Welcome back to our returning whanau it’s great to see you again, and to ALL of our new families (and there are lots of you!) welcome and we hope that you enjoy being part of the Mahurangi Kindergarten Family.

COMING EVENTS:

Next Tuesday 22^nd February we are being visited by the dental nurse and her dental van. Sarah Foley is going to conduct a special mat time at 10 am for about 10 minutes about dental health (good foods, teeth brushing etc) and then after mat time children who want to can go into the dental van (parked inside kindy gates) and have their teeth checked. Parents are welcome to visit with their child, and if it is not your usual kindy day your child is welcome to attend (as long as an adult stays with them).

Sonya should have asked you to sign a permission form to have your child checked (it is not compulsory). If not see a staff member and we can give you a form.

  HOUSE KEEPING

 v     Session times:

A reminder that children must be collected on time every day, otherwise our teacher/student ratios will be over limit and the teachers are unable to have their well deserved lunch break (they only get half an hour and if they go to lunch late they still have to back on the floor teaching at their rostered time). We appreciate your help with this.

v     Trip to Jade’s House:

ADVENTURE DAY!

We are hoping to have a trip to Jade Davies house on Friday 25^th February. There will be a separate notice about this, but just a ‘heads up” that we will need parents to help. We will be walking down (only to Victoria Street) and then having various adventure activities for the children to do (we will need parents to help with these too). The children can come dressed up and will need their morning tea and a drink, hat and sun block

  v     Donations/Fees:

You should all have received your donation request and or fee invoice this week. If you are using 20 ECE hours or less you will have a donation request. If your child does not use their 20 ECE hours here or attends more than 20 hours per week you will have a fee invoice. Kindergarten depends on donations and fees to meet our day to day running expenses and we appreciate you supporting your children and their kindergarten by paying these

These have resumed on Fridays. We need parent help to assist with this walk down to the Primary School to visit the reception classes, library and playground. This is a great trip which the children really enjoy and we appreciate your help in volunteering to go with one teacher and a small group of children. You and your child are welcome to attend even if Friday is not your usual session day, just keep an eye on the notice board and you will see when your child will be going.

Watch out; watch out chicken pox, vomiting bugs and head lice are all about! Please ensure that your child does not come to kindy if they are unwell. Please don’t bring children to kindy who have vomited in the last 24 hours, or who have untreated head lice. Kindy is a very “close” environment and bugs get spread very easily so we appreciate your help in containing outbreaks.

It is HOT and we would like to remind you to apply sun block to your children before they come to kindy. We have sun block at kindy behind the main doors on the left hand side as you walk into kindy if you forget to do it before you leave home. All children also need a hat if they want to play outside.

We have been having sprinkler times on hot days where the children have the opportunity to strip off and have a cool down under the sprinkler or hose. Children can bring their togs or spare underwear to participate in this; it pays to pack these daily.

  COMMITTEE NEWS 

v     Gala Day:

The current committee of fabulous mothers and fathers are busy behind the scenes planning a fun gala day fundraiser. The idea is to have a fairly major fundraising burst early in the year that will take the pressure off having to fundraise too much for the rest of the year. More information to follow soon…

Many thanks to the people who have taken some more bars of chocolate to sell on behalf of kindergarten. Any chocolates we are selling now are pure profit, so if you think you can sell a box (or even half a box) please see a staff member and help us out with this.

Check out the lovely concrete area outside the kitchen door. Many thanks to Martin Casey and Caroline Hawes who managed to get us a grant to get this work done. It looks amazing and we are hoping to get another grant for some outdoor furniture to go out there to further enhance the utility of what was previously a “dead” space.

We also have our lovely new shade sail over the sand pit fitted and a clear light awning over the ranch slider by the sand pit. Many thanks to our association (Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association) for facilitating these improvements.

Term 1: 24 January to 15 April

Term 2: 2 May to 15 July

Term 3: 1 August to 7 October

Term 4: 25 October to 20 December

That’s all for now, thanks for all the help and support we know you are going to offer Mahurangi Kindergarten as we look forward to a great term together.

From Karen, Kirsty, Kara, Sarah and Sonya