Term 1 Newsletter 2017
(January, February, March)
Term 1 is here! And what a busy term it has been. Welcome back to all our
wonderful families and a huge welcome to all our new families and friends.
Please if you have any questions, speak to the staff in your child’s room or alternatively
pop in the office for a chat. We also welcome any inputs or suggestions and hope you
share your culture with us and any ideas are much appreciated.
Child Dental Benefit Scheme - Free Dental for your children.
. The Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) provides basic dental services to children
2-17 years. Dental services are capped at $1000 over 2 consecutive calendar years. The
two year cap period starts when a child or teenager first receives an eligible
dental service. This is a great new scheme to help assist families in the cost of dental.
Remember our Giveaway
Want a $100 visa gift card? – Simply enrol your child and you will receive one… Already
enrolled? Then refer a friend that leads to a permanent enrolment and both of you will
each receive a $100 Visa gift. Have no friends? Then simply pick up another day and
receive a $100 Visa gift card.
Facebook Page.
Like us on Facebook for discounts and the
latest news as well as upcoming events.
https://www.facebook.com/rutherfordplaytimepreschool
..Upcoming Events..
Crazy Hair day
Wednesday 15th March
Henny Penny Egg Hatching
27th March - 2 week event
Easter Hat Parade
Thursday 13th April
Good Friday and Easter Monday
Closed Friday 14th – Monday 17th
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Pick up timesIf you are not a working parent/ guardian, and do not need your
child here after 5pm you must pick your child up before 5pm.
Fee Payment MethodsWe have moved to a new payment method – Direct Debit, if you
have not yet signed a direct debit form please see Miss Tahlia to do so. The other
payment method we are accepting is Centrepay. If your fees fall more than 2 weeks
Behind, your position at our centre may be termindated. All fees in arreas will also
accure a late fee of $10 a month.
Good for Kids Healthy snack ideas –
Looking for a healthy, kid-friendly snack idea?
INGREDIENTS
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2 ripe bananas
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
100g / 2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp plain or all purpose flour (can
be gluten free)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp seed and goji berry mix
(sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and
goji berries)
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tbsp chia seeds
METHOD
1. Mash the bananas on a board,
transfer into a large bowl. Add the
honey and mix well.
2. In a separate bowl add the oats,
flour, cocoa powder, seeds, goji
berries, flaxseed and chia seeds
and mix together before adding to
the large bowl with the bananas
and honey. Stir all the ingredients
together until well combined.
3. From the mixture roll six equal
sized balls. Place them on a lined
baking tray or cookie tray and
flatten with a spoon to make a
cookie shape.
4. Bake in the oven at 160c / 320f
for 12 minutes.
5. Allow the cookies to cool
completely before drizzling on the
melted chocolate and sprinkling
with extra goji berries. Place in
the fridge or freezer until the
chocolate is solid.
6. The cookies will keep in the fridge
for up to 3 days.
Drinks: please only pack water or milk for your
children. We always have water available.
Juice/cordial will be replaced with water so save
your pennies and don’t send it. Give your kids the best start in life.
Fussy Eaters?
Having trouble giving your child the nutrients they need? Here are a few tips
and tricks to try. A glass of milk for calcium, fats and protein.
Fill your morning pancakes with things like bananas, pears or any fruits, add
oats to the mix, Oats are a great souce of protein and fibre.
Grate up carrots, zucchinis, onions, cellery and chop spinach, add them to
past sauces like bolognaise, meatballs, patties or even your taco meat.
Blend up chicken with chickpea’s to make healthy nuggets.
Family and Community
Kidspot Baby & Kids markets - Buy and sell your quality pre-loved baby
& children’s goods in a safe and friendly environment. New goods are also available for
sale. You can find everything from baby clothing to cots
and prams. You’re guaranteed to find something great
to take home.
This Kidspot Baby and Kids Market is for preloved goods
for boys and girls from birth to 7 yrs.
When: 19 Mar 2017
Where: Newcastle basketball stadium
Time: 9am until 12 noon.
Admission: $4 (kids free).
Maitland City Library – Provides a range of
free kid’s activities and programs designed to encourage a love of books, reading, music
and craft from an early age.
Baby book club – designed for little people from 0 – 24 months, introduces children to
the magic of books and reading through songs, rhymes and finger play.
Story time – for children ages 2-5 years are held at all branches, these sessions are
designed to engage children with books.
Contact your local library for sessions.
Maitland Neighbourhood Centre – Jump on there facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/MaitlandNeighbourhoodCentre/
Maitland Neighbourhood Centre is a vital hub for our local community, offering a wide
range of services to support and empower people. A load of free services. Also in Rutherford
2017 Information
Fees 2017
Nursery room - $90 per day
Toddler Room - $85 per day
Preschool Room $85 per day
What we provideBreakfast before 8am, Morning tea, Lunch, Afternoon tea, a late afternoon tea snack
after 5pm. Beverages. Baby wipes, bed linen, Hats, sun cream.
What Families ProvideChanges of clothes for all ages (please pack multiple), extra undies, Nappies or pull ups,
dummies, bottles and formula where applicable.
Staff Information
One Minute with Miss Maddy
Miss Maddy is a Trainee in our Nursery Room (0-2yrs)
She has been with us since November 2016 and is
currently studying her Certificate III in Children’s
services.
“Twinkle Twinkle little star” is a staple in her room
and loves reading “where going on a bear hunt” to
the children.
Miss Maddy is 20 years old, she lives at home with
her Mum, Dad and 2 younger brother’s. On the
weekends when she’s not cooking up a storm in the kitchen she loves spending time
with her family. Her favourite colour is Purple and her favourite food is Italian.
