Lower Herbert Community Kindergarten
Newsletter
WELCOME BACK!
I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday and are
ready to get back into a very busy term! I had a very
busy couple of weeks, with both my children, Caleb
and Zoe celebrating birthdays! So I was busy making
cakes and organising birthday parties. Over the Easter
break, the Kindergarten had a lot going on - the toilets
have had an upgrade, the paths have been cleaned
off, the weeds around the place have been killed and
we are ready and prepared for a brand new term. So,
enjoy reading our April newsletter and don't forget to
check your pockets at the door each day!
OUR GARDEN
To follow on from our Healthy Eating discussions that
have been popping up over the last term (this is how
our Pizza making happened from hearing lots of talk
and watching lots of play happening around making
pizzas) we will still be talking about healthy food
choices, but we are also going to begin our vegie
garden. Apart from the obvious learning experiences
that will take place from growing our own vegetables
and fruits - there are so many opportunities for
learning that will take place with this project.
Mathematics, English, Science - all those areas will be
covered and there will be a number of key questions
involved to help get the children thinking about their
garden. The children will have complete ownership
over this garden project, they will decide what we will
grow, they will pull the weeds out, they will plant the
plants and they will water the garden.
For this project to happen, we do need your help! We
will be looking for donations of many items needed
for this to work and once the children have
investigated this and a list has been made, it will be
available at the sign in area for you to nominate what
you are able to contribute to the garden (what I mean
by this is seedlings, who can donate some hay/mulch
to keep the weeds down, mill mud etc). If you have
something specific you are able to get for us, please
let me know early as I can suggest these items to the
children when making our list of what we will grow.
This is a very exciting project to be working on and it
will be happening quickly. Week one will see us
Term 2
April 2012
preparing the garden by pulling out the weeds, sorting
out our compost bin and preparing the soil for any
mill mud/compost/cow manure that can be donated
and delivered on the weekend. Week 2 will see us
calling for our donations of seedlings and week 3 will
see them being planted (or before, depending on
when seedlings arrive).
MOTHERS DAY
Sunday, 13th May, 2012 is Mothers Day this year!
Apart from some creations we will be making here,
we would also like to hold a morning tea for the
mums and grandmothers etc at the Kindy. This will be
held on Thursday, 10th May, 2012 in week 4. There
will be more details on this as it gets closer, but try
and keep the date in mind as you will be invited to
attend a morning tea event with your child.
FUNDRAISERS
Our Easter Raffle proved to be very effective and we
would like to thank all the families who bought tickets
from us and Michelle who ran the raffle at the Halifax
Hotel for us and sold over 140 tickets for us! In the
end, our raffle became quite big compared to when it
left Kindy, with many donations thrown in from the
customers. We held our draw at the Halifax Hotel
with families from the Kindy present on Thursday 5th
April and our winners were: 1st prize went to our
very own Lancini family, 2nd prize went to and 3rd
prize went to . It was a very nice afternoon and a
lovely opportunity for the families to see the children
interact with each other, just like a normal day at
Kindy.
Next will be our Mothers Day Raffle! We would
appreciate donations in ASAP as Mothers day is only 4
weeks away and we would like to get the tickets out in
the community and sell as many as we can. Donations
ideas will be things for Mum. Ideas that we have
talked about are box of chocolates, a bottle of wine,
hair care products, facial products, bath products,
vouchers to beauty salons - things like this. It will
work the same as the Easter raffle, just simply bring in
your donations to the Kindy and we will add them to
our basket. If we can have these donations in my the
Lower Herbert Community Kindergarten
Newsletter
end of the week (Thursday 19th) or early in the 2nd
week we can get the raffle started and have more
time to sell the tickets. Remember there are only 4
weeks to gather donations and sell the tickets. Our
raffle will then be drawn at our Mothers Day morning
tea on THursday 10th May.
SUGGESTION BOX
You may have noticed our suggestion box at the sign
in area at some stage in term one. This is there to be
used by the families to include any suggestion you
would like to make for the Kindergarten. If you either
don't have time to talk with the staff or if it is
something you would like to confidentially suggest,
place it in our suggestion box. We do try to check the
box regularly and anything placed in there will be
treated with respect and thoughtful consideration.
