Minischool Vacation Care January 2016

Minischool Vacation Care ~ January 2016

These January holidays, we returned back to Minischool vacation care early on the 4th due to popular demand.

The past few weeks have been filled with picnics, races, painting, making movies and dances, dressing up, building, creating, fun and games and a few crazy times. Welcome back to all of our vacation care children and welcome to some new faces here on holiday and newly arrived on island.

 

At the same time as vacation care, we were very fortunate to be able to run 2 weeks of ballet and jazz dance classes for 3-13 year olds.

Visiting ballerinas Abbey and Lara Wilkinson had been working with their own teachers at Noosa Performing arts factory to choreograph and teach the younger set.

30+ children were signed up for the dancers who learned amazing strength, exercises and skills during the fortnight. We learned that dancing can be fun to dress up and move to music but also so much more.

There was a fantastic comradery formed between the classes as Abbey choreographed and taught  an incredible 6 classes and 6 dance pieces over the space of 2 weeks. These new found skills were displayed to a packed uniting church hall full of siblings, parents, grandparents, friends and neighbours.

It was an amazing effort showcasing a need for more creative arts classes on Norfolk Island.

Minischool Director and coordinator of the dance classes explained to the parents during the concert that we are very fortunate to sample many activities on Norfolk Island, but sporting team events and clubs can be a constant in the children’s lives here yet creative arts are fewer and further apart in time frames and choices than sporting choices. Abbey explained that the strength taught in Ballet is the basis for all types of skills, not just dance.

The program of the dance concert was as follows.

3+ Ballet~ Frozen classical piece

6+ Ballet ~ Beethoven 5 secrets

9+ Ballet~ Skrillex music

Contemporary Ballet solo by Lara Wilkinson

3+ Jazz group ~ Uptown Funk

6+ Jazz group~ Afro Circus

9+ Jazz group~ The nights

Contemporary Ballet solo to ‘Lost boy’ by Abbey Wilkinson

We hope to bring Abbey and Lara back for more summer workshops next year.

In the meantime, for anyone wanting ballet classes to continue throughout the year, please register your interest with Teresa Langusch on 57986

Can all 2016 preschool enrolment forms please be returned to determine your places, first in first served for the days of your choice.

The Preschool graduation afternoon tea party will be held at Minischool 4pm Wednesday 27^th of January. This will be followed by one of our favourite final events, the teacher/ student dinner out.

We farewell our 2014/2015 (even two from 2013) pre-schoolers and wish them all the very best as they transition to kindergarten. We know you are all ready and can’t wait to see you in uniform and when you pop back and see us.

Minischool Mini news February 2015

Minischool Mini News February 2015

We are off in full swing of the new preschool year full of new excitement, theme style learning and early educational experiences on this wonderful island.

The still have preschool spaces on offer on Mondays and Wednesdays plus afterschool care every day for 3-12 year olds. We offer occasional care from 3-5pm straight from school which is perfect for fun, games and quality care during your meetings and much needed care for children during funerals.

During January, Minischool held a graduation ceremony and afternoon tea for our pre-schoolers transitioning to big school. The pre-schoolers were presented with all of their preschool work lovingly collated into their scrapbooks by Mandy and their all about me folders put together by Cristina. We are so proud of all that the preschool children learn and achieve while with us and are happy to give them their childhood memories in scrapbooks and folders (as well as their graduation certificates and other presents) to mark the end of each preschool journey.

  All of our families were invited to this afternoon tea and after graduation, said goodbye to the graduates as they headed out together for the annual teachers dinner.

We thank the Paradise hotel for hosting the Minischool staff and all 11 graduates in the gazebo for a wonderful teacher/ student dinner.

There are well over 100 photos to view on our facebook page of this night.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.754180564670337.1073741858.391520660936331&type=3

 

Our new planning measures are firmly put into practise this year to further follow the NQS and EYLF. What on earth are these you may ask? The National Quality Standard (NQS) is divided into 7 areas that contribute to the quality of early childhood education and care &

Is a key aspect of the NQF and sets a national benchmark for early childhood education and care and outside school hours care services in Australia.

