Little Bee Newsletter March 2020 |
|
|
Family Event Reschedule! Our Little Bee Family Fun day was post phoned due to extreme weather conditions on the day. Please see the poster below for the new date and time! This is a free event for Little Bee families, we hope to see you there! |
|
|
We are advertising early, as we know April will be here before we know it! Please join us for our hugely popular annual Easter Egg twilight hunt!!! When: Friday 3rd April Where: Little Bee Airport (specifics to follow in individual invitations) Time: 6pm |
|
|
Public Holiday Little Bee will be CLOSED on Monday 9th March, as it is a public holiday for labour day. We hope all of our families have a great long weekend! |
|
|
Road Safety Thank-you to all children this week who have already brought in your bikes and/or scooter to celebrate Bike week 2020! We hope to see a few more bikes and scooters come in during the latter part of this week! It provides an excellent opportunity to introduce discussions on road safety with the children in preparation for our upcoming police visit! |
|
|
It will be a very exciting and busy day on Monday 16th March, as we discover the importance of road safety. Senior Constable Simon Jones will attend Little Bee Howrah at 10 a.m. and Little Bee Airport at 11 a.m. to talk with the children about being safe on our roads. If your child does not attend on this day, please feel free to bring them in during this time, however, due to our educator:child ratios you will need to stay with your child during this time, Thank-you! |
|
|
Family and Friends Event Schedule for March - June 2020! After our recent successful meeting, we have planned our events for the first half of the year. Please save the dates, as we'd love to see as many families as possible at these fun events! |
|
|
Our Reconciliation Journey 2019 - 2020... Our RAP working group are very proud of the deep, caring Community connections we are forming with Aboriginal people to ensure all aspects of cultural diversity and safety are embedded at Little Bee. Our key journey focuses are and continue to be in 2020: * Working together in partnership with Aboriginal people through Community events, regular RAP working group meetings where we honor our Aboriginal guest speakers, our Little Bee employees, families and friends events and children's projects of work. * Raising the profile of Aboriginal people, heritage and culture by sharing the truth of history. * Building a culturally safe work place at Little bee and increasing Community understanding and respect. * Demonstrating social justice, anti bias and inclusion in partnerships with Aboriginal people to ensure our actions, accountability and long term commitment is maintained over time. Projects of children's work It is with great anticipation that we begin a brand new programming cycle for 2020 where all educators will work in small teams to commence their 'WOW project' inquiries. How does it work? Each inquiry based 'WOW project' is unique to each educator team! We each choose a topic of child development that we would like to focus on and undertake research from a variety of recognised authorities to find out information that we didn't know before. Hence the name: "WOW project!... Wow, I didn't know that before!" We stretch our educational knowledge with new information and we use this information to provide further learning opportunities for the children. In this way we are stretching the children's learning in a brand new way too!Each educator team is overseeing certain children to ensure all learning is provided for. Please just ask an educator from your room what the focus will be for your child! Lots of images of the learning we have noticed will be displayed on our walls! Changes in children's growth and development will be documented as it occurs and the project will show a progression of learning over time. Parent / Educator conferences will be held in November where you can see and discuss your child's learning journey first hand! What can I expect to see from a cultural perspective? At Little Bee we respectfully believe that all Aboriginal and non Aboriginal children, educators and families have the right to learn about the culture of our first peoples. We are on a wonderful and exciting learning journey to increase our cultural awareness and knowledge as we work together to gain a deeper understanding, pride and acceptance of Tasmanian history. Our Cultural planning has been carefully developed and shared collaboratively with Aboriginal Community members. All educators are excited to have the opportunity to teach about Aboriginal culture within our projects. It is our intention in 2020 to invite special Aboriginal Elders and friends to share their knowledge and wisdom with our educators and children as we continually reflect together on our learning journey! |
|
|
Our program news: Howrah What a great start to the year we’re having at Little Bee Howrah. The children have immersed themselves into lots of different play experiences. We hope they will use these experiences to express their own identity. As we learn more about our new children and the ever-evolving personalities of our long-term friends, we are able to offer more play environments created around their own expressed interests. Chester has shown he has a passion for cooking through a large group cooking experience and Louis LOVES messy play, so we created some balloon and wall painting experiences that he used to share a knowledge of cause and effect. We’re very grateful to Harriett for bringing in her beautiful baby duck to show us. It was so wonderfully interesting! He was the talk of the playground for the rest of the day after his visit. |
