One of the best ways to encourage children to grow a garden and to develop a range of skills is to create an edible garden. An edible garden is a garden that contains flowers, herbs, seeds, berries and plants that can be eaten.

Designing An Edible Garden

Edible does not have to be large. It can start small with a few pots and containers, or even just a window box with a few herbs.

When planning an edible garden, some suggestions include:

• Space - Where to create the garden? How big will it be?

• Position - A sunny spot with easy access to water will work well and partial shade.

• Veggies - What Would You Like To Grow and Eat.

What To Plant In The Edible Garden

When planning what to plant in an edible garden, you can include:

• Favourite fruits, vegetables, herbs.

• Sensory appeal - grow plants you like to see, smell or touch such as herbs are a good example.

• Climate - consider which plants are best suited to the local climate.

Herbs - rosemary, basil, chives, sage, mint, oregano, parsley, thyme, coriander.

Seeds and Berries - blueberries, mulberries, pumpkin and, sunflower seeds.

Fruits - kiwi fruit, strawberries and passionfruit.

Veggie Garden - Vegetables that are good choices and easy to grow to include:

Beets, Carrots, Radishes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, silverbeet, corn, capsicum, Beans.

Gardening Activities For Children

 Young children are curious and highly motivated to learn new skills like gardening and cooking. With adult encouragement in a safe, carefully prepared, and supervised environment, growing and cooking abilities can advance rapidly, aligned with age-appropriate activities:

Appropriate activities for two-year-olds include:

• pushing child-size wheelbarrows

• watering plants with help from a teacher

• pushing large seeds, such as beans and peas, into the soil

• observing insects and ripening produce

Appropriate activities for three-year-olds include:

• mixing soil to prepare garden beds

• planting large seeds and seedlings

• filling up watering cans

• watering plants

• pulling weeds

• observing plant growth

• comparing leaf shapes

• describing the appearance of fruits and vegetables

Appropriate activities for four- and five-year-olds include:

• shovelling compost and mulch

• raking soil to prepare garden beds

• planting small seeds and seedlings

• harvesting ripe produce

• training and weaving vines onto a trellis or fence

• collecting seeds

• filling up watering cans

• watering plants

• pulling weeds

• identifying garden insects

• weighing produce

• comparing shapes and sizes of produce

• observing insects and birds

• drawing garden scenes or items

Creating an edible garden enables children to develop sustainability practices and brings an abundance of learning opportunities such as understanding how food is grown, the lifecycle of a plant and more!

Welcome to another exciting edition of the Kidi Kingdom Child Care Coomera's Centre Newsletter for 2024!

I would like to thank all the Kidi Kingdom families for their ongoing support during the Centre Manager transition.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our new families to the centre. I look forward to building strong and lasting relationships with you all as your children grow and develop whilst enrolled in our centre.

We would like to share exciting news with our families. We have welcomed new educators to our team due to our occupancy increasing over the past few weeks. Miss Lou, Miss Anmol, and Miss Shruti. All amazing additions to our team of educators. The team at Kidi Kingdom is always available and willing to assist in any way we can.

Our Hubhello system is available for our families and educators to share their child's learning journey, The uniqueness of Kidi Kingdom Child Care is that we are the most practical Early Learning Centre for today's society because we combine past, present and future practices to provide the most beneficial learning experiences for our child/ren and their families.

At Kidi Kingdom Coomera we incorporate extra curricular experiences such as Happy Feet and the Ginger Sport Program. These programs are connected with the early years learning framework curriculum, where children interact physically and their education is highly promoted.

Please if you have any questions or concerns feel free to approach me at reception or simply email us at c@kidikingdom.com.au. Please head over to our Facebook page and we always appreciate our loyal families helping our centre by sharing your positive experiences to the local community by writing a quick 5 star Google, CareForKids or Facebook review.

Kind Regards, Puneet Kaur Centre Manager	Click here to visit our pages at Facebook and Instagram

The educational leader has an influential role in promoting positive outcomes for children and families. Effective educational leadership builds the capacity of educators by inspiring, motivating, affirming, challenging and extending their practice and pedagogy. This joint endeavor involves inquiry and reflection, and supports ongoing learning and professional development I will be mentoring and supporting educators' understanding of educational program and practice, e.g. building relationships and interactions with children to assist their learning through play and leisure-based programs; developing documentation that is meaningful, relevant and promotes reflection on educators' pedagogy and practice.

