Upwey Pre-School

📣 Bookings are now open for the April School Holiday program!

Take a look now, but be quick - places are filling fast!
👉https://tinyurl.com/yb3wa7sz

Activities include:
🤖 Coding with VinciBots
✏️Cartooning
🔨Knox Woodworkers
🧱 LEGO fun
🟩 Minecraft
⛑️Mario maker
📽️Movie screenings
🚉 Robo Trains
🦸Zero Waste Heroes
📹️ Stop motion animation
📚️ Storytimes
🎨📷️ Art + photography workshops
and lots more!

Can't attend an event? Drop in any time during the school holidays, to enjoy activity tables or scavenger hunts at all branches.



Knox City Council
Maroondah City Council
Yarra Ranges Council
Yarra Ranges Families

SAVE THE DATE & CALL OUT FOR MARKET STALL HOLDERS 🍇🥨🧀🍔🍄🌮🧁🍯🍪
We are excited to announce SUNDAY SOUNDS community event for 2024.

This year you'll find all the fun - market, kids activities and live music - behind Main St shopping precinct (running from the playground to the park).

Sunday Sounds supports local performers and organisations. We'd also love to have local businesses represented in the community market so if you have something great to showcase and have access to a 3x3mtr marquee, please contact us at [email protected]

In the meantime, pop Sun 24th March 12-5pm in your diaries and stay tuned for more info.

🎃🕺 Get ready to groove and spook at Dance Empire's Halloween Disco! 🕺🎃

Join us for a fang-tastic night of dancing, costumes, and wicked fun! 🌟

👻 Event Details:
📅 Date: Saturday, 28th October
🎉 Family & Kids Under 9: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
👾 Over 10s: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

https://www.trybooking.com/CMJDF

🌈 What to Expect:
🎶 Thrilling tunes
👯‍♂️ Spooktacular dance sessions
🎟️ Tickets: $5 (All proceeds go to local charities!)

🧡 Why Attend?
🌟 Support local charities
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family-friendly fun
🕺 Unleash your inner dance monster!

Grab your tickets now and let's dance for a cause! 🌈👻🎃

Room on the Broom – Live in Melbourne! Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s much-loved picture book comes to life on stage in Melbourne!

Even if they don’t want to be brave, that courage is already in them. The very fact that they are sitting with their anxiety and feeling its edges is brave. It doesn’t matter how well they are sitting with it. What matters is that they are with it. Every time they stay with it for a teeny bit longer than last time, they are stretching their bravery muscles. Try: ‘I know my darling. Being brave is hard sometimes and yet, brave is what you are, whether you feel it or not. New or important things will often feel scary. That’s what makes them brave. What would a brave person do right now?’♥️

Ahhh…can we relate 🤣🤣🤣

The struggle is real...

Those tantrums we have when we get home are real emotions falling in our safe place…doesn’t make it any easier to deal with but at least we can try some understanding 😊

Play School's Ready, Set, Big School - ABC Kids Starting big school is an exciting time of change for children and families. Come along with Little Ted and Kiya as they prepare for their first day at primary school.

Today our artwork from our shared recycled bottle tops community project was finally displayed! Thanks to those families of 2019 and community who helped us collect thousands of bottle tops to create these scenes…collaboration with Sherbrooke Childrens Centre and Upwey Preschool. Thanks to Steph for the design and to Della for getting it onto the wall 😊. So proud…it looks amazing 😊

We flourish using this style of teaching and learning…looking forward to next week 😊

Source: Kids Connect Psychology

Good to know we can get tested for either illness locally…

Combined Covid-19 and Flu testing with 4Cyte 4Cyte Pathology is Australia's newest bulk-billing pathology practice. 4Cyte Pathology offer state of the art collection & testing services for pathology including Covid 19 in NSW, QLD & VIC.

Find out how Triple P makes life better for everyone in the family! Happier kids, rules followed, less stress, stronger relationships & a calmer family life... Do Triple P Online & you'll be surprised how quickly it happens!

