HIGHWAY CHILD CARE & EARLY LEARNING CENTRE

NEWSLETTER                                                             September 2019

NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR

DATES TO REMEMBER                                         

Tuesday 1st Oct        Photo Day

Friday 4th Oct           Space Week Begins

Sunday 27th Oct        Diwali begins

Wed 30th Oct             Parent night (This is the new date)

Monday 11th Nov      National Recycling Week begins

Wed 4th Dec              End of year Celebration/Party                

Professional Development

Jasmine and Marie are commencing their professional development in becoming Marte Meo Practitioners.   Marte Meo: was founded by Maria Arnts in the Netherlands. The Marte Meo method focuses on the importance of communication in building relationships and emotional connections. The 6-day program is practical and gives educators a reflective space to see how to effectively support children’s development and wellbeing.

Staffing

Brittany is on leave from the 23.9.19 – 27.9.19 Desirae will be working with the Preschool team during this time. Andrea is finishing up and her last day is Wed 18.9.19 We have a new Qualified educator, Amy joining our team on Thursday 26.9.19

Did You Know?

Photo day is fast approaching!!

Packages have been sent home for families to have a look at and decide on which package they would like to purchase, if you haven’t received your package and would like one please come and see us ASAP so that you don’t miss out

Parent Commitee

Please come and see Jess if you are interested in joining us to form a new committee

IMMUNISATION

Is your child up to date with immunisation?

Remember to bring in your updated immunization documents to us at the office soon after your child has received their next immunization.

Remember that children who are not immunised will be excluded during any outbreak of a government scheduled preventable illness within the centre   

 

Sustainability

Did you know scientists estimate that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans? Most comes from the land and was once in our hands. By preventing the problem in the first place, we can begin to make a real impact on reducing plastic pollution. About half of all plastic produced is for single-use or disposable items such as packaging. These plastics break up, they do not break down – becoming permanent pollution, they have low rates of recycling (only 9% of all plastics ever made have been recycled) and are mostly down cycled (made into low grade product for just one more use) or sent to landfill, they ‘escape’ from bins, trucks, events etc. to become ‘accidental litter’, they end up in waterways and the ocean – where scientists predict there will be more tonnes of plastic than tonnes of fish by 2050

BABIES ROOM

August was another exciting month in the Under 2s full of celebration & investigation. We have shared many different celebrations including Science week, Book Week and this month National Literacy and numeracy week.

The children have been making new discoveries over the weeks testing out their ideas. We used small provocations for learning as we introduced shaving cream and ice to the environment.  The children were excited to watch each other and then step forth themselves to touch, squeeze and feel these new products, to see what they could do with the use of their hands and the patterns that emerged through these experiments, we wondered together and confirmed the children’s discoveries as we named for them what they were feeling ‘cold, warm, gooey, slimy’ They continued their interest of light and refection by using the mirrors and light table with many different materials to create patterns of art & construction

We will be continuing to support the children’s interest in learning with mirrors, light and reflections by adding new materials to the room to offer them further opportunities to further test their ideas.   Science week is an event to inspire an interest in science purists and to encourage younger people to be fascinated by the world we live in.   We also celebrated Book Week, this year’s theme was – Reading is My Secret Power. Book week is a weeklong festival run by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, observed every year to highlight the importance of literature in the lives and education for Australian Children. The under 2s participated in this though inviting families to bring in a special book from home & supporting  the children to share their delight and knowledge of their favorite stories and characters.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Book Week and reading many children’s favourite books. We would like it to continue, please feel free to bring in any special photos or books to share with us.

As an amazing finale to the month and a great follow on from Book Week we also celebrated National Literacy and Numeracy Week which highlights the importance of literacy and numeracy skills for all children and young people. We utilized our loose parts resources as provocations for enquiry with the children ‘How many?’, “heavy or light?”, “Rolling, stacking, sorting’ and many more concepts.

This is working towards the Early Years Learning Framework: Children are effective communicators. Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from those texts. Actively use, engage with and share the enjoyment of language and texts in a range of ways.

    Jasmine, Amanda, Bronte & Jayanti

 

TODDLER ROOM

The children in the toddler room were very excited to celebrate National Science Week from 10 -18 August. The purpose of this learning experience was to give the children the opportunity to ask the question of why, how and when? As part of our learning, we embarked on a science experiment to make our own lava lamps.  The children were curious with anticipation as we realized the ingredients were familiar – we have used them many times before to create other items such as playdough & sandpit volcanoes. The children engaged in this experience and learned how they can make lava lamps using these simple natural ingredients in a different way, it was a different recipe (cooking oil, baking soda, vinegar and food color) When all of the ingredients were put together the children were amazed with excitement and fascinated by all the bubbles forming once the vinegar hit the baking soda.  We wondered what the lava lamps would look like in the dark so we turned off the lights & got out our torches, the more light we shone on them & then took away helped to give the lamps a more glowing effect.

