What's been happening at Little Bee ..... Howrah In recent week’s our children at Little Bee Howrah have shown a high degree of interest in Transient Art. A few of the skills that are supported by this experience include; children having opportunities for creative expression, the fostering of fine motor skills, categorisation and expressive language (just to name a few). We have observed that each child takes away from this activity exactly what they need and the diversity has been extraordinary. Some children see the opportunity to sort, categorise or count, while others enjoy the more creative and interpretative element of the experience. All in all, this experience has prompted so much learning and joy amongst the children in these unsettling times. |
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Airport Baby Bees: April has been very busy creating art pieces in small groups and individually. The art pieces included gluing natural materials - where the children spread the glue on page before placing natural materials down and using coloured paints with both hands and paint brushes. We have also been visiting the garden and mud pit enjoying the fresh air whilst we explore the mud using our senses touch, smell and taste, interacting with our peers, creating and building a community. We have been enjoying the use of the tray environment filled with natural materials from previous walks i.e. pine cones, bark, leaves and items found at home i.e. different textured materials, feathers, paint rollers, All the children have enjoyed their new experiences and constantly showing us the new skills they have learnt during interactions over the day and when participating in the experiences provided. Honey Bees In the Honey Bee room this month we continued our journey of exploring, investigating and furthering our knowledge and understanding on how to make colour through natural materials and the history of colour making. We used dried flowers, fruit, vegetable leftovers and ochre to make paint using a mortar and pestle crushing these up and using them to paint with. We found out some interesting information on how Aboriginal people make paint from ochre and animal fats. Painting on rocks represented oral stories passed from generation to generation and paint was also used on the body for ceremonies and still is today! We have been venturing to the chickens and veggie patch. The children are very keen to explore the gardens. We have been using the shovels to dig in the dirt and prepare our gardens to plant some more vegetables. We also have been able to sample some of our very own strawberries straight from the garden. The children have participated in many artworks; rainbow sponge painting, cling wrap sensory artwork, and painting on cardboard. It has been a quiet month and we are missing some of our little friends in Honey Bees, but we will see you all soon. |
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Bumble Bees The Bumble bees have been enjoying a variety of experiences that help us develop our fine motor skills; such as stick paintings and drawing. We have been discussing our facial features and looking at all the different facial expressions we can make in the mirror. The children have enjoyed drawing their faces on paper. We are also beginning to recognise similarities and differences between ourselves and our peers. One way we have been doing this is using the illustrations in books to find similarities and differences and sharing our thoughts and ideas. This has broadened our understanding that we are all different and unique, not only in how we look but in the way we feel. We have continued to enjoy our nature corner using a variety of natural resources for building and creating. In the sandpit we have been making tunnels and structures as the children have taken an interest in building structures for their favourite toys, for example; the cars. We hope everyone is staying safe whether it be at home or at Little Bee. We hope to see our friends back at Little Bee in the near future. |
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Busy Bees This month in the Busy Bee room we welcome Adriana! (Adriana is working every day in Busy Bees while Bec and Tania are isolating due to the potential health risks associated with COVID -19). She is doing an amazing job as she takes on a new project of work - thank-you Adriana! The children have been enthusiastically participating in a variety of art experiences, such as: cellophane collages, chalk drawing, marble painting, brush painting and creating our own beautiful poppies in remembrance of the ANZAC's. We have been exploring how the children interact with each other and looking at the different learning styles of children. By noticing if a child is a kinaesthetic, (hands on) visual or auditory learner, we can further support each child's best way of learning. We have begun to do this by offering a variety of experiences that suit their individual learning styles most! We have really enjoyed linking into Aboriginal culture with a focus on oral story telling. This has seen the children engaging in many story telling experiences. We are giving the children opportunities to listen to stories, become familiar with books and encouraging them to use their imaginations to create their own stories. This is supporting each child to build their confidence in expressing their ideas, thoughts and feelings, while building respect for their peers. Queen Bees The Queen Bee’s have had a very different month as we have found ways to keep connected to our friends who are isolating at home. We started our Zoom sessions, which have proven amazing for keeping us all in touch - it’s been so great to see all the children getting excited and telling each other what they have been up to. We have also enjoyed a number of Birthday celebrations taking place over the last month, which has been nice for all children involved. Programming has been moving forward in an exciting way. We have been talking with the children about how we are all different and the way we live can also be quite different. The latest topic has been cooking sausages and different ways our families have cooked these in the past. We have also been investigating Australian native animals through the use of role-play, clay, creation stories and visual images. We are hoping to look in to how these animals were significant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in so many ways. We have discussed animal totems, dance and ceremony and can wait to begin exploring special types of Aboriginal art works; such as X-ray art, as we head into May. The children have been loving using the light box to look at the X-rays of animals – it is super interesting and soon we will create our own unique art pieces! |
