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!

Dear Valued Centre Families.

Welcome to our new families and new children who have joined our Kidi Kingdom community. Ms Chrystle and myself would like to welcome all our new families joining our centre. We hope you and your family are having a wonderful time with us at Kidi Kingdom Child Care Springfield. We would also like to thank all our families for your ongoing support.

Our annual Mother's Day morning tea was a success with many families joining us for the celebration. We had such a great time interacting with our families. We hope that all of our mothers enjoyed their special morning tea spent with their little ones. We also hope that you all enjoyed your gifts beautifully crafted by your children. I received wonderful feedback from our mothers and thank you all for joining us.

A friendly reminder we have our Aunts and Uncles morning tea coming up on the 24th July, 2024.

In relation to your child care fees, a reminder to all our families that our only form of payment is direct debit and that your fees are to always be two weeks in advance as per our service policies and procedures, Please ensure your account is maintained as our services are in high demand. Your direct debit is placed on a dynamic payment system and will take out what is owed for either that week or fortnight. So if you have missed a payment your next cycle will take out what is owing. However, if you do miss a payment you can either let Hubhello take it out or you are more than welcome to place that payment into our account which you will find the bank details on the bottom of your statement. Please reference your payment as your child's name. We find that this is the most effective and supportive payment method towards your childcare fees. If you're looking to book extra days please make contact either via email or phone and speak with Ms Natalie or Ms Chrystle to secure any extra bookings you may need.

We would like to also advise our Kindergarten families that Ms Mikaela has decided to pursue a new opportunity in her teaching career and will not be returning to Kidi Kingdom. We would like to thank Miss Mikaela for her valuable input into our Kindergarten program and we wish her all the best for her future endeavours. On that note we are pleased to announce that Miss Maddison is studying her Graduate Diploma of Early Childhood Teaching.and has now been appointed as our new Kindergarten Teacher. Miss Maddison and Ms Caroline have been working together to ensure a seamless transition for the children. We thank Ms Caroline for her great work with the children while Miss Mikaela has been on placement. Ms Caroline will remain as our second Kindergarten Teacher within the centre.

As Miss Maddison takes on her new role as Kindergarten Teacher, Miss Lauren will officially step into the role of Lead Educator in the Junior Early Years Room. Welcome to Ms Lauren.Ms Lauren has extensive experience in the early childhood field and we are pleased to announce her appointment in this role. Congratulations to both team members on your new positions.

Please if you have any questions or concerns feel free to approach me at reception or simply email us at s@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, Ms Natalie Andrews Centre Manager Miss Chrystle Smith Assistant Centre Manager

Click here to visit our pages at Facebook and Instagram

Dear Valued Centre Families.

Firstly, I would like to extend a big welcome to all our new families who have joined us this term. We very much look forward to seeing your children grow and learn while forming new friendships and special bonds with their educators.

As part of our educational program we have been planning and facilitating a number of fun excursions and physical wellness incursions for our children in order to expand the children's knowledge in various learning areas as well as encourage exploration and wellbeing. One such event included our Kindergarten room's arts and construction excursion. The children, along with their educators had the best time exploring the many interactive displays at the Queensland Museum and experiencing the magnificent Jurassic World Lego Dinosaurs exhibition. We hope our families enjoyed all the photos of their little ones on their first excursion for the year! We would like to thank Ms Natalie and Miss Maddison for their meticulous planning of this event and also thank Ms Natalie and Miss Sarah for the fun and safe bus drives to the venue.

This term we have also been observing the room transitions of children across several age groups. We routinely monitor and facilitate these transitions depending on children's age and development. We then have discussions with our families regarding their thoughts and preferences before children officially graduate to the next year level. We always like to encourage our families to have conversations with their child's lead educator regarding their child's current development and learning dispositions.

In order to provide all our families the opportunity to have these important discussions regarding their child's learning, we will be hosting our annual parent teacher evening in July following the publication of your child's Half-Year Summative Assessment at the end of June. More information on this family evening will be communicated via HubHello in the coming months.

Thank you to all of our families for your continuous support and trust in the care and education of your children.

Kind Regards, Ms Chrystle Smith - Educational Leader.

Dear Families of the Early Learners Room,

The month of March has been filled with exciting activities and celebrations including Easter celebration and the festival of colours Holi.

Our Early Learners also engaged in a variety of sensory activities to stimulate their senses and encourage exploration. From squishing and squeezing soft sensory toys, to discovering different textures and materials. Our sensory experiences have been both fun and educational.

In the spirit of Easter, we had a blast with a range of egg-citing activities!. Our little ones enjoyed decorating eggs, hunting for hidden treats, and exploring the concept of new life through crafts and painting activities. We made Easter hats with pieces of hard paper and decorated them with bunny stickers and sparkling easter egg cutouts. Our nursery was filled with joy and laughter during our Easter parade!. Children came dressed in their colourful Easter outfits and they put on their hand-crafted Easter hats. We paraded around the nursery yard, sharing smiles and spreading the joy of Easter with guest parents who gave us a lot of appreciation with their applause and smiles.