The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) is designed to extend and enrich children's learning from birth to five. The Framework supports and provides guidance for educators working with children in all early childhood education and care settings.

I have been part of the quality child care assessment process in Qld and although it is extra work (mostly unpaid for those of us in a love job J) for those in the early education industry, it keeps the quality and standards of our workplaces high. Now enough of the boring department stuff we do after hours… here is the fun thematic learning we have been doing with the children at Minischool over the past month.

We started off with our beginning of the year with an ‘all about me’ theme to start of our scrapbooks and folders. This theme is a great way to transition our existing pre-schoolers to the oldest of the group and to our emerging toddlers to preschool status as it usually is all about them J This entire group have settled in quickly and beautifully as the older children help guide and mentor those starting preschool, they understand how much they have learned and developed themselves.

Valentine’s Day saw us sharing the love some more, posting special hand drawn pictures and letters to our Minischool friends and families.

We continued the love during our Chinese new year celebrations, making lanterns drawing mazes and dot to dots with were excellent fine motor activities. Our new garage space has been cleaned out and utilised as an extra room, this too was hung with lanterns to celebrate. This week was one of the wettest (and without petrol) so we missed out on an excursion to the goat farm at Anson bay to celebrate with our Hilli goat friends, but we looked at the photos from our excursion there late last year and found creative uses of our frozen goat milk including hot chocolates to keep us warm during the big wet & fog.

Following this was Safety week to ensure we are following the NQS Childrens health and safety guidelines. Safety involves so many learning areas of self-safety of sunscreen and nutrition, and environment safety where we may need the assistance of the police, ambulance and fire departments. Our Emergency evacuation drills were fun and the children took them seriously enough in a caring way towards their friends that made us so very proud of them!

Each time we offer a theme, we also build up our resources at Minischool based on those themes, though it is rare that we will offer the same activity 2 years in a row as the staff are always dreaming up fresh and innovative ways to teach.

This past week was a celebration of all Dr. Seuss books for his March 2 birthday. We celebrated a love of reading his wonderful books and crazy yet fantastic rhyming words. We even learned the morals of the stories by testing our senses by cooking and eating green eggs and ham. They were delicious! (More photos on facebook). My favourite was the ‘I wish I had duck feet’ race using flippers. It was very funny!

We love our weekly walk up to the library and school visit. Thankyou to the 4 teachers in infants and upper primary who let us visit your classrooms and the canteen. The children love their visit to the school, the bubblers and even the big school toilets.

Autumn saw us decorating and designing and autumn tree full of ‘A’s using the autumn colour scheme.

 

We offer a daily obstacle course at Minischool, this helps to develop and monitor Childrens gross motor, cognitive and other developmental needs. In partnership with this, we begin our developmental checklists this month on each child to pick up on any areas of need.

 

Upcoming themes over the next month are introducing back to basics, shapes for the younger group and more complex 3D shapes for our older group. We have fantastic Montessori materials to use throughout our themes; they are always loved by the children who chose them.

We haven’t forgotten St. Patrick’s Day full of Rainbows and colours plus Earth day and lessons in recycling.

 

In our gardens we are enjoying the feijoas and guavas which are all huge due to the rainfall. We made guava jelly at Minischool and enjoyed eating them on freshly made lemonade scones (recipe on our blog)

We were so lucky to have Jaspers granny come to Minischool for 2 weeks, she was a lovely addition to our team.

 

Every child is worth celebrating. For each child’s birthday we hold parties, make special cards, give presents, cook and eat cake and other goodies whether their birthday falls on their booked day or not.

Happy Birthday Last Month to Jasper who turned 5, Hamish turned 4 and Bonita also turned 4 (Welcome to Minischool Bonita) This month we say a Happy March Birthday to Billy who turned 5, his sister Matilda who is turning 3 and to Daphne (welcome back) who is turning 4.

These children enjoy being the child of the day and the special privilege of being the leader of all activities on their party day.