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2020 Flu Shots Update A massive thank you to everyone who has been reading our weekly COVID-19 updates and arranged flu shots for their families, we are so grateful to you for helping us work towards a safer community. Many of our families have expressed concern over being unable to secure a time for their flu shot due to lack of stock. From the information we have been given Eastern Shore Doctors are running clinics throughout May for children and adults. We encourage you to contact their reception on 6282 1333 and they will add you to their waiting list. You will then be contacted when the next clinic becomes available. Also, many pharmacies offer times for adults to have their injection, no need to visit your GP. We are aware that Chemist Warehouse at Sorell currently have times available in the next two weeks, and have also been told the Bellerive Guardian pharmacy will have vaccinations available early May and will be running a clinic. We hope this information helps families, thank you. |
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Little Bee Move Well, Eat Well update... Our aim for every newsletter is to offer families a little piece of the Move Well, Eat Well program, while we continue to implement all strategies outlined in the guidelines here at Little Bee. Over time we will cover all all of the 7 areas, today we are encouraging families to 'think before they drink' - see below for information on sugar content of drinks. |
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Little Bee is offering free children's haircuts! |
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We thought it would be a really nice idea to offer families free hair cuts for your children during the month of May. This idea came about when we considered how difficult it is to access facilities in the Community at this time. Hair cuts will be completed by the gorgeous Taiya, who is a qualified hair dresser (her former occupation before Little Bee). If you would like your child to have a hair cut, please simply email us at: littlebee@littlebee.net.au and we will make a time when both Taiya and your child are attending Little Bee during May. Currently Taiya works Tuesday - Friday at Little Bee, including the occasional Monday - so there is opportunity for all children to access a hair cut if they so wish. We hope in some small way this will make life just that little bit easier for families during this difficult time! |
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Many of our families will already be aware that we have special 'Gratitude Mascots' and journals at Little Bee. Our ‘Mascots’ (cuddly toys) visit a different family’s home each week and they are ever so ‘grateful’ to spend time with a family from their room. Introducing our mascots (for those of you who have not met them yet).… Gertie - Howrah Winslow – Baby Bees Lesley – Honey Bees Edna – Bumble Bees Toddles – Busy Bees Gerald - Queen Bees While our mascots are very important for supporting those wonderful and crucial connections between home and Little Bee, we are sadly putting our mascot visits to family homes on hold until the COVID -19 scare has eased off. While each mascot is washed every time they are returned to Little Bee - it is another thing that we feel is best post phoned in the interests of keeping everyone safe. However, please stay tuned as we will let you all know when it is up and running again in the near future. |
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National Reconciliation Week (Monday 27th May – Monday 3rd June) Each year National Reconciliation Week (NRW) celebrates and builds on the respectful relationships shared by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. The dates that bookend the week are significant milestones in the reconciliation journey. May 27—Marks the anniversary of Australia’s most successful referendum and a defining event in our nation’s history. The 1967 referendum saw over 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognise them in the national census. 3 June—Commemorates the High Court of Australia’s landmark Mabo decision in 1992, which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship to the land—a relationship that existed prior to colonisation and still exists today. This recognition paved the way for land rights or Native Title. In 2020, the National Reconciliation Week theme reinforces that we all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we can collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and cultures. As you will be aware, Little Bee is continuing to celebrate our dedication to building stronger relationships and equality for all Australians, we began working on our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) last year, which has been a wonderful learning journey with many great achievements so far. In our April newsletter, we shared with families lots of information on how we are building many community connections, and while sadly many of these are on hold due to the COVID-19 Crisis, they are still in the pipeline and we look forward to them happening in the future. Our educators are very proud of how we have been able to begin embedding significant aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture into our projects of work. You can read about our project work to see the cultural links we have made in the curriculum news section of this newsletter! We really look forward to sharing with you how we have made these links at our parent/educator conferences towards the end of the year, whether they be face to face or via a zoom session (depending on the COVID-19 situation at the time). |
