Preschool News Week 1 Term 1

Posted on February 8, 2025 by katrinaa

Hello everyone,

A warm welcome to all our new and returning preschool families! We’ve had a wonderful start to the year, with the preschool atmosphere feeling beautifully calm and relaxed, both inside and out.

Digital Management System Update
Thank you to everyone for your support as we explored onboarding preschool onto a CCMS. It was an incredibly stressful process, as the company we signed up with provided only YouTube tutorials and left many of our queries unanswered. After much consideration, we have decided to continue with our paper-based sign-in/out system. We believe this ensures better accountability and aligns more closely with the needs of preschool children. I have also been in contact with the Digital Hub team from the Department to explore other solutions that better reflect Currambena’s philosophy.

Settling into Preschool
For many children, the start of preschool is known as the “honeymoon period,” where they initially separate easily from parents. However, once they realise preschool is a regular part of their routine, they may become more reluctant to say goodbye. Every child settles in at their own pace, so please feel free to chat with us if you have any concerns.

Building Connections
Our Elders—children who have been in preschool for a year or longer—have been embracing their role in guiding and supporting new children as they settle in. We are also seeing new friendships forming and existing ones being re-established. Throughout the week, we’ve had many lovely visits from children in The Ladybirds, our first primary class, most of whom were in preschool last year.

Focus on Safety
We have been focusing on safety and feeling safe in preschool, using the SAFE series from the Office of the Children’s Guardian. Discussions have included the importance of asking before touching another person, as well as recognising and respecting personal boundaries.

Preschool Information Night
We warmly invite all preschool parents to our Preschool Information Night on Wednesday, 12h February 2025 from 6 to 8pm. The evening will begin on the decking, where all teachers will be introduced to families before we move into the preschool classroom. We will discuss the preschool year, how we document children’s learning, our curriculum, and the transition from preschool to primary at Currambena. Parents will also have the opportunity to ask questions and connect with one another. We encourage all families—both new and returning—to attend.

Looking forward to a fantastic year ahead!

Love,
Katrina, Lisa, and Abi

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The Ladybirds Week 1 Term 1

Posted on February 7, 2025 by megs

We’ve had a fantastic first week of school! This week, we began exploring the theme of “learning how to learn.” On Tuesday, we spent time familiarising ourselves with the school, enjoying free play in the top playground, and discovering the excitement of the swing—a big hit with everyone! We also created our own popsicle stick frames, featuring photos from our first day of school, which are now proudly displayed in our classroom.

On Wednesday, we ventured into Spanish and Craft, and we had fun designing our class banner, which is now hanging outside our classroom for all to see. Thursday with Sarah was filled with more crafting and lots of imaginative creations using cardboard and recyclables. We also held our first class meeting, where we discussed our class agreements, ensuring a positive and cooperative environment.

Finally, we wrapped up the week with our very first Free Friday! The children had a blast climbing in the treehouses, playing in the top playground, and making even more crafty creations in the art room.

A huge thank you to all the families for your support this week in helping your little ones transition smoothly into primary school! We are so excited for what’s to come next week.
Looking forward to seeing everyone then!

With love,
Meg (and Sarah)

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Amelia’s Class Term 1 Week 1

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Amelia

Welcome back everyone!

What a lovely first week with our beautiful new class in our fantastically large classroom! The children have been loving getting to know their class pets that have followed me from my previous classroom. We have a beautiful ecosystem maintained by guppies, catfish, shrimp, and an angelfish. The energy in the group has been very high but amazingly harmonious so early into the year.

This week we had our first class meeting, Spanish lesson and craft session and started looking into some of our maths content for the term. We started our unit on reptiles, however the children were very tired from their first week back, so we will continue this in closer detail next week.

Next Monday, the children will have their first music session with Gemma and we will start our structured phonics program and literacy stations. Don’t forget, we will be going swimming next Tuesday afternoon so make sure the children are packed and with their swimmers on before they come to school.

Amelia

 

 

 

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Sarah’s Class Term 1 Week 1

Posted on February 7, 2025 by sarahm

Welcome back everyone!

It was soooooo lovely to see all the children on Tuesday morning and get well and truly into our timetable and routine. The group is gorgeous and already starting to become a little community. We’ve packed a lot into our first week: On our first day we named & labelled our lockers, book boxes and work books. We started our English/Science unit on the Earth and looked at the effects of deforestation through the Dr Seuss book “The Lorax”. From this, the children voted that our class name be called after the character and name of the book. So, we are officially (for this term) “The Lorax’s”. We watched a short video on the importance of trees and all the things they provide. I reminded the children about our school recycling and the colour coded bins we have and what goes into them. We created a wall display, named a new black fish in our tank and established tidy-up jobs and all that needs doing.

