ENewsletter

President's Report

The year has gone so quickly and the children have certainly grown up since their first day of kinder way back in February.

Our new rugs have arrived! We would like to thank Whitehorse Council for awarding us the grant that allowed us to purchase the rugs. Some new outdoor synthetic grass has been placed around the poles of the pergola as we had to remove the agapanthus there when the blinds were installed.

Thanks to everyone who supported our Bunnings BBQ & Cake Stall in Oct by volunteering on the day and/or baking for the cake stall. We raised approx $1700 which will all go back into continuing to improve our kinder. Thanks to Megan for all her hard-work organising it and making sure everything ran smoothly on the day!

The Eastmont Christmas Party will be held on this Sunday 17th November at Mooroolbark Miniature Railway and should be a great event and a lovely social way to finish the year. Thanks again to Megan and her team for all their hard work with this party. Make sure you RSVP before Wednesday 13th Nov.

Our AGM is to be held on the Wednesday 20th November at 7:30pm at the kinder, with guest speakers Rebecca Mealings (Transition Coordinator) and Nikki Lewis (Level 1 (Foundation) Team Leader) from Vermont Primary School. They will have some useful information about things including transitions to school, resilience and dealing with separation and anxiety.

Thank you to everyone who has nominated (or expressed interest) in a role on the 2020 committee. The kinder cannot run without the support of the parents who volunteer to be a part of the Committee of Management. There are still a number of roles with no nomination/expression of interest. These include Projects/Maintenance, 3yo and 4yo Enrolment Officers and Grants/OHS. If you are interested then please email Carole at secretary@eastmont.org.au. We have had some expressions of interest for our social/fundraising team but we are more than happy to have more people on this great team!

I’d like to thank the 2019 committee for all their hard work this year. Mel C, Kath, Carole, Katie, Maggie, Bron, Sarah, Jawad, Dean, Megan, Singrid, and Mel P who have all done an amazing job and I really appreciate all the effort you have put into making sure everything has run smoothly. I especially want to thank the executive committee (Kath, Carole and Mel C) who have worked hard all year and have gone above and beyond what their roles have been in the running of Eastmont Pre-School. It has been a pleasure working with everyone on the committee and getting to know you throughout the year.

Lastly, you will shortly receive an email with a link to our 2019 Annual Survey. Every year a parent survey is undertaken to measure the level of satisfaction parents have had with Eastmont Pre-School. The survey is confidential and voluntary and aims to provide a forum for parents to provide feedback to the kinder on any areas of success or concern which are used to improve the service.

The link will remain open until Monday 2 December and should only take 5 minutes to complete. We would appreciate if every family took the time to complete this when they receive it. Please let me know if you have any queries or concerns.

- Cassie

Dates for your Diary

4yo Report

Children from all the groups have contributed to creating a large Aboriginal Flag, using tissue paper and glue on cardboard. The children also made and decorated rain sticks, decorating them with their own designs inspired by traditional Aboriginal art. We are planning to undertake some playground upgrades so we asked the children for some ideas. Many of them drew their designs and others came up with some very interesting suggestions. We will hopefully be able to incorporate some of their ideas and we have told the children that they are welcome to visit us in the coming years to see, and of course to try out our new additions to playground.

Last month we had visits from a staff member and “Squirt” the baby turtle character from Swim World swim school. These were fun and interactive sessions aimed at increasing the children’s awareness and understanding of water safety issues at home, the pool, the beach etc.

There has been lots of fun in the hair salon as the children pretended to style each others hair and modelled lots of crazy and colourful wigs. The dramatic play corner has now been converted into a post office and the children have been enjoying “writing” letters and drawing pictures to post in our own cute little post box.

Last week the children are made tissue paper flowers to decorate the tables for Grandparent’s Day. The children also created water colour pictures using fine brushes and blocks of paint. After listening to the picture story book, William Worrydactyl, about a dinosaur who worries about everything, the children were encouraged to paint or draw pictures of what they worry about before placing them in a “worry box”. This is aimed at assisting children to cope with their own difficult emotions and to realise that everyone has worries.

