Dear families,

We hope your children are well settled into kinder and enjoying their new friendships.

Please enjoy reading through our termly newsletter to learn about all the wonderful learning experiences the children are participating in.

We would like to encourage all families to participate in any of the opportunities there are for family involvement at your child’s kindergarten in 2024.

General Manager’s Update

Term 2 is a great benchmark for teachers and educators to make assessments about children’s learning and how children are achieving set outcomes and goals for the first half of the year. Children have generally settled into the kinder routines and can now do this with confidence and a feeling of belonging. They can navigate the environment and mostly resource their own learning as they access program resources. They continue to develop independence skills and are using peers as a sounding board to explore new ideas and thoughts in order to make sense of their world. They are sharing experiences from home and educators use their conversations to scaffold children’s learning and follow their interests.

This term we have also seen upgrades of the building and playgrounds at St Linus, Newlands and Moomba Park Kindergartens which now offer children an opportunity to explore their new surroundings and continue their learning journeys.

Thankyou to those families that attended the AGM on Monday. A huge thankyou to Radeyan Sazzad who is now a new Board member. If there are any interested family members, friends or grandparents etc who might be interested in joining the Board I would love to hear from them.

A highly skilled staffing Cohort: We are extremely fortunate at MEYM to have a wonderful cohort of teachers, educators and administration staff who enthusiastically and professionally support the Board of Management and the General Manager to continue to meet the strategic direction of the organisation.

While we hold all our staff in high esteem I would like to congratulate Dr Rachel Foster (Gowanbrae Children’s Centre) on achieving a PHD this year and also to Rowan Howell (Newlands Preschool) and Bushra Iqbal (Moomba Park Kindergarten) in achieving milestones in their career by completing the Capability Assessment and Victorian Institute of Teaching Enquiry project. We also have a number of teachers studying their Masters in Teaching and several Diploma staff about to complete Bachelor qualifications.

If you need to contact the General Manager the email address is gm@meym.org.au.

Sarah Vallance – General Manager

Area Manager’s Update

Hello, I hope that you are keeping well and enjoying some of the wonderful weather we have been experiencing of late. I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate with you some of the wonderful achievements I have been witnessing within our services over the past few weeks.

Newlands Pre-school utilising their successful Bush Kinder grant and rolling out nature sessions for all groups at the service.

Moomba Park Kindergarten playground upgrade and how they successfully worked closely with the landscapers to navigate the space to provide areas that encourage deep exploration.

Gowanbrae Children’s Centre successful reconciliation week events with so many of the centre’s families joining them over two days.

St Linus kindergarten yard development providing children more accessible play spaces.

Turner Street’s amazing fundraising event and parent contribution at their working bee.

Lake Park delving deeply into their personal and service philosophies to support the development of a new document that reflects the children, service, community and the educator team.

Oak Park Kindergarten reflecting on the services Quality Improvement Plan and setting new goals that support the development of the service and the learning opportunities for all children.

I look forward to sharing with you more success stories in the near future.

Nikki Gill, Area Manager

Enrolment Officer’s Update

Children currently attending one of our 2024 MEYM 3yo programs will have been allocated a place for 4yo kindergarten at the same service for 2025 if they responded yes to Council’s confirmation email. I have followed up all outstanding families however, if you are unsure whether your placement is confirmed please email me at enrolments@meym.org.au

For other families registering for 2025 kindergarten: Applications received by Council between 2 April and 30 June – you can expect to hear about placement by end of August. Applications received by Council from 1 July – you can expect to hear about placement from September onwards.

Timetables: Timetables of our kindergarten programs for 2025 are available here.

Important notice on when to commence kindergarten: Children are eligible for one year of 3yo kinder and one year of 4yo kinder before commencing school. A second year of kindergarten will only be considered when a child shows delays in two or more key areas of learning and development that meet specific areas of eligibility set by the Department of Education. Feeling your child is too young for school will not meet the criteria. Families with children born between January and April can choose which year to start their child at 3yo kindergarten. These children can start 3yo kindergarten in the year they turn 3, or in the year they turn 4 years old.

