Forestview Community Kindergarten acknowledges that children develop and learn through their participation in the everyday experiences of their families and communities. Many of our Forestview learning experiences (particularly throughout term 3) are designed to build on what children know and to broaden their understanding as contributing members of the wider community.

Children benefit greatly from our service’s strong engagement with our local community because these partnership strengthens children interest in being active contributors to their community

In addition, our passion for Community engagement supports our service to build relationships between each child, the families of the serve and the community they reside in and this in turn encourages each child to develop their identity within the context of their local community.

We would therefore like to thank the many community organisations and members who have so willingly donated their time, resources and skills to help immerse the children deeper into understanding the places and people of our community.

THANKS GOES TO THE FOLLOWING BUNDABERG SERVICES FOR SUPPORTING US DURING OUR AMAZING “AROUND THE TOWN” EXCURSION.

• BRAG (Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery) and Dotti Lotti
• Alexandra Park Zoo
• Botanical Gardens Railway
• Botanical Gardens Adventure Playground
• Police
• Ambulance
• Fire Brigade
• Duffy’s Buses
• SSS Strawberries

THANKS ALSO GOES TO THE FOLLOWING BUNDABERG COMMUNITY ORGANISATION WHO VISITED THE KINDERGARTEN THROUGHOUT TERM 3 TO SUPPORT US IN UNDERSTANDING THEIR IMPORTANT ROLES IN OUR COMMUNITY.

• Principal Mr. Young from Bundaberg East S.S

• Dr’s Matt Wakeley and David Shilton (both Kindy Dads this year) who talked about their role as Doctors in the community.

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The Bundaberg Fire Station fire fighters and their amazing firetruck.   We loved shooting the fire hose.

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• Mal the Dentist from Van Der Walt Dental – we now know exactly how to take the very best care of our teeth with the help of Flossy and Squirt the dragons.

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The Bundaberg Police Officers and their awesome police car.  Thankyou for also teaching us about identifying our safety helpers to help us keep safe whenever we might have a worry or a concern.

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The Bundaberg Ambulance Station and paramedics who showed us that amazing bed in the back of the ambulance and the very interesting heart monitor.

Dave and Miranda Holt from Halt for Holt Farms brought along their giant tractor and taught about their role as farmer in the community.

• Sugarland Animal Hospital staff Greg and Stef and animals (Lenny the Blue tongue lizard and Mojo the cat) who via the Pet PEP program taught us all about how to care for animals and their role as vets in the community.  And also a thanks to Mrs Louise’s pet dogs Velcro and Rocket for being our patting practice stars.

A big thank you to all Wombat group children and family members for taking the time to attend the special afternoon for Mrs Sandi on the last day of term 2.  It was so lovely, and I know Mrs Sandi was quite overwhelmed with how many people gathered to say the biggest of thanks for everything that she has done to support Forestview over the past year.

Just over 12 months ago the Forestview world as we knew it was a little bit turned upside down as our precious Mrs Melanie needed to take some leave for health reasons and right from the very moment that we rang Mrs Sandi to say….HELP!!!…. we need some support to get through the upcoming challenges both as an educational team and as a centre, Mrs Sandi was there by our sides every step of the way and we could not be more grateful.  Instantly Mrs Sandi took time out from her current position as our Area Manager to help us continue to provide the best quality service we could to our families and in doing so made a huge sacrifice….. but one we believe she have very much enjoyed as it enabled her to get back into teaching and spending time hands-on in the field.

Mrs Sandi will be sadly missed from our day to day Forestview adventures but we know that now that she has been a Forestview educators she will always hold a very special part of Forestview in her heart and we know she will continue to be  a strong part of our service for many years to come.

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BIG THANKS TO THE ASHLEY FAMILY AND DANGLEBERRY STRAWBERRIES FOR THEIR AMAZING DONATION OF STRAWBERRIES TO OUR BAKE AND FRESH PRODUCE STALL – THEY WERE A BIT HIT WITH THE CUSTOMERS.

Our Annual Forestview Family Fun Day was simply WOW! We had beautiful weather and smiles could be seen for miles and miles.  With all of our sponsors generous donations, families contributing their time and effort (with preparations, set up, clean up, volunteering on the day and by donation those delicious baked goods or fresh vegetables) we managed to raise just over $3,600! This is a massive effort so congratulations to all involved!

Highlights from our event included:

The children jumping their hearts out on jumping castle sponsored by the Connellan Family and Downforce Drilling.

The children having the faces painted by Frivolous Faces and volunteer extraordinaire and past Forestview parent, Mrs Tracey Shears.  Face painting and cold drink supplies for the day sponsored by the McGregor Family and McGregor Constructions.

