Eastmont Newsletter

Issue 5, June 2019

President's Report

 It is amazing how quickly the term has gone and that we are almost halfway through the kinder year!

Thanks to the fundraising team for organising the Mother’s Day Event as well as the Movie Night. The movie night is a big event on our Eastmont calendar and the children always really enjoy it. See Megan's report below. All fundraising money that we raise from the event will go towards upgrading parts of the kinder.

The 3 year old and 4 year old offers for 2020 were emailed out at the start of June and the deposit and forms were due back last Friday. Further information, including group allocations and fees, will be sent out later in the year. 

Kim is leaving us at the end of the Term. We thank her for her work at Eastmont this year and wish her all the best.

We will be holding our next Working Bee on Sunday 14th July from 9am  (so the last day of the school holidays). The Working Bees throughout the year are a necessary way to maintain and update the kinder.  We request that every family attend at least one Working Bee throughout the kinder year, where will be tidying up the yard and washing exterior windows. Any help from the Eastmont Community would be greatly appreciated. If you can spare some time, sign-up using the below link. 

https://volunteersignup.org/4CMD7

A few dates to add to your calendar are below with the first day of Term 3 being Monday 15th July and our next big fundraiser, our Bunnings BBQ on Sunday 20th October.  More details to follow soon. 

Enjoy the last part of the term and I hope you all have a great holidays.

- Cassie 

Dates for your Diary

4yo Report

Over the last couple of weeks the children have been experimenting with making patterns using contact printing techniques-applying paint to various metal and silicone baking dish/chocolate mold shapes to create colourful and interesting designs.

Last week the children have been creating artwork by dripping coloured food dye onto paper towel to make bright patterns. The children have really enjoyed watching each drop of dye expand and merge with the other colours.

At mat time we have been learning some new songs, games and finger plays including 'It’s Winter', 'Captains Coming' and 'Banana, Banana, Meatball'.

Outside the children have been enjoying watching the carrots and beans (which were planted from seed) grow. With the wet weather making the sand so easy to mold the children have been making sand castles and other shapes using various plastic buckets and containers. There has also been lots of work in the digging patch with spades and trucks. We have recycled our old plastic buckets from the sand pit (the handles had all broken off) planted them with a variety of succulents and hung them on the fence.

On Friday 17th of May, Moira, Sue, Kim, Nithi and I all attended the Together We Grow Early Childhood Conference. We each attended a variety of interesting sessions covering an array of topics. There were streams including Leadership and Management, Staff Development and Wellbeing and Education Program and Practice. Between us we attended sessions on mindfulness, an introduction to Be You, a new mental health program for children, and hands on science. We have been doing some fun science experiments with the children using skittles and water to demonstrate chemical concentrations https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/150-science-experiments/kitchen-chemistry-experiments/skittle-science/. There are lots of other fun and safe experiments in the Kitchen Chemistry Experiments section of the Fizzics Education website https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/category/150-science-experiments/kitchen-chemistry-experiments/ that you might like to try in the school holidays.

There will be parent/teacher information sharing sessions next week, during the last week of term. Please see the sign up sheets in the foyer or email Eastmont.kin@kindergarten.vic.gov.au or call 9874 4044 to arrange a time to meet with Kim or I.

- Sonya 

3yo Report

The children have been enjoying the hospital area with them engaging in role playing. This area has enhanced their ability to share, turn take and to engage in verbalisation with others. The area has promoted socialisation and including others in their games.

Squash painting was enjoyed by the children, with them experimenting with the paint. Folding the paper over meant they were able to see mirror images and mixing of colours. They were also doing handprints which gives a tactile experience.

Songs we have been doing are ‘One Potato, Two Potatoes’ ‘Clap Your Hands’ ‘Five Cheeky Monkeys’, ‘Veggie Patch.

The children have participated in these songs and taken part in the movement songs. They are now asking for songs they like.

