Little Bee Newsletter July 2020 |
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We are in our second year of defusing DoTERRA pure essential oils! |
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There are two DoTerra pure essential oils that we mix together and defuse in each play space during the day. These are the protective and respiratory blend, otherwise known as 'onguard' and 'easy air'. We hope to support the children, families and educators at Little Bee by minimising air born pathogens and reducing the spread of germs in our environment. At rest times we defuse ‘DoTERRA pure essential 'lavendar' oil to create a calm and tranquil atmosphere during sleep and rest times and to support the children to experience emotional peace and a heightened sense of well being. |
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Have you returned your Complying Written Arrangement (CWA)? Have you returned your COVID-19 Protocol for Essential visitors to the service? Thank you to all families who have returned theirs, if you are yet to do so, please return ASAP, any questions please chat to us. School Holidays are nearly here! Second term school holidays have begin Monday the 6th of July. Are you lucky enough to be heading away for the school holidays? If so can you please let us know, this assists us with rostering (and also meals at Little Bee Airport). Thank you |
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Little bee is proud to be a Move Well, Eat Well accredited Early Childhood Service, we are always looking for new and exciting ways to embed the Move Well, Eat Well program within our service. One of the key messages from the program is the importance of ‘Move, Play and Go’ throughout the whole year. We are very passionate about engaging children in ‘huff and puff’ play every day. During the winter months, it can be very difficult to keep active. The Move Well, Eat Well website: http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/mwew/families has an array of information for families. However, we are encouraging families to get out and about and explore what’s on within the local community. Some ways we suggest keeping children moving in winter include: - Going to your local indoor pool
- Turning up the music and engaging your children in dance
- Rugging up and accessing local parks, bike or walking tracks, bonus being they tend to be quieter this time of the year and the children tend to love scootering and bike riding!!
- Organising a get together at an activity centre, e.g. Meal Machines Cafe & Play Centre, Eastside Activity Centre, Inflatable World, Supatramp, Woody's Skate & Play
- ‘Google’ fun exercise games to play with children and the ideas and suggestions are plentiful.
Most children enjoy any form of active play if it is with a family member, as long as children are huffing and puffing at the end of the activity, it has been beneficial to their health and well being. |
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NAIDOC (National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee) week Updates The National NAIDOC Committee has postponed NAIDOC Week 2020 (no longer 5 July - 12 July) in the interest of safety of their communities. They have taken on-board the advice from the Federal Government, health experts, their key partners and from leading national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations. With a second potential wave of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) still being possible across Australia, and of course as we head into winter, it could have disastrous impacts on both non Aborignal and Aboriginal peoples who are at a higher risk. The National NAIDOC Committee has confirmed the new dates for this years NAIDOC focus will be from the 8-15 November. This years NAIDOC poster winner is Noongar and Saibai Islander man Tyrown Waigana, who is an artist and designer based in Perth. The winning artwork, depicting this years NAIDOC theme 'Always was, always will be,' is titled - Shape of Land. The design features the Rainbow Serpent coming out of the Dreamtime to create this country and how we are strongly connected to it. As always, Little Bee continues to work on embedding the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities into our daily practises and project work. We are in the process of designing a new ‘yarn centre’ for oral story telling times in our outdoor area and we have recently purchased flags and flag poles for each centre! Once they arrive, we look forward to flying our new flags with pride - The Aboriginal, Australian and Torres Strait Islander flags!
