Tena ra Koutou
(Greetings to you)
SAVE THE DATE
***Christmas Picnic
Thursday, 12 December 2019, 5.30-7.00pm, Botanical Gardens Playground
*** Christmas Closedown
Friday, 20 December 5.15pm
Reopen Monday, 6 January 20
WELCOME – NAU MAI
Welcome to Gus Darling and Cristy Richardson who join us in the Kākā Room, and Mia Febery who returns to Creative Corner in the Pukekos.
FAREWELL – KA KITE
Farewell to Matilda Inkster, Ayana Dube and Annabel Powell who leave the Pukeko Room. Happy school days Ayana and Annabel.
NON-ATTENDANCE FORMS XMAS PERIOD
Thanks to those who have returned these forms. In order to allocate staff, leave over this period, we would appreciate you advising if your child will be on holiday during December and January. A form was put into your child's pocket recently - please return asap. Thanks.
LOCKDOWN DRILL
Thank you for your feedback on our recent lock down drill. As you will have seen in the last newsletter, I was taking this opportunity to test our communication systems should we ever have to use them in an emergency.
Feedback was generally very good. There were a few parents who did not get the notification on Storypark and I am wondering if it only goes to the key parent (the first one we invite). If you would not mind checking in with your significant other and letting me know if they received a notification or not, I would be grateful.
I would encourage anyone who did not receive the email to see Kate and have your email address added to the Creative Corner Parents email list.
A parent feedback that they expected, in the event of a real emergency, that we would phone each parent to notify them. While I understand the sentiment, we unfortunately will not be able to do this. With 50 children attending everyday this would take significant teacher resource away from ensuring the safety and happiness of the children, as well as significantly tying up phone lines needed for contact with emergency services and our receiving information from the Ministry of Education and/or the Police. Our first priority in any emergency is to ensure the needs of children are met and maintained and we thank you for your support in feeding back your thoughts.
2020 CALENDAR FUNDRAISER
It’s that time for our Christmas calendar fundraiser. Once again children will draw a picture on size A4, and younger children may have a hand print. These make great personalised Christmas presents for your whanau and friends.
Pictures drawn by your children are available to view at the Centre commencing the week of 25 November 2019. Please see one of your child’s teachers. An order form is in your child’s pocket. Each calendar is $10.00 - please pay into our fundraising account no. 03-0887-0265519-01. No orders will be accepted without payment.
Please return orders by Friday, 29 November 2019 so we can get printed to be ready before Christmas.
KIA ORA FROM THE KĀKĀ ROOM
We have welcomed new children to the Kākā room and are busy settling them into their routines. Our tamariki are enjoying outside play with the warmer weather, especially water play – getting wet themselves and helping to water the garden.
Water play provides hours of rich and valuable early childhood experiences to develop children’s creativity and imagination. We acknowledge that the environment is a teacher – it helps children develop eye-hand coordination and math and science concepts. It also enhances social kills and gain skills such as pushing and pulling outdoor play equipment.
(Katy)
KIA ORA FROM THE PUKEKO ROOM
The warmer weather has provided the prefect opportunity for our tamariki to be more active outside. Having access to a range of “Wave” resources has made this even more fun and exciting over the past week. Theses have ranged from a volleyball set up, hockey sticks and balls, hurdles, and the twin walker. These are all experiences that children can get involved in alongside one another, providing the perfect opportunity to further develop their social skills. As well as their hand/eye coordination, balance, ability to persist, challenging themselves and having the confidence to take risks and problem solve.
Our tamariki enjoy listening and singing to board stories and songs. We have been lucky enough to have recently purchased some new and perhaps unfamiliar ones. This has created opportunities to start introducing songs in the lead up to Christmas and further develop both the children and staffs te reo.
(Kerry)
Pēnā ka haere tonu, a te wā ka taea, ka mau!
You will get there, just keep going!
