Anzac Day 2015 ~ Centenary since Galipolli

 

Norfolk Island.
An amazing place with a unique heritage.
As you can see from this post below on N.I  museums website, Norfolk Island has the highest number of participants per capita in the whole British Empire during world war one.

We are all for teaching about our own community, our own &world history plus respect, so rather than just make some crafts to symbolise this event, Minischoolers and the teachers headed to the Norfolk Island R.S.L sub branch to look at the displays there and to perform some old time songs for the seniors at the White Oaks club on Thursday 23rd April. Just 2 days before ANZAC DAY.



The 2 Bonni's

Seeing his Grandparents who run the RSL bistro was a treat.

Outside the Norfolk Island RSL sub branch's upgraded memorial

The songs chosen were upbeat songs such as 'my bonnie lies over the ocean' and a 'sailor went to sea sea sea' and 'my body makes music'. During a friendship song called Golden ships and silver ships, the children handed out gifts of packaged Anzac biscuits we had made earlier in the week plus a threaded poppy the children helped to make themselves.

*See recipe for Minischool's Anzac Biscuits below

We are pleased that this relationship with the White Oaks and RSL club will be an ongoing one as the children have been requested to return each month to enjoy a morning tea with the 'oldies'.
There is no better way to foster respect within our community than to actually get out within the community and meet the diverse range of people within it.

MINISCHOOL ANZAC BISCUITS

1 cup of uncooked rolled oats

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4-1/2 cup of desiccated coconut

125g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons boiling water

METHOD:

Blend oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Melt butter and syrup over low heat. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to butter mixture. Stir this into dry ingredients. Mix

Drop full tablespoons of mixture onto greased tray, allow room for spreading.

Bake at 150 degrees Celsius for approx. 15 minutes or until golden brown (or until the children start drooling & telling you how hungry they are because it smells so good!).

Makes approx. 30 biscuits. 



Of course there were still plenty of Anzac inspired crafts that the children made all by themselves.
There was songs and some very special stories.... Our favourites from the school library were 'Lone Pine' and 'Don't forget Australia'.

 

And on Anzac day this was the amazing view after the dawn service.

 

And at the 10:30 ANZAC day service, Jasper placed the wreath the children made on behalf of the Minischoolers.

 

 

Bless those who fought for us on the battlefields and for those who kept the home front fires burning.
Lest we forget.
We nawa gwen forget dem.

Minischool Mini News July 2014

Minischool Mini News July 2014

Another month has flown by. Here is all of the July news from us here at Minischool.

Let’s start with 2 very special Vacation care weeks. I can only describe them using one word…Happy.

The kids were happy, the staff were happy, we hope the parents were also happy.

It was a nice break from routine and change of pace. Our big school children play beautifully with the younger pre-schoolers and are fabulous role models. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few future teachers in our group, a lovely caring team of kids indeed. There were plenty of fun with bubbles, art using handmade sidewalk chalk, surprise playdough and French knitted scarves. Recipes and patterns to each of these are on our blog (address at the bottom of the page).

WE had excursions to Cascade, to the airport to see the RAAF planes land, Queen Victoria gardens, The Nakamal and back to the airport to farewell the Commonwealth games team on their way to Scotland.

Mooshie kids are already looking forward to the next holidays.

When school returned , MOOSH (Minischool out of school hours) Care began. With thanks to Eloise Grant for her time walking the kids down the hill from school and staying to play with us.

Each session includes afternoon tea the Mooshies have been planning and sometimes cooking themselves. so far we have made

Pancakes with Butter Caramel sauce, Pasta, Sausages, Meat Pies, Oranges, pizza, fruit, Custard and Jelly.

The Mooshies enjoy the unwind after school by playing games in our garden and some adventures out and about at mini golf & walk in the wind.

As school had returned we continued our topical weekly themes that have been popular since Minischool first began.

To start this term we went with a winter Christmas celebration and explained why we were celebrating our European ancestors celebrating a cooler Christmas in this warmer part of the world. Some of our activities included revisiting some of our favourite Christmas carols while playing on musical instruments, stencilling, tracing and decorating Christmas trees, singing and reading Christmas themed books from the NICS library.

On a side note, Teddy and Sienna were very excited to meet Jonny Young and Normie Rowe at the RSL club when Sienna sang there with her Daddy.

On to our Commonwealth games theme which we began preparing for way back on the 14^th of July when we took our ‘Clyde’ the commonwealth games mascot to the airport to farewell the commonwealth games team on their way to Scotland.  We have continued on for the past 2 weeks, learning about Scotland the country and the other Commonwealth countries and their flags. A trip to the Bounty centre provided up with all the makings for a good sports championship. We have had constant team and individual competitions of ten pin bowling, boules, hoola hoop hookey, table tennis and obstacle courses.  Each child has earned a gold, silver and bronze medal as we learned about sequencing first, second and third places.

Then we surprised the children with our new 12ft trampoline (Cristina was one of the first to test it out as she forgot for a moment of her broken tailbone from watersliding with the kids in summer, as she tried to remember the flips and gymnastic routines of her youth ☺) Thanks to Land & Sea for your great sale and for mentioning us on your fb page, we promise some bouncing good photos soon.

The cross country was scheduled with perfect timing on our ‘games’ theme, we continued our support for cheering on the teams while lunching at Kingston. The Minischoolers wore their colours as we facepainted, made flags and ran alongside the big school kids, cheering for our brothers and sisters and last years minischoolers until we were hoarse.

Well done to Misha for breaking a record & to the Norfolk team for winning the day. We were proud of all of you.

 

Visiting speech pathologist Lynn Rodgers spent some time with us and our children at Minischool, we learned new games and ideas for encouraging correct speech patterns and will continue these for the rest of the year. It was nice to catch up with her and the Banyan park staff for lunch. Lynn prepared a fantastic booklet to help support early intervention. This will benefit all of the children of Norfolk Island. Thankyou Lynn for your valuable time and resources.

Happiest birthdays to Nate, Issac and Asher . We hope you enjoyed our celebrations with you ♥

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

Last week 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.

 Photos from all the 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. 

or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/minischoolpreschool  

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.