Please keep the Enrolment Officer updated of the following change in family circumstances: Change in address or phone number, update of concession card or visa status, update of your child’s Medical Action Plan, Court orders, Child Protection or Child and Family Services support.

Absences from Kinder: If your child is going to be absent for kinder please email or call the kindergarten service.

If your child will be absent from the kinder program for a period longer than 2 weeks please inform The Enrolment Officer in writing to enrolments@meym.org.au with the length of time your child/family will be absent.

Cancellation: If you wish to cancel out of a kindergarten program again, please advise the Enrolment Officer in writing giving 14 days notice of cancellation.

For families wishing to have a tour of our kindergartens please book a visit through our Book-a-Tour on our website. Families have an opportunity to view our wonderful kindergartens and meet some of our educators who will be able to answer any questions about the programs.

Important Dates

Term Breaks
Term 1 Start Date 29 Jan Finish Date 28 March
Term 2 Start Date 15 April Finish Date 28 June
Term 3 Start Date 15 July Finish Date 20 September
Term 4 Start Date 7 October Finish Date 20 December
You will be notified of the last date of kinder for the year nearer the time.

Monday 10th June our kindergartens will be closed due to the King’s Birthday public holiday.

MEYM all Staff PD Training Day is on 4 November 2024 and our kindergartens will be closed on this day.

Facebook and Instagram: I am always posting photos of our kindergarten programs so please visit and follow our facebook and instagram pages.

For any enquiries regarding kindergarten programs, enrolment or orientation, please email Samantha, Enrolment Officer at enrolments@meym.org.au

Thank you, Samantha Zuccarelli, Enrolment Officer, MEYM

Thank you for joining us across the week for our Reconciliation Week afternoon teas. It is always lovely to have families come and spend some time at kindergarten.

We will have the whiteboard available for the next week in the foyer where you can continue to add any comments to the question posed. The question: What is important to your family ‘Now More Than Ever’ for your child to learn about and experience in relation to Indigenous cultures?

You are also welcome to email responses to gowanbrae.cc@meym.org.au by the end of next week.

We had some families ask if there was still time to donate to our Children’s Ground collection. We will continue collecting donations until the end of next week if you would like to donate. More information on Children’s Ground can be found here: wearityellow.org.au

The teaching team is currently reviewing our nature program including the effectiveness of the program, learning outcomes for children, benefits for children, and other community opportunities. These things are all being considered with a safety perspective in mind. In the coming weeks, we will be in contact about your thoughts about what you would like your child to participate in and learn about. We may also seek to understand who might be available to support us in our nature and community exploration.  

From the team at Gowanbrae Children’s Centre

Important Dates: Lake Park Kindergarten community celebration and end of term party Tuesday 25th June from 2pm onwards – Kingfisher Group, Friday 28th June from 2pm onwards – Dragonfly Group.

We are using this event to celebrate all the special people in the children’s lives in lieu of celebrating Mother’s day and Father’s day. We feel that this is more inclusive and reflects our community more. Please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback. 

Reconciliation week 27 May – 3 June

Refugee Week – 16 – 22 June

What’s happening in our kindergarten program: During early term 2, the Dragonfly children requested to make pizza a while back and so last Friday, 24/05, we delivered their request as the Dragonfly children enjoyed a cooking experience with our Italian teacher, Siobhan. The children made small pizzas and saw how the dough rose. The children then ate the delicious pizzette!

The Dragonfly children have been also working on their motor skills through using perceptual motor skills (PMP) while doing an obstacle course outside. The children especially enjoy jumping from the play fort and onto the crash mat as an ending finish of their physical effort! Followed by a group game with the children outdoors. Currently, the children are loving What’s the time Mr. Wolf? Duck Duck Goose and Hide and Seek.

Music and movement continues to take centre stage in the Dragonfly group. We do it anytime of the day but you may have seen us in the late afternoon dancing away. In case you and your child would like to continue dancing at home, here are the links to some of our songs we singing and dancing to:

Highway number one

The Goldfish

Floor is Lava

Dragonfly children continue to enjoy art and craft experiences and since the art easel has been moved inside the room we have some other children coming to have a go. Sensory play like sand pit, mud patch, water play  and playdough are continually offered during the sessions for all children. 

