MEYM Newsletter Term 4, 2022

Dear families,

As we near the end of the year we would like to wish all of our families a wonderful festive season and new year. This is our final newsletter for the year. We hope that your children have enjoyed kindergarten and that they have made lots of friendships and memories to treasure. We say goodbye to some families and wish their children all the best at their new school – another milestone! We will welcome back our 3yo children into our 4yo programs and we would also like to wish our brand new families a warm welcome for 2023.

A reminder that sun protection should be used from mid-August to end of April when the UV reaches 3 and above. Don’t just wait for hot and sunny days to use sun protection. Check the sun protection times each day so your family can be protected when they need to be. We have a duty of care to protect children from skin damage caused by the harmful UV rays of the sun and our Sun Smart policy has been developed to ensure that all children attending kindergarten are protected from this. It is implemented throughout the year, but with emphasis from the beginning of September to the end of April. Parents are asked to apply sunscreen onto their children before the kindergarten session. Click to view our Sunsmart policy

General Manager’s Update

What a big year 2022 has been, a year of challenges and so many achievements.

We proudly say farewell to those children who are heading off to school next year and wish them and their families all the very best for the future. We believe that by attending an MEYM kindergarten with a focus on play-based learning that your child has had the best possible preparation for school. A play-based program encourages active engagement in learning and supports a range of positive developmental outcomes including resilience and independence, curiosity and creativity.

To all those children and families who are returning to an MEYM kindergarten in 2023 we are already planning for another positive and rewarding year. We look forward to seeing you again in January.

We wish all our families a safe and enjoyable holiday period.

All the very best, Anne and Sarah

Enrolment Officer’s Update

All families in an MEYM kinder program in 2023 have been emailed Orientation and start dates for 2023 and a link to book in. We will soon close the booking links so please ensure that you have made your booking. A copy of your kinders orientation schedule can be located on our website

Bring along to orientation/interview your completed Getting to Know your Child Form (which has been emailed to you). Please note that an up to date Immunisation History Statement forms part of the requirement of enrolment.
If you need assistance or have any questions about orientation, or if you would like me to make your booking for you, please email me at enrolments@meym.org.au

Kinder is free of charge in 2023. MEYM will receive the funding directly from the Victorian Government so families are not out of pocket (and don’t have to claim the savings back).

Note that families can only enrol their child in ONE free kinder program at any one time. This means that all children can access a funded kinder program and free kinder subsidy only at ONE service at any one time. When you enrol a child into an MEYM kindergarten program you acknowledge that MEYM will be claiming the funding for your child.

Important Dates

Friday 16th December will be our last day of kindergarten for most of our centres. All of our kindergartens will then be closed and will re-open at the beginning of February.

Facebook and Instagram

Please visit our facebook and instagram pages as we are posting information, notifications and photos of our programs there!

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

Reports from our MEYM Kindergartens

Gowanbrae Children’s Centre

This has been a busy term at Gowanbrae Children’s centre. The children have enjoyed the indoor/outdoor program even on wet days! The children have enjoyed block building (making cities), role playing/exploring identity in the doctor and school themed home corners. Children have been expressing creativity through easel painting, recycled art construction and full body portraits. Leading up to December the children have been writing letters to Santa and making Christmas decorations. Outside, children in all groups have particularly enjoyed the bikes and exploring water play in the sandpit. We’ve had dress up days and enjoyed our story time with Andrea from Glenroy library. We are now preparing for our end of year celebrations/graduations. We are also running a Christmas toy drive in Collaboration with the Salvation Army.

Last day for green, blue, yellow is 15th December

Last day for red group is 19th December

Lake Park Kindergarten

Hello LPK families,

Wow what a busy fourth term to conclude our year!

This term it’s been all about exploring, learning and playing in the natural world with all three groups attending excursions to CERES environmental park and nature program outings throughout the term. During our excursions to Ceres, children were engaged in their biodiversity and farm to fork programs where children learn about animal habitats, participated in gardening experiences and of course, feeding the chickens!

We also enjoyed an incursion by Wild Action with their ‘Backyard Biodiversity program’.

During the incursion, children got to see local endemic species from Victoria up close and personal and had the opportunity to touch or hold some of them. Species included: a Tawny frogmouth, Barn owl, Short-necked turtle, Blotched blue tongued lizard, Eastern water dragon, Growling grass frog, Grey headed flying fox, Ring tailed possum, Sugar glider, koala, Joey kangaroo.

Moomba Park Kindergarten

Echidna and Wombat program has been focussing on working on improving their independence skills. They have been practicing packing their own bags with their lunch boxes and drink bottles at the end of the day and have been working on keeping track of their hats and jackets (Melbournes changeable weather has been making this a bit harder!). Over the next few weeks they will be getting to know some of their new staff for next year and spending time with them. They have also been enjoying lots of art activities and making wrapping paper for end of year gifts. Merri Creek Allied Health have been visiting the group and working with the teachers to continue to support those children who find separating from Mum and Dad difficult.

Possum and Kangaroo children have been enjoying hearing about their friends who have been visiting schools. We are hoping to visit some local schools in the next few weeks to have a look round. Both groups have been finding the unpredictable weather interesting and the children haven been enjoying collecting the rainwater to use in their play. We continue to work on skills needed to have a successful transition at school and staff are sharing the excitement this change will bring

Everyone is looking forward to the end of year festivities and the children are helping to plan what our end of year celebrations will look like. We look forward to celebrating with pizza and face painting!

Newlands Preschool

Newlands News!

Our 4 year old group had a visit from Animals of Oz. We were introduced to Uki-Ring tailed possum, Kooki – kookaburra, Bubblegum-Blue tongued lizard, Freddo-Green tree frog, Bella -Python Snake and Snappy-Saltwater crocodile. We touched all these amazing native animals and learned about their habitat, food they ate, their predators and some special features they all have. It was an interactive, educational experience.

