Some sad news and some glad news

We are very sad to say that Catherine is leaving us!  She is going to a job in a kindergarten with a strong emphasis on Catholicism, which is close to Catherine's personal belief and philosophy.
Catherine's last day will be Friday, 15th February.  We wish you all the best Catherine, do come back and see us!
Now, the good news.  Yvette Loggenberg (a former preschool teacher) is coming back to join us.  Yvette will take Catherine's place in the 3 year old room as from Monday, 4th March 2013.  Yah!  We look forward to having Yvette back with us.

Christmas News

Congratulations to Edd Bennetto (Wolfie's Dad - Preschool) who won our Christmas Hamper Raffle. 
Thank you to all the families who so generously donated to our Generosity Tree.  We managed to fill 8 - 9 "large" boxes with presents and these were sent to The Women's Refuge.
Don't forget January fees are due on 21st December. 
We will close for the Christmas break on Friday, the 21st December at 5.30 pm and re-open on Monday, the 14th January at 7.30 am.

Have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and safe trips if you are heading away.  See you all in 2013.

From Management and all the Staff at Bayfield Early Education.

All welcome to our children's Xmas party Friday 14th December

Bayfield Early Education Centre Generosity Tree

Bayfield’s generosity tree

As we have so many families in New Zealand who are not very well off and Christmas will prove to be a bit of a challenge for them this year, we have decided to start a “Generosity Tree”.

We invite and encourage you to talk to your children about this and bring in a wrapped Xmas present (put either boy or girl and roughly the age suitable for).  Encourage your child to participate in the gifting and talk to them about the spirit of thankfulness and generosity at Christmas.  The tree is set up beside the reception desk near the photocopier.  Just pop the present there and we will find a suitable local charity to give them all to before Christmas.  If you have one in mind, please feel free to let us know.

In the preschool the children and teachers have been having discussions about the meaning of Christmas.  Specifically, about kindness, generosity, thankfulness and caring about others less fortunate than us.  We are keen to encourage the children to understand a little bit about the true meaning of Christmas and how important it is to give and not always receive presents.

Thank you for your generosity.

                                   

Kind regards

                                                                          

Shona Hewitt

Centre Manager

Wild Things are coming to Black Asterisk Gallery

Please check your pockets for a flyer on The Wild Things - an exhibition at the Black Asterisk Gallery, 10 Ponsonby Road, Auckland from Friday, 23rd November until Monday, 24th December.  This exhibition is especially designed with the children in mind and there are art activities available as well.  Please support Stuart and the team.  For further information, please go to their website www.blackasterisk.co.nz

Bayfield Christmas Hamper Raffle

Tickets for our Christmas hamper raffle are now on sale at reception for $ 2.00 per ticket (the hamper is worth
$ 200.00).  If you are interested in buying some tickets, please see either Shona or Mona at reception.  The proceeds of this hamper will go to a charity of the licensee's choice.

The hamper consists of the following:
Skipping rope, Balls, Shaker, Dove Men's toiletries, Barker's chutney, Men's socks, Oyster Bay - sav blanc, Kim Crawford - merlot, Camomile tea, Pasta mixes, Sunblock, Griffins sampler biscuits, Cadbury chocolates, Car freshner, Chocolate wafers, Olivado oil, Vaseline hand cream, Neutrogena Moisturising cream, Bars Bugs, Snack containers, Deeko serviettes. 

Language classes in preschool

Dear Preschool Parents

Would you like your preschool child to learn a language? Maroussia from Fun languages is interested in returning to Bayfield Early Education Centre to teach a language class.

We have an option of either French or Spanish on either a Wednesday or Thursday?  If you are interested please can you respond to the following.....

Please circle what is relevant

I am interested in my preschooler learning a language

Yes            No

I would like them to learn

French             Spanish

My preferred days are Wednesday       Thursday

Please note that the tuition fees for these classes are to be paid directly to ‘Fun Languages School’.  One of our teachers will be in attendance at all times.

Thank you for your help.  We will let you know if there are enough children for a class.

Kind regards

Shona Hewitt

Centre Manager

Calendar orders

Dear Bayfield parents

Tomorrow 9th November is the LAST DAY FOR CALENDAR ORDERS!  please make sure you put your orders in before this time.  All of your children have created artwork specially for this so don't pass up on this opportunity.  They make great Xmas gifts for extended family.  If you have lost your order form please ask the HT's or call in at reception and ask either Mona or Shona for one.

thanks

Shona

last day for calendar and diary orders

Dear Parents

Friday 9th November is the last day for Calendar or diary orders.  You have had the order forms in your pockets for the past month.  If you have lost it and require another one please see either the Head Teacher in your child's room or ask at reception.

thanks

Shona

Some advice for parents with picky eaters

Parental control at meals key





There are a lot of frustrated mothers pulling their hair out around dinner tables up and down the nation according to a new fussy eating kids survey.

The Anchor CalciYum Food Solutions research says 85 per cent of mums experience "fussy eating" behaviour and for three-quarters of them these daily food battles cause moderate to high levels of anxiety.

the survey polled 1000 mothers with children aged 3 to 11. Anxiety was attributed to a motherly desire to see their children receive sufficient nutrition.



Fiona Boyle, a Tauranga-based dietitian and nutritionist, agreed.



"Overall, it shows there are concerns that they feel their children are not eating a good enough variety of foods," Ms Boyle said.

