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Friday 27 February 2009

Nursery News

It's a busy time in the Nursery at the moment, especially with Alfie and Tamir transitioning through to the Tuatara Room, and Millie, Ellie and Georgia all settling into life in the Bayfield Nursery.
In the Pukeko Room at the moment the key focus is on developing self-help skills and the staff will be working hard encouraging your children to feed themselves, find their own hats and belongings and generally ensure that they are helping with all aspects of their programme. Over in the Tuatara Room the focus seems to be on figuring out how things work. From gates to taps to the light table and door handles, we will be letting the children take a hands on approach to making sense of their environment. Check out our photos to see what has been happening so far.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/Nursery?authkey=y-c_o-GHdBA&feat=directlink

Thursday 26 February 2009

Entertainment Books

This year we are purchasing 50 Entertainment Books Only. If you would like to order one, please see Mona. The books cost $ 65.00 and it will be on a first come, first served basis, so the books will go to the first 50 people who have paid.
We are still awaiting delivery of the books and anticipate that we will receive these during March.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Grandparent's Day

Just a reminder that we are having our Grandparent's Day on Thursday, 5th March from 9.00 am - 11.00 am. This is open to family/whanau so if you have a grandchild, niece, nephew or younger family member attending Bayfield.
Morning tea will be provided in the staffroom and we will look forward to seeing you all.

Friday 20 February 2009

Serious Need For Play

"Free, imaginative play is crucial for normal social, emotional and cognitive development. It makes us better adjusted, smarter and less stressed." This bold statement comes not from the latest issue of Young Children, or a keynoter at the annual meeting of the Chicago Metro AEYC, but from the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND magazine (February 2009). The article, "The Serious Need For Play" by Melinda Wenner, provides a strong, research-based case for the value of play in the lives of children. Every early childhood program should hand out copies of the article to parents, politicians and funders. Here are some points Wenner makes...
"(Researcher Stuart Brown) has interviewed some 6,000 people about their childhoods, and his data suggests that a lack of opportunities for unstructured, imaginative play can keep children from growing into happy, well-adjusted adults. Free play... is critical for becoming socially adept, coping with stress, and building cognitive skills such as problem solving."
"Studies show that children use more sophiscated language when playing with other children than when playing with adults. In pretend play, for instance, they have to communicate about something that's not physically present, so they have to use complicated language in such a way that they can communicate to their peer what it is that they're trying to say."
"Researchers at the University of Washington gave a box of toy blocks to children from middle - and low-income families aged 18 months to two and a half years. parents of these kids, as well as parents of a similiar group of kids who had no blocks, kept track of how often the children played. After six months, the kids who had played with blocks scored significantly higher on language tests that the others did."

Toddler's Splish and Splash

Splish, Splash, Sunblock, Screaming!!! It's back by popular demand - that's right you guessed it, it's time for another Toddler's Water Fun Day!!
The children were all excited about getting into their togs and Bobbi turned on the hose connected to the water slide. Gabriel was the first to slide down and land in the pool of water with a big smile on his face, he got up and was ready to go again. Harry was next to run up and say, "My turn." Harry chose to lie on his stomach and slide down. Some of the children were just happy to splash their feet in the water. Elliot had a great time splashing her feet around in the pool of water in the water trough lid. When Ryder came to join her, they started tipping buckets of water over each other, smiling and laughing together. Bobbi then took the hose and started squirting everyone with the water. Samuel, Emelia, Mia and Harry all ran away from Bobbi screaming. Harry then got a turn with the hose. He decided that he wanted to try and squirt his teacher but we all tried to run away. Harry then chased his friends around the playground making a lot of the children all nice and wet. Everyone was now having a great time getting wet in different ways; water trough, water slide, buckets, water wheels, hose and paddling feet in their feet in the water. We didn't want our Water Fun Day to end. After we were all wet it was time to get dressed and have our late snack.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/ToddlerSSplishAndSplash?authkey=2kU4y3nsy0Q&feat=directlink

Thursday 19 February 2009

French Classes in Preschool

On Tuesday we had our first French Class with Maroussia.
The children looked at the flag of France, sung 'Frere Jacques', learnt "My name is..." and had a lot of fun. At the end of the lesson the children sat down at a table to complete a work sheet. See attached photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/FrenchClasses?authkey=ceuVoO7IPHM&feat=directlink

Paper for the Preschool Children

In the Preschool we use A LOT of paper; for drawing, painting, folding, cutting and collage etc.
If anyone has access to paper - any size, we would greatly appreciate the donation. It does not matter if it has logos or words on it as the children either draw over it or use the other side.

