It has been a very busy few months at the Childcare Centre as our community continues to thrive. We had some big events happen and we extend our sincere appreciation to our children and families for their participation and support.
In July, our Centre took part in Naidoc week. It was a way to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year the theme was “Heal Country”. This means embracing First Nation’s Cultural knowledge and understanding of the Country as a part of Australia’s national heritage. To support that intention, our children have been in the studio with Mr Marwick, continuing to learn about the 6 seasons. In the South West of Australia, the Noongar seasonal calendar includes the six different seasons in a yearly cycle. These are Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang.
In April our children started to work with Mr Marwick on the Noongar Season, Djeran. You can see by the photo documentation that the Djeran season is represented by the colour green as it is the time of the year where the cooler weather begins. Our pre-kindy children started to blend and mix the green they desired before mixing bi-carb and vinegar to create a bubbly paint. That became the basis of the background. Different materials were added to represent banksia flowers and some technical work went into creating flying ants.
Then as the season changed the children moved on to their next project – The Noongar Season ‘Makuru’ is represented by the colour dark blue as it symbolises rain and cold weather. Our babies started the project by painting over stencils onto cloth material and each room contributed. From babies all the way up to our Kindy room who had the harder tasks of creating swans. It was a whole centre project that was thoroughly enjoyed by all. During Naidoc week the room participated in an experience to celebrate our Indigenous culture. However, these experiences go beyond Naidoc week and have formed a natural place in our regular programming. Mr Marwick will continue to complete and display the remaining seasons.
Book Week was another success. Sometimes we do not know who has more fun…. The children or the Educators. It was a glorious week of celebrating books. A big thank you to all of our families who took the time to dress up their children and participate in such a wonderful event that shares an important message. Getting children to read is more important than ever in the digital age as it improves spelling and literacy abilities and strengthens their young imaginations. At the Centre our Educators really encourage children to sit with a book and to listen to the stories so reading becomes a positive experience. Encouraging children to read for pleasure is so important. Whatever they are interested in, there is always a book about it, so they will always have the opportunity to read about something they enjoy, no matter what age the child is at. Book week is also about staying connected to and supporting your local library. So we encourage all families to find out where their local library is and during the school holidays, check out the activities they have on and pop in for a visit. The more positive experiences children have with Libraries and books, the higher the chance they will enjoy reading all content as they enter into a formal education setting.
We are only halfway through September and so many events have been achieved thus far. We supported and participated in Bravehearts’ White Balloon Day which is an important day to show our support for child protection and extend our thanks to families who gave a gold coin donation to support such an important cause.
Early Educators Day – this is one of our favourite days of the year in the Centre. It’s where we as an organisation get to honour, recognise and celebrate the work of not just our educators, but all educators in early learning services, for their wonderful contribution to the wellbeing and healthy development of the young children in their care. It’s a chance to say thank you to Australia’s early childhood educators on a very personal level by families and their children, as well as collectively at the state and national levels.
As a Childcare Centre we want to send out a big thank you to our families for supporting our College Open Day & Community Fete. We had so many new, current and previous families visit our centre, purchase our cupcakes, have fun on the bouncy castle and took advantage of our free face painting service. The weather was just perfect as the whole college opened up to our community. We cannot believe that we are heading into the last quarter of the year, and will soon be preparing for our Christmas celebrations and Pre-Kindy and Kindy graduations.
