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.

 

Mini News June 2014

Minischool Mini News June 2014

Hello everyone. Ready for another month of what has been happening at Minischool Educational Preschool and Vacation care? Here it is…..

We began June with a winter theme pyjama party complete with hot chocolates and popcorn. Of course this was on the warmest winter’s day rather than a cold one which made us all laugh in our sleeping bags, jammies and groovy slippers.

Our next theme was Norfolk Island’s ‘bounty’ on Anniversary week. This week we were grateful to be able to use the school Norf’k studies resources on our trip to the library (Many thanks to the staff at NICS). We had lunch at the nearby Queen Victoria gardens to learn more about our heritage (Thanks to Marie Bailey for these amazing gardens & informative history in the gazebo). We traced Bounty hats, tried our hand at weaving, Norf’k poetry, Bounty ball dancing and even assembling the Norfolk Island flag. To end this week we had two celebrations for Eli’s 5^th Birthday and April-Rose’s 3^rd birthday. There was plenty of cake, party food and treasure hunts in our gardens.

To celebrate the Queen’s birthday, our next theme was Kings, Queens and Castles. We discovered all about castles and knights in medieval Europe. We discovered the names and colours of the crown jewels as we made crowns filled with sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds. To celebrate princess Leilani’s 3^rd birthday, we had a royal dress up party and walked to the school library dressed in our finery practising our royal waves to all the cars who passed us. Regular visiting developmental paediatricians Dr Jane Leslie and Dr Michael MacDowell came to visit our new location and commented that we were easier to find than the last one. It was great to have regular contact to discuss any developmental growth and concerns. We appreciate their taking time to visit us and the families of Norfolk Island.

Next came DINOSAUR week. Our budding palaeontologists discovered dinosaurs in the gardens, made footprints in paint and in playdough. We painted dinosaur stencils, made dinosaur shaped cookies, played with new puzzles describing the different types of dinosaurs. We looked at what they eat and were happy to discover that we are omnivores too.

From our funny quote book

1.      I was explaining about the meat eating dinosaurs called carnivores. Miss 3 said “I LOVE CARNIVALS”

2.      While sounding our words, we all got stuck on that tricky silent ‘p’ of the pteradon, Miss 4 guessed “it’s a potasaurus” I prompted, it starts with a ‘t’ sound. Miss 4 guessed again “it’s a tera-saurus” Close I said, further prompting ‘ptera-d…’ not giving up she jumped up excitedly and said “I know… TERA-DAURUS!”

3.      I showed a Triceratops picture to the pre-schoolers, miss 4 put her hand up to tell me that it was a “Tricerataurus!”

4.      While hole punching and threading pictures , Mr 4 handed me the hole puncher and told me that “it had run out” ☺

Our next theme was community helpers’ week. We are extremely grateful to the Norfolk Island Police and to the Norfolk Island Fire Services for their help with this week by allowing the minischoolers to visit both stations for a first-hand look at the equipment needed to keep us safe. WE had lunch and both places and a ride in the vehicles. What lucky kids (and adults) we are to live in this wonderful community.

Many photos of these visits are on Minischools facebook page for you to visit anytime.

2 more birthdays were celebrated in June Happy Birthday to Geordie and to Teddy! And we got a visit or two plus cuddles from beautiful newborn baby Harrison.

After Geordies birthday, we got a visit and private magic show from Magic Fab (tennis coach Fabien) before he returned to France. Thanks Fab for all the laughs. I hope we helped you with some more English words like ‘piles’ for your card tricks as much as we enjoyed the French versions. The queen of hearts card trick was my favourite, especially when you pronounced it as ‘hurts’.

This brings us to our current vacation care program. With Baunti Escapes taking a break from kids club for the time being, we are happy to help working parents these holidays by entertaining the school kids. It certainly has been a fun filled 2 weeks. Our younger ones have enjoyed having the school children entertain them and add value to our games and activities. Many vacation care kids are ex Minischool and Kinderhaus who have returned and are enjoying revisiting the games, activities & toys they played as pre-schoolers.

So far these holidays we have dodged the rain having picnic lunches in the gardens, Queen Victoria gardens and Cascade bay. We Love the new sandpit at pirate cove and stage one of our playground. WE have loved French knitting our own scarves and bubble play.

We celebrated 2 more birthdays in the holidays. Happiest 4^th Birthday to Nate.

Also Happy 5^th Birthday to Asher. How fantastic to have your brother and sister at vacation care to celebrate with you!

 High schooler Eloise Grant came to play these holidays which was great timing as she will be bringing the school children to Minischool when we begin after school care NEXT WEEK!

Monday is a pupil free day so vacation care will continue on this day.

If you need an enrolment form for after school care please let me know on 51862.

