RAP Plan Approved:

The Reconciliation Action Plan for Little Bee has been reviewed and approved by Reconciliation Australia and a final version of our RAP document and poster can now be downloaded via the Narragunnawali platform.

A summary of the RAP, including our Vision for Reconciliation and the RAP Actions we have committed to, has also been published on the interactive Who has a RAP? map.

We will be sharing our stories with Narragunnawali as we continue to  implement the RAP in the rooms, around the centre and within the community.

A wonderful week of cultural experiences: 

Our Cultural Week, held at both centres, was extremely successful (after the sad cancellation of our RAP Community event during the snap lock down in October).

Across the week we had special Aboriginal guests attend and lead a variety of cultural experiences.  This gave the children the opportunity to participate in activities including:  spear making, cultural dance, a variety of painting experiences, basket weaving, jewellery making, leaf rubbing, story telling and puppets shows in our yarn centres, body art, fishing game and mutton bird mazes and interactive experiences.

We thank our special guests for coming along.  We are so very grateful for your time and look forward to continuing on building these relationships in the future.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

We can’t believe it is December already and we are nearing the end of another year.  We would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of all the educators, to thank you for such a fantastic year! We are truly lucky to have such supportive families that embrace all the fun and learning that happens at Little Bee.

The end of year celebration was unfortunately not as we had planned.  The weather was very up and down, but we forged ahead and we really thank the families who braved the rain and came along.  It ended up being fun for the children and we all got a (soggy) sausage or two!!!

Sadly, our Santa (Tony, Christopher's Dad) could not attend in the rain as his suit could not get wet, but we would like to say a special thankyou to Tony, for trying your best.  We really appreciate it! 

Also we'd like to say a big thankyou to Ange, (Parker and Meadow's Mum)  who so kindly made quiches for our vegetarian food option, it was so kind and although we could not collect the quiches in the end, we are so grateful that you took the time to make these for us. 

Last, but not least, we thank our educators who attended - your support is as always greatly appreciated.

Children… if you will be leaving us soon – we wish you all the best for your next adventure!  If you are here again next year – we can’t wait for the learning journey we will all continue on!!!  If families are planning holidays over the Christmas period—we much appreciate you letting us know, as this can help us to manage our ordering of supplies, staffing and allow extras to have holidays. We wish everyone safe travels and a relaxing sunny time with their friends and families!!

We will be CLOSED on Monday 27th December, Tuesday 28th December, Monday 3rd January. All other days we will be open our normal operating hours. Thank you. 

At Little Bee Airport ....

Children transitioning in January and February 2021. 

Many of the children will be transitioning during January or February with their friends to the next room.  For children transitioning in January, transition packs will be coming out to you in December (children transitioning in February will receive their packs at the beginning of January) with information on the room and some parts for you to fill in and return to us.  Please fill in the relevant details and return to our educators.  This information supports us to support your child with a positive transition.

Each child has an allocated, regular day during each week of December where they visit the next room with a small group.

During each visit, the same small group of children are accompanied by an educator from their current room, who are also transitioning to the new room in January. 

Visits will run between 9.30-11 each morning.

The exact same thing will occur during January for our February movers. 

At this time, educators will plan a variety of fun and creative small group activities so the children can remember the time as a really positive experience.  

COVID - 19 Update!

With the boarder opening next week (on the 15th) we will be altering our practices to do our best to ensure safety for all in the Little Bee community. We will be notifying families of our updated policies and procedures on Monday the 13th via email- ready to implement on the 15th of December. We are currently awaiting further information from the Education Department and thank everyone for their understanding and support.  

Parent/Educator Conversations!

Bookings are now closed.

We'd like to give a massive, massive thank-you to our families who have booked a parent/educator phone conversation! 

This gives us all a wonderful opportunity to share each child's hard work and give families a further insight into our 'inquiry based projects'.

We are so grateful so many families will be able to share their child's journey and hear about all the wonder of their learning next week. We will be emailing your child's project to you this week, before your allocated conversation time so if you wish to, you can read over it before we chat.

For those of you who were unable to attend a phone interview, your child's learning journey will be in their profile book late December.  You are very welcome to have a look at any time, please just ask an educator, alternatively we can email it to you for you to share with your family!