We said a sad farewell to Hamish last week, he starts at his new preschool in Australia this week, I am sure his new teachers will get as many laughs and hugs as we did. We will miss you.

Thankyou to Jilly for all of your educational presents to the Minischoolers and teachers, we are so blessed. You really are a legend J.

Thanks all for letting us be a part of this wonderful community by providing early education and experiences to your children.

Until next month, see you on Minischools Facebook page & the Minischool preschool blog.

Cristina, Mandy, Shelley and Eloise.

End of January Vacation care

Minischool vacation care program is coming to an end and will finish on Pupil free day Tuesday 27^th January for Primary and Wednesday 28^th for infants who begin school on Thursday 29^th.

So far these holidays, we have been using  papier mache to make animal money boxes. We watched as Teddy’s wearable arts costume came to life each day as he worked hard on it. There have been board game challenges, music and dancing concerts, treasure hunts and games through the Minischool gardens, drawing competitions, baking painting, playdough and biking adventures.

Everybody loves Mr. Jingles the Christmas preschool kitten. This delightful and very patient little bundle of fur has been dressed up in all sorts of dolls clothes and wheeled around in strollers. We often find him curled up in one of our children’s arms as they read a book on the bunk beds or bean bags. What a lucky little kitten!

We wish all of our graduating Preschool children the very best of luck as you begin your new adventures at ‘Big’ school.

Our Graduation afternoon tea and dinner out with the teachers was a lovely end to our preschool journey together.

We hope you enjoyed your surprise gifts and completed preschool work from your time with us.

We will miss you all so please remember to come back and visit us.

There are over 90 graduation photos on the facebook page for you to enjoy. Thanks to all of our families for attending afternoon tea to wish our outgoing class all the best.

Thankyou also to the Paradise hotel and Captain James for hosting our preschool dinner this year. Mandy, you are the best! Thanks for staying back to finish off all those scrapbooks, you are amazing & we love you ♥

We say farewell to Jen as she heads back to teach her primary class back in Australia. We now welcome Shelley Mitchell to our team. Shelley and I worked in preschools in Queensland. She also has extensive experience working as a special needs teacher aide in primary and high school and has joined the Minischool team seamlessly. Welcome, we know the children and families will love you as much as we already do.

 

Welcome to our new ‘little’ Minischoolers who have transitioned up to preschool. We know your journey will begin with wonder and will be some of the most memorable years of your lives filled with very important first and lifelong skills.

 

By now all Minischool preschool enrolment forms should be returned, If you haven’t as yet, please drop into Minischool between 8:30 and 3:30 or phone Cristina on 51862.

Our Christmas Message to you.

 

Minischool Educational Preschool

Wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Joyous New Year,

We thank our Families and the Norfolk Island Community for making the year of 2014 one filled with

laughter & FRIENDShIP  FUN

Adventures and Discoveries

Friendships made and supported.

 Playing in a creative atmosphere

Many HAPPY times.  Learning life skills.

surprises

Making Magic. Planting seeds. dreaming BIG.

Dressing up and silly dancing.

 Fuelling Imaginations

learning through the seasons

Making mistakes and trying again. LOTS OF HUGS!

 Exuberance

Educational based learning through themes and educational play equipment

Discovering our island and the world at large

Celebrations

May the wonder and special memories made during your preschool years be with you forever and  2015 be just as memorable.

 We are having a 2 week break. Back on the 5^th of January for vacation care.

You can keep up with our regular updates on Facebook, also on our Norfolk Island Preschool Blog and now on Pinterest.

 

Minischool mini news August 2014

Minischool mini news August 2014

Another month & season gone with so much to share with you all. Thankyou to people who stop us in the street to let us know that they like what we achieve, you really do make our day.

Before we rewind to all that happened at Minischool in August, a reminder that Vacation care starts on Monday 22^nd of September. Places are available for 3-12 year olds with qualified staff from 9am-3pm each day (before and after hours available at a small extra cost.) Vacation care days are $28 per day for non regular minischool pre-schoolers, for the regulars, the cost remains the same as per usual. Ph 51862 for booking and enquiries. Before, after & vacation care plus preschool all in one convenient location.

