions, role plays, literacy and numeracy.

Bianca: We were travelling to Israel.

Sierra: And after we travel to America and South America. 

What did you do in the aeroplane?

Sierra: We ate, we read books and we talked. We looked at stuff, pictures and gears in the cabin.

Bianca: And we had treats! 

Stevie: I was giving the food out on that trolley. There were only chocolate cookies, so I gave those out. And I gave them orange juice. 

We also set up the Shuk in Carmel and a coffee shop next door outside on our deck. The Shuk included real fruit and vegetables and encouraged the children to shop using little baskets and pay using Israeli money.

The coffee shop was popular with lots of role playing, fun and enjoyment too.

 Terry Aizen, Director of Kornmehl Centre, Emanuel Pre-School.