Turtle Cove Early Learning Centres - More than just childcare

😃 Supporting Communication, Emotional Literacy and Meaningful Learning 😃

Recently, you may have seen we introduced communication boards in our Clownfish room across our services to support children and educators in communicating through visual aids. Following our professional training with Galah Speech Pathology , our educators have embraced the boards during mat sessions and throughout daily routines, creating more opportunities for every child to express themselves and feel heard.

The communication boards include a range of emotion faces, which inspired our Central Clownfish educators to extend on the children's learning. Over three weeks, our School Readiness Program has been exploring emotions in a variety of fun and engaging ways.

🎨 Children created expressive faces using pipe cleaners and googly eyes to show how they were feeling.

🌈 Building on their colour recognition skills, they used different colours to represent emotions while creating splatter monsters and handprint monsters, discussing how colours can be associated with different feelings.

🖌️ They painted colourful cardboard faces which were later used in pasta threading activities and colour sorting experiences, combining sensory play, fine motor development and emotional awareness.

✂️ Children also enjoyed a sensory experience using different coloured spaghetti while practising their cutting skills with scissors. Educators engaged the children in conversations about emotions and the colours associated with different feelings, further supporting their emotional literacy and colour recognition.

💬 Throughout these experiences, educators have intentionally supported children's emotional development by encouraging conversations about feelings and regularly asking children how they are feeling. These opportunities have empowered children to express themselves and build the language needed to recognise and communicate their emotions, supporting their social and emotional well being while fostering important school readiness skills.

✨ Celebrating an incredible achievement! ✨

Back in February, Sheen was honoured with the 2025 Outstanding Achievement Award from Central Regional TAFE for her Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care.

In a fun coincidence, the award was proudly sponsored by Turtle Cove making it even more special that Sheen has since become a valued member of our team. 💙

This award is a testament to Sheen’s dedication, hard work and passion for early childhood education, and we are so proud to have her as part of our team.

Congratulations, Sheen, on this well-deserved recognition! 🌟

🍊 From Tree to Table 🍊

The wandina children have been busy harvesting fresh mandarins from our very own tree to enjoy at morning tea!

This experience links beautifully with our weekly Turtle Tucker Time program, where children develop valuable self-help skills by preparing their own meals and snacks with educator support.

By taking an active role in growing, caring for, harvesting, and enjoying fresh produce, children gain a meaningful understanding of the journey from garden to table. These hands-on experiences help build confidence, independence, and an appreciation for healthy eating.

This learning also supports our commitment to sustainability, as children learn how to care for the environment, reduce waste, and become responsible and active citizens within their community.

What a wonderful way to connect children with nature while developing lifelong skills! 🌱💚🍊

Congratulations to Neekiya for completing her Cert 3 in Early Childhood Education and Care 🎉

📚 National Simultaneous Storytime

We were excited to participate in National Simultaneous Storytime, joining millions of children across Australia in sharing the same story at the same time. This wonderful event celebrates the joy of reading while supporting children's learning, development, and sense of connection.

What It Means for Your Child;
• Children join millions of others across Australia in one shared reading moment.
• Builds excitement and joy around books and early literacy.
• Strengthens children’s sense of belonging to their community and the wider world.
• Encourages rich language, imagination, and early communication skills.
• Creates a shared story that educators can extend through play, art, and learning experiences.
• Welcomes family involvement — reading the book at home, joining the event, or sharing your own stories.
• Celebrates inclusion, with every child able to participate in their own way.
• Highlights the importance of reading in early childhood and beyond.

📖❤️ Through experiences like these, children develop a lifelong appreciation for stories, literacy, and learning while creating meaningful connections with others

🌍🖤 World Africa Day 🖤🌍

On Monday 25th May, Turtle Cove Central celebrated World Africa Day by exploring culture through food!

Our wonderful cook, Morgan, prepared Vetkoek, a much-loved treat enjoyed across many African countries. Depending on where you are, this delicious fried bread is known by many different names, including Puff Puff, Amagwinya, Puffloaf/Bofrot, Botokoin, and Mikate.

A Taste of Family Traditions

Morgan prepared the Vetkoek in two special ways:

Served with cheese, reflecting how her own family enjoys it (traditionally it is often served with minced curry).

Covered in cinnamon sugar, inspired by the way another educator's South African stepmother made it for her when she was a child.

Why Experiences Like This Matter

Sharing family recipes and cultural traditions helps children:

develop an appreciation for diversity,

build curiosity about the world around them,

and foster respect for different cultures and traditions.

It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to see how food can connect people, memories, and cultures across generations. A big thank you to Morgan for helping us bring this meaningful learning experience to life! 💛

✈️📏 Paper Plane Fun & Learning!

ASC children have been having so much fun exploring the exciting world of paper planes! Using our paper plane design book, the children carefully followed instructions to create a variety of planes — some that glide smoothly, some that travel long distances, and even some that perform tricks in the air.

Over the past few weeks, the children extended their learning by using tape measures to track and compare how far their planes could fly. Through this engaging hands-on experience, the children have been developing important skills including problem solving, persistence, fine motor skills, teamwork, and early mathematics.

This experience links closely with the National Quality Standard (NQS), including:

✨ QA1 – Educational Program and Practice: Children engaged in meaningful, play-based learning that encouraged experimentation, investigation, and critical thinking.

✨ QA3 – Physical Environment: The environment supported active exploration, creativity, and hands-on learning opportunities.

✨ QA5 – Relationships with Children: Children worked collaboratively with peers, shared ideas, and built confidence through positive social interactions.

We love seeing the children’s creativity, curiosity, and excitement as they test new designs and challenge themselves to improve each flight! ✈️

Mary had a little lamb! 🐑💛

At Turtle Cove Wandina, the children enjoyed a very special visit from a lamb. Through gentle hands-on interactions and meaningful conversations, children explored empathy, curiosity and respect for living things.

Experiences like this support the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), particularly Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world, and Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners. 🌱✨

Turtle Cove Wandina is looking for a passionate, creative, nurturing and motivated educator to join our team. Either on a casual or permanent basis.
If you would like to know more, please get in contact with Court on 99646689 or [email protected]
We look forward to hearing from you 💙🐢✨

Colourful Learning with the Clownfish🎨🌈

Our Clownfish children at Central have been engaging in a fun and interactive colour matching experience! Through hands-on play, the children explored different colours, strengthened their cognitive skills, and developed early problem-solving abilities as they matched objects to the correct colours.

Activities like these support children’s learning through play while encouraging concentration, communication, and confidence. It was wonderful to see the children so engaged, excited, and proud of their achievements throughout the experience. 💙