🌟 A HUGE THANK YOU FOR OUR LATEST KINDY UPGRADE! 🌟 Check it out—our kindy just got a fabulous facelift! Over the weekend, two brand-new roofs were installed on our outdoor storage sheds, complete with new and additional bakelite panels, flooding these spaces with natural light. Not only does it look amazing, but it’s also a big win for safety and resource protection—no more leaks during rainy days and much better visibility for both educators and children when accessing materials! 💛 A heartfelt thank you to our 2025 Parent Committee for approving the funds for this important upgrade, and to our 2024/2025 Parent Committee and wider parent community for your ongoing fundraising efforts—alongside the support of our incredible Corporate Sponsors. Your generosity means the world to us and helps ensure Forestview remains a safe, inspiring, and high-quality learning environment for every child. We are so grateful. 🙏✨
This week for National Reconciliation Week (NRW), our kindergarten children have been exploring the rich culture of Australia’s First Nation peoples through various activities. These experiences help our young learners begin to understand and appreciate the deep history, connection to Country and vibrant traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. By engaging with First Nations music and movement, children develop respect, empathy and a sense of belonging – foundations for a more inclusive and united future. Reconciliation begins with knowledge and it is never too early to start.
Thank you so much to Learmonths Foodworks for their weekly milk donations. Learmonths have been donating to Forestview for about 12 years and have donated approximately $1200 worth of milk to our Kindy over this time. We are so ever grateful for your generosity.
After many years in the works, our bathroom renovation is finally finished!! Biggest of thanks to the Qld Gambling Community Benefit Fund grant and 2024 Parent Committee/Body who kindly funded this project. We are very happy with the results.
Thank you Domino’s West Bundaberg for their dough-lightful donation of $702 to Forestview, raised through their incredible DoughRaiser even on Wednesday 21st May!
We truly ‘knead’ to express our deepest gratitude for your ongoing support and generosity. This amazing contribution will go a long way in helping us build an even more engaging and inspiring learning environment for our little learners.
A huge slice of thanks also goes to our wonderful Forestview families – past and present – along with our friends and the wider Bundaberg community. Your appetite for giving and community spirit helped make this event and absolute success!
A special shoutout to Harry and and the entire team at Domino’s West – your behind the scenes hustle and heart didn’t go unnoticed. Thank you for including Forestview in such a meaningful initiative and making every moment count.
Together, we’ve proven once again that when community and kindness come together, the results are truly delicious.
Biggest of thanks to Mrs Emma’s family who recently sourced and freshly painted this amazing fairy table setting and to Flynn (Koala Group) and his Dad, Tim, who installed the setting at Kindy for all the children to enjoy for many years to come. We love it!! Thank you
Alexandra Park Zoo is excited to introduce the new Zoo Kids activity booklet titled “1, 2, Zoo… I Can Count at the Zoo!” This free booklet, developed in collaboration with Louise Stallard from Forestview Kindy and the zoo team, features 10 fun and educational numeracy-based activities designed for children aged 0-5 years.
The activities in the booklet align with the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia 2022 v2.0, making it a valuable resource for kindergartens and families visiting the zoo. The booklet can also be of interest to disability groups. Children can explore the zoo while practising number recognition, writing, estimating, and counting, all through engaging tasks like writing, drawing, and colouring.
Special Features:
– Flexibility: The activities can be completed in any order and across multiple visits to the zoo.
– Eco-Friendly: The booklet is printed on FSC Certified 100% recycled post-consumer waste and carbon-neutral paper.
– Mini Coloring Pencils: Each booklet comes with a free set of mini coloring pencils, though supplies are limited.
To gather community feedback, a QR Code is included on the back cover of the booklet, linking to a short survey where visitors can share their experiences.
Supplies are limited, so be sure to pick up a copy early!
After many years in the making, Forestview Kindergarten has launched our In Nature Kindy Program! On a number of occasions throughout 2023, our Kindy kids have had the opportunity to venture out to the nearby Baldwin Swamp to learn about the various animals that live there, how we can protect our environment and how we can stay safe in nature.
We were so excited to be returning to our beautiful bushland again for our fourth bushwalk for the year. We were keen to see if we could locate many of the items we found last time to show our friends that were away last time.
First we did our safety checks and made sure everyone had on their safety vests and name tags (including the teachers) and we went through our safety checklist. Those who had been on the first bush walk became the teachers for the first-time bush visitors – was amazing to see how much they could remember and communicate.
One final head count check where we call out, “Here I am” when our name is called out.
We walked down past the swamp to our first gathering spot. On the way we spotted a baby swan. It was tricky to see but could be identified when we took our time to observe closely. We spotted a number of animals we had seen on previous walks and also found some new ones!
