Dear parents
Welcome back! Its lovely seeing all of your wonderful children again with quite a few of them significantly taller. We have had a great start back with the children very interested in the new seedlings that were planted by Carolyn (Anna’s mother). Sym, with daughter Larissa, have had their seeds erupt into chunky dwarf sunflowers which is very exciting

With all of this interest in nature, we are planning lots of science and maths activites to extend the children in their observing, predicting and researching skills. See the Learning Snapshot notice board over the next few weeks.
We will also incorporate the children’s ever growing interest in literacy on the blue and red noticeboards. With so many morning children creating stories, descriptions and labels for their artwork we thought we would create a large display of this interest during the term.

Our budding kindy artists have been very interested to see, Taylor’s mother, painting a firetruck/fire station scene on the slide gate. So thank you Megan!
If you have a special gift that you would like to share, please feel free to demonstrate during a session. Musicians at any level are very welcome.

Professional Development this term… Ashleigh Best has attended a first aid course and Pip McGee will be attending a Supervisors Network Meeting later this term.

SAFETY (to protect your children)
*As from This Thursday, within the kindergarten session times, our driveway will become one way –entrance will be beside the power pole/blue agapanthas (an arrow will be painted).The maximum amount of time allowed for actual parking on the driveway will be five minutes. There will be no reversing.

*Warning for all new parents- turning right into Khandallah road means you are turning into a blind corner. There have been many close calls with Ngatoto st traffic, cyclists and cars at this corner.
Term Dates 2012:
End of Term 1 for the am session is Wednesday 4th April
End of Term 1 for the pm session is Thursday 5th April
Term 2 Start Date is Monday 23rd April (both sessions)

GENERAL Grace Kindergarten hats and tee shirts are available for sale. Please see the teachers. They are both $20 each.
We would like to remind you that your child’s portfolio is available for you to look at any time. Also that we value your feedback at any stage either with a meeting, through a phone call or with an email.
Absences:: If your child is going to be away from Grace Kindergarten please ring us and let us know.
Start times: Please remember to respect the Kindergarten operating hours. Sessions start at 8.30am or 11.30am. If you arrive early it interferes with the time the teachers have for setting up and for exchanging important confidential information prior to children’s arrival.
Parent Help Roster: Due to the weekly/daily changes in our parent help roster we are unable to email out an accurate copy. Please write down the dates you have chosen in your calendar at the time of your choice. If you cannot make your parent help duty – please contact 3 other parents to try to swap before your duty date.
Please speak to myself (Pip) or Ange Marklew if you have any financial concerns regarding paying donations. We understand that this can be a tough financial climate for some of our kindergarten families.
*Please bring in your sunhat as it is now compulsory for all outside play.
**Remember to pack an extra set of clothes and named drink bottle for your child.

These were taken on the final day of kindy for 2011. Have a great Christmas and do remember the reason for the season.

What an exciting, very busy and short term we have ahead of us! Thank you to all who attended our ‘Fish n Chip’ night. This was a lovely and fun start to the term, also a chance for families to get to know each other. We were so impressed with the way our ex-pupils (older siblings) played together and looked out for the younger children around them.

This is our favourite part of the year, in terms of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Our programme planning for this term includes a variety of activities, prop making, discussions, drama and stories which we hope will extend the children’s knowledge of Jesus, his life and his good works. Your children are now very busy practising the songs that we will be singing, which include ‘Away in a Manger’, ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ and ‘Jingle bells’.

Only three weeks to go until the CHRISTMAS SHOW, which is on the 9th December. We will be starting at 6.30pm sharp with the doors opening at 6pm. Please bring your children to us at 6.20pm for stories/settling in the kindergarten area, while you wait in the hall. Please being a plate of food to share a our supper afterwards.

Professional Development this term… Pip McGee attended a first aid course and will be attending a Supervisors Network Meeting during this term.

THANK YOU – to Cathryn (Sophie’s mum) who is running a Phoenix card fundraiser this term.

**Each week the teachers pray for your children and their families. Please let us know of any prayer requests that you may need.

GENERAL
Grace Kindergarten hats and tee shirts are available for sale. Please see the teachers. They are both $20 each.