On Wednesday, it was lovely to see Carolina (for Spanish) and Crafty return. We had a VERY long class meeting which included discussing and making some class agreements. Thursday, we started the day writing some of the benefits trees have on our environment. I handed out Handwriting books which the children got into with gusto, and they did some colouring in and silent reading to themselves. Thursday afternoons is our class craft time, so the children finished the day with Crafty.

On Monday, we have our first music lesson with Gemma, our new music teacher. Tuesday, we start back at swimming. This will happen in the mornings now, and we will go with Wendy’s group to the pool, leaving at approx 9:40 am. The children will need to wear their swimmers to school and bring all the usual gear. They will then get changed when we get back to school.

I will look forward to seeing as many of you that can make it next Wednesday night for our Parent/Teacher night, kicking off at 6:00 pm sharp! I’ll talk more about our class timetable and routines then.

Love, Sarah

 

 

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Jess and Susan class Term 1 Week 1

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Newsletter Ed

From Jess:

We’ve had a really lovely start to the year and although it’s going to take a few weeks for us to settle into all our routines, so far the energy in the group is very friendly.

A very warm welcome to Hudson, and his family who are new to the school. We hope you enjoy the Currambena journey.

In maths, we started to delve into data, learning how to convert surveys into frequency tables using tally marks, and then, how to use these frequency tables to interpret the data and make conclusions. The children have been given maths textbooks that Susan and I will use when appropriate to support the lessons that we have designed.

I read a book to the class called “What to do with a Chance?” by Kobi Yamada and this opened a discussion about taking opportunities when they come along and how this required bravery and determination. The children then wrote about a chance they had taken in the past, or a chance they wanted to take in the future.

We’ve also had our first class meeting, set up a pack-away roster, made some class agreements, and even had a go at sock wrestling on Friday afternoon!

I’m looking forward to meeting with you all next Wednesday evening. Susan and I will use this time to explain the class timetable in a little more detail and to explain how the class runs. It will also be a great time to ask any burning questions you might have.

From Susan:

On Tuesday the children voted on games at school for sport, and we had fabulous games of capture the flag, cops and robbers and murder in the disco. Starting next Tuesday we will be going swimming at Lane Cove Aquatic Centre. We will book a lane to start lap swimming and some basic safety skills, as well as having some free time in the leisure pool. Please remember to pack swimmers, towel, goggles, hat and shoes that are comfortable for walking to the pool.

On Thursday we completed measurement activities using metres and centimetres, ERICS (Everyone Reads In Class Silently), handwriting and a PIP (Personal Interest Project) introduction. For the first part of term, we will focus on important skills used for PIPS such as: note taking, structure and organisation, reputable sources, writing in your own words, and presentation options. There may be time for a mini PIP towards the end of term, however, we will keep this term a bit fluid and be led by the children’s interests. The children have already voted on topics they would like to research and came up with: junk food (namely, fizzy drinks and doughnuts), poisonous plants / poison, and the Wonders of the World.  The Elders will have the choice to dive straight in if they have their heart set on a PIP they can’t wait to start.

 

Warm wishes,

Jess and Susan

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Wendy’s Group Week 1 Term 1 2025

Posted on February 7, 2025 by wendyp

Welcome back everyone! It is so lovely to see all the children this week.

We’re off to a flying start in our room with everyone settling into routines and discovering all the resources in the space. Decisions have been made about class agreements but not yet about desks. This week everyone is sitting in a different desk with a different person each day. Next week, we will decide on fixed positions and desk buddies.

We’ve had a funny story going around in our room about having to do two hours of homework every afternoon. I think a few of our new children might have believed it for a few seconds! Of course, it’s a joke but I do ask the children to do things at home every now and then. In particular, I ask them to read every night, preferably a book they can read independently. We have spoken about this at school this week. We do read silently at school twice each week (ERICS time = Everybody Reads In Class Silently). I also suggest they practice times tables with you at home or in the car… saying them out loud in order until it’s in the memory and then answering questions out of order. We started our Wednesday morning times tables practice this week.

I’m looking forward to explaining more about our group at the parent meeting next week! Hope to see you then.

Cheers,
Wendy

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Preschool News Week 9 Term 4

Posted on December 14, 2024 by katrinaa

Hello everyone,

It’s been another huge week in preschool with lots happening.