All families relaxing and getting to know each other while enjoying a delicious sausage sizzle (thanks  to our local Woolworths for their donation of sausages!),

Enjoying a delightful beverages (thanks to The Journey Bargara),

Being entertained with some amazing singing and music by another fabulous past Forestview parent Rod Walmsley).  Big thanks also to Rod for bringing along his home and roasted grown Kadilly Coffee.

Mrs Yuka and her children teaching us how to write our names in Japanese and sharing their origami skills with us.

Playing some party games such as Chocolate toss and Pin the Nose on the Teacher.

The chance to purchase some yummy home baked goodies and fresh fruit and vegetables from our bake stall.

The drawing of our 12 prize super giant raffle – congratulations to all the winners.

Tearing up the bike track and generally having good old fashioned fun.

What is ELLA?

The ELLA program is now being offered at Forestview Kindergarten thanks to the financial support of the 2019 Parent Committee to employ a Language Support Educator and the acquisition of an ELLA grant that provides the service with access to the ELLA interactive APP program, professional development and resources to support the learning of a second language.

Ella is a fun and easy digital language program for kindergarten. The program is an Australian Government initiative aimed at encouraging more students to study language.

The program has been successfully integrated into thousands of kindergartens and preschools across Australia. It has had overwhelmingly positive feedback from families and educators.

How does ELLA work?

ELLA introduces children to learning a new language via interactive tablet apps, which have been developed in consultation with experts in languages, early childhood and

technology. The Polyglots are a cast of characters who – through play-based learning – introduce the children to words, sentences and songs in another language. The apps draw on the interests and activities of young children, such as celebrations, cooking experiences, art activities, building and role-play.

At Forestview we have selected Japanese as our focus language and our ELLA Language Support Educator is Yuka Thomson.

In addition to being our invaluable additional needs assistant, Yuka is also our Japanese language specialist providing a wonderful range of experiences that help the children to connect with Japanese culture and language.  She has also helped us establish correspondence connections with a number of kindergartens in Japan and we exchange drawing, craft and artwork each year.

ELLA will create opportunities to enrich the language and culture in the apps through other activities such as cooking, stories or music, or inviting family and community members to share their cultures at the preschool.

All ELLA apps are aligned to the learning outcomes in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), a key component of the Australian Government’s National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care.

What are the benefits of ELLA?

Using ELLA has shown multiple benefits for children. Children will expand their knowledge of how language works and apply these skills to other literacy tasks, such as listening carefully to sounds in words. These skills will be used when the children learn to read and write.

ELLA will help develop foundation skills, such as learning colours, counting and greetings. Research has shown that exposing children to language learning at an early age encourages them to continue language studies during secondary school.

Playing with the ELLA apps helps children develop and use cognitive and social skills. They will share the tablets and their knowledge, interact with and help each other.

Language learning improves memory, concentration and critical-thinking skills. Using the ELLA apps increases children’s digital skills, too.

ELLA also creates opportunities to celebrate culture and diversity, to share home languages, and to strengthen links between families and preschool services.

What are the benefits of language learning in early childhood?

Language learning, like all learning in early childhood, is most successful when the community has a common understanding of the reasons for its inclusion in children’s education (Early Years Learning Framework, Principles, 2: Partnerships). That is why communicating the benefits of language learning in early childhood is an important part of establishing parent and community support.

Learning a language from an early age has many benefits, some of which include:

• development and strengthening of literacy skills that are transferable across other areas of learning
• enhancing communication and social skills
• improved critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• becoming aware of and developing an understanding of other cultures and peoples
  preparing children for positive language learning experiences at school.

We can’t wait to get the ELLA ball rolling at Forestview Community Kindergarten and opening our children’s eyes up to so many wonderful possibilities and valuable life long learning.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THE BUNDABERG REGIONAL COUNCIL BUNDABERG NOW SITE FOR A GREAT STORY ABOUT OUR SUCCESSFUL RADF GRANT FOR THE PROPOSED BUSH TUCKER GARDEN.

https://www.bundabergnow.com/2019/04/01/bush-tucker-garden/

Today we welcomed Melissa to our kindy to read to us the latest ONE BOOK ONE BUNDY STORY – “The Smallest Turtle” by Lynley Dodd. Each year a new text is chosen for our town and this year we are excited about having a text written by the children’s novelist most famous for the Hairy McClary series. In fact, Lynley will be visiting Bundaberg around May to share The Smallest Turtle and other texts with us so be sure to attend one of her events as well as all the other activities that will be available around this. It’s so wonderful to have a text that relates to one of our community’s local animals enabling us to extend on the learning around turtles even more and how we can continue to for these precious animals.