MOOSH (Minischool out of school hours care) begins on Tuesday 15^th July from 3pm to 5pm. Bookings are essential as the children get fed luscious & scrumptious afternoon teas. Mooshies will learn to cook ans meal plan as well, so enrolment forms need to be completed so we can plan for any food intolerences.

We will work in conjunction with the school’s active afterschool program when it begins in term 3.

Until next month, see you on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/minischoolpreschool.

Stop by and say hi!

Love from all of the Minischool team ♥

Meet the Minischool TEAM

Minischool meet the staff team.

With all of our new beginnings at Minischool I would like to share a favourite quote from Walt Disney who was part of my magical childhood.

“We keep moving forward opening new doors and doing new things because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading down new paths”-Walt Disney.

By opening up a new pathway I thought it would be great to have a fresh start and introduce the team at Minischool.

 

Minischool began as Montessori Kinderhaus by a group of parents looking for an alternative to any early education offered on the island. Montessori teacher Rauni Lange ran this from 2010 until 2012 when it changed hands and became Minischool Educational preschool. Our aim is to provide early learning in a fun, fresh and inspirational way in a homelike setting.

Preschool and early education is lifelong learning and is the basis of all education.

About us. There is me… Hi my name is Cristina. I had my first trip to Norfolk Island as a 6 week old baby and have loved it ever since. I have lived here full time for the past 8 years. I received a diploma in children’s services nearly 20 years ago. Since then I have been a full-time nanny in between working in Long day care centres, Preschools, Preschool prep & out of school hours centres within primary school grounds both in NSW and in Qld as assistant director and preschool group leader. My preschools have been through the Australian accreditation system. I deferred my bachelor of learning management at CQU when I took on this business full time in 2012. Mum to 3 young children, one is on the Autism spectrum and has taught me so much extra patience, love and understanding towards every ability. I love researching new ideas and themes to encourage the children to learn in a fun way that suits their needs so they can be the best little people that they can be. I recently completed the active afterschool coaching course and am looking forward to using it when we begin Minischools afterschool care at the beginning of term 3. Coming to work each day is an absolute pleasure. Surely it shouldn’t be called work when we have this much fun.

And meet my team. This is Mandy, my rock.

Mandy has an impressive background. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education in primary teaching, and a Bachelor of Special Education.

Mandy worked in special ed in a school support unit, as a social educator for adults with disabilities, 13 years as an early school support teacher in K-2 working with children with mild intellectual disabilities. When Mandy came to Norfolk Island she fell in love with the preschool age group and studied a certificate 3 in children’s services while on island. She loves that dress ups and laughter is just one of the pleasures of going to work each day.

We welcome to the team Jen who has a diploma of children’s services and a bachelor of teaching. We look forward to spending more time together soon.

 

This is Lauren whom the children adore.

Lauren has been a helper at the primary school for years and is known to join in our day time pyjama parties just for fun and loves to pop into our new location to surprise us and give the children lots of cuddles.

And high school student Eloise (photo to come) who will help the Mooshies (Minischool out of school hours children) with the walking bus from school down the footpath to minischool when the weather is fine. We are sure there will be plenty of fun adventures ahead.

It is the end of week 2 at our new and very loved home called ‘Shangrila’ on the corner of Shortridge road and Queen Elizabeth avenue.

The move has been 6 months in the making and we are very grateful to each and every individual and family who helped out through every move.

Thanks to Peter and Natalie for allowing us to love your corner as much as you do. Cheers for a long and happy association.

Thanks to Eve and Robyn for sharing Aunty Jan’s house on Potts farm with us in between our moves. This is an excellent location & great 4 bedroom house that is for sale and worth having a look at. We hope it sells for you soon.

Thanks to Michelle Nicholson at Norfolk Island Central school and to Suzanne Hardy. We love that we are now such a short walking distance from the school, and can walk together to enjoy the library each week. Look out for us next week. We will be the Kings, Queens and Knights on Queen Elizabeth avenue walking up the hill to storm the castle library.

Thanks to Christian Bailey agencies for your help in moving all of our equipment and our cubbyhouse which was gifted to us by Ma from Vegemite Village.

Thanks to All Star painters who painted & Crosscut constructions who repaired Ma’s cubbyhouse so we can treasure it for years to come.

Thanks to the Norfolk Island Police for cooking our BBQ for our end of moving working bee. With over 90% of our families helping to move, there were plenty of mouths to feed.

Thanks to each and every parent of Minischool who contributed in any way possible to make our transition into our new home a smooth and shiny one. Also thanks for our school warming gifts, we look forward to putting many of them to use in the kitchen & into the garden shortly.

Afterschool care enrolment forms will be available from Minischool straight after Bounty day. Or call 51862 to reserve a copy for your 5-12 year old.

Minischool updates & photos can be found on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/minischoolpreschool   and our blog http://norfolkislandpreschool.blogspot.com