Up coming Parent Workshops.

Over the last couple of months the Kindergarten staff have had a number of parents asking for advice on particular topics and wanting to know some strategies to help in their situations. Fear not, unsuprisingly the questions that have been asked have been very similar to those of other families. The Kindergarten staff have contacted Centacare to come in and give short talks and share in experiences that relate to your concerns.
We have asked Brian from Centacare to come and present workshops on the First 4 Years -Growing Happy and Confident Children. We are hoping to gauge your interest and book Brian for a 6 week course of sessions running from 7pm till 9pm on Monday or Tuesday nights.
The topics for the workshops are as follows:

• Children and Play.
• What's happening for your child at this age.
• Building connection in your family.
• How to include Rituals, Celebrations and outings in your family.
• Learning your child's language.
• Sharing the ups and downs with others parents.
  

Other parents have attended these workshops outside of School and the feedback was very positive. Please contact your son's teacher to show your interest.
More information to you soon.

Parents Social Dinner - The Strathmore

Dear Parents,
Trina B. has organised a wonderful dinner get-together for Little Princes parents and staff.
It will be held on Friday 14th of September (put it in your diary now!) at 7.00pm. Trina and her staff have put together a set of truly scrumptious options as a three course meal all for $33pp that is payable at Kindergarten before the evening. As this site is a public site, the location of our dinner is on a newsletter in your son's pigeon hole along with all those yummy food choices and a reply slip. You may also RSVP through this blog site. We hope you can all make it as it promises to be a fun evening.
Thanks
Kindergarten Staff

Paper Chase - Hand Beaters Wanted

Dear Parents,

we are beginning to make paper pulp this week. We are looking for any old fashioned hand beaters that the boys could use to make their pulp with. If you have any hand beaters at home that we could you for a week or two we would be very appreciative.

Thanks

Kindergarten Staff

A Cake Stall for Sunrise

Dear Parents,
thankyou so much for your support of Samnang, our visitor from Cambodia. Thanks to your genorosity he will be warm and well fed during his visit here. We are all looking forward to hearing him and his friends in concert.
Boys from Year Three have decided to hold a cake stall all this week to raise money to send back to Cambodia with the sunrise children. We would like to support this and on Wednesday the 29th of August we will be taking Kindergarten children who would like to buy a cake to the stall. If your son would like to visit the stall please ensure that you put a gold coin donation in the cake stall jar and tick off your son's name. Due to specialist classes and timetable clashes we will only be visiting the stall once.
For those who are iterested to learn more about how Samnang lives and the wonderful work of Sunrise in Cambodia you can find information at the following address :
http://www.sunrisechildrensvillage.com/

Samnang at home

Songs from Week 5 Term 3

Here are words to one of the songs that the children have been singing in class.

Where are the Bees?
Here is the beehive,
But where are the bees,
Hiding away where nobody sees,
Watch them come creeping out of their hive,
One, Two, Three, Four Five,
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
Back in the Beehive.

The House of the Bears.
When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her blue eyes see?
A bowl that was big, a bowl that was small,
a bowl that was tiny and that was all.
She counted them 1, 2, 3

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her blue eyes see?
A chair that was big, a chair that was small,
a chair that was tiny and that was all.
She counted them 1, 2, 3

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her blue eyes see?
A bed that was big, a bed that was small,
a bed that was tiny and that was all.
She counted them 1, 2, 3

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her blue eyes see?
A bear that was big GRRRRR, a bear that was small grrr,
a bear that was tiny gr, and that was all.
She counted them 1, 2, Eeeeee!!!!!!!

Big Boys Breakfast

A friendly reminder that on Thursday 30th August 2007 it's the Big Boys Breakfast and yes it's at 7.30am in the morning. The Kindergarten staff will meet the dads and their son's at the Assembly Hall near the Senior school. In the mean time could you please make sure that you fill out the R.S.V.P slip and survey with a photo and return it to your son's teacher before Thursday . Thank you for your co operation.

Does this ring true with you?

A parent sent me the following e-mail, she thought I would appreciate it as one who works with boys and who knows how very special they are. I hope you read the following with a knowing smile and a shared belief that we wouldn't want them any other way!
Enjoy
Mel Bishop

Things I've learned from my boys (honest and not kidding)
A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.
If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
A 3-year old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 15 kilo boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.
You should not throw cricket balls up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a cricket ball a long way!
The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a cricket ball hit by a ceiling fan.
When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late.
Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.
A six-year old boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year-old man says they can only do it in the movies.
Certain Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old boy.
Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
Super glue is forever.
No matter how many jelly crystals you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
Pool filters do not like jelly crystals.
VCR's do not eject vegimite and cheese sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
Marbles in petrol tanks make lots of noise when driving.
The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
It will, however, make cats dizzy.
Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.
80% of men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid!

Book Week

We are celebrating Book Week this week. We will be participating in activities based on the books short listed by the Australian Book Council including:

• Grandpa, Thomas and the Green Umbrella - Pamela Allen
• Eight
• Ella Kazzoo will not Brush her Hair - Lee Fox
• Water Witcher - Jan Omerod
• Chatterbox - Margaret Wild

Feel free to stop and share one of these stories with your child this week

We will finish the week with our annual Kindergarten and Junior Primary book week dress up day and parade. Children may dress up as a character from a familiar or favourite book on Friday. Please do not allow your child to come as a superhero. For parents who would like to watch our parade, after our initial group time, we will join the Junior Primary boys on the tennis court, feel free to wait for us there (with cameras at the ready!)