Our Yoga session is becoming popular with Dragonfly children during rest time and we have been getting our friends to try different yoga poses (some of them are very tricky). We are getting better each session.

Our Australian soft toy animal, Walert, has arrived at Lake Park Kindergarten and is spending time with Dragonfly children at their houses.  Walert has already spent time with Delilah, Hassan, Charlie and Eden. Don’t worry, everyone will get a turn to take Walert home soon so please be patient!

In the Kingfisher Group, children have been busy with a focus on:

Exploration & discovery of the solar system!!! 
Gross motor development is flourishing (lots of jumping, obstacle course work, running and dancing) we are currently working on fine motor development with the work of clay, pin hole activities, lacing, threading and board games. 

Self-help & independence skills are promoted. Children are responsible for their own things, especially putting their bags in their own locker, choosing a lunch box shelf for themselves, and putting their own belongings away.

Respect for the kinder space is also on the agenda as the children keep play spaces tidy for others. 

Consent & personal space is being taught where the children are learning to use language to enter play with others, at rest time showing respect by not disturbing other children and being mindful during risk taking play so that everyone is safe.

Role play is very popular. Office work, doctors/nurses’ hospital staff, hospitality in our restaurant, police and emergency services, superheroes including dragons, werewolves, and monsters.

Italian program: Throughout the Italian Program, children have been learning simple greetings, learning to count in Italian, identifying colours, and learning names of fruit. We ask that you send in an extra piece of fruit for our fruit basket each week which serves as additional food if somebody eats everything in their lunchbox, as well as a learning opportunity to use functional Italian language, learning to ask “Posso avere…?” – can I have…? or nominate which fruit they would like. Throughout this term, we will also be looking at La Famiglia (Family) and discuss how different families can look as well as providing different cooking opportunities for the children. Children are also learning simple songs in Italian. An extended newsletter with more details will be distributed to families at the end of term.

Children’s Reflections: 1. Becoming ‘experts’ at certain tasks and helping their peers in areas of their expertise for example, children are supporting each other with puzzle work, reminding each other to put their shoes & lunch boxes away, alerting the teachers to areas of danger.

2. Caring for Country – the children are expressing concern for nature especially mini beasts!

3. The children in the Kingfisher group are really enjoying the pack up song “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. The space is tidied very quickly and then there is the opportunity to dance our hearts out after the job is done, even playing the air guitar.

4. Assuming new identities through role play is supported in imaginary play and some wild ideas have been governed by the children.

5. Children wind down in various ways, some sleep, some rest their bodies, some read. The children have responded very well to our Friendly Wishes meditations and have expressed quiet pleasure working with sensory toys to calm their minds and bodies.

“May I/you/we be happy, may I/you/be safe, may I/you/we be well”. This promotes care for self, others, and country. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/HtYIQiXyrsE

Child Safety: We comply with The Child Safe Standards in the program where every single child is valued and respected. The children are empowered by their rights and encouraged to participate in the curriculum in their own capacity. The culture of the program is child led and social relationships amongst the children is governed by their own learning & interests. We establish an equitable program where the needs of individual children are catered for. The right to complain and provide feedback is transparent and we strive to resolve any concerns.

https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/child-safe-standards/the-11-child-safe-standards

Volunteer Opportunities: We always welcome your contributions to our curriculum and opportunities for participation and involvement with families are encouraged. Do continue to share with us how you would like to contribute. We are excited to have Acacia’s mum Kate and Ryders mum Prue come in to share their passion for ceramics with us in the Kingfisher group. We would also value diverse language and culture participation including sharing a book, song, or dance from different cultures.

Nature program is coming up and we would love for our families to volunteer their time to support the children during this time. Please register your expression of interest if you have not already done so, by emailing kinder or adding your name to the list near the sign-in iPad.

To apply for a Working With Children Check go to: https://service.vic.gov.au/services/working-with-children

We will be having a Working Bee in Term 3 where we will need your help. More details to follow closer to the time.

