Early Learning Centre
I am very much looking forward to catching up with many of you on Sunday and a HUGE thank you to Gabbi and the P&F who have taken the reigns in organising a community farewell.
A reminder that we have a box on the veranda for everyone to contribute to for the Uniting Church Christmas Hamper Appeal. We have some very generous contributions already, so thank you to those families.
Our Early Learning Centre community has been rocked by two cancer diagnosis this year and to honour their fight, I am walking 21km around Melbourne in a couple of weeks. The Walking Stars raises funds for the Cancer Council of Victoria and serves to raise awareness. So please if you have any concerns about your health or the health of your family, see your GP and have any concerns fully investigated.
Piccolo
Our last Piccolo session is on Wednesday 7 December. This will be PARTY DAY!!. The children are welcome to dress in their favourite Christmas Colours, hats, headbands – there are no limits. We will have a Party Food List at the sign in book for families to choose what they would like to bring in for our shared party lunch. Families are welcome to join us from 2:30pm and join in the festivities on our last day.
Piccino
On Monday 5 December we will be taking the College bus down to Port Fairy and joining Tania Moloney from Nurture by Nature for a Beach Kinder experience at Pea Soup. This experience will take place on the shore. We will have some lunch and a play at The Lions Club all abilities playground. It should be a fun day. Consent forms will be emailed via Operoo this week.
Tuesday 6 December is the Piccino to Year Two Nativity at the Uniting Church in Hamilton. Children can wear plain white t-shirts with light colour shorts or skirts, or white dresses. We will make some halos for the children to wear.
Monday 12 December is Piccino Water Play Fun Day at the Early Learning Centre. A Party Food List and more details will be available soon. Our final Piccino day is Tuesday 13 December and we finish at the usual time of 3:15pm. There will be no after school care on this day.
Scissor Skills
Cutting skills take time for children to develop. Being able to use scissors to cut well is important for many kinder and school activities including art and craft. The hand skills we use in scissor use arealso useful for handwriting.
Tips for scissor use:
- Start with plastic or safety scissors while they are practicing.
- Prompt your child to keep their hand angled with the thumb to the roof
- Get your child to hold a small beanbag or similar between their elbow and side while learning to cut, this will help with hand position.
- Mark the thumb hole with a small piece of tape as a reminder for where the thumb should go.
- Always use left-handed scissors for left handers, not only are they designed for the angle of left-handed cutting, but the blade on right-handed scissors can also make it hard for left handed scissor users to see the line they are trying to cut.
- Practice, practice, practice: provide lots of time for your child to practice. Make shopping lists, Santa lists, collages, cut up playdough and/or straws, cut out newspaper articles and make posters.
At the Early Learning Centre we create many opportunities for the children to use scissors purposefully, cutting paper to the size they need, cutting open packed food and cutting ribbon or thread to length. We also provide scissors with play-dough and clay. As a general rule scissors are one of the ‘always available to use’ tools in our learning environment.
For more information: Scissor Activities www.nhsggc.org.uk
FRANCES O’BRIEN
Director Early Learning Centre