Choklits Newsletter, Winter 2018

Child Care Kindergarten

Dear Choklits Families,

Wow, so much has happened since our last newsletter at Choklits. The days are flying by as they say “time fly’s when you’re having fun”. We have welcomed some new families to Choklits and look forward to sharing their experiences with us and to see their children grow and develop and have fun while they are at Choklits.

We have had many additional incursions happen over the last couple of months, we thank Lily’s dad for bringing his ambulance to the centre for all the children to explore and hear about what our paramedics do. We had a woodwork incursion, which the older children were very excited to make their own wooden master pieces to take home, plus we also had a cultural incursion to celebrate NADIOC week where the children learned about the custodians of the land, the history of the aboriginal people and how to use a didgeridoo.

We love seeing and hearing your comments and interactions each day through Storypark and through conversations about your child’s learning journey at Choklits. Its great to be able to make your child’s learning visible and interactive.

When Should You Keep Your Child Home?

A lot of families have been asking when their child should stay at home. Like adults, children sometimes wake in the morning wishing they could have a day off from the usual routine. And again like adults by the time breakfast is over, they are feeling better and are ready to face the day’s activities. On occasions, however, children should stay home, in their own interest and the interest of the other children.

You should keep your child home if he/she has a high temperature In the morning or feels feverish; has signs of conjunctivitis-red and/or inflamed eyes with discharge; has any rash or skin irritation; has impetigo -school sores; has diarrhoea; has been vomiting during the night; is unusually tired, pale, irritable or lethargic; has an eye ear or throat infection and is on antibiotics. Your child should stay home until they have had the medication for at least 24 hours. Ask yourself – “Would I go to work today if I was as off colour as my child?”

Update Your Details

If you have changed an of your details recently like your email address, phone number, address or if your child has recently had their immunisations, please let us know so we can update our records.

As always if you have any concerns, queries or suggestions about anything that involves your child/children at Choklits. Please don’t hesitate to contact either myself, the room leaders or any other educator.

Until next time,
Sue

Many Exciting Things Are Happening At Choklits

As many of our Choklits community would be aware we have been doing lots of exciting works at Choklits upgrading and expanding our classrooms, yard and resources. We are pleased to announce we are finally finished and are so excited that all of our community can now enjoy the hard work. We thank you all for your patience and tolerance while the building works where completed which has included-

  • a brand new car park to help make drop off and pick up times quicker and easier for all of our parents and carers
  • planting almost 300 new trees (not a typo!), shrubs and bushes
  • installing two new activity forts joined by a bridge complete with rope ladders and a rock climbing wall
  • opening up our yard and doubling our useable play area
  • building and installing our new kindergarten room including all new resources
  • building two new garden areas, one a veggie patch as part of our sustainability program we call “Plant to Plate“

Diggers, cranes, shovels, tools and anyone in hi-vis are always very popular at Choklits. We’ve put this together for all our little learners who have loved all the action throughout our recent renovations…

This Is A Look At Our Centre Renovations, Jan-June 2018!

Here’s a Look Inside Our New Room, This Was Our Grand Opening!

All this hard work has also meant we have more usable space and have been granted an extension of our license to accept more children into our precious Choklits Community!

To celebrate our completed works, we have decided to offer something special for our Choklits Community in August!

Dates For The Diary

August
13th to 20th Science Week
17th to 24th Book Week (Dress up day is the 21st of August)
31st of August is our annual Fathers Day Afternoon tea.

September
5th Wednesday is Early Childhood Educators Day
24th to 27th is AFL week the children can dress up all week
28th Friday is Grand Final Public Holiday

October
22nd to 26th Children’s Week Activities
22nd to the 26th Children’s Photos will be taken by Allure

November
6th Tuesday Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
7th Wednesday we will be celebrating Diwali
8th Thursday annual animal farm visit

December
11th Tuesday Choklits Annual Christmas Concert and BBQ.

Recycling and Sustainability Update

We have now planted our second vegetable, fruit and herb garden next to our new building which we established as part of National Plant a Tree Day. Plus, we have also just started our own worm farm with the help of Natasha from The Sage Garden. We are very excited and committed to our sustainability journey and are starting to enjoy the spoils of our “Plant to Plate” project, with many of the children already enjoying some of our crops in their weekly meals. If you have any ideas for us we would love to hear them.

As always, we’ll keep you posted, there’ll be plenty of updates on our Choklits Facebook Page and Instagram Page too.

Here’s how we planted our new garden, in less than 15 seconds-

Stay tuned for other sustainability updates throughout the year. If you have any recycling or sustainability tips please let us know by email.

Important Changes to Child Care Subsidy 2018

The end of July marks the first month of the new child care subsidy and all in all it has gone relatively smoothly. There are still some issues the government is working through and if you have any questions please contact us, we’ll help as much as we can. Please remember all entitlements are calculated based on the information you provide to the government. If you feel there are any issues or your entitlement does not seem correct you need to contact them directly.

Here is the most current information that should assist you.

Phone: 136 150

Staff Member Acknowledgements

This month we would like to acknowledge four wonderful educators Sue Brewer, Talia Waters, Diane Collard and Christine Picone. Diane and Christine have both completed their Diploma and Certificate 111 in Early Childhood Education and Care respectively and did it while working full time. Well done to you both and what a wonderful achievement. Talia is also currently studying for her Diploma and is really shining in her educator role in the nursery, developing some beautiful relationships with the children. Finally, Sue Brewer our director has been working tirelessly over the last few months to support the centre and our Choklits community through the Child Care Subsidy changes, she has spent many hours liaising with many government departments ensuring we have the most up to date information for our families. Well done Sue, the Choklits community thanks you.

Storypark Update

We love sharing your child’s learnings through Storypark and find your comments and interactions very helpful in supporting your children, understanding your family and your preferences. Please keep the interactions coming so we can support your child’s education in partnership. We are also using Storypark more and more as our communication platform so please make sure you are checking the community boards regularly. Head to the Storypark website

We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.

Cooking with Choklits

Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.

Policy Review and Staff Training

We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. For more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.

Keep Up-to-Date

Please follow us on Instagram. We are posting stories there every day so it’s the best way to keep up-to-date with all the activities at Choklits!

And, please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to see the latest happenings at Choklits including features, stories, events, recipes and special incursions. This post has been one of our favourites.

Parent Feedback and Input

We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.

Choklits Child Care

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