February 2017
Term 1
2017
Older
Group: 24th Jan – 12th April
Younger
Group: 26th Jan – 13th April
Teachers’ Update
A
big welcome back to 2017. Welcome to all our new families and to our children
and whanau returning after the long holiday. We hope you all had a wonderful
break with your children and we are looking forward to an action packed year
ahead.
The
term has started off busy as ever with us adding 14 new children to our roll in
the first 2 weeks.
The
focus for our younger group has been supporting the children to settle in and
get to know the teaching team as well as the other children. This is also the
time for them to learn about our routines and the way we do things here at
Torbay Kindergarten. We have a strong focus on respect, respect for ourselves,
each other, the environment and the wider community. This is something that we
foster in all our children by supporting them to build and maintain respectful
relationships and modelling what respect looks like through our interactions
both with the other teachers, the children, families and visitors to the
kindergarten.
Fostering Independence
One of the key skills that
we encourage in our children is independence. This move towards independence
can be supported in many ways through our program, and with the help of you our
parents and extended whanau.
You can help by encouraging
your child to walk in the gate independently and carry their own bag. This
helps give them a sense of ownership and responsibility for their belongings. When
they hang up their own bag they will always know where it is. When children
choose a locker and hang up their bag they then take out their lunchbox and
drink bottle and put them on the shelf. This quickly becomes part of the
morning routine. By completing these tasks themselves they are fostering habits
that will follow on to school.
Opportunites for developing
independence are woven throughout the day at kindergarten, from putting
on/taking off their own shoes, getting changed when they are wet and putting
away their own belongings or things that they have made. Initially teachers
support this process but as children develop these skills they move towards
completing all of these tasks themselves.
These independence skills
help in the transition to school as children arrive ready to learn rather than
focusing on self help skills in their first few months at school.
Entrance Way
As you walk into
kindergaten you will have noticed our wonderful new entrance way. This job was
done by Ryan Hanna’s company RTH Building and Management Ltd (rthbuildingltd@gmail.com).
It is fantastic to have a safer space to wait so that children and strollers
can be off the footpath during our very busy times. Landscaping is on its way!
Sunblock and Hats
These are a must for Term 1. While we do have many
shaded spaces at kindergarten and our new sunshades are working well it does
get very hot here when there is no wind.
Please sunblock your child before they arrive at
kindergarten.
Our Teaching Team
This year Rachel is studying for the year and has one
release day per week. We are lucky enough to have Dale Gamby relieving for us
on a Wednesday for the whole year. Jackie is also taking one days leave for the
first term so Dale will be relieving on a Monday during this time.
Beach Explorers
Our Beach Explorer trips start again from next week
for our Older Group. This term should bring us settled weather so we hope to
run these every fortnight where possible.
The children are all eagerly waiting for their turn.
Don’t worry if your child hasn’t been yet, we only take the oldest children,
usually in the term before they are due to go to school. Everyone will get a
turn when the time is right. These trips have a real focus on caring for the
environment and the role we have in looking after our Turangawaewae, our local
standing place.
As we spend more time exploring our kindergarten
pepeha (the way we introduce ourselves in Maori), the beach trips support our
links to the land, to our maunga – Rangitoto, our moana – Waitemata and our awa
– Deep Creek. As we wander along the beach we can see all of these special
places and the children are naturally making these links.
Dates to Remember
|
Date
|
Event
|
|
Mon 6th Feb
|
Waitangi Day (holiday)
|
|
Wed 12 April
|
Last day of Term 1 (Older Group)
|
|
Thurs 13th April
|
Last day of Term 1 (Younger Group)
|
Donations and Fees
Since January 2015, all the
fee payments are now passed on to our Head Office at NAKA. This money goes
towards repairs and maintenance at an Association level.
The donation amount is now
even more important to the kindergarten as we use this for all resources-
consumables (paint, paper etc) and equipment (games, toys, furniture etc).
Invoices will be coming out
over the next few days so please check your mail pocket or emails. Thank you
for your on going support.
Parking
Again we would like to
remind you to please not park any highsided vechicles in the parking spaces
outside kindergarten. THIS IS VERY
DANGEROUS. If you have a high-sided
vehicle (this includes people movers, SUV’s and vans), please park on the road.
We have had a few near misses when people are trying to back out of the car
parks; they are unable to see the traffic coming down the hill.
We have reserved the right
to park behind the teachers cars for families that have special needs. Please do not park there unless you have seen a teacher about this.
