Family Learning Centre

Welcome to NBC Family Learning Centre

Welcome to mid- winter and oh what a fabulous term 3 at the Family Learning Centre. So much to learn and celebrate this term.

It’s Term 3 and we are warmed up and ready for active play and learning each day, in spite of the frosty mornings and chilly days! 

Important dates and highlights for this month include: National Science Week and the very popular Book Week.

Science Week and Book Week were celebrated across the NBC FLC as part of all Early Years (0-5y) programs including Kindergartens, Child Care and Playgroups. 

Congratulations to all children, what a lot of fun celebrating with curious young minds!

Meet Toni Hanlon, our new NBC Family Learning Centre Manager!

Science Week (11-15 August) 

Children naturally love to explore, question, and make sense of the world around them. We loved special activities that placed special emphasis on the many engaging experiences and learning opportunities for our young developing future scientists.  Science is truly all around us and always part our daily room activities /daily programs. 

Book Week 2025 was enjoyed by all across our FLC. Our Centre was filled with stories, laughter, creative play and definitely adventure!  

As well as celebrating our favourite children’s books, choosing costumes is a big part of the weeklong celebration. All children were invited to dress up as their favourite character on any day of the week and their parents/carers also invited to please stay on for breakfast and enjoy special reading time together with their child. 

Our celebrations tie in with our Lifelong Learning Curriculum, which promotes language, literacy, and a love for books from the very start.  We believe reading is one of the most important foundations for learning. 

News from the Kindergarten team

Meet our wonderful Kindergarten educators and assistants. 

This science week, Kindergarten children learned to recognise, celebrate, reflect on and build science principles and concepts.

• K3 teacher Sunita (and Education Leader)

Tegan (Barribin room) 

• K3&4 teacher Tejas (TJ) 

Ankita  (Perridak room)

• K4 teacher Joanne 

Melba (Kurrman Room) 

“Our Kinder Reflections” during Science Week  

Research shows that children naturally engage with scientific concepts; they develop their language and vocabulary and identify processes in their play and as they readily explore the natural world in these early years

Observations from Sunita, Tegan (Barribin room) and TJ and Akita (Perridak room)

Our Kinder 3 and 4 year old students have all been very busy outside during this wintery days!  They all especially love playing hide and seek, which helps them practice using prepositions like behind and under as they find hiding spots.

We love seeing the children learning through play and look forward to more exciting activities this term!   Over the past few weeks, children have been learning about nouns and prepositions in fun and meaningful ways.

• Nouns are words that name people, places, animals, or things—like dog, block, or sand.
• Prepositions are words that show where something is or the relationship between things—like under, on, in, or behind.

Kinder 3 and 4 yr old children also enjoyed building with blocks, indoors and outdoors, which encourages creativity and teamwork as they stack and arrange blocks to make towers and houses.  In the sandpit, children explore and play by digging, filling containers, and making shapes—developing their senses and fine motor skills.

Colour Mixing Experiment

From Kinder teacher Jo, and assistant Melba -  Several children have requested the water colour paints to mix the different colours together while painting.  

During today’s group time, Jo introduced a colour-mixing experiment to the children that involved coloured-water in each of the primary colours (red, blue and yellow).

In this experiment, two primary colours were poured into a glass jar together, to find out what new secondary-colour these two primary colours make when mixed together.

The children were encouraged to make aprediction of what might happen prior to the experiment taking place, as Jo wished to promote the scientific process of ‘asking questions and finding out’ with the children.

Pouring yellow water and mixing with red water: 

Children’s predictions in the room included: 

• X this would make (more) yellow.
• Y this would make orange.

• Z this would make blue.

  We observed the water change to Orange

   

Pouring the blue water and adding the yellow water:

Children’s predictions in the room included: 

• X predicted this would make green.
• Ypredicted this would make orange.
• Z predicted this would make (more) blue.
• A predicted this would make green.

• B “Colours make new colour.”

  We observed the water change to Green 

   

Lastly, pouring the red water, and adding the blue water:

Children’s predictions in the room included: 

• A predicted red and blue together would make black.
• B predicted red and blue together would make rainbow.
• C predicted it would make (more) red.

• D predicted red and blue together would make purple

  We observed the water change to Purple.

   

Children loved engaging their minds and imaginations, and the dramatic play of character dress-ups. Many children (and educators!) participated as favorite book characters and dress-ups such as Cinderellas, Spidermen and a few fairy princesses. We even had a visit from Paw Patrols own Chase! 

Family Learning Celebrates Book Week August 16th to 23rd. 