|
|
Airport Baby Bees Over the month of February in the Baby Bee room we have been making the most of the glorious sunshine! We have been getting outside and exploring our new deck; role playing in the cubby house and even taking a couple of bush walks to collect some natural resources for our bush cave (this will be making an appearance soon in March) Indoors we have been exploring the new sensory bottles and hula hoops. The children are particularly enjoying listening to and singing along to nursery rhymes. We have also done some artwork with natural resources, please look out for our displays of children's work! Honey Bees During the month of February we have welcomed Amanda (our new educator), watched and help prepare the new deck play space and a herb garden! Amanda has had many years of experience in education and care brings great knowledge and new ideas to the room and is building strong relationships with the children. Our herb garden is a great addition for the children to learn new skills, have fun, socialise and develop self-confidence by spending time in the garden tending plants and growing their own food. The children have also been enjoying getting out in the community visiting a ‘gumnut’ tree and collecting natural resources to explore within the room We have all enjoyed exploring the gumnuts we have collected with the paints. |
|
|
Bumble Bees The Bumble Bee children have had a busy month developing new environments throughout the room to build on their relationships. The Bumble Bees have settled into the room feeling comfortable, sharing books in our new cultural corner, dancing with each other to music, joining in play at the cars and exploring together in the nature corner with water and clay. We have explored our creative sides, painting curtains for rest time, making colourful helmets out of boxes and creating a variety of artworks through use of natural material painting, easel painting and paper collage. Look out for our displays of the children's work coming up! Busy Bees This month of February the Busy Bee children have been investigating by using our creative minds! We have participated in cotton bud paintings, where the children chose their own colours and to use a cotton bud or thier fingers as they wished. The designs and patterns we saw within the children art work is amazing! We have observed an avid interest in the blocks and box work. The interest started with the large duplo, then moved onto lego. Outside the children have enjoyed the large foam blocks, building towers with them and knocking them down. Another favourite is our new transport blocks, where the children created their own transport ‘station’. We have also been investigating and contributing to our new program environments and experiences. Please watch this space for more beautiful places and spaces to come as our projects get underway! Queen Bees This past month has been so much fun and very eventful in the Queen Bee room, as we have been making changes to our room environment, as well as welcoming new children to our room and hearing all about our kinder children’s days at "big school". We have had a wonderful time engaging in lots of art and craft experiences. The children have thoroughly enjoyed using play to investigate, imagine and explore their ideas, with lots of expression and creativity shining through! To aid the children’s exploration of painting techniques, we have added a variety of painting tools to observe the children’s creativity and passions. Sculpting and modelling with playdough and clay has also produced some amazing results with children creating trees for koala’s, houses, snakes and so many cup cakes for everyone to share. |
|
|
Exploring the changing seasons/weather .... Part of Little Bee's philosophy is to explore the fresh air and outdoors and embrace the changes that occur naturally with the different seasons and weather. We love to collect fallen leaves, jump in muddle puddles, look at the clouds, watch the rain fall down etc. During some of our times of exploration children will become muddy and wet. We request families pack suitable named spare clothes for their children as we will change them into clean, dry clothes once the experience is complete or the child has chosen to stop participating. Families are welcome to bring along some named gumboots for your child to wear while enjoying outdoor play. "It was, and is still thought by many, that exposure to cold temperatures, especially in winter caused the common cold. By itself this does not appear to be true. The common cold is caused by viruses. One needs to catch one of these viruses to get a cold - just exposure to low temperatures won't do it. However when it's cold and wet outside we are more likely to be indoors and be in more crowded places including with other people who may have a cold. Hence cold weather does make it more likely that we will catch a cold, especially if we are near people who have one" Prof. Peter Collignon If families have any feedback, questions or concerns please stop and chat to us or email through to littlebee@littlebee.net.au |