Teacher Communications: Please ensure your child has plenty of spare clothes in their bag as sometimes there may be bathroom accidents or food spillages etc. Labelling your child’s name to their belongings is helpful when trying to identify clothes, lunchbox, water bottles etc.

We are also collecting cardboard tubes to make some musical instruments. If you have any cling wrap, foil or paper towel tubes,  we would like it if you can bring them in for us. We are also collecting newspaper, old magazines for our program too

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mahmoud (in Dragonfly group) and his family on the arrival of his new born baby this month. Enjoy this magical time together with your new little one.

Lake Park Kindergarten is part of the ResourceSmart Schools Program:

We are currently working on completion of our Waste module and on our way to receiving our third star. Great work everyone! The Waste Module helps early learning centres minimise waste sent to landfill through the practices of ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle’. The children have been involved in many waste activities over the past year including a Lake park waste audit and a Merri Creek Litter walk. Here they have learned what each colour bin means and how rubbish ends up in our creeks and waterways. This has promoted much discussion amongst the children especially when using the bin system. And this year Lake Park Kindergarten is continually working on maintaining good waste practices in our service in action, including the miniature-coloured waste bins we use after learning about it from waste activities, we use them during our snack/ lunch times with the children and educators. We are beginning to understand which waste belongs to which bin. The children and families have also actively helped us reduce waste consumption, by bringing nude food lunch boxes to Lake Park Kindergarten.

Our children and educators aim to work towards building waste reduction into every aspect of Lake Park Kindergarten, environment and local community! Please ask your child which coloured waste bins they have been using in our service lately?

Until next time! Sustainability Champion, Vicky

From the team at Lake Park Kindergarten

Important Dates:

Kinder Closure – 10 June
End of Term two – 28 June
Term three begins – 15 July

What’s happening in our kindergarten program: Echidna – Children have been exploring a range of activities in indoor and
outdoor learning spaces. Children explored building/construction using blocks, participating in playdough kneading experiences, and explored
identity through role play. Children have been expressing creativity through painting and pasting experiences using leaves. Children have been
smoothly following routines. Increased self-regulation and social skills are evident through daily interactions.
Wombats – This term, the children have been busy exploring basic science concepts through playful experiences such as magnetic attraction, the
fishpond, and balance scales. We also listened to the children’s voices by arranging playdough activities, which they requested a few times. They
were excited to pick their own favourite colours, mixed and played with their special playdough. We honoured Anzac Day by creating a poppy
flower wreath together. To express our love to mothers, we made special cards for Mother’s Day!
Possum – Children have been investigating the material – clay, we found that the clay is demanding and prone to breakage when not handled
cautiously during cooling down/drying process. Clay can also become unworkable when liquified. clay sculptures were created and used as a way of expression that possum children used to communicate affection towards the special people in their lives, children recorded their thoughts, feeling and ideas on a piece of paper, that became our design/plan, next step was to transform the design into a sculpture. Children carefully shaped their pieces and painted them. Each child produced a unique piece. Pictures of children’s clay sculptures were exhibited in foyer with the design development drawings. Through this process children were able to feel, touch, squeeze, press, poke, roll the clay. A variety of carving tools was used. Extending on our cooking experiences possum children prepared and enjoyed Anzac Biscuits and yogurt bowls, with fresh fruits, raisin, and chia seeds.
Kangaroos – due to limited access to outdoor learning space, educators created an indoor obstacle course as it increases mobility, allow children
opportunities to assess risk and manage/balance their bodies. Kangaroo children have been taking ‘Treasure Bag’ home. The aim of the
treasure bag is to encourage children to think about some items which are special to them. Our treasure bag experience promotes many
development aspects and learning opportunities. The bag is sent home each session with a different child. The child required to bring the bag back the following session, containing no more than 2 items from home. At group time, the child gets an opportunity to show and speak about their items.

Children’s Reflections: Being part of the process, children attentively observed yard upgrade process through safety fencing; they shared their feeling, thoughts, ideas and prior experiences verbally and non-verbally with peers and educators. A child recalled the experience of being a builder with his dad. Some children expressed themselves through drawings and paintings. It also sparked discussion about being safe; how we can keep others and ourselves safe. A copy of the Yard design plan was displayed in the learning spaces on children’s request/interest. Children and educators planted herbs and fruit in the freshly fertilised garden beds.