Drawing on educators' strengths to develop professional skills and confidence. Mentoring and supporting educators to assess learning. Ensuring the assessment and planning cycle is applied to each child and the program. Assisting educators to understand and implement reflective practice and leading critical reflection discussions to examine policies, programs and practice. Talking to families about the educational program. We welcome your feedback and will implement all your feedback as we are aiming for your child to thrive and extend on their developmental milestones whilst they are in our care at Kidi Kingdom Child Care Coomera.

Kind Regards, Puneet Kaur - Educational Leader.

Dear Valued Families of the Early Learners Room, We would like to thank our families for all your support and commitment in enrolling your child with Kidi Kingdom Child Care Coomera into the Early Learners Room.

The last few months we have had lots of fun learning and exploring the world we live in. We have had many centre celebrations over March, April and May including St Patrick's Day, Easter, Anzac Day and Mother's Day celebrations.

During Easter Week the children have been participating in many experiences to coincide with these events. Some of the experiences we have participated in during our Easter week included painting Easter eggs, for this we used styrofoam egg shapes and pastel paints used with a sponge. We also experienced a sensory tray using green and red shaved paper to create a soft place for the eggs. Our last activity for this week was gluing pom poms on the Easter bunny's tail.

To celebrate Mother's Day we focused on creative experiences as the children were more interested in the use of paint. We created our own flowers, butterflies and Mother's day gifts. This helps the children with their fine motor skills, creativity and sensory development.

In the Early Learners room, we have many children who are developing emerging skills on how to walk, crawl and communicate with others. We always encourage the children to reach their next milestone by providing walking aids, sensory mats, jumpers and a felt board which is used for many ranges of activities such as learning our colors, animals and shapes. We are always here to support and encourage the little ones by implementing experiences to support their learning and development.

Kind Regards, Miss Amie and Miss Shruti.

Dear Valued Families of the Junior Early Years Room,

We have had a fantastic few months focusing on enhancing our learning abilities, development and skills. The children explored a variety of learning experiences through reading stories, singing and dancing, sensory activities, arts and crafts, flashcards, outdoor play, waterpark adventures and free play experiences. Over this time our main focus has been to introduce letters and numbers to the children. We are pleased to say all children in the Junior Early Years class can now recognise numbers in one way or another. We have had a great time celebrating many events including Chinese New Year, St Patrick's Day, Harmony Day, Easter, Anzac Day and many more smaller events.

Over the next few months our focus will continue with encouraging children to recognise letters and beginning to use different mediums to write these letters. We also have lots of exciting activities planned for our upcoming events including celebrating National Families week, Best Friends day and Yoga day. We are excited to continue embedding Multiculturalism into our classroom through stories, songs and arts. Multicultural education is a vital part of early childhood development. It teaches children about their own cultures, as well as other cultures around the world. This helps them understand their place in the world and build empathy and tolerance for others beliefs and traditions.

Kind Regards, Miss Courtney, Miss Sapphire and Miss Amber.

Hello Everyone and Welcome to the Senior Early Learners Room.

Throughout the last three (3) months we participated in so many exciting educational activities in our room. The children showed great interest in all the activities. We celebrated so many events in the centre including Chinese New Year, St Patrick's Day, Harmony Day, Easter and Anzac Day.

Greetings for the month of May! In this newsletter, we will be reviewing some of the great moments from the past few weeks in our classroom as well as upcoming events.

Outdoor Exploration: The children in our class have been enjoying the beauty of autumn at our recent outdoor exploration event. They participated in a variety of outdoor games and explorations and discovered many interesting natural phenomena. These activities not only enhanced their physical mobility, but also cultivated their curiosity about nature.

Art Creation: Our young artists have recently completed some amazing art works! In our Art Corner, they created beautiful works of art using paints, stickers and various other materials. This not only demonstrated their imagination and creativity, but also promoted their hand-eye coordination.

Our future experiences include an Alphabet Recognition Challenge: To further promote children's letter recognition skills,We plan to organize a fun letter recognition challenge. Through games and interactions,children will learn to recognise and differentiate between different letters of the alphabet, laying a solid foundation for future reading and writing. Motor Skills Development: We will be running a series of motor skills development activities designed to help children improve their motor skills and coordination, including fine motor skills. These activities will cover a wide range of motor games and fine motor training, allowing children to exercise their bodies in a playful manner and promoting healthy growth.