|
|
Little Bee provides opportunities for children to choose a barefoot option during the day, however in order to do our best to ensure all children's feet are kept safe, we kindly ask families to pack a pair of sturdy shoes with an enclosed toe for use during higher risk activities. This is for when children are participating in experiences like: riding bikes, when we visit the chickens and our gardens and when using the zip line. Upon reviewing the 'Things from Home' policy, this update was added. We also have had some toys that are deemed inappropriate (guns and swords etc.) and kindly ask families to refrain from bringing these in, even if it is for 'Share and Care'. |
|
|
Harmony week is fast approaching, and is an opportunity for all people to celebrate our vibrant multicultural Country. Harmony Week is a state-wide program dedicated to showcasing our differences and acknowledging we all belong. It is coordinated by the Multicultural Council of Tasmania, in partnership with the Tasmanian Government, Harmony Week builds on national Harmony Day, celebrated on 21 March to coincide with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Harmony Week aims to promote unity, understanding and respect for all individuals who call Tasmania home. During the week we encourage everyone to experience, explore and appreciate our wealth of cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity. If you or a member of your family or close friend would like to come in and do a special culturally inspired experience, please let one of your room educators know and we will arrange a time. Why stop on Harmony week? If you would like to come in at any time and share an experience with the children here at Little Bee, our educators really welcome this. If you decide to come in and share with us, please keep in mind the experience will need to be age appropriate and supportive of the children’s learning. Thank you. Each room will be embracing Harmony week in their own unique way, so please keep an eye out within the rooms and on our Facebook page to see what’s happening. Below is some information on some of the wonderful events around Hobart coming up, where all Community members are welcome to participate: Multicultural Hub Open Day 16 March @ 10:00 am - 17 March @ 3:00 pm The Multicultural Hub, 65 Hopkins Street
Moonah, Tasmania 7009 Australia + Google Map Multicultural Hub is going to be open to public on 16 - 17 March 2020 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to celebrate Harmony Week with the wider community of Tasmania. There will be communities and service providers from different background who will be opening booths to display their culture and heritage to the public. There will also be performances and food tasting from different communities. Find out more » Harmony Week Concert for Diversity 19 March @ 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm CatholicCare Tasmania, 35 Tower Road
Newtown, Tasmania 7008 Australia + Google Map CatholicCare Tasmania will be collaborating with the Department of Home Affairs for a Harmony Week event. We are asking participants to bring a plate of food to share. There will be musical performances, dancing and face painting. Find out more » Celebrate Harmony Day at the Royal Hobart Hospital 20 March @ 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Royal Hobart Hospital, 48 Liverpool Street
Hobart, Tasmania 7000 Australia + Google Map The Royal Hobart Hospital will be celebrating Harmony Day this year on the 20th March. There will be a space provided to engage with people entering the hospital around the theme 'everyone belongs'. The cafeteria of the hospital are also going to participate and have created a 'Taste of Harmony' menu for the day. Members of the public are welcome to attend. Find out more » Hobart Respects All 20 March @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm The City of Hobart's Networking for Harmony Multicultural Advisory Group will launch their anti-racism campaign 'Hobart Respects All' on Friday 20 March, 2020, at midday in the Elizabeth Street Mall. The campaign aims to highlight the issue of racism and the impact it has on individuals and communities. There campaign is also a call to arms asking people to ‘Make a Difference’ and ‘Call Out Racism’. There will also be information to help bystanders understand the different ways they can… Find out more » Basketball of Colours 22 March @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Filipino Australian in Tasmania Inc, 10 Dampier Street
Warrane, Tasmania 7018 Australia + Google Map Multicultural Council of Tasmania is partnering with Filipino Australian in Tasmania Inc to organised a friendly match at Warrane Stadium. Find out more » |
|
|