Book Week 2025 theme “Book an Adventure” has been so special and about so much more than costumes - it’s a celebration of imagination, language, and social connection to the world. 

The theme for Book Week 2025 is "Book an Adventure!" is the perfect reminder that the best journeys often start with a good book.

Most of all Book Week has been lots of fun for our educators to participate in, as well as the children! We have loved sharing the joy across the Centre. These are the moments spark a lifelong passion for sharing stories and learning.

Here’s some of what happened!

• Week long Dress-up days - Children (and educators!) are encouraged to dress as their favourite book characters (optional, but so much fun).
• Daily story sessions - Educators read from both new releases and timeless classics, often chosen by the children.
• Themed learning activities - Craft, music, and outdoor play all connect to the Book Week theme “Book an Adventure”.
• Family involvement - Parents are invited to stay and share a favourite book from their culture or at home.
• A special guest named Chase came to visit the ELC children, they even shared a dance together!

School Readiness Funded programs 

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Australia

Free Book Gifting Program is one part of NBC Kindergarten 

School Readiness Funded programs

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Australia is a free book gifting program devoted to inspiring a love of reading in the hearts of children everywhere. 

Each month, enrolled children at a NBC Kindergarten program receives a new high-quality, age-appropriate book in the mail addressed to the child. Its so very exciting to receive and we share our stories of receiving mail with our kinder teachers and friends. Surprise, they also received the same book! 

How It Works

Each month, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library mails a high-quality, age-appropriate book to all registered children, addressed to them, at no cost to the child’s family. 

Countless parents have shared how excited their child is when their new book arrives each month. Many groups and individuals work hard behind the scenes to make that special moment possible for each child. 

News from “Friday Friends” Multicultural Playgroup 

A Supported Playgroup for parent/ carers with children 0-4yrs. 

Join the fun each week 9:30 – 11:30 am. 

Activities are friendly, fun and free.  All welcome. 

At playgroup we bring and share our unique cultures and languages through song, stories and play. Language is no barrier to friendship. 

This month we celebrated both Science Week (15 August) and Book Week on (22 August) with sharing the beloved story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, an all-time classic picture book about a VERY little caterpillar with a VERY big appetite.  😊

FYI Eric Carle's beloved book recently celebrated it's 50th birthday! Happy birthday Caterpillar!

You can watch and hear the Very Hungry Caterpillar read aloud by Captain Starlight and signed in Victorian Auslan by Ramas McRae’   

Click this link to youtube     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10VVJp3fV4Y

The Very Hungry Caterpillar story has captured the hearts and imaginations of our playgroup parent’s and children, encouraging lots of play-based interactive learning activities, including cutting, pasting and painting during this science and book week. 

Using gum leave, hole punches, ribbons and glue we engaged the imaginations of the young and young at heart, making gum leaf necklaces, confetti and collage work.

We also learned that Eucalyptus is meaningful because it signifies both 

• Connection to Nature:  Eucalyptus is native to Australia and holds significance in Aboriginal culture as a sacred plant, embodying a connection to the land and purity. 
• Connection to Country:  Eucalyptus is deeply connected to Aboriginal culture, land, and traditional medicine. 

😊 Stay happy, healthy and well this winter Spring is just around the corner!

• Helen O’Connor, FLC Coordinator, 5224 9791
• Lani Victoria, SRF Coordinator 5224 9780 
• Narelle Smith-Haslett, Community Hub Leader, 5224 9783
• Toni Hanlon, FLC Manager 54224 9790

Community Hubs

We have had a wonderful start to term 3 in the Community Hub with lots of programs on offer.

In week 2 Life Saving Victoria came and ran an Introduction to CPR session in the Hub, we had 21 women in attendance who are now armed with Life Saving information to support their family and community. Whilst we hope we never have to put this knowledge into practice, it is a vital life skill. 

Well done to everyone who attended!

We also have a wonderful new program – Women’s Yoga each Monday at 11am

A big thank you to Reclink for support this program – it was been wonderful to see everyone enjoying yoga and getting some time to relax.

Our FREE Toy Library operates on a Monday 2-3pm & Friday 11am-12pm – we are currently seeking volunteers to support our Toy Library.

If you have an hour or two free that you would like to volunteer, please contact our Hub Leader Narelle.

In the hub this term we will also have Services Australia support, with 2 drop in sessions & an information session on supporting families to contact Services Australia.

Our Term 3 Program.

If you would like more information or to register for any of our programs, please contact Hub Leader Narelle.

Narelle Smith-Haslet

Community Hub Leader