We will be holding the following emergency drills at the kindy:

​

• 7th November – Bush Fire

• 22nd November – Fire

​

We have prepared the children for these drills, however, please continue the discussions at home so they can be better prepared.

Come join us for our annual grandparent’s day event, an opportunity for your child to showcase what they do at childcare, artwork they have created and what their room set up looks like. This event will take place from 2pm till 4:30pm, with parents welcome to bring along the grandparents.

There will be activities set up outdoors and indoors as well as a jumping castle, some educators will also be attempting basic face painting styles. There will be a free coffee and tea station along with a few sweet treats for sale. Don’t miss out on this awesome event and a great opportunity for HDK to showcase our new outdoor renovations.

Check out what is happening in our community for the month of November!

​

• Stay and Play – whole month of November – Casula Library, 10:30am-11am, Wednesdays during school terms

• Hammondville Neighbourhood Family Fun Day – 4th November – 10am-3pm – Lieutenant Cantello Reserve

• Carnival at Festival of Fisher’s Ghost – 2nd November – 6pm – Commuter Car Park, Plough Inn Road, Leumeah 2560

• Dogs in the Park at Fisher’s Ghost – 5th November – 3pm – Milton Park, Railway Parade, Macquarie Fields

On the 11th November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after four years of continuous warfare. With their armies retreating and close to collapse, German leaders signed an Armistice, bringing to an end the First World War.

As a mark of respect to those who have died and suffered, Australians are encouraged to pause at 11am to observe one minute’s silence and remember those who died or suffered for Australia cause in all wars and armed conflicts. On this day Happy Days will learn about the meaning of Remembrance Day, learn how to make poppies and participate in one minute of silence.

The team at HDK often follow many early childhood social media pages to ensure they keep up to date within the industry and a term that has often been brought up is “off the grid”. I’m sure no matter what time you have walked in during morning drop off you have seen all educators with either an iPad or laptop in hand ready to capture as many moments as they can so that they can then upload them to our program Xplor so that you can stay up to date with what your children are doing whilst in our care. As you know technology has taken over a huge chunk of our lives, it’s how we communicate and complete our work and when we get some spare time it's what we use to wind down. Being that technology is such a big part of our lives it is only expected that our children are introduced to it at such a young age. Here at HDK and in many childcare centre’s technology is how we communicate with you regarding your children, which means technology is eating up a big part of the educator's time instead of spending it one on one with your children. Many centres are now going off the grid once or twice a month so that they can maximise their time with your children, forming relationships and just playing. It’s a spontaneous day where the decisions are left up to the children and what they feel like doing for the whole day whether it be painting with their feet, cooking, building castles and forts using furniture, the ideas are endless and completely up to the children. When “off the grid” takes place educators are to put away all technology iPads and laptops and no photos will be taken, no updates will be uploaded to Xplor except for mealtimes, sleep, and nappy change. “Off-the-grid” days will change every month so that every child gets to experience such a fun day and if you would like to know what we got up to feel free to speak to an educator or simply just ask your children. “Off the grid” will take place on Wednesday 8th & Tuesday 28th November. We would love to hear your feedback on what you think about being “off the grid” twice a month.

Spending time outdoors is as important for children’s development as learning to read and write. We want to show how learning outside of the classroom engages and excited children in spectacular ways. When teachers take learning outdoors, they report some powerful impacts:

Children’s behaviour improves, whole classes are excited to learn and individuals who feel inhibited by the curriculum often thrive in an outdoor environment. When adults think back to their own happiest memories of childhood, they frequently recall the joy of playing outdoors. For outdoor classroom day we will be bringing the indoors, outdoors, and what perfect timing to celebrate outdoor classroom day with our outdoor renovations hopefully finished by this date. Depending on the weather we are also hoping to have our rest time outdoors.

Our Graduation Photo Packs include:

• 2024 personalised calendar

• 5x7 individual image

• Graduating class photo

• Keyring

• 4x passport sized photos

Valued at $30 per pack

Please email or speak to Miss Stefanie to order a pack, payment can be made via cash or added to your Xplor account. We ask if you are paying cash that you have the exact amount as we do not have change. If you would like to order add ons please make sure to state this to Miss Stefanie.

Add ons:

• 2024 calendar - $2.00

• 5x7 individual photo - $1.50

• Keyring - $3.50

• 4x passport sized photos - $2.50

Graduation pack orders will need to be made ASAP, the last day to order your child’s graduation pack is Friday 24th November to ensure it will be ready by graduation.