To all families of Eastmont, I bid you farewell. I hope that the short time I have spent with your child has made an impact. That the guidance I have given them will help with their further educational endeavours. Goodbye and good luck to all of you for your future.  

- Kim

Our 2019 Teachers

Our 2019 Management Committee

Director: Sonya Skok - eastmont.kin@kindergarten.vic.gov.au 

President: Cassie - president@eastmont.org.au

Vice President: Melissa - vicepresident@eastmont.org.au

Treasurer:  Kath - treasurer@eastmont.org.au

Secretary: Carole - secreatary@eastmont.org.au

Minutes Secretary: Singrid -minutessecretary@eastmont.org.au

Enrolment Officer (3yo): Xiao (Maggie) - enrolment3yo@eastmont.org.au

Enrolment Officer (4yo): Katie - enrolment4yo@eastmont.org.au

Social/Fundraising Coordinator: Megan - fundraising@eastmont.org.au

Grants/Policy/OHS: Sarah - grantspolicyohs@eastmont.org.au

Projects/Maintenance: Jawad - projects@eastmont.org.au

Communications Officer: Bronwyn - communications@eastmont.org.au

Administrative Officer: Lynette Ellis - admin@eastmont.org.au

Social & Fundraising Update

It is June already, halfway through the year and almost the end of Term 2, hard to believe isn’t it? I am sure that everyone is looking forward to a little break over the school holidays.

The end of May saw a group of Mums go out for a drink, nibbles and a good chat at the Mitcham Social, it was a fun night had by all who attended. Thank you Renée for organising such a great social event. I am looking forward to the next one sometime in Term 3.

The Pictureproducts where sent off on the 24th May and I received notification that they had started production for our products on 29th May, hopefully we will receive our products by late July as it is a nine week turnaround at this time of year. I loved looking at all the creativeness and fabulous artwork as I sorted them into the Kinder groups. I look forward to seeing the finished products, especially the new products such as the tablet mat and pencil case. Thank you to the 29 families who bought products, we raised just over $400 for the Kinder. 

Well one of the most awaited events on the kinder social calendar - the Kids Movie Night last Friday - was a great success. The children love the it and I know it has been talked about for numerous weeks in our house leading up to the day! Thank you to the 34 families who braved the weather to come and enjoy ‘Sing’ the movie, popcorn and pizza. The kids were all very well behaved and even sat watching for a long time, till some of them set up a temporary dance floor at the front of the room, which was just lovely to see. Thank you to John and his team at Vermont Pizzeria  for the yummy pizzas. John was very accommodating and even did split deliveries so they stayed warmer. Tell Megan sent you when you visit. Thank you to my subcommittee and committee as to whom the help and support on the night made it such a success. Thank you to Charles for saving the day with speakers, the sound was on-point. A huge thank you to David Mutimer and the St James community for allowing us to use your Community centre for the night, it was a fabulous space and served our purpose well. We managed to raise just on $500 from the night which is fabulous. 

We have had a great response to the Woollies Earn and Learn stickers too, thank you to the families that have place stickers and filled sheets in the box in the foyer. We have also had a huge amount collected from the box at the Brentford Square Woollies. The program continues till the 25th June so keep collecting. The count so far is approximately 3400 stickers, so it looks like we will be able to buy a few of the products such as Lego and Duplo.

We have a few events in Term 3 to look forward too, the first being the Father’s Day Morning Tea 31st August and Vision Portraits which are being held on 8th September, more details for both events to follow. We will also be holding a parents only dinner for teacher Helen to celebrate two special milestones in her life on the 19th September, more details to follow. There will also be another Scholastic order early in the term. Look forward to another fabulous term. Enjoy the break over the holidays. Thank you for supporting these events, this is how we can help improve the kinder for our children and is greatly appreciated.

- Megan

CONTACT US

At Eastmont Pre-School we offer a play-based, child centred-curriculum that is guided by the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework and the Early Years Learning Framework. Click here to read more about the Eastmont Philosophy.