Educator teams for 2022

Howrah:

Sally, Katherine, Megan, Yuli and Nichole (commencing January 2022)

Airport: 

Baby Bees: Adriana, Mel, Emily and Selene

Honey Bees: Sofie, Georgie, Anna, Theresa and Libbie

Bumble Bees: Bec E, Bec O, Allie, Taiya and Malou

Busy Bees: Pauline, Maree, Kate B, James and Jessie

Queen Bees: Bron, Tim, Nadine and Jo

What’s been happening at Little Bee …

Little Bee Howrah

Continuing our focus on our fantasy garden in November, the children were excited to venture into the garden and add some creative art to their surrounds.

Using chalk the children drew on the fence in the garden area, drawing rainbows, cars, unicorns, and many other bright and colourful pictures to share with their peers.

The children also enjoy visiting the Fantasy Garden during our cultural week, reading stories, making spears, and having a talk around the fire pit.

During cultural week, the children were able to go fishing in our “river,” make some beautiful jewellery and baskets with Maddie and Carla. With a visit from Aunty Leanne, the children joined her in painting, James from our Airport centre also joined us during the week and spoke to us about the different paints that Aboriginal people use during their dances, and we joined him in doing the Emu dance.

Bingo and Bluey, our resident blue tongue lizards from the Airport centre also paid us a visit, the children were excited to hold Bingo and Bluey and watch them explore our veggie garden.

Cooking, painting, puzzles and enjoying the sunny days outside have made November an exciting month.

And at Little Bee Airport ...

Baby Bees

In the last couple of months we have been observing the children extending many of their gross and fine motor skills, from when they start waving to grasping toys and objects, manipulating books, crawling, climbing frames, they have had so many opportunities to fine-tune those skills. To extend their learning and further develop their fine motor skills we decide to offer our children some cooking experiences.

Fine motor skills refer to the movement and control of small muscles groups, including hands, wrists, fingers, feet and toes. In addition to cooking being an experience that our children enjoy they can benefit from cooking experiences while beating, stirring, mixing, shaking, rolling, pouring the ingredients, grasping and holding utensils, the list of physical skills children can work on while cooking is endless!

We have definitely been enjoying the warmer weather this month with lots of different water play experiences. The Baby Bee children really enjoyed the cultural week participating in the multiple experiences like river bed fishing, leaf rubbing, puppet shows, dancing to the didgeridoo and much more. The children loved having the opportunity to explore our yard and the big playground in different ways.

Honey Bees

Throughout the month of November, the children have had many different opportunities to explore their interests, with the environments  based around our observations. We have noticed that some children express things they also enjoy doing in their home life, camping and boat/beach experiences. Upon having experiences from children’s home cultures available, we were supporting the children’s learning at Little Bee, and we saw a positive, relaxed atmosphere among the children. They express themselves and investigate their ideas during play with their peers in a confident manner. Each child enjoys sharing the space with their peers, building their social, emotional and communication skills as they negotiate the areas together.

Extending on from October, the children enjoyed different planned experiences where we observed ‘seeking and avoiding’ behaviors. We undertook an experience freezing some in 'pom pom's' in water as well as observing water with pom pom’s in it (unfrozen). The children navigated towards the experience and showed us which one they preferred using their senses. Sight and touch seemed to be two of the senses that the children used the most. They loved naming the colors and talking about the “cold” temperature they were feeling.

As a group we celebrated 'Cultural week'. It was a wonderful week full of fun and celebration as we participated in lot’s of different experiences and activities that were set up throughout our centre. Cultural week is to promote cultural diversity by showcasing different types of cultural expression.  To encourage inclusive, equitable and vibrant participation by communities in the arts, culture and heritage sectors.

Bumble Bees

Throughout the month of November in the Bumble Bee Room we have been investigating massage and emotional touch a to promote positive behaviors.  This led us to understanding the ways children regulate their emotions through seeking and avoiding behaviors.  The children engaged in some planting of seeds, discussing the process and what happens when we water them. The children liked the feel of the dirt and were able to use this learning as a time to share and work with their peers. The warmer weather is with us, we have been able to set out water environments to further our exploration of senses.

With the welcome of the warmer weather, we have discussed and shared ideas of what our families might do in the warmer weather for example: BBQ’s and cooking. We role played with a BBQ in our camping area and the children used this experience as a chance to engage and use their imagination.

During the month of December, we plan to use the warmer weather (fingers crossed) as an opportunity to set up our experiences outdoors, including water play with sea animals and cellophane, painting outdoors using different materials and more excursions to the nearby park.  

December sees the beginning of Summer and much fun to be had outdoors and engaging in some Christmas craft using old Christmas cards and painting in some bright colours. We have decorated the room to make it feel like Christmas and it is lovely to see the sense of excitement that the children are feeling at this time of year.

Busy Bees:

During the month of November, the Busy Bees have made the most of the warmer weather, which pares perfectly with December’s activities.

