...where children are happy to learn
Taking
Enrolments Now
28 Julie Street Blacktown NSW 2148
Ph: (02) 9622 6990
Mob: 0452 228 990
blacktown@happydayskindy.com
Welcome to May!
Hello Happy Days Families
What an exciting April we had here at Happy Days, Easter was sooo much fun!
Now let's look forward to what we've got in store for May. One event that stands out is... drum roll... MOTHER'S DAY!!! This month we will celebrate our mum and show her how much she is appreciated and loved. The children will help prepare for our Mother's Day Morning Tea, make something special for their mum and go shopping for a small gift for mum at the happy Days Mother's Day Stall.
We can't wait to see our Happy Days mums attend the morning tea that the children will host especially for them!
What's On!
May Birthdays!
Happy Birthday to:
Ava, Zack, Avishi & Eeshan!
Wishing you a birthday full of love, fun and treats!
Crazy Hair Day
Tues 10th May
Get your hair colour, gel, head bands, bows and hair accessories ready- It's Crazy Hair day!
We encourage you to get creative and use your imagination, giving the children some funky hair!
Besides being a lot of fun for the children and staff, Crazy Hair Day raises money for a worthwhile cause – providing services for people suffering from cystic fibrosis.
Your donation will be appreaciated.
Transition To School Night
Wed 18th May 6:15pm
Transition to School Night is an amazing opportunity for parents and carers of graduating children to come in and access important information and discuss with educators in preparation for their child starting primary school next year.
Parents of graduating students are encouraged to attend!
National Sorry Day
Thur 26th May
National Reconciliation Day
Mon 30th May
National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Day are important Days in Australian Culture and History.
On these days The children will explore and celebrate Australia's indigenous culture through various activities, experiences and discussions where they are able to learn more about the culture and people from the community around them.
Heads Up: June Events
Wed 1 June
International Childrens Day
Thur 2nd June
National Italian Day
Mon 6th June
World Environment Day
Wed 8th June
World Oceans Day
Thur 23rd June
Pyjama Day/ Teddy Bears Picnic
Mothers Day Stall
Fri 26th April - Fri 6th May
Our Mothers Day Stall is back! We invite the children (and adults) to come in and purchase a gift for their mums and other special women in their lives!
There is a lovely stall set up as you walk into the the service! Please don't hesitate to ask educators if you need any assistance!
Dental Check for Preschoolers
Friday 13th May
Did you know? It is recommended that all children visit the dentist when the first tooth pushes through or by 12 months of age. Taking a child to the dentist early and when there are no problems with their teeth, allows them to get to know their dentist, have a positive experience and make future visits more familiar.
We have the opportunity for the Preschoolers to have their teeth checked by a visiting dentist FOR FREE!
Educators will soon be handing out forms to those eligible for the program!
Healthy Harold
Thursday 19th May
Healthy Harold is on his way to Happy Days!
Healthy Harold is bringing along some of his antics to educate the children on how to lead a healthy life.
Healthy Harold will talk to us about our social and emotional skills, on how to regulate our emotions and understand what they are and what they mean!
We can't wait to welcome him to Happy Days!!
Happy Days Community Programs
To encourage the children’s community awareness, we are running the following community projects for which we seek Happy Days families' participation.
Community Pantry:
Our Community Pantry has had some great donations from families and is looking very full! We would like to thank those who contributed and continue to contribute greatly. Please feel free to take what you need, and donate when you can.
Bookworm Community Library:
We have our Happy Days Library located in the shelves in the foyer. Happy Days families are requested to donate children's books, new or used ones in good condition.The children are invited borrow a book to take home overnight and return the next day.
Return and Earn:
Happy Days is a great supporter of recycling and we are participating in the Return & Earn program. We're encouraging families to donate any of the accepted bottles and cans for collection. These items will be collected and then exchanged at one of the stations by staff, where the return will be used to buy resources for the children.
Thank you to those who are contributing to this community project!
Mother's Day Morning Tea
Friday 6th May @10am
Calling out to all Mums, Nans, Aunties, other Mum figures who are invited to our Mothers Day Morning Tea!
We invite you in to come and celebrate your special day; participate in different exciting crafts, activities and games; and enjoy some lovely morning tea with your child and the rest of the Happy Days gang!
Australia's Biggest Morning Tea
Mon 16th May 10am-11am
Australia's Biggest Morning Tea is a community event that raises vital funds to make a big difference for those impacted by cancer.
