Reconciliation at Little Bee! Little Bee's 'working group' met up on Saturday 3rd August and began the first part of our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) with great excitement. We would like to offer a huge 'thank-you" to our educators, family and community members who have joined our group. Your commitment and dedication is wonderful and we are so grateful to be sharing this journey with such an intelligent, innovative and compassionate group of people! This is such a momentous time for us because we are all beginning to understand and acknowledge the huge influence of culture and how we are all immersed in our own culture - with its associated beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. We are learning what culture really means with the aim to think outside our own cultural paradigm when engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and be able to transfer this knowledge and understanding into our professional practice and programs in an effective and respectful manner. "Cultural Competence is much more than awareness of cultural differences. It is the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures" Our educators undertook an amazing session on Aboriginal Cultural Awareness led by Dewayne Everett Smith from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. It was both a heart wrenching and very inspirational session. If any families would like to see the minutes taken from this session, please let us know and we can email them! |
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National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day is a time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to celebrate the strengths and culture of their children. The day is an opportunity for us to show our support for Aboriginal children, as well as learn about the crucial impact that community, culture and family play in the life of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child. This year, we are delighted as the Aboriginal Community invites us to celebrate the early years and promote the importance of early years education and care! The 2019 Ambassador is Nanna from the animated children’s series 'Little J & Big Cuz'. Our educators will share the video of Nanna with the children on Monday 5th August, 2019. |
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Some of our educators attended the Aboriginal Flag Raising Ceremony at Piyura Kitina (Risdon Cove) during NAIDOC week! |
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NAIDOC celebrations with the children |
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Each year across Australia, the CBCA brings children and books together celebrating CBCA Book Week. During this time schools, libraries, booksellers, authors, illustrators and children celebrate Australian children's literature and you will often see children's book character parades and talented librarians creating amazing displays. Generally, the CBCA Book of the Year winner's announcement is the third Friday in August, and CBCA Book Week commences the following day. 2018 CBCA Book Week Theme and Dates: Theme: Reading is My Secret Power Dates: 17 to 23 August 2019 We will be promoting book week by asking children to bring along your favourite book to share with us! There are many free downloads available from the CBCA website that promote CBCA Book Week and generate excitement, feel free to access this site at home with your child if you wish. |
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At Little Bee Howrah ....... This month at Howrah we've been seeing lots of larger group play. We all worked together to create a small hut outside using clay, sticks, fabrics and other found and donated resources from the outdoor environment. The children were first working to create a stable foundation before decorating the hut to make it an interior designer’s dream! This saw lots of teamwork, sensory learning, problem solving, forward planning and implementation of many components of collaborative ideas. As a part of our yearly QIP goals, we're continuing our important work on gratitude, inspired by Rod Soper’s extensive work on 'The gratitude project.' Each day we fill in our gratitude board and share it with the children and families. Charlie. M spontaneously offered kind words of gratitude to his friend Banjo saying, “I’m grateful for Banjo, my best friend. He can come to my house if he wants.” He further explained, “When he tells me he feels grateful for me; it feels like there’s a mouse in my belly.” What a lovely description of a feeling. We're very glad our gratitude work is being understood and translated so creativity. We've also been caring for our environment by transplanting our pea and bean seeds into our car park garden. Theo watered our seeds for us with a thoughtful promise that he will: "do it for us every day!" |
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At Little Bee Airport ....... Baby Bees The Baby Bee’s have been working hard practicing their physical climbing and exploring the different obstacle courses, jumping off the balancing beams and racing around on the bikes. We have created many different environments and the children are really engaged in their own learning and scaffolding each other’s learning. We have begun introducing more sensory experiences; finger-painting, brush painting, clay and play dough. We have also continued to offer the children many opportunities to use 'loose parts' within their play; the children are being very creative and lots of problem solving is happening during these experiences. We would also like to give a big welcome to our new families that have started with us within the past few weeks. Honey Bees The Honey Bees ‘Wow projects’ are going really well with a range of learning experiences happening; such as: yoga, risky play, creative arts, and role playing with dress ups and telephones. We are looking forward to utilising the end of our playground more, exploring between the trees and creating new play spaces so children can experience free flow play between both areas. We are visiting the big playground every day for children to challenge themselves on some of the larger equipment. Both families and children are enjoying their adventures with ‘Grateful Harry’. We have had lots of children turn two this month and have been loving the celebrations in our room! We are really enjoying singing songs and noticing how clever the children are at doing the actions, while also enjoying story time. We are seeking old phone donations for our room! As we have been really enjoying our role playing lately, we would like to ask families to donate to us any old phones that don’t use anymore, thanks for your support, as always! |