Incursions/Excursions Information:

Four-year-old Programs:
Stay and Play sessions were organised for the children to invite a special person from their family to kinder. In their groups children produced
unique pieces of art. These pieces were a form of children’s expression, thought, idea and knowledge. Various materials and styles were used to
produce the art pieces. The possum group used clay, echidnas used salt dough, kangaroos and wombats decorated cards and photo frames. These creations were presented to the special family member by the children.
Being Safe: Healthy Harold, the friendly giraffe, visited possum and kangaroo groups this term. Harold had a lot to share about safety, from
wearing seatbelts to sun safety, safe play, water safety, safety with medicines, and even safety online. But that’s not all; he also taught the
children about the power of connections, the people who keep us safe, and the importance of building help-seeking skills. This session helped
children to develop agency, empowering them to ensure their own safety and the safety of others.
Tooth Fairy Dental Practitioner Visit: The aim of the visit was designed to promote and educate children on oral health. Introducing children to a
dentist at an early age, in a familiar environment, can help them feel more comfortable and secure. Keeping baby teeth healthy for the latter adult dentition and general health is very important. A practitioner demonstrated appropriate brushing techniques using a model and then
children had opportunity to practice brushing.

School Library: our Four-year-old programs will visit the Moomba Park Primary’s Library in the next few weeks.

Service Improvements: Yard Upgrade: MPK outdoor learning space has been upgraded, aim is to enhance children’s learning and play experiences through the addition of more moveable/transportable, open ended and natural resources and materials.

From the team at Moomba Park Kindergarten

Important Dates: Newlands celebrated the special people in our lives with stay and play afternoons. There was also a successful raffle (thank you to chemist warehouse for donating the prize) and a big congratulations to our two winners.

Newlands will be using reconciliation week (May 27-31^st ) to reflect on our effect on the environment and how we can support Indigenous culture by respecting and taking care of our land.

What’s happening in our kindergarten program: Here at Newlands Blue group have really been enjoying exploring color and colour mixing. Inspired by some wonderful paint experimenting the group is now finding lots of other ways of mixing color. They have also been enjoying reading the book MIX IT UP by Herve Tullet. Other interests include simple board games such as snakes and ladders. Children have been working on numeracy by exploring how to use dice and also turn taking. There have been some great debates over the rules and if you roll a six do you get to go twice!

Red Group have been focusing on engaging in dramatic play. The group has set up a shop and have been enjoying using it to act out various scenarios. The area is never not full of shoppers and shop keepers! The group were also lucky enough to explore a nearby loose part pop up run by Victoria University.

Bush Kinder/Nature Program: Newlands nature excursions have started! Both groups have had successful excursions out to a nearby parkland. Children have been enjoying climbing trees, finding bugs and exploring a part of the community.  They have been showing a great deal of confidence and listening skills as they walk to and from the service. We have been commended by nearby members of the public on the children’s behavior and skills and the way we as educators have been letting them explore.

Parent Fundraising Group: The raffle raised 560 dollars! A huge thank you to Claire for helping to organizing it.  A big thank you to Joe for sorting out the wonderful prizes.

Service Improvements: Our acoustic panels are up! The last 5 were completed in the last two weeks and Educators have all commented on how much more comfortable the room is in terms of noise level. Children seem less distracted and more able to concentrate. A huge thank you to the installation company and to those from MEYM who applied and sorted the grant to get the works completed.

From the team at Newlands Preschool

Whats happening in our kindergarten program: As always, we are having lots of fun and are still busy exploring and lately rearranging different parts of the kindergarten. We are following the children’s strengths and interests as well as adding some intentional teaching and they are all such enthusiastic learners!

Our 3yo’s are budding cooks and after making cookies one session are continually requesting to do cooking again. They also had a visit from Wild Action and were introduced to many different types of Australian animals.