This year we are holding Australia's Biggest morning Tea at the centre. We are inviting families to please come in and celebrate the cause with us, we will have some fun activities prepared and some yummy food to share.
We will also be fundraising for the Cancer Council, so any donations made will be greatly appreciated!
World Bee Day
Friday 20th May
Did You Know? Bees pollinate plants and produce honey and medicinal products. We need them. When they thrive, we thrive. Bees need our help and we can all do this in the comfort of our own homes. Plant a range of flowers in your garden so bees have access to nectar from March to October. Bees love traditional cottage garden flowers and native wildflowers, like primrose, buddleia, and marigolds.
Join us on World Bee Day where we will spend the day WEARING YELLOW whilst exploring many activities surrounding Bees!
This event will give the children the opportunity to learn about the importance of bees in our ecosystem.
Parent/Family Participation
We invite Happy Days families to come into the centre and present to the children what they do for a living and how they contribute to the community through their jobs, voluntary work and other community activities.
They can also share something about their culture like a traditional dance and other types of performances, traditional food, clothing and other items, etc.
The children will love it!
Please let our educators know when you would like to present at the centre.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Don't Forget!
COVID-19 Testing and Isolation Guide
NSW Health recommends that all children and staff get a COVID-19 test if they have even mild symptoms. Those who test positive must isolate and should not attend the service for 7 days. They can leave isolation after 7 days only if they haven't had any symptom of sore throat, runny nose, cough or shortness of breath for the last 24 hours. They do not need to test before returning to the service.
For more information, please refer to the NSW Government's Information for families: COVID-19 and early childhood education.
Bring Change of Clothes
Ensure that your child has change of clothes in their bag, this is for accidents, change in weather or water play.
Policy Review
Every month we review a set of policies to ensure that they are relevant and up to date according to regulations. You are invited to provide feedback on our policy of the month below (send your feedback to blacktown@happydayskindy.com):
Happy Days Opening and Closing times
Please be reminded that we open at 7am and closes at 6pm. Educators will not allow any child to enter the centre before 7am.
We ask that parents please collect your child no later than 5:55pm to allow staff time to close the centre and go home to their own families on time.
A late fee of $2 per minute will be applied to your account for any late pick-ups.
Healthy Lunchboxes Only
To ensure that our Happy Days children stay healthy & strong we remind you that we follow a heathy eating policy. We encourage you to pack your children a healthy lunch box. All junk food that comes to Kindy will be sent back in your Childs lunch box. With a little reminder note.
STRICTLY NO NUTS
Please remember we are a Nut Free Centre. We have a few children and staff attending Happy Days this year with nut allergies and at risk of anaphylactic reaction so we ask that you are particularly careful with your selection of food that you send into our Centre. Nutella is not permitted.
What we've been up to
Our Easter Party was a huge success!
Thank you to all the families who came and made our Easter celebration extra special.
The children had so much fun playing with the various activities with their visiting family. We had sensory boxes with baby chickens and plastic eggs, we had special Easter colouring in which we saw many children taking their time and using some bright colours. The children and their families decorated some cookies using some bright coloured icing and sprinkles.
We were able to share lots and lots of yummy food with everyone! Thank you to the families who took the time to make and share some delicious food. The children ended their Easter with a big EASTER EGG HUNT! It was so much fun that the children were so full and tired they couldn’t eat their lunch.
During April, the children and staff took part in National Natural Play Week, exploring the use of natural items including recycled materials for play. The children explored activities using leaves, sticks and pebbles that they collected from the yard as well as bottle lids, milk bottles, cardboard boxes and more that had been collected by staff and donated by families. The week was a great way for the children to extend on their understanding of their world and the impact they have on their environment.
Nature Play Week
ANZAC Day
This year Happy Days Blacktown acknowledged ANZAC day over a few days. The children engaged in a beautiful story called "ANZAC Ted" with our student teacher Miss Chloe, and listened to "The Last Post". The children spoke about what they could hear, and what they all thought it meant.
The children engaged in several different craft experiences including making a wreath out of egg cartons with Miss Nargis and Miss Dakoda, drawing red poppies with Miss Bernadette and painting beautiful sunsets for an ANZAC soldier with Miss Harinder.
World Autism Day
2 April was World Autism Awareness Day to highlight the need to help improve the quality of life of those with autism so they can lead full and meaningful lives as an integral part of society. It was great to see the staff and children getting involved and showing support towards this cause by wearing blue! The educators also discussed with the children that we are all different in our way of learning and that we should support each other as much as we can.