Each room at our Airport Centre and at our Howrah Centre, have finalised their 'Acknowledgement of Country' and we enjoy sharing our acknowledgements on a daily basis! |
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A very special visitor... Lee-Anne is a very special and important visitor, who has donated her time to come in to our Airport Centre and share some wonderful parts of Aboriginal culture with the children. Lee-Anne is multi talented; she grows her connection to Little Bee through her relationship with Mila; being a Grandmother, a respected Aboriginal Elder, author and artist! Lee-Anne has so much knowledge to share with us! Today we see Lee-Anne sharing Aboriginal songs with the children. She introduces some beautiful animal dot paintings, of her own creation, that she has so kindly gifted to the Centre and sings the Aboriginal animal names to the children. Lee-Anne shares information on shell necklace weaving, gifts us some traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal herbs for our bush garden. We cannot thank Lee-Anne enough for her sharing of knowledge and we look forward to her visit next month! |
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Our journey of Reconciliation continues to evolve, as we head into to our second year of RAP planning. We have many dedicated members of our RAP Working Group, always helping and supporting us in this amazing process. Would you like to be involved? We are seeking expressions of interest from families to join our working group. We hope to recommence meetings now that the COVID-19 scare has eased in Tassie. One of our newest initiatives is to have Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander speakers at our meetings to help us gain more knowledge and develop our ideas to share with the children. If you would like to be a part of this group, or know of someone who might, we highly value your opinions and input. With family representatives, we can ensure our RAP supports the opinions and voice of our families and children attending Little Bee. We understand that everyone's time is very precious and we do not expect meetings will take much of your personal time. Please email us if you are interested in joining us, as always we are extremely grateful! Perhaps you can support us from the sidelines? Making connections and building relationships takes time and has not been without difficulty. As with all challenging things in life, it is bringing us enormous rewards for the children at Little Bee. We are genuine in our intentions and welcome any support, even if it via a phone call or email! Creative Multicultural Experiences If any families would like to share your ideas, participate or lead a creative, cultural session for us (if you play an instrument or have a special artistic talent, enjoy singing or dancing) please see a staff member, as we would love you to join us! |
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What's been happening at Little Bee?? Howrah This month we have been deep diving into gardening and caring for country. A sensory “sniffing” tray filled with dried flowers and herbs sparked interesting discussion about nature. The investigation is initiated by educator with some inquiry questions: “Did you know, all of these things are from nature. If you care for nature, it will give you beautiful gifts like these.” “What's Nature?” Josh asks inquisitively. “Rose, Nikki! I can see a rose petal” he says excitedly. “Ohh, that’s a lovely smell.” Josh delights in the scent of the rosemary. |
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We engage in an activity using the light table to closely examine the properties and characteristics of leaves. “Leaf!” Zane verbalises to me, as he points to a round top leaf. “Up, down” he says, running his finger around the edge of the leaf, recognising the differences between the shapes of the vegetation on the light table. |
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Together, we searched the local “Phoenix street” park on one of our routine excursions. We were working to collect “natural treasures” to fill our cardboard “treasure chest” boxes. “I got some gum tree!” Nola explained to the group. “This goes in there” she says, placing two twigs inside each other, creating what looks like perfectly connected puzzle pieces. This is a great demonstration of the many uses we can find for our natural resources. Well done, Nola. We have also been working to replant our fantasy garden and car park plots. Louis explains to us: “I have planted before with Mummy. We planted beans. We grow them with water.” Daisy hurries to the gardening table. “We need water!” She is recognising that water is one of the things that seeds need to grow. Alice works independently to plant a seed. I begin by asking Alice, “What do you think we’re doing here?” We are sitting at a table full of the resources we’ll need for planting. “We’re going to plant a seed and they’re going to grow into lovely veggies and flowers!” Jude begins to follow the steps needed to successfully plant a seed too. “You need to write your name first, Jude” I direct. Jude holds the texta with purpose using a closed fist grip and begins transcribing symbols onto the plastic bag. |
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Airport Queen Bees What an amazing month we have had in June and how lovely it has been seeing most of our children in Queen Bees back with us. As a collective group, educators and Queen Bee children have now put together our very own 'Acknowledgement of Country' which is becoming part of our morning group time routine. Lots of learning has been taking place with some groups of children having the opportunity to explore native animal tracks and learning the Aboriginal symbols for these. We were even super lucky that James showed us an oral story in the sandpit which the children absolutely loved. Other groups of children have been learning about Gunyahs which were traditional Aboriginal huts, we have been focusing on how they used to be made and how we may be able to make our own to have at Little Bee. Busy Bees In the Busy Bee room we started off the month of June with a “Welcome Winter” artwork. We explored the book “All through the year” and talked about the seasons and what they all bring to us. The children pointed out how they love seeing and playing in the snow. Using shredded paper, we made fun collages creating our own snowmen or snowy mountains. We also investigated a book with Aboriginal symbols, depicting the Australian animal tracks. The children then created their own symbols through drawings, expressing their creativity and imagination. Throughout the month of June the children engaged in many dramatic play experiences, especially being "chefs". They have been cooking in our home corner, having their peers along to help prepare or ‘try’ the food. We also have had many opportunities to make playdough and the children loved helping to measure the ingredients and stirring them. Using the playdough, rolling and squishing it, they created their favourite foods – cupcakes, sausages and pasta – they said. We then decided to have a real cooking experience making our own spaghetti! The children loved making the pasta dough and were amazed using the pasta machine, rolling the dough through the machine and seeing the spaghetti coming out of the roller blade. And of course we loved having the spaghetti for lunch! |