We would like to remind you that your child’s portfolio is available for you to look at any time. Also that we value your feedback at any stage either with a meeting, through a phone call or with an email.
Absences:: If your child is going to be away from Grace Kindergarten please ring us and let us know.
Start times: Please remember to respect the Kindergarten operating hours. Sessions start at 8.30am or 11.30am. If you arrive early it interferes with the time the teachers have for setting up and for exchanging important confidential information prior to children’s arrival.
Parent Help Roster: Due to the weekly/daily changes in our parent help roster we are unable to email out an accurate copy. Please write down the dates you have chosen in your calendar at the time of your choice. If you cannot make your parent help duty – please contact 3 other parents to try to swap before your duty date.
Please speak to myself (Pip) or Ange Marklew if you have any financial concerns regarding paying donations. We understand that this can be a tough financial climate for some of our kindergarten families.
**Please bring in your sunhat as it is now compulsory for all outside play.
**Remember to pack an extra set of clothes and named drink bottle for your child.

To all Grace Kindergarten parents and whanau,

The Board of Management has recently reviewed the level of donations/fees that we request to assist with covering our operating expenses. Increasing costs and cutbacks in Ministry of Education funding have necessitated the following increases:

For those children aged three or four years, who have attested their free ECE hours to Grace Kindergarten:
Morning children: $40.00 per term (from term 1 2012)
Afternoon children $60.00 per term (from term 1 2012)

The donation for under 3 year olds remains at $5.00 per session.
The fee for non-attested hours for 3 and 4 year olds remains at $9.90 per hour inc gst.

If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to Pip McGee, Ange Marklew or a Board member.

Start date 2012

Many apologies for any confusion this may cause, but we have revised our start date next year to Wednesday 1 Feb for both sessions. Note that this is a day earlier than previously published. This start date enables us to strike a balance between maximising our Ministry of Education funding and operating as closely as possible to the local schools’ days of operation.

Have you bought your hat and t-shirt yet?

Sunhat and t-shirt weather is here, and we have lovely Grace hats and t-shirts for sale for your child. Be in now – $20 per item – please see Ange to check out sizes and to purchase.

New Board Member

We wish to welcome Michelle Stevens to the Board of Management. Michelle has excellent skills and experience to bring to the team and we look forward to working with her.

God bless you

The Grace Kindergarten Board of Management

Recently Grace Kindergarten received its routine ERO (Education Review Office) audit. The report is now available to the public and we want to provide you with a copy of ERO’s letter to parents.

As a Board we are pleased with this report. It particularly recognises the caring and supportive environment at Grace.

The report does highlight the need for some work in the area of curriculum development. This work was done many years ago and the Board recognises it is now time to work through this area again. This is a substantial piece of work, likely to take a number of years to work entirely through.

If you would like more information about this report, please talk to one of the Board members or Pip McGee.

God bless you

The Grace Kindergarten Board of Management

Grace ERO Report 2011

What fun we have had at kindy this term with the excitement of the Rugby World Cup. This has been a great opportunity for us in finding out some of your children’s links to other countries and cultures they feel connected too. While also acknowledging the wonderful world that God has made.

Please remember that we are having our family ‘Fish n Chip’ night on the first Friday of Term 4. It will be the 28th October at 5.30pm. Just bring along your family’s favorite takeaway and a blanket! We will supply the tomato sauce and a wee treat baked by the afternoon children. We will endevour to have all of the children on our powerpoint presentation re dramatic play.

Professional Development completed this term…
Pansy Wee attended a workshop on ICT (Information Communication technology). Ashleigh Best attended a course on ‘schemas’ – visual thought patterns. This will help the teaching team to gain a deeper understanding of how children are making sense of their worlds and ways we can extend and support children’s thinking.

Please do not leave your child unattended in the car. Consider arranging for another parent to bring your child out to your car! – just provide us with a phone call or the collecting parent with a signed note to arrange this.

THANK YOU – to Marie Butel (Matthew’s mum) for organising our ‘CHALK TOY FUNDRAISER’ this term.