4yo Yellow have also been cooking and making damper, and like the 3yo’s have requested to make it again next week. They have been focusing on reptiles after a visit from Reptile Encounters.

4yo Purple enjoyed doing the lava science experiment with bi carb soda and vinegar and were requesting it repeatedly, so we put it out at an activity table with test tubes. They spent a fortnight creating their own lava flows, (and yes, sometimes the floor was lava!) They have an Aboriginal art incursion coming up in June with Didgeridoo Australia.

All groups have enjoyed our imaginative play areas of camping, supermarkets, hospitals and now the stage with dress ups and musical instruments this term.

Reconciliation week was acknowledged through discussions, stories, and activities including crushing ochre and using it to make paint, art activities using natural materials, making lemon myrtle playdough, looking at different styles of painting from the different areas of Australia and learning the Aboriginal hokey pokey.

Bush Kinder/Nature Program: As we’ve had mostly dry weather, our 4yo’s have been visiting Bush Kinder often. On our first visit, we all came back with a ton of mud on our shoes so decided to only visit on the dry weeks at the moment. Many of the children who attended 3yo Kinder last year have been noticing the changes at Bush Kinder, with a few of our favourite climbing trees being removed to make way for the extension. 4yo Purple did their first community walk last week as it was too muddy to go to Bush Kinder, so we did a walk around the block instead. We all enjoyed getting out of the Kinder and had fun searching for our list of things we created before leaving.

Volunteer Opportunities: This time of year we host Year 10 work experience students so they can see what Early Childhood Teaching is like. In June we have Bejna joining us for the week and next term we will have Ruby who was once a student at Oak Park Kinder. By hosting work experience students, not only do we assist the students with the direction of their future careers, we can connect with our community more, and are starting to develop positive relationships with the secondary schools in the area.

Service Improvements: We’ve been enjoying watching the framework being constructed over the past week and some days seeing the crane lift the frame into place. It’s just like one big puzzle! The Builders have been friendly to us all and answering our many questions, and ultimately looking out for our safety whilst operating next to a construction zone.

Teacher Communications: Sadly, we will be losing Salwa (4yo Purple and 3yo Educator) at the end of this term, but for a very exciting reason. Salwa is due to give birth to her fourth child at the beginning of August! We wish Salwa and her family all the best with their new edition to the family. Annette, who is currently the Educator in 4yo Yellow will replace Salwa in 4yo Purple and we have just advertised for her replacement in the 3yo program, so we will let you know who the new Educator will be later in the term.

From the team at Oak Park Kindergarten

Important Dates:

10^th June- King’s Birthday public holiday

Wednesday 26^th and Thursday 27^th June- Pyjama Day for 4-year-olds

Saturday 22^nd June: Family movie night. More details to follow

3-year-old: Police visit last week of term 2: More details to come

Whats happening in our kindergarten program: 4-year-olds: Focus on small group learning. Weekly cooking sessions have been established in the program- reminder to send your recipes to m.bruni@meym.org.au for us to add to the recipe book.

STEM- lots of learning as pipes are added to the sandpit, making volcanoes by building mountains of sand and seeing if the pipes can take the water down and erupt the volcano, initiated after Johnny brought his volcano in that he had made at home. We replicated this at kinder and erupted this volcano also.

The park excursions were a success and we look forward to continuing with them in the next few weeks.

Participated in National Simultaneous Storytime, where we read ‘Bowerbird Blues’ and made our own Bowerbird nests with a variety of blue objects we found around the room.

We have begun learning Italian with Clara, focusing on the words for family members, integrating this with our Special Person’s open afternoon at the kinder.

3-year-olds: We have enjoyed heading out of the kinder and connecting with our local community, particularly at That Coffee Shop. It has been great to have parent involvement in this aspect and we are very grateful for this.

The children have enjoyed engaging with our updated yard, with many mud pies being made in our new mud kitchen.

Childrens Reflections:

What foods would we like to include in our cooking sessions?

