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Monday 19 December 2011

Bayfield Preschool Christmas Party
































































There was great excitement and anticipation throughout last week regarding the pending party at Western Springs!


Would Santa be there, and more importantly, would he be able to bring all the children a present??


Both groups were pretty confident that they had all been good enough, and that Santa knows exactly where New Zealand is; all good!


It was a lovely evening. Refreshments, fun, many families and a jolly Santa.


Thank you to everyone who helped to make this occassion such a great success!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Bayfield Christmas Raffle

Congratulations to Dealla Smith, Miriama's mum in the Nursery, who has won our Christmas Raffle. 

Friday 9 December 2011

Hi everyone,

What an eventful week the Preschool children have had!
We have welcomed Molly into our room, and welcomed Rachel back from her holiday!

We put up our Christmas tree which now stands pride of place, within what will soon become our Christmas grotto. It's neat to see the children admiring their handy work and the amount of tinsel they placed onto it.

With the sun shining down, we have painted up a storm outside and in, applied heaps of sun block and splashed about in the water trough.

However, the most exciting part of this week has been in the build up to the Christmas party, especially, the excitement around having Santa join us! With the big Jolly fella coming, it will be interesting to see what presents he will bring us.

We look forward to seeing everyone tonight!

P.S We have had alot of cases of head lice swinging around our room, so can you please re-check and treat your children's hair.
(We will be checking this on Monday)


Kind Regards,
Catherine

Sunday 4 December 2011

Four Bayfield staff receive long service awards

Posted by PicasaHere we have Karen Burton, Mona Bucknell, Molly Sietu and Meher Khan who all received long service loyalty awards for TEN YEARS OF SERVICE!  CONGRATULATIONS!

Friday 2 December 2011

This is interesting reading for all parents of preschool children

The Death of Preschool


December 1, 2011

Don't go selling the hide as long as the bear remains in his hole.

-Yugoslavian Proverb

This dramatic title appeared on an article in the latest issue of Scientific American Mind (November/December 2011). It was so provocative that I feared that the article itself would also be way over the top. However, I found that this was a well-reasoned, well-documented case for keeping play as the central focus of the preschool years. Here are some excerpts...

• "Early childhood educators are turning to a method known as direct instruction, which the National Institute for Direct Instruction, an advocacy group, defines as 'teaching that emphasizes well-developed and carefully planned lessons... and clearly defined and prescribed teaching tasks.'"

• "'Scientists are baffled,' says Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology at University of California-Berkeley. 'The more serious science we do, the more it comes out that very young children are not designed to do focused, goal-directed behavior we think of [as appropriate] for older children, but are to a phenomenal degree very sophisticated about learning from things and people around them.'"

• "Running around in circles, playing with blocks and climbing on a jungle gym may seem like exercise or goofing off to an adult, but several studies have shown that children infer a basic sense of physics through these activities. The possession of fine-motor skills — learned through activities such as drawing and cutting, which coordinate finger movement with visual perception — is one of the strongest predictors of academic success, according to a study by David Grissmer... at the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning."

Thursday 1 December 2011

Changes to the Toddler and Preschool Rooms

Just a reminder that Oriana (Preschool Head Teacher) and Molly (Toddler Head Teacher) will be swapping roles on Monday, the 4th of December.  The reason for this is because Krisarn (Molly's daughter) will be moving into the Toddler's room very soon and we have a centre policy that teachers are not allowed to work in the same room as their children.  Molly will be working in Preschool, alonside Yvette, as the Head Teacher in the 3 year olds room and Oriana will be in the Toddlers as their Head Teacher.
As always, do ask if you have any queries or concerns.
Don't forget to come to our Christmas party/picnic on Friday, the 9th of December at Western Springs Playground beside the zoo.
Kind regards
Shona