Finally, I would like to thank all parents for their support and cooperation. Your participation is the key to our success and we appreciate your support in our endeavors. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you to see your children grow and develop!

Kind Regards, Miss Lu, Miss Astrid and Miss Mia.

Welcome to our Amazing Kindergarten Parents,

We hope this newsletter finds you well and is filled with the same joy and excitement that has been buzzing in our classrooms recently. The month's ofMarch and April have been filled with vibrant celebrations and meaningful moments, and we delighted to share some highlights with You!

St. Patrick's Day: Our little leprechauns had a blast celebrating St.Patrick Day! They embarked on a treasureb hunt, searching high and low for pots of gold (and maybe a sneaky leprechaun or two!). Decked out in green, they danced to Irish music and enjoyed delicious treats, spreading luck and laughter wherever they went.

Harmony Day, Holi Festival, and Easter:

Diversity and inclusion were at the heart of our celebrations during Harmony Day and the Holi Festival. Our classrooms became a colorful tapestry of cultures as children learned about traditions from around the world, enjoyed vibrant performances, and embraced the spirit of unity. And of course, Easter brought egg-citing adventures as our little bunnies hopped around, searching for hidden treasures and indulging in sweet treats.

ANZAC Day: As we commemorated ANZAC Day, our children showed incredible respect and understanding beyond their years. Through age-appropriate activities and discussions, they learned about the significance of this day and honored the brave men and women who have served our country with courage and sacrifice.

Earth Day: Earth Day was a wonderful opportunity for our little eco-warriors to connect with nature and learn about the importance of caring for our planet. They rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty, planting seeds, recycling materials, and exploring ways to live more sustainably.

Superhero and Mother's Day: Our children created capes and masks as they embraced their inner superheroes, celebrating the everyday heroes in their lives. And as Mother's Day filled with love and gratitude as we honored the incredible moms, grandmas, and mother figures who nurture and support our children each and every day.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the parents who joined us in making these celebrations are truly special. Your support and involvement make a world of difference, and we are grateful to have you as part of our extended family. As we look ahead, we are excited for the adventures that await us in the coming months. Stay tuned for more fun-filled activities, enriching experiences, and precious moments shared with your little ones.

We understand that keeping children engaged and entertained can sometimes be a challenge. But don't worry, we've got your back! We are thrilled to introduce you to two magical portals that are treasure troves of fun, creativity, and learning.

Newy with Kids: Imagine a world where you and your kids can dive into over 150 activities, right from the comfort of your home! From crafting with playdough to building LEGO masterpieces, this website is a wonderland of joy and discovery.

Parents: Ever thought of hosting an indoor picnic or building a hallway tent? This site is your guide to 50 creative activities that promise endless fun and family bonding. Get ready to unleash your inner child! It is time to roll up your sleeves and dive into these adventures. Remember, the messier it gets, the more fun it is! Let's create beautiful memories together.

Kind Regards, Ms. Harman and Ms. Anmol. The Kindergarten Team.

Welcome Valued Families of School Care Room,

Our school aged children have been having great fun at Kidi Kingdom Child Care Coomera in our school care program this term enjoying their current interest in science experiments. Children have enjoyed creating volcanic eruptions, lava lamps, homemade slime and candles. Science teaches children about cause and effect, critical thinking, and problem solving skills in a fun and exciting way. The children in our school care program have shown great communication skills, teamwork and reasoning skills during these experiences.

Over the next few months we will be focusing on Road Safety with the children talking about traffic light colors, giving way, looking both ways before proceeding and many more on our trips to and from school. When we arrive back at the centre we will be using our bike tracks and bikes to practice the road safety rules we have learnt about during our travels.

Kind Regards, Miss Courtney and Miss Anmol.

Cooking with Children! Easy Pizza Scrolls. How to Make this Recipe ● Super easy     ● 10:00 Prep     ● 20:00 Cook

Ingredients:

● Easy Pizza Scrolls

● 1 cup self-raising flour

● 3/4 cup Greek style yoghurt

● 100g ham, shredded

● 1/2 cup cheese, grated

● 1/4 cup bolognese pasta sauce

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking tray with paper.

2. Combine self-raising flour with yoghurt in a bowl. Mix to form a smooth ball. Knead for 5 minutes.

3. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a 30cmx25cm rectangle. Spread pasta sauce over dough and top with ham and grated cheese.

4. Roll up from the long side and cut into 3cm thick slices. Place cut-side up onto tray. Bake for 20 minutes until golden.