OPEN DOOR POLICY
Just a reminder, as you may not have been aware of
this, but here at Lower Herbert Community
Kindergarten we have an open door policy. That just
simply means, you are welcome to visit our centre at
any time to interact and watch your child at play.
There is no time limit or time slots needed, you can
come when it suits you and the time you stay is simply
up to you.
ALL ABOUT ME and FAMILY PHOTOS
Along with our gardening/healthy foods that we are
doing this term, there is also an 'All about me' page
that families need to fill in with their child. This is
simplified version of the enrolment book you filled in
prior to your child attending Kindergarten. Things
may have changed, your child may have a new pet, a
new brother or sister, a new favourite colour, a new
favourite food to when the booklet was filled out.
This also gives you an opportunity to sit down with
your child and discuss these things (you may even find
out something new about your child!).
I will also like to be including an 'Our Family' wall at
the Kindergarten. This will help the children feel at
home with the Kindy and they will be able to discuss
photos with their friends. This is simply an A4 sized
Term 2
April 2012
page with photos and decorated to be displayed.
Please include your child in choosing photos as we will
use them as a group discussion point/show and tell
item throughout the term. Photos can include
immediate family, but don't forget to include
grandparents and pets etc. This can be handed in and
displayed when you can.
COMMUNICATION BOOK
After attending a conference in Cairns over the
holidays as well as attending various online workshops
organised by C&K, I have adapted the way I would
keep records of information such as our daily/weekly
programming, any brainstorming sessions we had,
photos and reflections. They will now all be displayed
in one place in our Communication Book. This will
usually be located at the sign in area, but it is
something that we will refer to a lot and involve the
children in re-reading and looking back on photos with
them, so if you are wanting to see this and it is not
available at the sign in area, just ask as it will most
likely been left in a special spot somewhere in the
Kindy!
PORTFOLIOS
Don't forget about your child's portfolios. We would
love to see contributions coming from home such as
photos, drawings, items created at home, stories your
child has told you. The possibilities are endless and
you don't even have to take the books home, you can
add items from home in while at the Kindergarten.
We have all the things you will needs, glue, scissors,
paper. The portfolio is a document that you will take
with you at the end of the year, it will show you your
child's thoughts, how they did things, photos with
friends and I'm sure that by the end of the year when
you take it home and look through it with your child,
there will be some things in there that you were not
aware of that you child could do or you will be
amazed at their thought processes for certain
activities. It also provided you a beautiful opportunity
to sit down with your child and help them remember
their Kindergarten time. I have looked back on my
son's portfolio and I just love it.
Lower Herbert Community Kindergarten
Newsletter
CHOPPED DOWN TREE - REPLACING IT
Over last term we had a rotten tree chopped down
and taken away from the Kindy. I would like to see
this tree replaced (there is no limit to the number of
trees we can plant) but as I am not a gardener and do
not know a lot about gardening, any suggestions
would be appreciated. If you have a tree potted at
home that could be planted in the yard, please let me
know. I would like to replace the tree with another
large or shady tree in the same spot. If we can work
on the theory of if one tree is chopped down, we will
replace it with another 2 trees or something like this.
If you know someone who is handy in the garden and
grows cuttings etc they may be willing to donate
something to the Kindy.
GRANTS IDEAS
The committee has been in discussion with what
grants we will apply for and what we need at the
Kindy. There are two grants that are due in May 2012
so we really need to get the ball rolling on this and
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We
have had a shade over the fort and a garden/frog
habitat/butterfly/fairy garden suggested so if you
have anything to contribute let me know what your
thoughts are. we will need to have the decision made
before the next committee meeting so the application
can be finalised.
REMINDERS and IMPORTANT DATES
Don't forget to take home your sheets and hats on
Thursdays for washing!
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Mothers Day Donations due by 19th April
Mothers day morning tea THURSDAY 10th
May, 2012
Mothers Day Raffle drawn THURSDAY 10th
May, 2012
Mothers day Raffle TICKETS due back by
TUESDAY, 8th May 2012.
All about me and our family photo displays
ASAP
Mothers Day is on Sunday 13th May 2012
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Term 2
April 2012
Mill mud/manure donations by over the
weekend of week 1 please let me know if you
can help with this.