Term Dates 2011:
End of Term 3 (both sessions) Friday 7th October
LABOUR DAY holiday Monday 24th October
Start of Term 4 (pm session) Tuesday 25th October
Start of Term 4 (am session) Wednesday 26th October
End of Term 4 (both sessions) Friday 16th December

Term Dates 2012:
Pm session Start Date for Term 1 2012 is Wednesday 1st February
Am session Start Date for Term 1 2012 is Wednesday 1st February

**Each week the teachers pray for your children and their families. Please let us know of any prayer requests that you may need.

Grace Kindergarten hats and tee shirts are available for sale. Please see the teachers. They are both $20 each.

GENERAL
We would like to remind you that your child’s portfolio is available for you to look at any time. Also that we value your feedback at any stage either with a meeting, through a phone call or with an email.

Absences:If your child is going to be away from Grace Kindergarten please ring us and let us know.

Start times: Please remember to respect the Kindergarten operating hours. Sessions start at 8.30am or 11.30am. If you arrive early it interferes with the time the teachers have for setting up and for exchanging important confidential information prior to children’s arrival.

Parent Help Roster: Due to the weekly/daily changes in our parent help roster we are unable to email out an accurate copy. Please write down the dates you have chosen in your calendar at the time of your choice. If you cannot make your parent help duty – please contact 3 other parents to try to swap before your duty date.

Please speak to myself (Pip) or Ange Marklew if you have any financial concerns regarding paying donations. We understand that this can be a tough financial climate for some of our kindergarten families.

Please bring in your sunhat as it is now compulsory for all outside play.
Remember to pack an extra set of clothes for your child.

We have just finished another session of wild and wonderful weather! Today piles of hail arrived for us to explore and a few weeks ago there was snow. I wonder what next term will bring?

Our social event this term will now happen in the first week of term 4. So pencil in your diaries FRIDAY 28TH OCTOBER 5.30pm – this will be our family ‘Fish and Chip’ night. Just purchase your preferred takeaways from your favorite shop and join us at the kindy hall. We will be running a powerpoint on ‘learning through dramatic play’.

RUGBY WORLD CUP FEVER hits Grace kindy – We are encouraging your child to bring in something that represents a country/culture that their family has a connection with. Our discussions about the Rugby World Cup, the children reinacting the haka and playing rugby games have now extended into discussions about other countries.

We have a ‘Sports’ theme dressup day this Wednesday 21st September. If you don’t have a sporty tee-shirt don’t worry as we will have flags etc available for your child to wear or wave.

THANK YOU – to Carolyn Lutter (Anna’s mum) for adding some lovely flowers to our garden originally prepared by the McLaughlin family (Noah)

Please support our ‘CHALK TOY FUNDRAISER’ and return your order to us by 3rd October.

Also please start bringing in your sunhat as it will compulsory for outside play in Term 4.

GENERAL
We would like to remind you that your child’s portfolio is available for you to look at any time. Also that we value your feedback at any stage either with a meeting, through a phone call or with an email.

Please speak to myself (Pip) or Ange Marklew if you have any financial concerns regarding paying donations. We understand that this can be a tough financial climate for some of our kindergarten families.

Grace Kindergarten hats and tee shirts are available for sale. Please see the teachers. They are both $20 each.

Each week the teachers pray for your children and their families. Please let us know of any prayer requests that you may need.

The afternoon session for Wed 17th August is OPERATING today. Please be aware that if weather conditions change you may be asked to pick up you child early. Please check your emails and our website for any cancellations that may arise, due to weather, for the rest of this week.

Regards from

Pip McGee
Head Teacher for Grace Kindergarten

The morning session on Wed 17th has been cancelled due to the icy road conditions predicted, which will affect the safe arrival of our families and teachers to the centre.
A decision regarding the afternoon session will be made by 9am tomorrow. Please check your emails and our Grace kindy website www.grace.ac.nz for further information, as we will not be phoning individual parents tomorrow.

Please also note that the zoo trip for the afternoon session has been cancelled. We are aiming now for the following Wednesday.

Regards from

Pip McGee
Head Teacher for Grace Kindergarten

Our kindergarten will be CLOSED today due to the icy road conditions which are affecting the safe arrival of our families and teachers to the centre.
We will try to make a decision at 8pm tonight regarding Wednesday’s sessions. However please check your emails and the kindergarten website before leaving to attend tomorrow.

Regards from

Pip McGee
Head Teacher for Grace Kindergarten