Outside on the hot days, the children have enjoyed playing with water in the sand pit and ice in the large trough as well as water painting using buckets and brushes. There have also been games of Duck, Duck, Goose and What’s the Time Mr. Wolf? to join in with. The wheel barrows and hoops have also been very popular and since there are limited numbers of them there have been lots of opportunities for children to practice patience and turn-taking.

Over the next few weeks, the Possums and Koalas will be going on excursion to the Melbourne Museum, where they will be engaging in the staff led Bugs, Bugs, Bugs program as well as lots of other stimulating experiences. The children are already getting excited!

- Sonya

3yo Report

The children enjoyed our drama incursions presented by Drama Toolbox. The first session’s theme was The Circus and the children had an opportunity to dress up as a clown, acrobat, tiger, lion, pony or an elephant. Under the Sea was the theme of the second session and dress ups included seaweed, jellyfish, octopus, mermaids, sharks and drivers. The children could then participate in role-playing activities. There were lots of smiles and laughter and both sessions were well received.

Our bean seeds, that we planted last term, are doing very well and are growing into healthy seedlings. We have been watering our plants using water from our rainwater tank next to the cubby house. We will watch in anticipation for the first sign of flowers!

We made the most of the beautiful spring weather (whilst it lasted) and took the opportunity to eat our snack outdoors and have picnics. This has proven to be very popular as the children often ask “Can we have a picnic today?” The resident magpies like this as well as they clean up all of the crumbs that we leave behind!

Last week we were busy creating springtime pictures using die cut flowers and butterflies, building with the wooden blocks, sorting different buttons in our sorting box, playing in our hairdressing salon and doing water painting outside. Our mat group time songs included Mr Clickerty Cane and The Ants go Marching. We have been enjoying listening to Hairy Maclary audio stories and following along with the book.

I would like to thank Megan and all of the families that helped out at our Bunnings BBQ. Such a great result!

- Sue

Social & Fundraising Update

Well it is hard to believe that this is the last term of the year!!! It will be the end of the Kinder year and Christmas before we know it. It has been a big term already on the social and fundraising front.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered, baked, bought and supported the Bunnings BBQ & Cake Stall. It was a great day and I was so surprised at the amount we raised for the kinder.

The Tea towels and bags have arrived and are ready for collection. Don't they look fabulous! What a great memento of your child’s year at kinder. I hope you like them as much as I do. I can’t wait to use my bag. If there are any people that didn’t purchase, we have a few bags available. Please contact me via email at fundraising@eastmont.org.au if you would like to purchase one.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying a train ride or two at the Christmas Party at the Mooroolbark Miniature Railway this Sunday. Don't forget to RSVP and pay by tomorrow. There will also be a certain big jolly fellow that is excited to meet all the Kinder children and their siblings too!!!

Thank you to Melissa C and Cassie for hosting the Grandparents morning tea last weekend and to all our lovely Eastmont Grandparents and Special Friends who came along and enjoyed a fun-filled morning tea.

There were big smiles from young and old as the children played, had special photos, gave tours and enjoyed a sweet treat with their loved ones. We had over 70 Grandparents in attendance. A huge thanks to Sue and Nithi for staffing the event. Photos from the photo booth have been distributed via your child's pocket

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people as this is my last newsletter piece this year. I would like to thank my wonderful subcommittee members who have been so helpful and supportive, it has made my job easier in many ways. So, thank you to Fiona H, Emma N, Renee B, Casey S and Rachel C. It has been fabulous to work with you all. I would also like to thank the teachers whom have been very supportive of me and my ideas this year, they haven’t got sick of my face constantly at kinder!!! Thank you to the great 2019 Committee, it has been wonderful to work with so many experienced people and get to know the up/downs of Kinder committee life. Lastly, I would like to the Kinder Families for supporting all the Social and fundraising events this year...without you we couldn’t do it.

- Megan