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Bumble Bees Throughout the month of June in the Bumble Bee room we have been continuing to enjoy and explore a variety of experiences through our programming, these include looking at different foods through different cultures; including edible plants and familiar foods from home. We have also been investigating Mutton Birds and where they live; as well as other native animals and their habits. The children have thoroughly enjoyed having our blue tongue friends; JJ and Jedi in our room, learning to care for them and discovering all about blue tongue lizards. The children are continuing to have enjoyment in the home corner, exploring our kitchenware and “foods,” cooking up a storm with each other. Our focuses within the room are continuing to go along really well, we have been working on our 'Acknowledgment to Country' and practicing what we are grateful for daily, as well as continuing to enjoy group times singing. All of our favourite songs; such as the MILK song have been a big hit. What a fun and enjoyable time we have had in the Bumble Bee room! Honey Bees We have been super busy in the Honey Bee room for the month of June. We have engaged in more planting within our garden. The garden is looking nice and healthy with lots of vegetables and herbs starting to sprout! We have began to harvest some of our herbs to make some scrambled eggs. We have also been investigating animals and their tracks using ochre and clay, it's great seeing the tracks the animals leave and studying the patterns that their feet make. We have also enjoyed visits with the lizards in the Bumble Bee room and some of us have touched them, feeling very brave. Baby Bees During the month of June, we have created and implemented our daily 'Acknowledgement of Country'. You will see the footage of us singing with instruments on Facebook. We have offered the children more opportunities to further investigate through art and broaden our understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. The children have opportunities to express themselves creatively, using natural art materials which will include: charcoal, ochre, water and mud. We have also been sharing together an Aboriginal symbols book as we explore with art materials. We have been introducing essential oils, herbs and plants to the children for them to start exploring more widely their sense of smell and taste. We have loved watching the children's reactions to the different smells, as some smells are stronger than others. It has also helped to build the muscles to smell when sniffing the materials. |
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Give Me 5 for Kids Fundraiser A very big thank you to all our families and staff who wore your PJ's for a week and gave generously to the 'Give Me 5 for Kids Fundraiser'. It was lovely to see all the children and staff enjoying the cosy feel of their pyjamas. Some educators even went all out and wore matching PJ sets! We raised a fantastic $300 between both centres! |
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National Immunisation Program (NIP) Childhood Schedule We would like to remind all families of the ‘No Jab, No Play’ policy. Families will not receive child care subsidy if their child is not fully immunised. Please see information around the Centre regarding immunisation schedules or chat to us if you have any questions and we will source additional information for you. Please ensure you provide the centre with copies of your child’s immunisation records as they are updated. Thank you For more information please visit: immunise.health.gov.au |
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Child Care Fees to recommence We hope all families received our COVID-19 family update 16 and the attached Transition arrangements for the end of the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package Information for families (emailed Tuesday 30th June). The Early Childhood Education and Care package is finishing on July 12th. Therefore all families (unless ACCS approved) will be required to pay an out of pocket cost for sessions of care from Monday the 13th of July. If you are new to Little Bee, since April 6th 2020 and have not yet paid your $50 administration fee, this will be deducted from your nominated account week beginning 13th of July. If you pay fortnightly or weekly (current week +1) your fees may begin being deducted from your nominated account from next week (payment in advance for sessions of care for week beginning the 13th of July). Please check your Little Bee invoice carefully (emailed usually on Saturdays, either weekly or fortnightly depending on your chosen payment schedule), if you have any questions please contact Emily on 62485994 or via email at littlebee@littlebee.net.au. Thank you. |
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Information for Review We are currently reviewing the following policies and/or procedures: 5.2 – Positive interactions with children 5.3 - Behaviour Guidance 6.1 – Safety and access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 6.2 – Delivery and collection of a child and refusal of authorization for a child to leave the service 6.3 – Bookings, cancellations, fees and operating hours 6.4 – Partnerships with families 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: kidsafe.com.au, rch.org.au, acecqa.gov.au, deewr.gov.au and kidswithasthma.com.au, healthinsite.gov.au Opportunities for Family Involvement Educator 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 professional learning session will be held August via an online session, if you are interested in attending, please let us know. All families are invited to join our Family and Friends 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. |
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