We then found a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy our healthy snack before we shared a story about a flying fox called Stellaluna and recording our ideas of what a flying fox looks like. We had to recall all the physical features such as a face, eyes, ears, wings, legs, claw feet and some of us even drew the flying foxes handing upside down in a tree. We keep our representations of the things we have seen in our In Nature Program journal.
Nature-based learning encourages collaboration, empathy, and respect for the environment, nurturing well-rounded individuals. Moreover, it instills a profound environmental awareness early on, promoting a lifelong connection to and stewardship of the natural world. We are very proud to have our In Nature Kindy Program come to fruition.
Forestview Kindy had the most wonderful time hosting the Bunnings BBQ on Saturday 9th September raising $2195 – how incredible is that! We would love to thank our sponsors who helped source and supply items for the BBQ and therefore helped us to keep costs to a bare minimum. Special thanks goes to: – Real Way Real Estate Bundaberg and the Illingworth Family – Ken’s Kepnock Butchery – Woolworths Sugarland – Bundaberg Pies and Patisserie – The Library Bar – The Russo, Liverton and Spargo family.
Big thanks also goes to the parent volunteers and educators who helped out on the day to run the BBQ and make it such a success.
Thanks goes to: – Liverton family – Orford family – Illingworth family – Simonka family – Spargo family – Hayhurst family – Abbott family – Baigent family – Truswell/Caruana family – Beckenhauer family – Steinberger family – Angel family – Harkness family – Mrs Melanie, Mrs Nicole and Mrs Louise.
As we come back together for term two, we reflect on the term that was for our new Forestview Kindergarteners. As our children come home each day with tired bodies and tired minds, we ask, “What did you learn?”. “Nothing” comes the response. Hard at work with the busy job of playing, they simply forgot all that they did that day. Yet hidden behind the innocence of “nothing” is a carefully designed world where tuned-in educators have skillfully weaved together their understandings of children generally; the aspirations of the children and families; teaching pedagogies and practices; professional values; philosophies; and policy expectations to bring to life the C&K Listening and Learning curriculum through play.
If we look beneath the surface of all this serious play, we see the real learning that takes place. If only they had the words, instead of nothing, our Kindergartener’s would say:
“I learned about Belonging – about myself, and my identity within the context of my families and communities.
Learning about which bin to place our rubbish and recyclables
When I shared my All About Me bag at show n tell, I was becoming more confident in my identity within this world.
When I shared my ideas with the class and they formed part of our plan for the day, I was learning I am significant in this world
When we rode together around the bike track travelling at a safe speed and all going the same direction, I was learning to interact with care and respect
When Mrs Yuka shares stories of her culture and her language with me, I was learning I am a citizen of a global world and there is much to learn about other cultures”
“I learned about Connecting – becoming socially responsible and showing respect for the environment.
When I placed my rubbish in the recycling bin and food scraps in our compost bin, I was learning about sustainability and how I can contribute
As we planted sunflower seeds in our garden to grow flowers for our bees and food for our animals, I was learning about the dependencies of every part of our environment and how important it is to protect it.
When I took care of our Kindy pets, I was learning a sense of responsibility “
I learned about Wellbeing – including good physical health, feelings of happiness, satisfaction and successful social functioning
When working through our obstacle course and climbing on our playgrounds, I was developing control and coordination over my large muscles and my body’s movement in space
As I explored the musical instruments outside, I was developing beat, tempo and pitch and stimulating the parts of my brain that music taps into
“I learned about Exploring – supporting my own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
As I engaged in the flower drinking experiment and explored the magic star cups, I was learning to make predictions, test ideas and then qualify our results
As we became superheroes and designed our own costumes to use in our play or recreate our visit to Australia Zoo in our play, we learned to plan, design and create inventions that represent things we see and understand in the real world.”
“I learned about Communicating – using different tools and media to exchange ideas, thoughts, questions and feelings
As I explored letters, numbers and symbols in my play, I developed the pre-literacy and numeracy skills that will later help me to read, write and learn mathematical concepts.
When I was running my fingers through slime, exploring shaving cream, representing my ideas through playdough, threading/beading and creating works of art, I was developing fine motor skills that will help me to write and engage with the world
As we read books together day after day, I learned that reading is fun”
“And as I was hard at work getting lost in all this play, I learned that I am a powerful learner, an active thinker and theoriser and an active citizen of this world.”
…But they don’t say all of that, we just get the quiet mutterings of a simple nothing as they drift off to sleep. Thankfully we, as parents, have Storypark where we receive glimpses of the serious play, beautiful magic and complex adventures that go on each day at Forestview Kindergarten as they are developing across each of the five learning outcomes; Belonging, Connecting, Wellbeing, Exploring, and Communicating.