March also brought the vibrant celebration of Holi, the festival of colours which introduced the children to the rich cultural traditions of Holi through storytelling and colourful painting activities. They had a blast splashing colours and learning about the significance of this special festival!

Learning Shapes and Colors: Throughout April, we explored shapes and colours with our little ones. From identifying basic shapes like circles, squares, and triangles to recognizing primary colours, our activities were designed to stimulate curiosity and foster early learning. Through hands-on play, sensory experiences, and interactive games.

Other Events: On Earth Day, we celebrated our beautiful planet by engaging in activities that promote environmental awareness and appreciation. We participated in a painting activity using green and blue paint to create a cutout picture of the world.

On Anzac Day, we honored the bravery and sacrifice of our servicemen and women and took the opportunity to introduce our children to the significance of this important day in Australian and New Zealand history. Through age-appropriate discussions and activities, we commemorated the Anzacs and reflected on the values of courage, mateship, and remembrance.

On Superhero Day, the children arrived dressed in superhero costumes. We crafted superhero masks together and enjoyed the day singing songs. We also captured adorable photos of the children in their costumes.

We also celebrated Mother's Day in the nursery room with lots of love and creativity. Each child had the opportunity to create a special Mother's Day card to express their appreciation for their mothers. The Mother's Day cards were adorned with beautiful handprint paintings. Each child dipped their tiny hands into vibrant colors to create unique and personal handprint designs. These handprints symbolize the love and gratitude the children have for their mothers and caregivers.

Current Learning Topic: Focus on Numbers

This month, we drive into the exciting world of numbers. Our little learners have been exploring numbers 1 through 5 through a variety of age-appropriate activities. From counting colourful toys to singing catchy number rhymes, our days have been filled with numerical fun and discovery.

Kind Regards, Miss Anum.

Dear Families of the Junior Early Years Room,

With my transition into the Junior Early Years Room, I have enjoyed every minute of getting to know your children. We have had amazing bond building activities and exercises and it is incredible to see how the children are comfortable and confident within themselves and with their peers.

In the month of March, the children engaged in various activities and opportunities to support and develop their knowledge and learning. In the beginning of the month, the children focused their learning on the environment and sustainability. The Junior Early Years Room loved painting their own terracotta pots and then planting their own seedlings with soil. Utilising the concept of reduce, reuse, and recycle, the children used a variety of recycled resources to paint these pots. The children showed great kindness as they watered these plants daily, watching the plants grow. This topic of sustainability is amazing for children of all ages, with the hands-on activities and aligns with our EYLF Learning Outcome of 2.4 - Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.

During the month of March we also celebrated Easter with a variety of crafts and activities of which the children loved. We used various materials to create our Easter bonnets for the Easter Bonnet Parade, which was joyful to see the parents come and support the children. During the Month of April, our initial focus was on Patterns and Symbols, including numbers, letters and shapes. The children engaged with flashcards and the display alphabet to learn about letters and their pronunciations. As part of the activity, each letter was related to the children's names, encouraging them to identify themselves and their friends whose names were being called out. The children were given the letter of their name and tasked with creating a collage of their letter. The children's focus was veered to self-identity and self-worth as outlined in the EYLF Learning Outcome 1.3 - Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth. It's important for the children to be confident and involved learners and that originates from within. The children have shown great kindness as they've gotten to know themselves and their peers and take increasing responsibility for themselves and their belongings. While in April, we created an ANZAC Day Wreath as the day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand people who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. We discussed with the children the importance of showing respect so the children all took part in creating a beautiful wreath that is featured on our "Becoming, Being, Belonging" wall.

For the month of May, we begin with Road Safety Week, where the children engaged in numerous activities focused on holding hands while crossing roads, looking both ways and learning "Red means Stop and Green means Go". This is important to the children's safety and wellbeing that the children are educated on the caution needed near roads, as supported in the EYLF Learning Outcome 3.3 - Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health and personal safety. We also are celebrating Mother's Day to which we look forward to spending morning tea with the lovely mothers and carers of the children and supporting the relationships of the children. This month we will be learning about World Turtle Day and World Bee Day and engaging in discussions and activities surrounding those special days. We also have National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week approaching to which the children will learn and engage in discussions and activities, showing respect and celebrating Indigenous culture and history as a Nation.

Miss Chloe and I have enjoyed being your children's educators and playing a part in their learning journey. It's encouraging to see the Junior Early Years children's knowledge and understanding as they challenge themselves during activities and growing each day.

Kind Regards, Miss Jaz and Miss Chloe.

Dear Families of the Early Years Room,

Welcome to the Early Years Room. My name is Miss Rianon and I am the Lead Educator alongside Miss Phoebe who is the Assistant Educator.

Over the last few months it has been our pleasure to get to know your child and assist them in transitioning into their new routines in the Early Years room. Over the last few months we have been exploring a variety of topics based on the children's interest with lots of different activities. Our favourite activity at the moment is matching games. We love to match colours, pictures and general objects from around the room and we utilise these activities as opportunities to practice our verbal communication skills. These experiences are also great for their cognitive development and abilities to follow and carry out simple instructions.