Facebook Information... Our Facebook groups are such a massive success as they support a vital link in communication between Little Bee and families, every single day! While Facebook is an excellent tool for posting up important messages to each other, we would like to share with families the main purpose of the Facebook group. Its primary function is to show you all the wonderful learning that occurs within our program each and every day using both images and text. We all love to see photographs of our own children working, playing and enjoying themselves at Little Bee. I know it always brings a huge smile to my face when I see my own child on Facebook and some of the photos taken are just beautiful. We are so lucky that we can then access these photos with the simple click of a button and save them in our personal photo collections! However, we do need to remind you that it is in our terms and conditions that families do not copy and re-post photographs of their own child if another child is present in the photo. This ensures the wishes of all families are adhered to, as we all have personal preferences around social media safety. Alongside this, we are aware that families might sometimes feel deflated when their child's photo does not appear on the page. It is not possible for us to post photos of every child, every day. We are putting strategies in place to ensure that each child features on Facebook through their project work. We would like to thank all of our families for your support and communication within our Facebook group and for making the group such a positive experience for everyone! We are very grateful! |
|
|
Immunisations A big thank you to all those families who have provided us with evidence of your child’s immunisations. It is in the families best interest to ensure our records are up to date, as if we have a case of an immunisable disease (e.g. chicken pox) all children who are over the immunisation age (18 month for chicken pox) and not immunised (according to our records) will be excluded as one of our methods in preventing an outbreak. In additional to this, your CCS is at risk of being cut off if your child is not immunised. There is a national immunisation schedule displayed at the Centre, however, families are reminded child immunisations are at: birth, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 4 years. There are additional immunisations for ‘at risk’ children, please visit www.immunise.health.gov.au. |
|
|
Entertainment memberships are all going digital!!!! Keep an eye out in your family tray for more information!!! |
|
|
Over the past few years, we have participated in the Entertainment membership fundraiser across both centres and it has been a great success. Last year we purchased home corner equipment with the money we raised, and we look forward to selling them again this year. Information and order forms are not available yet, however, we wanted to let families know in hope they will buy their membership from us rather than another organisation. We will have membership information out for families really soon, if you are keen, please ask us for more information, thank you for oyur support. |
|
|
The exciting introduction of our new 'Travelling Gratitude on a Platter!...' |
|
|
Our 'gratitude platter' was first introduced at the beginning of last year and travelled to several businesses during 2019. It was loaded up with 'goodies' and first given to 'The Bellerive Veterinary Clinic' to show them our gratitude towards all the wonderful work they do caring for the sick animals in our Community! We then received a wonderful email on our Little Bee face book page from the Veterinary clinic, who excitedly told us about where the platter went to next, a Retro wares shop called Shop@Franklin in the Houn Valley!! After this, we sadly lost track of our travelling gratitude on a platter, but hope to re-spark the interest by thanking and showing appreciation for businesses near to our hearts in our local Community! |
|
|
Centre Link Information for 2020 |
|
|
A reminder to all families that each child is only entitled to 42 absences per financial year. After this any additional absences (including pubic holidays), families will be required to pay full fees. If a family can provide supporting documentation, e.g. a doctor’s certificate and we may be able to claim an additional absence and you will receive the fee relief you are entitled to, however, public holidays cannot be claimed as additional absences. Any questions, please contact Emily at the Airport centre on 62485994. |
|
|
Policy Updates Festivals policy: Upon return of a child's background information sheet (either at enrolment or when transitioning to a new room) educators will record down the celebrations and festivals that the family share together at home! This will enable us to support the cultures of all families attending Little Bee. Things from Home Policy: Sturdy and enclosed shoes will be worn on zip line, bikes and when visiting chickens and garden. Discussions around the bringing of appropriate toys for 'Share and Care' sessions. Planning, implementation and evaluation Policy: Updates were made to reflect WOW projects and research of topics for educators. Information for Review We are currently reviewing the following policies and/or procedures: Technology Policy Profile book policy Emergency and evacuation Incident, injury, trauma and illness Medication Administration of first aid If you would like to have input reviewing these documents 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 The readings we are promoting for the month are: Other readings can be found 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 Staff Professional learning sessions 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 staff professional learning session will be held on Tuesday 7th April 2020, 6pm-8pm. All families are invited to join us at any time, 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 if you are interested. |
|
|
|
|