As a group, we also participated in an experience of magic milk. This was a simple- yet fun experience, where by milk; food colouring and dish soap are mixed together. The result is exploding milk with many beautiful colours. The toddlers enjoyed participating in this experience as they watched and waited and then exclaiming words such as “Wow”, “Yay”, and “colours”.

We also celebrated book week and the theme for this year is “Reading is My Secret Power”. As part of our book week celebrations the children in the 2 to 3’s room shared the learning space together by reading books to each other and sharing a special book with their peers which they brought from home.  The children then had an opportunity to create their own books and tell their own story through the language of art – decorating their book with textas and sticking on collage materials of their choice. Every child had their individual story to share with each other.

This relates to the EYLF learning outcome 4:

Children are confident and involved learners, Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, confidence, creativity, enthusiasm, persistence and imagination

This is evident, for example, when children:

They are curious and enthusiastic participants in their learning, they use play to investigate, imagine and explore ideas.

As the spring is blooming and the summer is around the corner the children will be engaged in lots of outside activities so please pack a hat in their child’s bag.

Currently we are celebrating the full moon festival, we are learning together about chinse and Vietnamese culture and participate in different activities – including creating lanterns which has followed on nicely from our lava lamps

                        Zahra, Marie, Andrea & Madelyn

 

PRESCHOOL ROOM

This month in the Pre-school room we have celebrated Educator’s appreciation week and have received so many kind words and cards from our families, we would like to thank all our families for showing their appreciation. It means a lot to us.

As part of our ongoing learning of Aboriginal culture we have been using our clapping sticks to make music whilst learning to sing Incy Wincy Spider (Tuku Tuku Waku) in Kaurna language which has been lots of fun as we learn new words in another language. Children also have an understanding of other words in Kaurna language such as ‘Marlam Loogar Booma’ which means  ‘wash your hands’, We continue to practice our counting in Kaurna Language each pre-lunch group time .

Recently we participated in Book Week with the theme of ‘What is My Super Power?’.

With much discussion with the children we realized that we have a lot superheroes so this has led to us adding to our program a project on Superheroes, and the question of “Who are our superheroes within the community?”. Our Superheroes so far include members of our family, Police, Paramedics, Doctors and Nurses. We can’t wait to see where this will lead us!

Our regular visits to two of our local schools continue each fortnight for our Preschool children.  The two schools that we visit are Karrendi Primary School and Salisbury Downs Primary School. Children have opportunities to visit school libraries & choose books to quietly read as well as opportunities to engage in play in the outside learning environments, spend time in the reception class with students and have student representatives show them around and teach them new concepts and games.

This is working towards the early years learning framework Learning outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

Explore the diversity of culture, heritage, background and tradition and that diversity presents opportunities for choices and new understandings.

-Recognise that they have the right to belong to many communities.

 

Vlora, Kylie, Brittany, Masooma, Sheridan & Loan

 

FOOD AND NUTRITION

                  

Television and food Advertising

On average, Australian children watch about 20 hours of TV each week.  During that time they watch ads for high fat, sugar or salt foods.  Foods which do not meet healthy eating guidelines. Many ads use clever marketing techniques designed to appeal to children such as animation and catchy jingles.

Research shows that food advertising does influence children’s food preferences and leads them to pester their parents to buy these products.  Young children are particularly vulnerable to T.V advertising.

Easy access to high fat and sugar foods results in less physical activity and contributes to the rising rate of childhood obesity.

There is growing pressure on governments to tighten the regulations on T.V food advertising to children.

Regulations about T.V food advertising shown during children’s programs do exist, but as many children watch T.V outside of these times, they fail to adequately protect the interests of the children.

We encourage parents to monitor all advertising to children and to discuss foods as sometimes foods and healthy foods.

 

Undercover chicken nuggets

1 cup of mixed vegetables (broccoli, carrot, cauliflower and baby spinach)

1 skinless chicken breast minced

2 eggs

1 cup of breadcrumbs

 

Preheat oven to 180°.

Steam vegies until soft.

Puree and stir through the mince.

Beat the eggs add half the eggs to the mince mixture an about ½ cup of breadcrumbs.