Back to August…

Welcome to our new children Mitchell, Jai, Lachie and Freya. We look forward to lots of fun, games and learning with you for the rest of the year and beyond.

Congrats to Mitch who lost his first ever tooth. It was an exciting event for all.

We are inventing new gluten free playdough recipes for Freya with some successes and some interesting combinations.

Last month we began the first of our regular Friday tennis sessions at the Cheryl tennis club. We thank super coach Danny for all of those fabulous new games and gross motor/cognitive skills learned. Thanks to our parents for their support of this project, we know that your children will be benefitting from this training for years to come. The improvement in their gross motor skills after 5 sessions is incredible.

While we are talking about improving gross motor skills have you seen our new trampoline through the trees? Thanks to Norfolk Land and Sea the children now have regular kindy gym sessions while having fun jumping with Mandy and Cristina. We have acquired 4 bikes for Minischool with and without training wheels, so there is much peddling fun around our garden paths.

With our weekly walk from Shortridge road to the school library each week plus obstacle courses at Minischool, we are getting some all-round fitness.

Fine motor work has included beading, drawing, cutting, pasting, tracing, squeezing and plenty more as we move towards complete school readiness for our older preschoolers.

Our August themes and excursions included ‘manners and hygiene’ to ward off any winter bugs and germs. Picnics and Anson bay and Kingston. We took  a trip to the Hilli goat farm to feed Charlie’s 4 baby goats. Dress yellow for Daffodil day, a day for hope and cancer awareness.

World photo day where we played with all of Cristina’s cameras to celebrate 175 years of photography.

 Science week full of experiments and a visit to the NICS high school science lab where Mr Pinson helped us discover how to make slime and use science safely and fun. We loved celebrating book week, we learned all about the parts of a book and authors and illustrators and made our own books. Our favourite part of the week was the dress up book parade at the school where we chose to dress as characters from our favourite books and paraded with the rest of the school. Mandy and Cristina dressed as cuddlepot and snugglepie and took a gaggle of fancy dressed children for a walk up Queen Elizabeth avenue to many car toots and waves.

 After school care took us up to walk in the wild and back to play on the trampoline at Minischool. There have been table tennis and handball comps as well as plenty of gardens for hide and seek and adventures. We made a new friend in Isabel who was here on holidays from Fort street primary school in the rocks, Sydney. Thanks for coming to play with us on your holiday.

Providing afternoon tea each day has been a fun challenge, one of our favourite recipes has been has been Hilli goat milk, Farmer Lous pine smoked bacon and Island eggs mini quiches. Thankyou to all of these local businesses for their deliveries to our door.

We received some postcards from N.Z and the U.K from friends at the commonwealth games. Thanks for bringing us back some souvenirs from the games and a beautiful Scottish book called ‘Wee MacNessie’.

Once the team from Framed ‘n’ Signed arrived back, they were able to install our brand new rainbow signs on our fences. They look terrific! Thankyou.

Our new bag ‘cubby holes’ are just what we needed to store our bags and artworks. Thanks to Brentt Jones and to Crosscut construction for this and our new science cupboard, music stand & storage shelves. Thanks also go to Katie for spending time with us as part of your work placement, you are a natural in the early childcare industry and thanks to Saxon for donating your old toys to us, the children are loving them.

 Photos from all of our excursions & themes, our weekly tennis sessions, Cross country, after school and vacation care are on both the facebook page and the blog. Most photos are put up weekly on our Minischool facebook page, so keep checking in for new ideas and inspiration.                

Until next month, see you on our blog http://norfolkislandpreschool.blogspot.com

Come and see us on Shortridge road (entry via the red gate). We love our visitors.

Stop by and say hi!

Love from all of the Minischool team ♥

Minischool is a fresh, fun, inspirational & educational preschool offered to 3 to 5 year old children of Norfolk Island.

Now including Vacation & After School care. Phone 51862 for any information.