As the children become more interested in exploring the outdoors, we have extended these activities out into the yards to see how the children transfer their knowledge from one context to another while enhancing their physical and mental well-being through gross motor activities and social interactions. Over the next few months we will be also focusing on shapes, numbers, letters and communication.

The Early Years Room is also the start of toilet training so if you believe that your child is ready and to take the next step we are more than happy to have a chat and help you to continue this part of their milestone.

We hope your child will enjoy their time with us and explore lots of new ideas and like skills at this stage.

A few housekeeping rules: Please provide your child with a fitted sheet and a flat sheet for rest time. It can get very chilly in the room when the fans are on low. A hat with your child's name and nappies and if you would like your child to start toilet training lots of underwear and changes of clothes.

Kind Regards, Miss Rianon and Miss Phoebe.

Dear Families of the Senior Early Years Room.

My name is Miss Raquel and I have moved into the position of Lead Educator in the Senior Early Years room. I am a dedicated and professional educator with over 10 years experience at Kidi Kingdom Child Care. II am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to the growth of young minds. I aim to create a safe and engaging space for your children to explore, learn and thrive through play. I also aim to foster intellectual growth while promoting a passion for learning and encouraging strong leadership qualities.

Over the past few months we have enjoyed hands on learning about nature while improving our fine motor skills through drawing, painting and collaging along with using our critical thinking and problem solving skills.

We as a class have also been learning about letter sounds and understanding the connection between letter names and the sounds they make. We enjoy reading stories together to promote this learning. We have enjoyed working in the garden where we plant and take care of new seedlings. We connect with the world around us while expanding our vocabulary with plant names. This learning has led to learning about food groups and how to construct a healthy diet.

We explore numbers through counting and matching numbers made ip of natural materials and use sequence to visualise our learning. We enjoy counting as a class regularly to reinforce our mathematical skills.

Just a reminder to our families to please name all children's belongings and ensure all items including hats, sheets and spare clothing.

Kind Regards, Miss Raquel.

Dear Valued Families of the Kindergarten Room,

As we embark on a new exciting adventure, I would first like to officially announce my new position as the Early Childhood Teacher in the Kindergarten room. I am extremely excited to start this new journey and I can't wait to see what this year will bring. After receiving a wonderful handover from Ms. Caroline, I am happy to dive into your children's learning journeys over the past few months and ensure my priority is to educate your children in preparation for their journey to school next year.

In the month of March the children have engaged in various cultural and themed activities aligned with significant events. The children engaged in physical activities to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Harmony Day, Holi Day and Easter!. During this time the children participated in a variety of learning activities, events and crafts, to celebrate each day and acknowledge different cultural events in Australia and around the world. The children's participation in these diverse activities supports broad developmental outcomes. The blend of cultural celebrations like Harmony Day and Holi Day enhances their understanding of and respect for multiculturalism.

In April, the children were able to extend their knowledge about Anzac Day, taking a moment of remembrance and gaining more knowledge of the meaning behind the day. During this month the children also celebrated superhero day, where the educators and children came dressed as their favourite superhero. On this day we learned about the children's favourite super powers and participated in an activity where the children created superhero figures with their faces. Superhero day supports their creative expression and enhances their self-identity.

In May, we looked forward to celebrating Mother's Day with all mums and guardians that help shape our little ones and help navigate them through each of their journeys in learning and in life. The children will also be holding a beautiful morning tea to help celebrate this occasion. The children will be engaging in National Families Week, where we will all celebrate the importance of families. And lastly the children will be participating in some fun, interactive learning for national reconciliation week, National Reconciliation Week is intended to celebrate Indigenous history and culture in Australia and foster reconciliation discussion and activities. Activities planned for Mother's Day and National Reconciliation Week will continue to build their social and emotional development, fostering a sense of community and awareness of the broader societal context.

We look forward to not only helping teach the children this year, but also learning from them as we take on this journey together. We are excited to watch them grow and help accomplish getting the children ready to take on their new adventure next year when they all head off to Prep.

Kind Regards, Miss Maddison and Miss Cindy.

Dear Valued Families of Kidi Kingdom Springfield,

It has been such a delight for me to step into the role of centre cook and I love sharing nutritious and tasty meals with all of our friends and educators here at Kidi Kingdom. Our favourite dishes currently are Alfredo Pasta, Teriyaki Chicken and Lasagne with salad.

Our centre menu is currently in review, so if our families have any questions or suggestions, I will be more than happy to have a chat at drop off and pick up. I am here between 8am and 3pm so feel free to just pop over to the kitchen window!. At Kidi Kingdom we highly value our families input and we appreciate your feedback.

Also, if any of our families have any new special dietary requirements for your children, please let me know and we can discuss implementing a suitable alternative.

Kind Regards, Miss Sarah.

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.