We were amazing at how many turtle eggs are laid in a nest.

We loved the words Melissa read, “Skitter Skatter” to describe how the smallest turtle moved over the sand. Another favourite part was seeing all the animals and plants that he passed on the way to the water. A baby turtle does indeed have an amazing and perhaps scary journey to the safety of the sea.

At the end of the story, Melissa sang us a song about a turtle who was swimming in a bath tub, ate some soap and then grew a bubble in his throat – we loved it.

PLEASE SEE THE WORD BELOW

THANKS, MELISSA, FOR COMING TO SHARE THIS AMAZING STORY WITH US AS PART OF YOUR ROLE AS C & K’s Community Liaison Officer. Three copies of the story arrived in the post just after your visit and we have been having a great time re-reading the story, talking about the pictures and of course exploring the turtle puppet.

WHAT IS A C & K COMMUNITY LIAISON OFFICER (CLO)

Hi everyone,
My name is Melissa Hodgetts, and I have recently been appointed C & K’s Community Liaison Officer for Bundaberg.
My role as CLO involves developing partnership within the community with many organisations, such as BUSH kids (Early Childhood Early Intervention NDIS provider). FAB network, Uniting Care, IMPACT and many others. I also provide support and assist our families with referral processes and provide information to our new families and support them during the enrolment process. I am currently visiting all C & K services and local playgroups to share the One Book, One Bundy story for this year, The Smallest Turtle by Lynley Dodd.
If you any have any questions or feel that I may be able to support your family in any way, please don’t hesitate to ask.

CHECK OUT ALL THE FANTASTIC WAYS OUR 2019 KINDY KIDS ARE ACTIVELY CARING FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT AND ENGAGING WITH SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES EACH AND EVERY DAY….

At Kindy we love to:

o Feed the composting worms our fruit and vege scraps (you can also bring teabags, egg shells and hair from your hair brush from home if you like because these are their favourite things to eat). We then use the worm wee from our worm farm as fertilizer for our children’s garden – our plants love it.
o Place paper and cardboard in our recycling bin inside.
o Place excess fruit and vege scraps, leaf litter, shredded paper in our big blue compost bin. We regularly collect the compost and sprinkle it on the children’s garden as food for our plants.
o Look after our flower and vege gardens
o Care for our Kindy pets
o We only turn on the air conditioners on when we are working inside (if required).
o We turn our lights off inside when we are playing outside
o We have a bin to collect food scraps for Mrs. Louise’s pet chickens.
o We have a bin to place yogurt containers in which Mrs. Leisha and Mrs. Nicole washes up for our creation station or to place paint and glue in.
o We have a bin specifically for food packaging items that can be recycled…children are taught about the recycling symbol to look for on packaging and then place it in our special recycle bin that the children have made.
o All the above-mentioned strategies ensure that are significantly reducing the amount of non-biodegradable or non-recyclable products and therefore reducing our environment footprint.

A few simple things you can do at home to extend this learning…

• Talk with children about which items/packaging can be recycled. Show them where to locate the recycle symbol. Provide an in house recycle bin where children can place recyclable items.
•     Collect tea bags and egg shells and hair from your hair brush for our Kindy worm farm. They love them!!!
•      Pack lunch boxes that are either waste free and/or contain limited waste packaging.   Check out http://www.terracycle.com.au
  TerraCycle is a highly-awarded, international upcycling and recycling company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurposes the material into affordable, innovative products. TerraCycle is widely considered the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable, post-consumer waste.
•  Check out http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/recycling.html
  This website has a great range of recycling activities for a range of ages.

Tips for Waste-Free Lunches

Waste-free lunches contain only items that are eaten, composted or recycled. They don’t contain wrappers or packaging that will be thrown in the rubbish bin.

Reusable containers – Using reusable containers is the cornerstone of a waste-free lunch! Suitably-sized containers will keep sandwiches intact and make little treats easy to pack. Although reusable containers may have a higher upfront cost than a roll of plastic wrap, they are durable, they will save you money in the longer term and they will help to reduce waste.

Buying in bulk – Buying items such as juice, yoghurt, crackers, biscuits and cheese in bulk quantities or containers, rather than in individual servings, will probably save you money as well as reduce waste. It also allows your child to drink or eat only as much as they want at one time, and then they can reseal the container.

Recyclable packaging – We understand that some children’s lunches may need to contain packaged food items for dietary, religious or other reasons. Check which types of packaging can be recycled at home, by visiting RecyclingNearYou.com.au and searching under your council area.

Check out this Earth Hour Website with some great ideas for children to increase their understanding of why it is so important to care for our environment. www.

earthhour.org.au/kids/