Fussy eating profiles uncovered by the research included: Children not eating vegetables (58 per cent) and being picky about texture (49 per cent); to those who would only eat certain coloured foods (8 per cent) and some who displayed a strong preference for takeaway food (6 per cent).

Ms Boyle, founder of Food Solutions, said catching the problem early was important.

"Some parents come to me after four or five years and it is much harder to deal with once it's been established for that long," she said.



Children had differing rates of growth and appetite. The amount a child ate would often diminish in line with a growth spurt.



"That's not always expected by the parent, so they get worried," said Ms Boyle.

Strategies for combating fussy eating centred on being in control at meal times.



"If the child doesn't eat the meal offered don't turn around and give them their favourite vegemite sandwich. They will just learn that they can hang out and wait until mum gives in and gives me something else," Ms Boyle said.



"The parent's role is to choose what's on offer and it's up to the child whether they're going to eat it. What you don't want to see is an early establishment of 'Oh well Jimmy won't eat this so I won't bother putting it on his plate'. You have to keep on offering.

Wow, amazing long serving staff at Bayfield!

Out of interest I looked at upcoming anniversaries of all our Bayfield staff and thought I would share with you how long our lovely, dedicated staff have worked here.

Next year......

Shona        13 years
Joanna       12 years

Mona         11 years

Molly         11 years

Karen         11 years

Meher       11 years

Oriana        9 years

Rachel        8 years

Gu               8 years

Cindy          7 years

Cassandra  7 years

Usha            7 years

Melissa        6 years

Helen Z        4 years

Damayanthi   4 years

Marama       4 years

Earl               3 years

Helen H        3 years

Vanessa       3 years

Jean     3 years

Erin      3 years

Catherine  2 years

Iveta           2 years

A message from Lisa and Brett Archer - Re Hamper

Wonderful, awesome, overwhelming...thank you all so so much for the amazing thoughtfulness.  Mona and Erin delivered an incredible amount of goodies that the Bayfield parents and staff have given to our family.  We are...not sure what to say but we are truly grateful.  Thank you all so much. 
We are lucky to be in such a caring community and Katie has her great mornings at Preschool, which are special for her.  I am happy to talk to anyone about Katie's disease, or you can google it, Late Infantile Batten Disease.  It is cruel and unforgiving but we enjoying each day and making the most of Katie still being so well and happy.  The gifts that you all gave us help so much in our crappy journey so big heartfelt thanks - we were blown away.  
Lisa and Brett Archer  

ABACUS CALENDAR ORDERS

The abacus calendar order forms have now been placed in your pockets.  The children have been busy doing art work for the calendars and the art work can be viewed in their rooms.  If you would like to order a photo calendar you will need to do this through the abacus website. 
If paying by cheque, please ensure you make it out to Bayfield Early Education Centre.

Team Work

This week, we tried a small group investigation activity to enhance the children’s concept of shape. The children were divided into three groups and were given a set of blocks to work with. Each group had a leader who initiated the conversations and made decisions about the outcome. The children really found the task challenging and hard. The children needed lots of remainders to keep them on track during this task. It was hard for the children to really go ahead with this group activity. We all sat on the mat and then explored different aspects of this group task in terms of what went well and what was challenging for them.

Next time, when we did the same activity,  the children were more comfortable and really worked hard to finish this group task. This activity gave each child a wonderful opportunity to work with a large group of children with different strengths. It also reinforced his/her team spirit and social skills (Contribution).

Olympic ceremony in the four year old's room

The children were very fortunate to participate in the “Olympic Day” that happened in the morning. The children marched around with the Olympic flags, they made to the beat of the New Zealand National anthem. After that the children were put into three groups for playing high jump, running race and overthrow. They had awesome fun and demonstrated team spirit during these games. They were very proud when we recognised their efforts by presenting them with the medals in front of the whole class. This activity enhanced their self-esteem and they are confident to participate without any risk of failure (Well-Being).

Kids@Play Photography

During the period 20 - 25 September, we have Donna from Kids@Play Photography coming to photograph the children.  Donna has been coming to the centre for approximately 9 years now and she is very professional in what she does.  She takes very natural photos of the children at play throughout the day.  Once she has edited them, they will be available for purchase.  If you do not want your child photographed by Donna, please let us know prior to her coming.  More notices will be displayed around the centre soon.  If you have any queries at all about this, please see Shona or Mona at reception.

Daffodil Day

We are pleased to tell you that Bayfield (as a whole centre) raised $ 216.90 for the Cancer Society.  Thanks to everyone who made the effort on the day with all the yellow outfits and the generous donations for our coin trails and daffodils at reception.

Baking in the four year old room

One of the most wonderful things the children can learn from baking is how to experiment, just by taking our creative cooking licence and letting go.

There is nothing quite like throwing all sorts of ingredients together and seeing what happens. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - it's all about learning through discovery. This way we create our own way of doing things, even if it's not exactly how it should be (Exploration).

By far the best thing about baking is how it brings people together, to make and to eat. Eating together is an opportunity to discuss what we are doing in our lives, to share what we're interested in and have a good old laugh ( Belonging).

obstacle course

It turned out to be a great obstacle course when the four year olds were chose to help in settling up the playground. They have used steppers, cones, hoops, boxes, balls etc., to build their own obstacle course and trailed it out. It was an amazing moment for them to listen to each other and coming up with solutions.