We welcomed Miss Bec and Miss Emma to
our team this year, both are fully qualified
Early Childhood Educators.
Staff and Room allocations –
Preschool Room (4-5yrs)
Room Leader - Miss Aleshia
Room Assistant – Miss Brookie
Toddler Room (3yrs)
Room Leader - Miss Emma
Room assistant – Mr David
Tweenies (2yrs)
Room Leader - Miss Vicky
Room Assistant - Miss Brooke
Nursery Room (0-2yrs)
Room Leader – Miss Bec
Room assistant – Miss Maddy
Centre Chef – Miss Ashlea
Approved Provider - Miss Sandra
Nominated Supervisor – Miss Tahlia
Message from our Preschool Room.
Welcome to 2017.
What a wonderful start to the year welcoming lots of new friends to our preschool room.
During the month of feb we spent lots of time getting to know new friends in
detail, introducing them to one another, to the group of friends we have, to
our routines and environments to focus on the gaining a sense of belonging
to our pre-school family.
To assist the children in building a bond and their sense of belonging we ask
that all of our families bring in a family picture (email one to Miss Tahlia) to
help us create a “sense of belonging jungle” display. Over the next few weeks
we will be focusing on some more research to find out what types of animals
are found in the jungle.
We have also been working on school readiness in our pre-school room,
building our friends concentration spans during group times as well as
working on identifying our own names and letters within our name.
We are pleases with how all our friends are setting in so quickly and we
cannot wait for the year ahead.
Miss Aleshia and Miss Brookie! 
Message from our Toddler Room.
What a fabulous couple of months we have had with our
Toddler friends exploring and learning within our beautiful
environment!
During the Month of February, the toddlers have been exploring the
world of Animals.
The children have been using their knowledge to identify various
animals, their sounds, movements and what they eat through books,
songs, role play and group time discussion.
We have also explored animals through arts and craft, using animal
stamp shapes for painting.
Our Toddler friends have also shown great interest in sensory
activities so throughout March, the children will be exploring senses
(sound, sight, taste, touch and smells) using their sensory tools. The
children will be investigating aspects of their world around them,
engaging in lots of sensory exploration such as finger painting,
cooking, sensory collage and messy play.
Miss Emma, Mr David!! 
Message from our Tweenie Room.
What a great first term it has been in our Tweenie
room! During the month of February our friends have grown
so much and taken part in lots of wonderful learning experiences! Our
friends showed great interest in our learning topic, ‘All about animals!’,
where we focused on animals that live on the land, in the sea, insects and
bugs, and animals that we may have at home.
Through the use of stories, conversation, song and play we learnt that
different animals make different noises and live in different areas. The use of
flash cards and picture books developed the children’s picture recognition
skills and helped teach them the names of different animals.
Throughout this topic the children were also invited to participate in lots of
learning experiences such as natural world play where the habitats of
animals were replicated in a play setting; sea life water tubs, jungle animal
boxes, farm animal trays and dinosaur world. These natural worlds made
great use of natural materials, and also developed the children’s imaginative
play skills.
We have also been making lots of animal crafts and artworks including
animal face masks and animal stamp paintings.
We have also been focusing on learning to wash our hands correctly and
wipe our own faces. The tweenies are doing so well developing these
important self-help skills. Our self-help trolley in our room is giving the
children some independence as they grow and develop further into
toddlerhood.
For the month of March our learning topic is sensory exploration! We will be
having lots of fun and messy play exploring different textures as well as
science based learning experiments to further develop our senses and
curiosity. Miss Vicky and I are looking forward to sharing these experiences
with you all!  If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to
come and talk to one of us 
Miss Vicky and Miss Brooke!!! 
Message from our Nursery Room.
A very big 'hello!' to all of our wonderful Nursery families 
We have had a very busy start to our year in the nursery room, greeting many new friends, and
welcoming back many friends from last year. The beginning of the year is one for settling and
allowing children time to adjust to their new routines and environment, and in building strong
and trusting relationships with their educators and new friends. We are very pleased to
observe our nursery children becoming more settled and comfortable in their surroundings as
time goes on, and their days here with us are happy and contented.
During the past month, we have noticed how many children have enjoyed different songs
being played on the CD player, or sung by the educators. We have kept practicing these
favourite songs, such as 'wheels on the bus', 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' and 'rock-a-bye
your bear', and not only are the children becoming very confident in their abilities to perform
the actions and try and sing some words, their enthusiasm to move their bodies and express
their enjoyment when these songs are played is absolutely delightful to see! From here, we
have introduced further action/dancing songs for the children to learn, such as 'hurry hurry
where's the fire truck', 'hot potato', and 'open shut them', and the children have been showing
great interest in these new songs as well, so we will continue these throughout each day.
The children have also been very busy creating artwork for their special books, exploring paint
in different forms; crayons; pencils; coloured paper and chalk. It is interesting to observe how
some children may have had some experience with these items before, and are quite confident
to use them straight away, whereas some children may be experiencing these objects for the
first time, and are a little hesitant in what is expected. It is also interesting to note how some
children enjoy having paint on their hands, whereas others do not, and these observations
have formed the basis for further teaching scenarios where we will be offering children a
variety of sensory experiences to continue encouraging learning and development in this area.
We love to learn more about your children, so please do not hesitate to come and speak to any
of the educators in the Nursery room about anything – a change of routine; a question; or
perhaps letting us know about something exciting that's happening in your family!
…And we would also love a family photo, too  please email us one.
Miss Bec and Miss Maddy 
Our friends dressing up