...where children are happy to learn
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140 Old Bells Line of Rd, Kurrajong NSW 2758
ph: (02) 4588 8497 mob: 0434 088 448
Welcome to December!
Christmas timings
*excluding Public Holidays
We will now remain open over that Christmas/New Year period
DEC
We will have reduced hours from DEC 29th to JAN 9th, Christmas hours are 8:00am - 4:00pm
*Normal trading hours to resume 12th Jan
Christmas Eve & NYE
7:00am - 2:00pm
What's on this Month
22nd-23rd
Christmas dress up and Movie day
Come dressed in your Christmas shirts.
During this day we will be watching Christmas movies for these two days.
24 Dec
Christmas Pj Day
Come dressed in your Christmas Pjs if you have them. Normal Pjs are accepted also.
We will be watching Christmas Movies. Please note that the Centre closes at 2pm
9 Dec
Water Play Day
We ask that children arrive in their swimming costumes and bring a towel (clearly labeled). Happy Days will be having a water day. Filled with fun and excitement.
Please pack dry clothes for your child to change into.
If you have any questions please feel free to conatct me.
Important Reminders
Reminder to Parents
A reminder to all parents that our contract hours are from 7:30am to 5:30pm.
This means that our insurance and licensing only allows children and families on site during these allotted times for everyone’s safety.
Please ensure you are arriving to drop off and pick up to within those time. A late fee will be charged for any child picked up after 5:30pm.
Label Belongings
Please remember to label everything. lunchboxes, drink bottles, bags and spare clothes.
Lunchbox Food
We also ask children have a healthy lunch each day. Some examples of this may include a sandwich, a piece of fruit or vegetable and a yogurt or some crackers.
Please do not pack lollies, chocolate, chips, Nutella, juice, popcorn, rollups etc.
While these are fun sometimes food to enjoy at home, At Happy Days we have a nutrition policy that we are required to follow and appreciate your understanding in this regard.
Footwear
Please ensure child are wearing appropriate footwear kindy, this includes closed in toes, solid supportive soles, correct sizing and appropriate accessibility to the children.
Please avoid thongs/flipflops, slides, slippers, and shoes the children cannot learn to use independently (difficult laces, buckles or zippers)
Sign in /out
A reminder to please sign your child in and out every day using the iPad in the locker area.
If you have any issues with signing in/out, please let a staff member know so we can assist.
Policy of the month
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 you may send your feedback via the email (Kurrajong@happydayskindy.com)
Delivery of a child to and from the premises Policy
Clothing
ALL children must bring spare clothing every day, these include, pants, shirts, sorts, socks and underwear. Now that the weather is Warmer please ensure your child is dressed appropriately or has appropriate clothing to change into.
Driveway Etiquette
A friendly reminder that we share our driveway with our neighbours. This means we can use the left side of the driveway only.
Also, only one car can park at any one time, and limited to 5 minutes only.
Classroom News
Age-based Intentional Learning Groups
Big Kangaroo (Preschoolers)
Learning Group for 3-5 years olds/School Readiness Program
This month, Big Kangaroos had continued their letter exploration. We have now further observed R, S, T and U. Letter R had allowed us to explore rockets, rainbows and robots. We had created multiple artworks involving rainbows as well as experimenting with puffy paint. Using letters of their names, children had pieced together their own rockets, working on letter recognition. Our robot day was popular, as all the children had worked together in creating 2 large robot heads! Painted, decorated and worn by the children, our robots were definitely a fun experience. Letter S allowed us to explore sun, snakes and salads! Making little suns, children worked on their scissor skills, cutting small triangles. Snakes were created through free hand painting, allowing children’s imagination to take control. We had also made our own salads! This healthy experience was set out like a buffet, children creating their own salads using a variety of vegetables and some proteins. With letter T, we had observed turtles, tigers and trifle. Turtle craft was fun, using prompt photos and painting, and the tiger stripe cutting really put our children to the test, cutting lines small enough to fit on the body of their tigers. Trifles were a hit! Children chose their own layers and indulged themselves in the treasure that is whipped cream! Orientations and transition to school letters were also big this November. We are so excited to hear the stories and see the uniforms of our children, all grown up and ready for school!
Little Platypuses
Learning Group for 2-3 year olds
This month, the Little Platypus group explored food as their topic. We gathered in group times to engage in learning experiences based around this topic. These included chicken hatching where we learnt about where eggs come from, sensory play, cooking, dancing, nature explorations such as garden tours, painting, taste testing, fine motor and investigation/ problem solving activities. The children have actively engaged in all of these experiences particularly hands on activities such as food handling and cooking. The children have demonstrated their developing language skills as they gain confidence in socialising and communicating in large groups which was highlighted through children’s voice moments. As we head towards the end of the year, this month we have taught the children the importance of sitting at group times, listening and being kind to peers.
What we got up to last month...
Chicken Hatching
Over a period of two weeks, Happy Days was buzzing with excitement as we took part in a special Chicken hatching program! This hands on experience gave the children a chance to observe the full life cycle, from incubation to watching our new fluffy friends hatch. We got to carefully tend to eggs, watching each day as new ones would crack. Children enjoyed waiting and watching for these cracks! The chickens were transferred into a small cage where the children got to observe them sleeping, eating and playing with each other! We had also created a range of chicken themed crafts during this time, including our paper plate chickens, chicken feeding sensory bins and even the older children writing out their own lifecycles! This experience gave the children opportunity to explore lifecycles and develop an interest in nature and animals as well!