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Little Bee hours of operation…. We would like to remind all our families, Little Bee Howrah is open from 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and Little Bee Airport 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Our staff do not get paid before or after these times, so we ask families not to arrive at the centre before or after the allocated opening hours. With winter and the darker days approaching the centre will usually be locked until opening time (Howrah 7.30 a.m. and Airport 7 a.m.) and after closing time (5.30 p.m. Howrah and 6 p.m. Airport. If you need to access the centre outside these times for any reason, please contact centre management. Thank you for your support in ensuring the safety of all our Little Bee employees. |
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Happy Mother’s Day!!! We would like to wish all of our “Little Bee Mums” a very Happy Mother's Day on Sunday the 11th May. We hope you all get to spend some quality time with your loved ones… and get a tiny bit spoilt too! |
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Child Care Subsidy Update At this stage the Early Childhood Education and Care relief package includes families who need to, being able to access free education and care until the 26th of June 2020, inline with their booking arrangement prior to the 6th of April 2020. However, the end of the financial year is fast approaching, all families who were claiming Child Care Subsidy prior to 6th April 2020 should have received some correspondence from Centrelink (a task, letter or email) asking them to update their income for the 2020/2021 financial year. To ensure your Child Care Subsidy isn’t cancelled, it is really important families complete this ASAP (although it is still a couple of months away), even if it is just an estimate. As Centrelink often take up to 6 weeks to process and update changes, failure to do so may result in families being required to pay full fees from 29th of June 2020! If you are unsure if you have completed your estimate, please check in your Centrelink Express Plus App or your MyGov account. If you have received information from Centrelink regarding any changes to your current Child Care Subsidy arrangement please let us know. If you have any questions, please contact Emily on 62485994 or Via email at littlebee@littlebee.net.au Thank you. |
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Little Bee Airport - My Family Walls Does your child have a ‘my family’ photo collage? The children really enjoy looking at their family photos and sharing them with their peers! This assists them with social development and having a sense of belonging. We encourage all families to support their child in creating a 'photo collage' and emailing or bringing them along to Little Bee. If your child has one, you are welcome to do an updated version at any time also. Thanks in advance. |
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Food Allergies Awareness Food allergy awareness week falls in May each year; it is an initiative of Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia and is the national initiative to raise awareness and money to support Australians with food allergies—a widespread public health issue that is on the rise. Did you know around 1 in 10 children born in Australia today will develop a food allergy? An allergic reaction can quickly become life threatening; as often families are unaware their child has an allergy until there first serious reaction and tragically this can sometimes be too late. We have many children at Little Bee with food allergies to things such as; egg, cashew nuts, peanuts, almonds, gluten etc. It is because of this, that we ask families to take extra care when providing food for their children at Little Bee. If you would like more information on food allergies visit: foodallergyaware.com.au, or if you would like support for a person with an allergy, visit your GP. Does your child have an allergy?? If your child has an allergy, can you please touch base with us to ensure the allergy details are correct and up to date, as often new allergies arise or children ‘grow out of’ allergies and our information can become inaccurate, thank you. A massive thank you to all of our families who have already supported us to fill in your 'risk minimisation plan' for children with a medical conditon. |
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Information for review We are currently reviewing the following policies and/or procedures: 2.18 - Supervision 2.19 - Management of rest periods and safe sleep for infants/children 2.20 - Dental 2.21 - Laundry Routines at Little Bee 2.22 - Hand Washing Policy and Procedure 2.23 –Child safe environment 2.24 - General Cleaning and Maintenance 2.25- Workplace Health and Safety 2.26- Physical Activity 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: Other readings can be found on the internet from recognised sites such as: www.kidsafe.com.au, www.rch.org.au, www.acecqa.gov.au, www.deewr.gov.au and www.kidswithasthma.com.au, www.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 an online session (topic to be advised) held in May, which our educators will access from home. If you are interested in joining any online professional learning sessions, please let us know. All families are invited to join our Family and Friends Committee or our RAP working group, although these are not operating via face- to face meetings at the moment, 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 Emily if you are interested. |
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