We also had a visit from Bryan (Traffic Supervisor) He demonstrated how to cross the road safely when going to school. He also showed the children his stop sign, his whistle and his uniform. Children asked lots of questions and were totally engaged in the brief presentation.

Our 3 year old group have been very enthusiastic about finding snails in our outdoor space. They created a natural space on the tuff tray for their snails They collected pebbles, bark, leaves and sand to invite the snails to a welcoming habitat. This learning will be reinforced with a visit from Drama Toolbox. The theme of the presentation will be Minibeasts.

End of year parties:

3 year old group: Wednesday 14 December

4 year old group: Friday 16 December

It has been a busy term 4 and we wish everyone a well deserved break.

Oak Park Kindergarten

Term 4 at Oak Park has been just as busy as all our other terms with incursions, working bees, school orientation and our 2023 Kinder orientations. This year we have been working on the waste module of the ResourceSmart Schools program and are up to submitting the module for review. We have signed up to continue our sustainability learning journey with CERES and ResourceSmart Schools for 2023 and are proud of how much we have achieved this year in this area.

Our 4yo’s discussed healthy lifestyles and choices with the assistance of the Life Ed Victoria, Healthy Harold Becoming Healthy module. 4yo Yellow experienced the Reptile Encounter program and 3yo Green and 4yo Purple each did a drama workshop with The Drama Toolbox. Our 4yo’s have been busy visiting their schools for transitions and are coming back to Kinder enthusiastically telling us all that they have done during their visits.

Our resident Tawny Frog Mouth’s returned to Bush Kinder this term and surprised us with bringing their two children! We now have 4 Tawny Frog Mouths to look out for when visiting Bush Kinder, though they have also made themselves comfortable in the upper playground trees and our neighbour’s roof. Therefore, we have a lot more trees to search to find them.

The Parents Group finally had success on choosing a Saturday that didn’t rain to host a working bee to stain all our exposed wood from last years renovations. They’ve also been busy organising a memento tea towel for our 4yo’s, which has been a tradition since 2005, an Aver & Line family photo shoot and are now hard at work planning the return of our family Christmas party/disco on the 9^th December and Christmas raffle! This term we have been able to cross off our wish list the purchase of a new floor rug in home corner, a Bluetooth headphone jack and hula hoops. Overall it has been a very successful year in fundraising and purchasing items for the Kinder.

In our final few weeks of Kinder we hope to introduce our 3yo group to Bush Kinder, take our 4yo’s out on more community walks, all of which have been postponed due to the weather, and welcome our 2023 students for an orientation session to explore the kindergarten. Each group will end the year with a presentation ceremony/family picnic in the Kinder playground on their last days.

Turner Street Kindergarten

At Turner Street we have had a busy last Term with lots of exciting things happening. Our mixed 3 and 4 year old group were very lucky to have an excursion to Ceres Permaculture and Bushfood Nursery, although it was a VERY rainy day, it made it all the more adventurous day we had a lot of fun, learnt lots and even more puddles to play with. Both yellow group and Blue group have engaged in incursions this Term, including the Flying Bookworm and the Butterfly incursion.

We celebrated Halloween by dressing up in our favorite Halloween costume and currently getting ready for our end of year celebration where we will show our parents some of our favourite songs and dances from the year.

The children and families are also very excited to be attending our Fundraising Disco on the 10th December. It’s going to be a fabulous night to come together as a service for one last time in 2022 and celebrate what a great year we have had.

Reflection from a mother

“Pick up time at kinder, my daughter radiant with excitement as she thrust another multi coloured work of art into my hands, paint still slightly wet, corners folded in and her name, top right in big bold wonky squiggly text. Another treasure to add to her weekly collection.

She beamed up at me as I looked down at her preciously crafted masterpiece, big smile on my face as I took in the splodges of green, yellow and hazy blue with white dots. What beautiful colours you have used I said to her. That’s not just colours mummy, look closer can’t you see? This is what we did today mummy, the green is the grass in the yard where we had a picnic with all my friends and we learnt all about healthy food, the yellow is the sandpit where we took turns to build sandcastles , the blue is the sky where we learnt about the sun, moon and stars and the white is the fluffy clouds which we played under and it made me feel really happy. I looked again at her proud face and again at the speckly, splodgy blobs of paint and knew now that this meant so much more than a single beloved painting – this was her story – this was her sense of self, her sense of belonging, her eagerness to soak up knowledge like a sponge. I paused to reflect upon this wondrous moment – to relish in her ever growing new found confidence”.

Our Community

Glenroy Neighbourhood House are running a fun, inclusive interactive program to learn and share ideas to bond with your children.

Each session will be $10, or $5 for a concession. To register your interest contact nhcoordinator@glenlink.vic.edu.au.

The Gruffalo’s Child is running at The Athenaeum Theatre, 20 Dec at 10am. Tickets are $34. For all bookings please contact the Athenaeum Theatre Box Office directly on (03) 9650 1500. Mon – Fri 10:00am – 4:00pm.

Make Christmas a Craftmas

Free Kids Craft at Moonee Ponds Central from 19 to 24 December 10am – 1pm. Bookings not required.

Toddler Time at Coburg Library, Monday 12 December, 10.30am – 11am

Toddlertime is a fun introduction to the storytime experience. Sessions include simple songs, short stories and movement activities. Adult participation is required.

Toddlertime aims to stimulate language development and helps children develop self-confidence and early literacy skills in a fun environment. It is designed specifically for active toddlers.

Toddlertime will run weekly until 12/12, then return after the Summer school holidays.

MEYM would like to wish you all a very merry festive season and a Happy New Year!!