Stir until combined.

Mould into fun shapes, like stars, triangles or logs.

Dip into the remaining egg then into the breadcrumbs.

Place on oven tray.

Spray with a little oil and bake in the oven for approximately 30 mins until cooked through.  Serve with reduced salt tomato sauce.

(Makes approximately 12 nuggets)

 Lynn & Janet

 

Health Notices/News

Healthy eating sets families up for life

Toddlers and fussy eating can be a thorn in a parent’s side, but we can all breathe easy that often battles over eating anything green or a determination to live on breakfast cereal is often short-lived.

We all know that providing our children with good food and teaching them healthy eating habits from the beginning can set them up for a lifetime of health benefits. From fussy eaters and family dinner routines to weekly menu ruts, nutritionist and CEO of ‘Nourished Beginnings’ Katie Harding provides parents and early childhood services with the support and knowledge they need to keep little tummies happy and healthy.

“Our children are our future and it is our aim to assist child care centres and families in providing them with the food education and nourishment that their children require to grow and develop into healthy adults with strong food values and a healthy relationship with food for life,” she says.  As a parent, you want your child to be healthy and happy and when they only want to eat jam sandwiches, you worry they aren’t getting the nutrients they need for optimal growth and development.

NUTRITIONIST KATIE HARDING

Katie says there are many practical ways for families to incorporate healthy eating into their daily routines.

She says encouraging children to enjoy healthy foods comes down to how you eat as a family and the values you have around food.

“How you role model eating habits as a family, plays a crucial role in setting children up with lifelong healthy eating habits.”

Katie suggests five ways to encourage your children to enjoy healthy foods:

1. Sit down as a family and enjoy mealtimes together. Even if this is just on the weekends when you have more time, it is important to create a joyful, relaxed environment around mealtimes.
2. Deconstruct meals to allow more choice. Children love to be independent and allowing them some choice when it comes to their meals encourages them to express this independence in a constructive way.
3. Get them cooking! I know as a mum myself this often seems like more mess than it’s worth but getting your children into the kitchen so that they can see love and effort that goes into making their meals will contribute to their relationship with food later in life.
4. Don’t offer ‘treat food’ as a reward offering things like lollies and chocolate as a reward for good behaviour teachers children to associate unhealthy foods with positive behaviour. Instead for example, offer a sticker or a stamp. Children love these just as much!
5. Role model good eating habits. This not only relates to the food you eat but also the way you talk about food and the example you are setting with regards to body image.

Katie says managing fussy eaters is often a challenge for parents.

“Managing fussy eaters is one of the biggest frustrations of the families and centres I work with,” Katie says.

“As a parent, you want your child to be healthy and happy and when they only want to eat jam sandwiches, you worry they aren’t getting the nutrients they need for optimal growth and development.”

Katie’s tips to encourage fussy eaters include:

Prepare for success. Have your meals planned ahead of time to reduce a stressful environment around mealtimes (less stress for you and less stress for your children).

Always offer foods that the family are having first. Continue to offer a variety of foods in a stress free environment. If they don’t eat it, move on without making a fuss and try again at the next mealtime.

As mentioned above, deconstruct meals to allow children more choice and independence. For example, let’s say you’ve made a curry. There are peas in the curry and your child doesn’t like peas. Even though you’ve removed the peas from their dish, they still won’t eat it. By deconstructing the curry with individual bowls of rice, curry sauce, yoghurt and a few separate vegetables served in the middle of the table allows your child to assert that independence. Over time they will begin to make healthy choices for themselves.

Try preparing / cooking foods in different ways. For example, offer broccoli raw, steamed, finely chopped or fully cooked. Fussy eating can often be a sensory issue and they may just prefer it cooked a particular way.

As a nutritionist working with adults, Katie says often the most difficult habit to encourage change is diet.

“Our food beliefs are ingrained from an early age and we don’t like to be told what we can and can’t eat,” she says.

“This is why it is so important to set our children up with healthy food habits from a young age.

“The health benefits to be gained from having a healthy relationship with food are vast.

“Some benefits include improved moods and more energy to enjoy the things we love; reduced risk of developing diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and depression; improved sleep; weight control; strong, healthy bones  and less chance of developing osteoporosis later in life; and self-confidence from a positive body image mindset.

“The key to success in healthy eating is making small changes for big impact. If you jump right in wanting to change everything at once, you are much less likely to succeed.

“And remember, food should be a joyful experience to share with family and friends, so have fun with it.”

Child Care Subsidy News