“Cupcakes” Jude

“Chocolate and chippies” Eleanor

“Cupcakes because I want to save them for my mum” Mikael

“Chips” Chloe and Oscar

“Let’s cook grapes with jelly” Eddie

“Let’s make dinosaur pancakes” Johnny

“Scones” Joshua

“Chicken, cookie bear and gingerbread” Abubakr

“Sausages” Rafael

Incursions/Excursions: 4-year-old: Will be continuing local park and café excursions in the coming weeks. You will receive information via email to when your child will be participating. Further excursion information will be provided when available.

Parent Fundraising Group: Thank you to all those families who contributed to our recent Tony’s Pies fundraiser. We raised over $450 for the kinder. We are looking at using the funds raised to go towards an excursion for all the children.

Saturday June 22^nd- Family movie night at the Progress Hall. Further details to follow.

Volunteer Opportunities: Parents/carers are always welcome within the room. Please let Melanie or Lin know if you would like to volunteer your time.

Service Improvements: The new yard is almost complete and the children have been engaging very well with it. The beach entry sandpit, new grass, mud kitchen, sensory wall, new decking and rock features have now all been completed. We are just waiting on our new swing and umbrella to be installed and our Indigenous garden to complete the outdoor space.

From the team at St Linus Kindergarten

Important dates: Minister Lizzy Blandthorn will be visiting Turner Street on 6^th June to formally open the new build

Parents Teacher Interviews: Green group Monday 24^th June, Blue group Thursday 27^th June

School readiness information night Monday 24^th June 6 -7:30

Stay and Play Monday 22^nd July 4:30

Whats happening in our kindergarten program: Friendships have really formed this term and children are really immersing themselves in the program and experiences. We are fortunate enough to have Isabella, who is on her final placement with us for the Term. Isabella is working with both groups and contributing to the program.

Parent Fundraising Group: Massive thank you to the parents that gave up their Sunday for our working bee. We were able to get lots of work done, considering the weather, and the children have had a blast engaging with the new spaces.  THANK YOU

Service/Building Improvements: We are in the process of using our fundraising money to do some minor landscaping in the yard, including, extension of the existing sandpit, moving the digging patch and cleaning up the fairy garden.

Teacher Communications: Educators have noticed an increase in children coming to kinder unwell. If your child is sick, the best place for them is at home, resting. Please keep your child at home if they have any of the following symptoms:

• A runny nose with green mucus
• Coughing
• A fever
• Have taken Panadol, Nurofen ,or  antibiotics recently

By keeping unwell children at home, we can reduce the spread of illness among children and educators. If we notice that your child is unwell, we will call you to pick them up.

From the team at Turner Street Kindergarten

Rhyme TIme: Enjoy a fun-filled session based on music and movement as you and your baby share rhymes and action songs. Rhymetime introduces carers to fun ways to support baby’s physical development and literacy. Rhymetime is for pre-walking (0-18 months) babies and their carers Held during school terms: Music and movement as you and your baby share rhymes and action songs. A fun session to support physical development and literacy (for pre-walking 0-18 months) babies and their carers: Tuesdays, 10.30am at Fawkner Library, Wednesdays, 10.30am at Glenroy Library, Thursdays, 10.30am and 11.30am at Coburg Library, Fridays, 10.00am and 11.00am at Brunswick Library.

WordPlay: Let’s use our words to play!  Word Play is a free literacy program for families to learn English together and make the most of pre-school play. Learning through play is an important part of pre-school learning and in these relaxed sessions we use books, puppets, puzzles and blocks  to learn together.  Word Play is aimed at pre-school children aged 3-5 years.

Word Play session times:

A free literacy program for families to learn English together. Aimed at preschool children aged 3-5 years. Held during school terms on Wednesdays, 10.30am at Fawkner Library.

Multicultural Events:

Conversation Cafe: A weekly social group for adults who speak English as a second language and anyone interested in intercultural conversations. You can practice speaking and listening in English. Glenroy Library on Thursdays at 7.30pm during school terms.

Chatty Cafe: Brings the community together for friendly conversation. English practice and social connection. No need to book. Sussex Neighbourhood House, Pascoe Vale, Fridays 10am – 12pm in the Community Hub. Glenroy Library, Friday 11am.

MEYM would like to thank you for taking the time to read our Newsletter