December 2011 News
Early Learning Stanthorpe
December 2011
Well, the year is nearly gone – we can’t believe its gone by so quickly! We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and hope that you all enjoy your break (if you get one!).
Please have a fantastic and safe Christmas. Remember we are open over the Chritmas holidays and only closed on the public holidays. If you could pick up your children early on Christmas Eve it would be greatly appreciated by our closing staff.
A warm welcome is extended to our new children:
· Jaiden and Levi in Nursery
· Zaine, Jacob, Kayleb, Jazmin and Orianna in Toddlers
· Destiny in Junior Kindy
· Cloey in Pre-School
Congratulations
Congratulations to the Thompson family on the arrival of their beautiful baby boy, Stephen John, weighing 7 pd 6 oz. Well done !!!
Also to Alayna’s family, a new baby boy named Mason, weighing 7 pd 8 oz. Congratulations!
Christmas / New Year Period
Please remember that we are closed on all public holidays, ie Monday 26th December and Tuesday 27th December 2011.
If your child will not be attending the Centre during the Christmas/New Year Break, would you kindly let us know in the office? Thank you.
Goodbye & Goodluck
to all our Pre-Schoolers and their families. We will really miss you all.
We wish you all the best for 2012 and thank you for allowing us to care for and educate your child.
Friday 25th November was our Kindergarten Graduation Evening & BBQ. What a big night! We would like to say thank you to everyone who attended, it was awesome to see so many of you.
A huge thank you to Miss Melinda and Miss Katie who put in so much extra work in their own time to make the night special for the children and parents.
The slide show was just fantastic, so many happy memories - thank you so much Melinda for spending so much of your time putting it together.
Thanks also to Melinda’s Mum, Lyn, for giving up her time to come in and video the children and help Melinda.
Thanks also go to Jo Parker for donating the soft drinks and to Poppy and ……. for doing a fabulous job on the BBQ.
Thanks to Simone for the plates of yummy dessert.
Thanks to Sheryl for cutting up piles of onions that we then forgot to use!!!!! Sorry Sheryl!
Please note that DVD’s can be ordered at a cost of $10, and graduation photos will be $5. Please see the front office for more info.
Class Photos
Have now been completed and most handed out. Please come and collect yours if you don’t have them yet!
There was one form handed back with no name on it, so please let us know if you ordered photos and haven’t received them – it may be yours!
BATHROOM/TOILETING AREAS IN ROOMS
PLEASE - we request that parents do not walk through the bathrooms in the childrens rooms. This is for the personal safety and privacy of your children.
IMPORTANT SAFETY REMINDER
Parents, PLEASE CLOSE THE DOORS TO THE ROOMS behind you, even if you don’t see any children in the room.
When doors are left open, children are able to leave the room without staff knowing. We take child safety very seriously and hope that you support this.
Also, at drop off and pick up time, it is imperative that you let a staff member know that your child has arrived, and also when you take your child home.
Community Development Services. If you are having personal/family/child problems and would like some support or information, CDS have a library which parents are able to access free of charge. Feel free to call them or drop in and have a look at what they have to offer. Also, remember we too are always available to talk with if you like.
DECEMBER EVENTS
3rd to 9th December – Sun Safety Week. We will be concentrating this week on the very important message of slip, slop, slap. To this end, could we please request that children wear t-shirts that cover their chest and shoulders, and wide brimmed hats.
We put sunscreen on every child each time we go outside, as per our policy. If parents could also assist by applying sunscreen before they come in to the Centre in the morning, that would be great. Thank you.
23rdDecember - Santa Claus is coming to town !!!
Please come and join us for our Christmas break-up morning tea on Friday 23rd. Please see notice on front counter for more information. If this is not your booked in day, please still come and receive your child’s present, but we must ask that you sign the yellow ‘visitors folder’ on arrival and departure, and that you please supervise your own child while you here. Thank you.
Could we ask all parents to please consider picking their child/ren up early on Friday 23rd December. We would appreciate your assistance in this so that we can complete our cleaning and closing up jobs and let our hard working staff go home a bit earlier on Christmas Eve.
21st to 25th November was our Road Safety and Child Protection Week. We would like to thank Sgt Dan O’Dea who came up and talked with the children.
CHILD CARE REBATE – WOULD YOU LIKE LOWER CHILDCARE FEES? Remember that you can now elect to have your childcare rebate that you receive from Centrelink paid directly to us. What this means for you is that your gap fees will be considerably lower. You should have received information from Centrelink about this, if not please contact them to arrange this.
DONATIONS PLEASE???
We have finished the concrete path, now we need to construct a log, rock & gravel path to add to the “Sensory Garden” Would anyone have any logs, flat granite rocks or pavers or old bricks, or river pebbles that would be able to donate to us? We are going to be setting up a natural garden area for the children soon, and any help would be greatly appreciated starting ASAP. Also, any old wheelbarrows, or pots & pans, soup ladels, plastic funnels etc.
INCREASE IN FEES
We will be having an increase in fees from 1st January 2012 of $1 per day. 
NEWS FROM THE ROOMS:
Nursery We have all been very busy lately. We have been practicing our developing crawling, walking, throwing and rolling skills. Painting with our hands and feet has been great. We are all working very hard on making our presents for our families. It’s been great to be able to get outside. The children are enjoying the balls, climbing frame, bikes and playhouse while outside. 
The music mat, instruments and nursery rhyme singing has been very popular among the babies. Many smiles have been shared.
Toddlers There are lots of fun activities going on, such as finger painting, learning our friends names and our own, bubbles, music, water play and of course lots of outside play. The children are also going really well with learning to sit on the mat at group time and listen to stories and songs and rhymes. We feel this is an important part of the daily routine.
Junior Kindy We have started our Christmas activities and had fun decorating our tree for the shop down town. We are still learning about shapes and colours, the 
rainbow song is still a BIG hit and we have been learning about traffic lights and a song to match and help us learn them “stop says the red light, go says the green, wait says the yellow light sitting in between”. Welcome back to Lara!
Senior Kindy We’re continuing on with our ‘insect and spider’ investigation, as the children are still showing interest in this subject. We have learnt how to identify different insects, how insects help us, where they live and hide. We’ve sung the ‘Bugs’ song, and ‘Bumble Bee’, and ‘Five Little Flies’, and also pretended to be bugs and spiders!
Pre-School We have been exploring maps & symbols and learning about the importance of ‘Remembrance Day’. Our guppy had lots of babies…have fun counting them all. We had road safety week where we talked about and looked at traffic lights, road signs and how to cross the road safely. We also celebrated our Graduation which was lots of fun, congratulations to everyone, we will miss you!
POLICIES:
Policies to be reviewed this month include:
· Care and Maintenance of equipment
· Cleaning Policy
· Emergency Evacuation
· Multicultural
· Smoking, Alcohol
· Staff recruitment
· Students, volunteers
· Transition
· Bus
Any parent input/suggestions into the review of our policies would be welcome, and greatly appreciated. Policies are displayed on the notice board in the hallway.
Immunisations If your child has had an immunisation lately, could you please give a copy of this immunization to us, as we need to ensure that all immunisations are up to date. Thank you for your co-operation
.
Brian & Mel will be away from Monday 5th to Friday 9th December and there will be no account statements this week, we will print them the week after, please still pay this week so your account is up to date.
Thank you once again for giving us the privilege of caring and educating your beautiful children.
From Mel, Brian & the team at Country Kids