We are about to commence the Premiers Reading Challenge at kinder…let’s double that by reading at home each day

1x365x5=1825!

We see all these stages of play in our children…everyone develops in their own time 😊

Understanding the stages of child's play.

https://www.encourageplay.com/open-ended-play/

Our art display is finished for Upwey Preschool and Sherbrooke Childrens Centre. Get along tomorrow to Upwey Primary School Open Day to check out the Streeton Art Show between 9-12 and also visit Upwey High School too!

We value highly our relationship with Upwey Primary School and it is way too long since we have been able to have Buddy Visits with our kinder children! So much excitement and energy and we loved playing together and getting to know each other. Can’t wait to meet up again on Monday when we visit Upwey Primary School on our first excursion for our 4 yr old program. thanks to Ms Wood and Mrs Honeysett for supporting our connection 😊

Get along to this fun session …

We are so excited for our first Taster Day session for 2022!

We warmly invite any preschool aged children and their parents to come and enjoy a fun and engaging morning. It would be amazing to see all of the Preps already enrolled for 2023 to attend if possible.

We hope to see you on Tuesday.

If your child is 5 years old and into AFL (or just running around having fun) get along to auskick!

JUST OVER A WEEK TO GO!!!!!

WE NEED PARENT VOLUNTEERS FOR GROUP LEADERS TO MAKE SURE YOUR KIDS RECEIVE AN AWESOME AUSKICK PROGRAM!!!!

We are looking for group leaders to help set up stations, run drills and get the parents involved in your particular group.
Please reach out to me if interested as this helps make your child's football experience so much better and they love watching their parents get involved.

Come join in the fun that is Upwey-Tecoma Auskick!
Friday evenings from 5.30pm - 6.30pm.
Kicking off Friday 29th April.
At Talaskia Reserve.
Ending every evening with a FREE sausage sizzle for the kids
and the bar will be open for the adults.
Register using the QR code below.

Lastly of course please share.

Brendan Ferguson
[email protected]
0405 536 033

Some great ideas to try at home…we do so many of these at kinder to help our children stay in the ready to learn space…

Do you remember hearing things like this when you were a kid?

👉 “Do it this way, not that way.”
👉 “Follow my directions, please.”
👉 “Let me show you how to do it.”
👉 “No, that’s not the right way.”

While there is a time and place to give kids specific directions (like how to tie their shoes, brush their teeth, or add two plus two), allowing them to take the lead, explore, and experiment is just as important, especially when they’re sitting at the art table.

As parents and teachers, it can be hard to switch off that adult-guided mindset and instead embrace a more child-directed mindset. The next time you’re exploring or creating with your artist(s), try saying something like:

👍 “What ideas do you have for making a dinosaur?”
👍 “What could happen when we combine these things?”
👍 “You're using the eraser to draw shapes. That’s so cool!”
👍 “You combined blue and yellow and made it green! Awesome!”

Using open-ended questions and narrating what you notice will empower your child to explore, invent, and create fearlessly 🎇

School holiday ideas…who doesn’t like a live show😬

Room on the Broom – Live in Melbourne! Buy official Room on the Broom tickets for Athenaeum Theatre. Get your official tickets from Ticketek

Talk to Scott for all your outdoor shade & blind needs…awesome service and install…exceeding expectations all round 👏🏼

Thank you to IndoorsOutdoors Blinds & Shades for our wonderful outdoor blind install yesterday! We now have a weatherproof outdoor space for our children to utilise all year round! Thanks to our PAG and Bendigo Bank Upwey for the financial support to get this project completed.👏🏼

This might be of interest to some families…support is a wonderful and necessary thing and it can come from many different places…

A lot of us…child and parent 😳…will be experiencing degrees of separation anxiety. How we handle our own anxiety is what will influence the confidence of our children. Be brave, trust that we are leaving our children in a safe place and leave with quiet confidence passed onto your child. 😊