Okeedokee Norman Park

🍎 Thank You to Our Teachers! 🍎

This week, our Preschool friends have been learning about teachers and yesterday they showed their gratitude to our amazing teachers at Okeedokee.

Using their kindness and gratitude superpower, the children created special thank you pictures and shared what they love most about their teachers. They then hand-delivered their heartfelt messages, saying, "Thank you for being my teacher!"

It was so special to see the children proudly deliver their thank you letters, share their words of appreciation, and see just how much their thoughtful messages meant to our wonderful Okeedokee teachers 💛

A big thank you to all of our incredible teachers for the care, fun, support, and learning you bring to Okeedokee every single day!

Who knew healthy eating could be this fun (and delicious)? 🌈🎨✨

Our Senior Kindy friends have spent the last few weeks exploring nutrition through every sensory angle possible—tasting new flavours, painting with food, and crushing ingredients to naturally colour our playdough!

Today’s rainbow sensory tub was a fantastic way to cap off weeks of hands-on exploration. By turning nutrition into a creative, physical experience, the children have built such a positive connection with fresh food. In fact, pretty much all of them now excitedly devour their veggies every lunchtime! 🥦😋

The End of an Incredible Era at Okeedokee! 🌟

After more than 10 years of dedication, laughter, and nurturing our community—including nearly five years steering the ship as our Director—Sara is wrapping up her final day with us today as she and her family prepare to make the move up to Hervey Bay.

To say she has been the bedrock of Okeedokee is an understatement. From her early years as Assistant and Acting Director to her time leading us, Sara has shaped the warm, vibrant space our families know and love today.

For Josiah, who has shared the journey at Okeedokee for over nine years—working side-by-side with Sara as Assistant Director for nearly five of them—this is a bitter-sweet moment. While it has been an absolute privilege to partner with Sara, Josiah is excited to be stepping up and taking over the reins as Director to continue building on the wonderful community they've created together.

To celebrate her send-off, we asked some of our experts - the children - what they will miss most about Sara:

💬 Georgia: I love Sara. She gives us toys.
💬 Freddie: She's the boss. She comes into the yard and helps me, and one time she came to a playground I was at.
💬 Eddie: I like doing books with Sara.
💬 Clara: Why are you going? She's always at the front desk.
💬 Mia: My family bought her beautiful flowers because it's her last day.

Naturally, we also asked what they think about Josiah taking over the reins as the new boss. The reviews are... mixed:

💬 Eddie: Josiah is a potato. 🥔
💬 Mia: I want Josiah to come in our room all the time cos Josiah is funny.
💬 Toby: [Evil laugh] 🦹‍♂️

Please join us in thanking Sara for a decade of incredible leadership, and wishing her the absolute best in her next chapter up north. She will always be a part of the Okeedokee family! 🩵

Miss Elle & Miss Rie had the privilege of spending the day with the incredible The Resilience Project team at their 2026 Teacher Seminar.

It was a day filled with inspiring stories, meaningful conversations, plenty of laughter, valuable learning, and a few tears too. Being surrounded by so many passionate people who genuinely care about the wellbeing of children, families and educators was truly special.

At Okeedokee, we believe every child deserves to grow up feeling emotionally safe, connected and equipped with the tools to navigate life’s ups and downs. That’s why we are so proud to have been implementing The Resilience Project Early Years Program since 2023, and long may that continue!

The work the TRP team do continues to make a real difference, and we encourage families, young people, educators and community members to explore the incredible resources and support they offer.

A huge thank you to The Resilience Project team for sharing your passion, wisdom and heart today, and every day 🤍💙.

Erupting into the week with hands-on learning in our Kindy room! We love sparking our children's curiosity through fun and engaging experiences 🌋

📞 Call Josiah on 3324 8887 to book a tour of the centre and join our community!

🌿 All In for Reconciliation 🌿

Today, our Okeedokee community came together to celebrate and acknowledge National Reconciliation Week, embracing this year’s theme, "All In for Reconciliation."

Together we practiced our Auslan Acknowledgement of Country, sang traditional songs, connected with Country, explored native and ocean animals, enjoyed music with our community, and had fun playing the traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait ball spinning game called Jillora!

It was a wonderful morning of learning, connection, friendship, and respect. By coming together, listening, sharing, and celebrating culture, we continue to build stronger relationships and a more inclusive future for everyone. Everyone at Okeedokee is most definitely All In for Reconciliation!
💛 Reconciliation Australia 💛

🐾 🐶 Preschool's Paw-some RSPCA QLD Visit 🐶 🐾

Our preschool friends were delighted to welcome Jeanette and her beautiful puppy, Bella, from the RSPCA today!

Jeanette shared how the RSPCA helps keep animals safe through rescuing, caring for and rehoming animals in need. The children loved meeting Bella and learning what it means to be a responsible pet owner. Together, they helped care for Bella by fee ding her, providing fresh water, brushing her fur, taking her for a walk, playing with her and even practising how to clean up after a pet!

One of the most important lessons we learned was that all animals deserve love, care and respect. The children also practised asking permission before patting a dog, learning how to interact with animals safely and kindly.

Experiences like this help children develop empathy, responsibility and confidence whilst building their understanding of how to care for the world around them. A huge thank you to Jeanette, Bella and the RSPCA for such an unforgettable and meaningful visit! 💙🐾

💙 Caring for Animals, One Paw at a Time 🐾

As part of our Occupations learning, we were excited to welcome Tessa from Morningside Veterinary Clinic! Tessa taught the children about how vets help animals in our community stay healthy, safe, and happy. The children had so much fun bandaging animal "owies," giving pretend injections, and caring for their furry patients.

Thank you Tessa for sharing your knowledge, inspiring our Kindy friends, and helping the children understand the important role vets play in caring for animals in our community. 💙

🍊✨ Is making your own juice ever a bad idea? We certainly don't think so.

Our Senior Kindy room took total control of morning tea today, putting their practical life skills to the test. Slicing fruit safely and squeezing it into a cup requires a huge amount of focus, wrist strength, and spatial awareness.

We love providing opportunities where the children can lead their own learning and see the direct (and delicious) results of their efforts. Cheers to a great morning! 🥂🍊

National Simultaneous Storytime! 📚🦘⚽

This is our 8th year joining millions of children, families, schools, and early learning centres across Australia all reading the exact same story, at the exact same time.

This year's tale, ‘Luna Roo: The Kangaroo Baller', led us through a gripping soccer match as a young captain rises in the face of adversity—showing incredible courage and determination to lead her team to... sorry, no spoilers! 🤐😂🏆

We backed up the book with a very active morning of sports right across the yard! The children had a blast kicking, boxing, hitting, throwing, and cheering each other on (with a side of quiet reading and drawing in between, of course 😊).

P.S. For the first time ever, the official NSS live reading is streaming on SBS On Demand—so you can go check it out with the kids later at home! 📺✨