The children explored a variety of subjects and experiences throughout November including how we travel to school, a chance to lead a group time and explore traditional Aboriginal cooking and foods. This led the children out to the new yarning centre to prepare and cook a wallaby stew over an open fire. Sitting around the fire gave us a natural conduit for "yarning" and lead to many conversations around traditional Aboriginal culture and the children’s home cultures. This followed on to another experience, as the children communicated with educators how they travelled to school and what their routines look like. This was paired with the reading of a book which sparked conversation. Furthermore, the children loved their chance to lead a group time where they choose songs, stories and the conversations they had with their peers, this led to a number of interesting conversations and many laughs with their friends.

In the coming month of December we hope to elaborate on the children interests and passions alongside the beautiful summer weather.

Queen Bees:

Through the month of November we focused on how we view ourselves as we interact and relate with one another.  Through affirmations and positive circle time games this month, we shared our emotions, fostered empathy, and spread positivity. This has been a wonderful way for educators to get to know each child as we shared our feelings, our circle of family and friends, who are the special people in our lives. The children also enjoyed music and educators have learnt that exposure to music during early development helps children learn the sounds and meanings of words.  For this reason, we made our own music to play alongside our favourite songs in November.   Dancing to music also supports children to build motor skills, while allowing them to practice self-expression. For children and adults, music helps strengthen memory skills, these are just a few of the many reasons to offer musical experiences to children.  

Staffing changes......

Farwell to Chantelle - Unfortunately Chantelle will not be returning to the Howrah center after her maternity leave, she has chosen to return to study and head into a new career path - we wish her amazing adventures for the next chapter of her journey!

Petryce (Airport centre) will be commencing maternity leave Thursday the 16th of December we wish her and Jake all the best with the arrival of their first child!

Nat (Airport centre) is due to commence maternity leave Thursday the 13th of January. We wish Nat, Kyle and Laci all the best for the safe arrival of their little girl. 

Welcome, welcome, welcome....

Nicole at Little Bee Howrah!

We would like to say a massive welcome to

Nicole, who is joining our team at Howrah 3 days per week - from January 2022.

Nicole is currently finalising the last stages of her Diploma in Children's Services. Nichole looks forward to introducing herself to our families over the coming weeks!

Bridget as a casual educator to Airport and Howrah!

Bridget has previously completed some units from her Certificate 111 and for the past few years been working at Hutchins in the Early Years program. 

If you haven't already, please check your Family Communication Tray to find your child's enrolment information for next year! 

If you are changing days, please sign and return the confirmation slip in your tray. 

Thank-you to all families who have already returned this information.

Our Christmas Fundraiser!

This Christmas at Little Bee we continue to offer support for under-privileged children living in our Community.  You will notice we are donating to the Hobart City Mission Christmas Appeal.  Thanks to the generosity of many families, we have already built up a  fabulous stack of gifts beneath our Christmas trees at both Centres!

For many children it has been a wonderful teaching opportunity for us to reinforce the concept of giving, with some children even using their own pocket money to buy presents.

We continue to encourage our families to donate a special gift (book, craft items, toy, etc.), unwrapped please if you can!  It is sure to be so well received by those children less fortunate than us.  All gifts must be under the tree by midday Friday 10th December, ready for us to deliver. We thank families for their amazing support.

Information for Review

We are currently reviewing the following policies and/or procedures:

* Little Bee Human Resources Manual

If you would like to have input reviewing this document it would be greatly appreciated, just let us know and we will forward copies to you. Please compose any suggestions you would like to make and place them, either in the suggestions box (at reception) or via email to: littlebee@littlebee.net.au.

Information for families

These are the links from recognised authorities we are promoting this month:

• dhhs.tas.gov.au/mwew/families
• www.hobartcitymission.org.au/

Other readings can be found on the internet from recognised sites, such as: kidsafe.com.au, rch.org.au, acecqa.gov.au, deewr.gov.au and kidswithasthma.com.au, healthinsite.gov.au

Opportunities for Family Involvement

Committee meetings are held on a bi-monthly basis. They are to reflect on our current practices, work on our Centre’s Quality Improvement Plan and continue to maintain the highest standard of, education and care possible.

Our next professional learning session will be held in early February 2022 (date to be confirmed).  We will be focusing on the NQF, QIP and environments and experiences during this training!

All families are invited to join our Committee, your ideas and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated.

Families are also welcome to participate daily in Workplace health and safety checks and/or compliance reviews. Please see one of our staff members if you are interested.