Focus Learning Programs
Playing And Learning to Socialise (PALS)
Happy Days Social Skills Program
Sharing or taking turns is bit difficult for children. We encourage sharing by reminding them that playing with friends is more fun than playing by oneself.
A book that displays the value of sharing is "The Rainbow Fish", where the fish makes friends by sharing and learns that you can have more fun if you share and take turns. The children also watched a short video about sharing with Ms Harinder. They also extended their learning through a group art activity, where they created the rainbow fish and passed around fish scales to each other to stick on the rainbow fish template.
We are also focusing more on the children’s emotions and helping them to identify and understand why they might be feeling a certain way. We organised activities which supported the children's understanding of their emotions. We looked at pictures that depicted emotions, discussed how different types of emotions feel like and how they can be expressed.
-Miss Nargis
Happy Days Sustainability Program
Dear families,
Sustainability practices are an essential element of early learning centre’s and education programs.
The environment has a huge impact on children, because of our constant interaction with it. As we move through the 21st century, we’re more aware of the impact our decisions have on future generations. Climate change, resource shortages and our throwaway mindset make nurturing a love for nature and the environment an obligation.
Here is a brief snapshot of the last moth sustainability practice of Happy Days:
We have been using and encouraging our children to use recycled materials such as scrap paper, cardboard, bottles and lids and so many other materials for crafts and other educational activities.
Ms Nargis just finished a community cardboard vehicles project, where children helped to create community vehicles like ambulance and fire engines and later role played with these vehicles.
We have started another space project where we use cardboard boxes to create a space environment.
In the beginning of the month we sowed some cucumber and French beans seeds unfortunately insects ate and damaged our baby plants, but the children had the chance to observe how mini beasts can ruin the plants. Later, we sowed turnips and corn but again due to bad weather conditions we couldn’t take care of our plants. The children demonstrated how plants would die if they receive less water or too much water (some of our Christmas plants were also affected).
Miss Tammy used card box to create a gold coin pot for the St Patrick day. Miss Harinder gathered natural resources and loose parts for her Go Bananas group activity and created animals habitat with those materials.
Our educators are role models for environmental sustainability. We continuously show our children how to be environmentally conscious, while also developing their understanding of why we need sustainable practices.
Miss Nargis
Eco-Warriors
Munch and Move
Happy Days Health & Fitness Program
Our April fundamental movement skill was leaping!
The children learnt about leaping via a variety of fun games. Jumping over hurdles outside was one of the children's favourite ways of learning to leap. Multiple games were set out during Music and Movement time such as Leaping Over the Water in which the children had to leap over pretend water and make it to the other side.
Along with learning to leap, the children also got to learn about water intake and how water helps our bodies. They learnt this with a lot of hands on activities as well as informative crafts to intrigue them. The most popular activity was our plants activity in which the children got to water their own plants pretending it was their own bodies absorbing the water.
Take a look at our April moments below:
Classroom Updates
Happy Days Preschool/School Readiness Program
Mighty Mangoes
The Mighty Mangoes focused on a few different areas for our school readiness program, including sensory exploration, Easter, number recognition and counting and letter recognition and formation.
The children practiced identifying the first letter of their names and tracing them, counting, grouping objects and correct pencil grip. During our morning group times, we complete our calendar and helper chart, and practice reciting numbers and alphabet.
We’re excited to be starting our Show and Tell program! Details to follow shortly.
For their interest topic, the children have been exploring Fantasy and Fairytales which has been very exciting! The children really enjoyed looking into pirates, mermaids, superheroes and more! The children made their own pirate maps and hats, baked unicorn cookies, made unicorn bath-bombs and they even made some superheroes fly! The children really enjoyed exploring this fun topic. Happy Days children are such a creative bunch!
We are very excited to move onto our next topic - The Ocean.
- Miss Bernadette and Miss Tammy
Learning Group for 3 to 4 year olds
Sweet Strawberries
Our “Learning through space” project is almost done. The interest in this project by the children was extremely high and the fun-meter was at the max. We covered most of the areas of EYLF through this project, including numeracy, literacy, science, sensory, social, sustainability, imaginative, dramatic, and creativity.
Soon, the learning activities of the children will be displayed in Sweet Strawberries project journals for families to see so they will know how their children are progressing through play while they spend their time at Happy Days.
- Miss Nargis