Bridging the Gap - Parent Evening

What better way to spend a blustery, chilly evening than with a glass of wine, a little cheese and a lot of good company! Thankyou to the parents who joined us for an evening presentation last Thursday. We hope that you found it informative and enjoyable. For those of you who were inspired to view the slide show that we played at the beginning you can find it on youtube using the following link.

We were thrilled to see such enthusiastic participation in our bridge building extravaganza. The boys really enjoyed checking the bridges out on Friday morning and keenly spotted the bridge climbers, cars, boats and water that you created to grace your structures!!







For those who were unable to make it:

• Please pass your e-mail address to your son's teacher so that we may alert you to new information on this blog site


• We are discussing and investigating paper and creating a paper book, please encourage your son to bring different example of paper that we use to Kindergarten to add to our book


• We are encouraging boys to recycle zip lock bags and so they will be bringing them back home after use at snack and lunch times for you to refill for the next day

Thanks again to all those who attended, hope to see you over a glass of red at our next parent function at the Strathmore Hotel (watch this space for further details and dates)

Welcome to our Online Information Blog

Dear Parents,

Welcome to our online blog site.
We hope you are all aware that your son's have begun to investigate what books are made of and where paper comes from. The boys shared the following statements when we began to discuss what books are made of:
* "Books are made up of paper bits"
* "But ya have to stick them together in the middle first"
* "If you tried to draw the pictures on plastic it wont work"
* "Paper is made of trees, I know because Alex told me"
* "Yeah, I think you get the leaf bits and squash them together"
* "Can we make paper? Have we got an axe at Kindy 'cause we'll have to chop the tree down"
The staff of Little Princes have been inspired by the students to look at how much paper we use in our communication with parents and if there is a way to minimise this whilst also improving our lines of communication. We hope this will allow parents top have the infomation they need at their fingertips.
Our blog spot is in it's experimental infancy but we have already created some boundaries for it's development. We will not post any information that will identify the address or location of the centre (you, the intended recipients, already know where we are!). We also will not identify your child by name. We are interested to hear your suggestions or ideas about other boundarys we may need to consider. Please feel free to post your ideas.
We plan to let parents know of new postings via an e-mail alert system. If you would like to support us and recieve a flag for new information posted on this blog please make sure you pass your e-mail address to your son's teacher. E-mail addresses will not be directly connected to this site and so will not be accessable to any other user.
Happy Blogging
Little Princes Staff

Our Week 3 Term 3 Newsletter

Calling all Volunteers
We are looking after some keen volunteers to help with book covering and sewing.
In term 4 we have our Kindy nativity performance. We have decided to create some new costumes, just the right size for our little people! We also have a basket of new books which require covering before we share them with the children. If you are able to assist please let a staff member know!
Many hands make light work.
Top Tales
Another wonderful selection of books has arrived from Top Tales. This term the basket of books is located on the sign in table. Please take the time to look at the books and complete the forms as required. Remember each book purchased goes towards bonus books for the Kindergarten. The orders usually take two weeks to arrive and are placed in your child’s locker. Thank you for your continued support.
Portfolios
As part of our ongoing assessment and recording procedures each child has a Portfolio. The Portfolio contains a collection of work samples, photo’s and investigations from our PYP units.
The Porfolio’s are sent home throughout the year for your children to share and talk about their Kindergarten experiences with you.
For those children who were in the Kindy last term please return your child’s Portfolio as soon as possible so we can begin to add new samples of work.
We hope you enjoyed sharing the wonderful examples of work and hearing all about your child’s adeventures!
OHSC Bookings
Please note that families requiring OHSC need to make a booking directly with OSHC as the numbers each night are strictly limited and there is a high demand at this time of year. This can either be a permanent booking used each week or a casual booking made the Prep School office by 12 noon of the required day. OSHC also have their own enrolment form which must be completed prior to care. These are available from the front office. When a booking is confirmed we ask that parents indicate on our signing in/out sheets. Unfortunately Kindy staff are not able to confirm bookings in OSHC this must be done directly with the OSHC staff.
Bedding Washing- Pirie
As we have a higher number of children attending full days this term we will be sending bedding home each fortnight for it to be laundered. It is however important that the bedding is returned to Kindy the following week. Bedding will be placed in lockers on a Friday of Week 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10. (If you child is not in on a Friday you may take it home earlier in the week.)
Lunch boxes - Pirie
All children in the Pirie Room have been placed in a group and are asked to place their lunch boxes in the appropriate box each morning. In this way we are keeping all foods to one area and this allows for ease of movement out to snack and lunch time. At Kindy we do aim to encourage healthy eating and packing healthy snacks help the staff emphasise the importance of healthy food in our diet.

Donations for Roth Samnang

Donations have begun to arrive for our visitor from Cambodia
1 jumper - thankyou to the Cook Family
1 polar fleece windcheater - thankyou to the Motteram Family
1 warm hat - thankyou to the Chapman Family
3 pairs of warm socks - the Chapman and Groughan Families
1 bath towel -thankyou to the Searls and Cerchez Families
Shampoo (new) -thankyou to the Searls Family
Soap (new) -thankyou to the Searls Famliy
Toothpaste (new) -thankyou to the Searls and Cerchez Families
Nail brush (new) - thankyou to the Jenkin Family
1 pillow - thankyou to the Gasparin Family
1 pillow case- thankyou to the Cerchez Family
10kg of rice - thankyou to the Carolan amd Jenkin Family
Backpack - thankyou to the Searls Family

Samnang also needs to borrow
1 warm jacket - thankyou to the Knight Family
Scarf
Gloves
Sleeping bag -thankyou to the Knight Family