Remembrance Day
On November 11th, Happy Days Kindergarten spent their day learning about Remembrance Day. Our morning started with a poppy flower craft, where children used a photo of a poppy / red and green paint to replicate the image of the flower. A similar approach with red Play Dough, we used black buttons to replicate the image of the poppy flower. The poppy flower is a symbol of remembrance for Remembrance Day as the flower grew in abundance across the battlefields of World War I. People wear the poppy flower on Remembrance Day to honour and remember the life and sacrifices made by our ANZAC soldiers. After this, we watched a short video with Miss Dakoda on the meaning and history behind ‘Remembrance Day’. The next day, we extended on our newfound knowledge by completing a Remembrance Day symbol matching game with poppies, soldiers, ANZAC biscuits, and more. The children also completed another craft using red bingo daubers and a black marker to make a poppy flower.
Fairy Bread Day
On November 24th, we celebrated Fairy Bread Day within the classroom doing a range of different experiences. We began the day by spending time at table activities where they could match fairy bread maths cards to gain new mathematical concepts, problem solving to match the size pieces to make one whole. Another themed experience was a sequencing game where the children had to place fairy bread step cards in order. The children love craft and painting so to extend on their interest while celebrating fairy bread day the children dot painted using cotton tips to create their own versions of fairy bread. Lastly the children were able to do some taste testing and try our very own fairy bread that we made.
Focus Learning Programs
Playing And Learning to Socialise (PALS)
Happy Days Social Skills Program
This month the children focused on the topic of identifying feelings. The topic helped the children identify different types of emotions people show. We had the children first think about what made them upset in our first activity, this helped encourage collaborative thinking and conversation about places and things that make them upset. Following this activity we then got the children to participate in a emotion matching game. This helped extend children in recognising emotions. This was done by asking what is that person feeling when they completed their puzzle. Lastly we got to read out different scenarios for each child. This was done by reading an event a child did and how it would have affected them and the emotion they felt during the moment. The children drew faces of the emotion the child felt which helped create a deeper understanding of identifying emotions. This has helped the children identify emotions this month where we plan to extend this the following year.
Eco-Warriors
Happy Days Sustainability Program
...when Fun and Responsibility meet
During the month of November the eco worries were involved in National Recycling Week. During that week, our eco warriors were involved in many activities involving recycling and using recycling objects. The children were involved in a hands on experience weher they sorted out rubbish into the appropriate coloured bins, they matched pictures of different items to the correct coloured paper, becoming recycling experts now. The children got creative and used recycled materials and old clothes to make our very own scarecrow for our veggie garden,The children all nominated a name for our scare crow. and the winner was OLIIE. He will watch over our garden and keep that pesky bird away from our strawberries
To finish off the month children turned recycled containers into little succulent pots. We would like to thank our sister centre Blacktown for the donation of the succulents.
The children this months displayed great knowledge and curiosity about recycling, they worked beautifully as a team and stregthend their friendships throughout the experiences.
Take a look at our ABUNDANCE our wonderful miss Annette and the children have been working extremely hard on! we have cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, sage and strawberries that are filling our garden!
Munch and Move
Happy Days Health & Fitness Program
This month we focused on the skill of kicking where educators taught the children how to kick a ball using correct step, swing and kick motions. This was a challenging skills to learn as it required physical skills like balance, coordination, and power, as well as perceptual skills like eye-foot coordination and focus. It involves a sequence of movements including a run-up, placing the non-kicking foot correctly, striking the ball with the correct part of the foot, and following through towards the target. We did a variety of fun physical games this month including soccer bowling, obstacle course with a ball, shrinking goals and kicking with a partner. Our key message activities were water/ fruit slice station and a mindmap of why water is healthy to support our message of “Choose water as an option”.
CULTURE AND INDIGENOUS
Happy Days Sustainability Program
...when Fun and Responsibility meet
CULTURE:
We had celebrated Day of the Dead for Culture this month. We had observed several different experiences to observe this day. We had made enchiladas as our cultural cooking experience, the older children taking full lead and cooking them for afternoon tea. We had observed skulls and the vibrant art of Day of the Dead, and turned it into colourful drawings and even some neon face paint! We turned our shelf into an ofrenda, a special altar where we left offerings to honour those who had passed. We had also watched snippets of Coco, allowing the children to gain better understanding of the holiday.
ABORIGINAL/ INDIGENOUS:
For the month of November, Happy Days Kindergarten have looked at Music and Movement through an Aboriginal point of view. The Big Kangaroos sat with Miss Jade and looked at our drum with Aboriginal paintings, discussing what features are prominent in Aboriginal art. We discussed the animal dances Aboriginal people do such as the Kangaroo and Emu and how animal behaviours translate into dance. We also looked at a set of large tapping sticks and discussed concepts of music such as an 8 count before moving into song. The children had an impromptu singalong of their favorite songs to see if they also follow and 8 count pattern.
We played the tapping sticks while we sang ‘Inanay’. ‘Inanay’ is an Indigenous lullaby sung in Yorta Yorta, a Torres Strait Islander language group. The songlines of the song, speaking with the land, tell a story of a goanna. After this we did a song called ‘Tap Your Sticks’, this song focused on simple movements using the tapping sticks such as in the air, across the knees, and left and right. For our closing Yarn, the children showed off the ‘Pizza’ song, using the tapping sticks as if they were utensils to make pizza (grating cheese, spreading sauce). This was a beautiful moment for the children to come together, share knowledge, and relish their time together.
Having these resources available for the children to engage in this month lets them explore the topic at their own leisure and pace. It is a perfect opportunity to develop their fine motor skills, coordination, and kickstart their knowledge on basic musical concepts while having fun.
We are kindly asking for any donations towards our new Aboriginal Bush tucker garden and native Australian garden. If you are able to donate any of these it would be greatly appreciated.