Friday 13 February 2009

The Toddlers are Recycling

We would like to start incorporating more recycled and natural resources into our room. You can help us by bringing in any recycled materials such as yoghurt pots, egg cartons, bottle tops, cereal boxes, cardboard, pretty much anything that is recyclable in your house. We would also greatly appreciate any natural resources such as shells, drift wood, pine cones, interesting branches or bark off trees and tree stumps. So if you are heading for the beaches, think about collecting some natural resources for us. Please make sure any items brought in are Toddler friendly.
Thanks - The Toddler Team

Preschool News

We would like to welcome from the Toddler Room - Barnaby, Curtis and Chloe who recently moved into Preschool and Jack and Isabella who will start next week. It has been so hot lately that we have been having a lot of water play, so please make sure your children have at least 2 sets of clothing for the day. Next week we will be having Water Fun Days on the 18th and 20th of February, so bring in your togs, towel and a plastic bag.
Check out the new Planning Wall and our Today Sheet, the children have been doing some great learning experiences.

Haircuts

Please mark on your calendars Friday, the 20th March, for the next haircutting session with Mel. Haircut notices will be placed in the children's pockets prior to this date.

Toddler News

Welcome back everyone and a Happy New Year to you all. First of all I just wanted to say that I hope everyone had an enjoyable break over the Christmas period. As you may have noticed we have had a few changes to our room within the January and February period: Welcoming all the children who started in the New Year, which were Bailey, Sophie, Will, Nate, Ella, Emelia and Kate. A big hello and welcome to our two new friends, Zane and Gabriel, who have just recently started coming to Bayfield. Farewell to Chloe and Curtis who are now in Preschool.
Molly is now the new Head Teacher for the Toddler Room and she is looking forward to the new challenges that this job brings her. We still have Gu and Melissa on the team and as we look for two new teachers, Bobbi and Jade will be the relievers until these positions are filled up. We have definitely started the year off with a bang and with all this hot weather the children's interest has moved towards water play. We have had some fantastic water fun days with the children bringing along their swimming gear, as you will see in the attached photos. We have all enjoyed the water slide and even the teachers got in on the fun and had a turn. We even made some smoothies to help cool us down from all this hot sticky weather. Due to the big request from our parents and some of the children we are going to have another Water Fun Day on Friday, 20th February. So watch this space as we will post more photos of this exciting day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/ToddlerNews?authkey=tymvwh5841A&feat=directlink

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Preschool Changes

As we have mentioned before, Oriana is now the Head Teacher in Preschool and Cindy has moved over to Preschool as well to take Mini's place. We have a new teacher, Josie, who is starting next week, Monday 16th of February, to take Crystal's place. Josie has a Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood from the University of Auckland and she is provisionally registered as a teacher.
Crystal has had a baby boy, Lennix Finnleigh (3515 grams, 54 cms long, lots of hair and both are well). You may not be aware but Crystal will be moving to the Takapuna Centre when she returns from maternity leave in May.

Currently the teachers in Preschool are: -

Oriana Mincham - Head Teacher
Alice Molloy - Teacher
Margaret Lokeni - Teacher
Rachel Ravoori - Teacher
Kathryn Lorenz - Teacher
Cindy Shang - Teacher
Josie Liu - Teacher

Any questions please see me.
Regards Shona

Thursday 5 February 2009

Nursery News

We have been taking advantage of the great weather and taken our creative flair out in the fresh air. It is great to see the children being creative and expressing themselves using different materials, tools and media to design their own unique masterpiece.
The children are also developing relationships with their peers through working together as a team, sharing and taking turns while getting inspiration from each other. They also show great delight in using their sensory play while being very creative.
Water, water everywhere - the children cooled down in the heat of the sun. Water play is so much fun. We learned about volume and trying things out, exploration and curiosity, that's what it is all about.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Cindy is moving to Preschool

Dear parents

Cindy Shang (Toddler Teacher) has applied for and will be accepted in a position in the Preschool team. Cindy will be moving over to Preschool as from Monday 9th February at the same time as Oriana. Jade and Deb (2 of our relievers) will be covering their positions until a permanent placement is found.

Shona

Grandparents Day

Don't forget Thursday March 5th is our Grandparent Day. We look forward to seeing all our Grannies, and Poppas, Grandmas, Nanas and Granddads.

Time: 9.00 am until 11.00 am
morning tea provided. We look forward to seeing you all here.

Shona

Nursery Week

We had a short week this week with Monday being Auckland Anniversary and all week was HOT!! We had a lot of time outside, lots of water play and sandpit time and we had 3 of our Tuatara children graduate from the cot room to a bed! Congratulations to Ava, Francesca and Ranen for settling so well into their beds!
A big thank you to our families who took the time to attend the 'Pizza and Wine" evening. It was a great opportunity for the staff to introduce themselves to new parents and to catch up with current parents.
Strong relationships between the parents and staff are essential to the smooth running of the centre, and events such as this are a big part of furthering these relationships.
We'll see some of you at next years event.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/NurseryNews?feat=directlink