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Bumble Bees Throughout the month of July in the Bumble Bee room we have been continuing to enjoy and explore a variety of art and craft experiences, some including; string, brush, spray and free hand painting which all of the children have enjoyed participating in! Please take the time to have a look at the amazing display which celebrates our creations! We have provided the children with a variety of experiences to celebrate NAIDOC week, some including; hand painting, song and dance and some fun games which we all embraced! The children are continuing to have enjoyment in the home corner, exploring our new resources which have been very kindly donated including; a pram, highchair and makeup station which have all been very popular! We have recently introduced a defusser with a range of essential oils which we use throughout the day, this is going well and creates a sense of calm within the room. Our focuses within educator programs are also advancing along nicely, we have been working on physical health, well-being and nutrition, including; reading the children a variety of stories related to health topics. The repeated moulding and manipulating of clay has enabled the children to create beds, while risky play experiences have involved a deeper look into fire safety; as we cook a variety of yummy food on the camp fire together. The children have thoroughly enjoyed participating in this and of course eating our cooked foods too! Another firm favourite in our room is the use of goop and slime. What a fun and enjoyable time we have had this month in the Bumble Bee room! |
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Busy Bees Over the last month in the Busy Bee room the children have enjoyed exploring many games with the parachute outside. We have had some very busy and fun filled days with educator projects spanning across so many learning areas, allowing us to get really creative, whilst building our self help skills at the same time! Some of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural experiences we have been offering the children are becoming embedded in our routines. We have played a variety of traditional Aboriginal games where the children have responded with enthusiasm and interest. In July we celebrated NAIDOC week in a very special way when Wendy and Naarah (her daughter) visited us and sang us some Aboriginal songs, and read us a story about how birds got their colours. We explored Aboriginal artists and created our own story paintings of animals which we like and know about. We plan on using our story paintings for the trunk of our 'gratitude tree'. The children have all thoroughly enjoyed participating in these activities. |
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Queen Bees During July we have been very busy and lots of learning has been happening. We have been focusing on recycling, including drawing our own recycling bin, and covering it with recycled lids while learning about what types of items we can and cannot recycle. We have been learning about taking risks and safety and making damper and cooking it in the fire pit. We had some friends visit for NAIDOC week, which is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, traditions and culture. The children had a great time singing songs and reading Aboriginal stories. Our whole group on the Thursday worked with Wendy and Naarah to create a flag of our hand prints using red, yellow and black. The theme was 'lets work together; Voice, Treaty, Truth'. Black – represents the Aboriginal people of Australia. Yellow circle – represents the Sun, the giver of life and protector. Red – represents the red earth, the red ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal peoples’ spiritual relation to the land. The children gained so much from this experience and we could see the excitement on their faces! |
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Dental Health Week 5th to 11th August |
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Dental Health Week, takes place in the first full week of August. It is the Australian Dental Association’s major annual oral health promotion. Its aim is to educate Australians about the importance of maintaining good oral health in every aspect of their lives. Did you know? - Children should first visit the dentist at 18 months of age (Oral Health Services Tasmania offers free dental check-ups to all children under 18 years of age).
- Children should attend the dentist annually.
- Dental health professionals recommend children should stop having bottles at the age of 12 months (after 12 months a ‘sippy’ cup for milk is recommended).
- Children should never take a bottle of milk to bed as the milk may pool in their mouth and cause tooth decay.
- It is recommended that children drink water with added fluoride until at least 16 years of age, this helps strengthen their teeth and aid in the prevention of tooth decay. As mentioned in a previous newsletter, if your family has ‘tank’ water at home, you are welcome to bring your child’s drink bottle in empty and we can fill it with ‘town’ water.
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Bread Tags for Wheelchairs was started in South Africa in 2006 by Mary Honeybun. It is a community program where individuals and organisations collect bread tags, which are sold to recyclers. The money raised pays for wheelchairs for the less fortunate which are purchased through a local pharmacy. Currently about 500 kg of bread tags are collected a month in South Africa, funding 2-3 wheelchairs. This initiative has been happening in Australia since September 2018, with 100 collection points across the Country. At Little Bee, we have decided to help too, Taiya and the Queen Bee children have re-purposed our used ‘earn and learn’ boxes to become our 'bread tag collecting boxes'. By collecting bread tags it enables us to support in the provision of wheelchairs, that change the life of disabled people in need, as well as keeping the tags out of landfill to help to preserve the environment! These humble bits of polystyrene can make a real difference, so please support us by getting your friends, family, even your workplace involved and placing your bread tags in our collection boxes at each centre! Perhaps we could even ask some local bakery’s to collect for us - as we know they get through a lot of bread! Thank-you for your kind support! |
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Gum boots and Spare clothes Please continue to pack at least two changes of named spare clothes in your child's bag and if possible, a pair of gumboots would be fantastic! We are finding that once the children’s shoes are wet, it limits their access to the outdoors later in the day. While we do have some spare shoes, unfortunately not enough for everyone. Please make sure all clothes, shoes (and drink bottles) are labelled to assist us in finding the correct clothes when a change is needed. |
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Information for Review We are currently reviewing the following policies and/or procedures: 6.5 - Non Custodial Parent Access 6.6 - Parent Access to children 6.7 – Enrolment, Orientation and Separation 6.8 - Diversity and Inclusion Equity and Anti Bias Issues 6.9 - Priority of Access 6.10 – Facebook policy 6.11 - Community Links 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 These are the links we are promoting this month: 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 on the 10th September, 2019 if you are interested in attending, please let us know. We will be exploring educational resources and programs to support our reconciliation journey. 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 the staff if you are interested. |
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