On Tuesday, we had our second orientation for new families joining us in 2025. The current preschool children were keen to perform for families, showing them the moves from this year’s concert and demonstrating what keen gymnasts they are.

A huge thank you to everyone for taking time out of your day and joining the children for the Annual Preschool Afternoon Tea on Thursday afternoon. It’s a really special event, and we were very proud of the children. They did an amazing job in organising the event, deciding what we should cook, making the food and, most importantly, greeting and looking after their loved ones. It was just gorgeous to see how excited and happy they were to serve their guests the fruits of their labour. They were all so patient in making sure their people were well taken care of before having something for themselves.

We had our last visit to Lane Cove Library on Wednesday; it was a lovely opportunity for the children to thank Chris, the librarian, for sharing stories with us this year. In addition to this, we had a whole school fire evacuation with the preschoolers quickly and competently assembling and leaving the school in record time!

Everyone who has a child making their transition to primary school next year has had a transition to school document completed. A copy of these has been sent to the schools’ children are attending, with a copy also placed on Storypark. If you haven’t already, please take the time to read your child’s document.

Lastly, thank you to Yukt’s family for the donation of lots of different things, thank you to the washing fairies and Luke Meakin, parent of Sienna, Zara and Eva in primary, for coming in regularly in the morning to blow and clean up the leaf litter around the school.

Love

Katrina, Lisa and Abi.

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The Purple Hearts Week 9 Term 4

Posted on December 14, 2024 by vincentb

Hi all,

The children loved our Aquarium visit, particularly the free play in the water park afterwards. Thanks to those that could make it and help out with supervision.

Thursday was another fun day with our morning at the pool and then playing in the park at pottery green oval.

This coming Monday will be orientation morning, where the children will begin to see their class for next year. They will meet their new peers and spend time with their new teacher.

Tuesday is beach day – buses will take us to Chinamans Beach. The children will need usual beach attire, lots of suncreen and wide brimmed hats. We will back to school for normal pick up time.

Wednesday will be our movie day, the children are free to dress up in pyjamas or anything they like. If you wanted to send some shared snacks in, please remember to check they are Nut Free (no traces).

Kind regards,

Vinnie

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Jess’ Class Week 9 Term 4

Posted on December 14, 2024 by jessk

Dear parents,

This week, we completed our reading and spelling program for the year. We also wrapped up our work on telling time, including learning about quarter past and quarter to the hour, and for some children, time to the minute.

Tuesday marked our final swimming session for the year, which we celebrated with an icy pole at Pottery Green. It was a beautiful afternoon spent enjoying free play and quality time with our friends from Amelia’s class.

The older children did a fantastic job presenting their final PIPs this week, and it was wonderful to reflect on the progress they’ve made since their first try in term 1. It was also a lot of fun watching the younger children share their first GIP about ‘Australian Birds’ with the group. I hope everyone had the chance to see a repeat demonstration at home using the slides I shared.

Monday will include an orientation morning when everyone will have a little bit of time with their group for next year. We’ll also reveal our Kris Kringles and exchange gifts. If you haven’t already left a wrapped gift at school, please make sure it comes on Monday morning.

On Monday afternoon, Ali (Janan’s dad) will be teaching the children all about construction and how the way buildings and architecture can be related to our very own brilliant bodies.

There has been a lot of clay and mud play happening in the playground this week. Beautiful, messy, child-led, multiage play. Such a gorgeous way to finish the year (and we can always let the rain clean it up over the summer break…)

Wishing you a lovely weekend, and I’ll see you all next week for our last few days together.

Jess

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Amelia’s group Week 9 Term 4

Posted on December 14, 2024 by Amelia

Hi everyone,

The year has almost come to an end, so this week, we wrapped up most of our learning. We completed our phonics program and finished off time by looking at quarter past and quarter to. The children also presented their final PIP for the year, and the junior children showcased their first GIP as a whole group.

We also celebrated our final swimming session with ice blocks at Pottery Green and enjoyed a beautiful run around and play in the sun, along with Jess’ class.

Next Monday, the children will get to enjoy the morning session with their new class group for next year and get to know their classroom teacher and classroom space.

In the afternoon, our class will be sharing their Kris Kringle gifts with one another. If your child’s gifts have not been brought in yet, make sure they are wrapped and ready and brought in on Monday morning!

Please check your emails for more details about Beach Day happening on Tuesday 17th Dec. If you would like to support the class on the journey there and back please email me and we will travel on the bus there together. If you would like to join us at the beach you are more than welcome to meet us there!

Amelia

 

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