Wheelers Hill Child Care Centre

🖤💛❤️ Reconciliation Week at Wheelers Hill ❤️💛🖤
Throughout the week, all rooms across the centre thoughtfully participated in a variety of meaningful experiences to acknowledge and celebrate National Reconciliation Week. These experiences provided opportunities for the children to learn about, explore, and appreciate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories, and traditions. 🌿✨
👶 Babies Room
Our youngest learners explored creative dot painting experiences and engaged with a beautiful reconciliation corner featuring colourful Indigenous-inspired stones, sticks, and natural leaves. These sensory-rich experiences encouraged curiosity, exploration, and connection with nature. 🍃🎨
🧡 Toddler One
Toddler One enjoyed Indigenous-inspired sensory play using oats and decorative stones, while also participating in the Sea of Hearts collage activity. Through hands-on learning, the children explored concepts of belonging, kindness, and community. 💛🌊
🐨 Toddler Two
Toddler Two explored Australian animals and enthusiastically participated in learning Aboriginal songs and music. These experiences supported the children in developing an appreciation for storytelling, rhythm, language, and culture. 🎶🦘
🌏 Kinder Three
Kinder Three deepened their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures through meaningful discussions and creative experiences. The children created an Aboriginal flag-inspired decorated tree as part of the Sea of Hearts movement, promoting inclusion, respect, and unity within our community. 🌿🖤💛❤️
🎨 Kinder Four
Kinder Four expressed their creativity through painting wooden tubes using cotton earbuds to create detailed dot painting designs. The children also explored a reconciliation corner featuring coloured rice and symbolic patterns, encouraging conversations around Indigenous art, symbols, and storytelling. ✨🌈
It has been wonderful to see the children engaging in experiences that promote respect, understanding, and connection as we continue walking together toward reconciliation. 🤝💛

🌻 We're going All In for Reconciliation Week!

This week, Wheelers Hill Child Care Centre is proudly participating in the Wear It Yellow campaign in support of National Reconciliation Week.

We'd love for our families to join us! If you'd like to show your support, you can donate via the link below — every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. 💛

https://wearityellow.org.au/shashni-bowattegedara

Thank you for being part of our community and going All In with us. 🙏🏼

🎉 On Tuesday, our centre celebrated International Nurses Day with a variety of exciting and meaningful activities across all rooms! 🌟
🩺 In the Baby Room, children explored a medical kit, fostering curiosity and sensory exploration. 🤲
🐾 In Toddler 1, our little veterinarians demonstrated empathy and fine motor skills while creating band-aid animal collages, engaging in collaborative and creative play.

👩‍⚕️ Toddler 2 enjoyed a special visit from Tara’s mum, who brought in real medical instruments. The children participated in hands-on, interactive learning, enhancing their understanding of health and safety. They also made their own nurses’ hats, encouraging self-expression and role-play.

✂️ In Kinder 3, children discussed first aid kits and created collages of items found inside a nurse’s bag, fostering communication and critical thinking. 🩹🩺

🩹 Kinder 4 explored how nurses help keep people feeling safe and healthy through engaging discussions and role-play with medical tools, promoting understanding of community helpers and social awareness. 🤝
These activities supported our children’s development of confidence, communication, and social responsibility while celebrating the vital role of nurses in our community! 🌈✨

💕 An Afternoon Filled With Rhythm & Love 🪘

Our Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea was a truly memorable celebration filled with connection, laughter, and community spirit. It was wonderful to see families come together to share such a special afternoon with us.
The event began with an engaging African drumming session, where the joyful rhythms created an uplifting atmosphere and brought everyone together through music and participation. It was lovely to see parents, children, and educators sharing in the experience and creating lasting memories.
Following the drumming session, families gathered to enjoy a beautiful afternoon tea prepared with care by Chef Mel, including a delicious homemade sticky date pudding that was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
A heartfelt thank you to for providing the much-appreciated coffee pick-me-up for our families and community throughout the afternoon.
We are so grateful to everyone who joined us and helped make the celebration such a warm and meaningful occasion. 💐

We were delighted to welcome Lauren, a librarian from the Monash Library, for a special visit to our centre 📚✨
Lauren engaged the children in a meaningful discussion about how to care for books and shared insights into what happens at the library, helping to build their understanding of community resources 🏫💡
Our Kinder 3 and Kinder 4 children thoroughly enjoyed listening as Lauren read some of her favourite stories, sparking their imagination and love for reading 📖💛

Last Friday, our centre came together to commemorate Anzac Day through a range of meaningful and developmentally appropriate experiences. 🌺
Our Toddler 1 group engaged in a sensory exploration, discovering hidden poppies, alongside a creative art experience, supporting their sensory development and curiosity. Toddler 2 also participated in a hands-on sensory activity, scooping and exploring poppies, and expressed their creativity by creating their own poppy artworks.
In Kinder 3, children explored symbolic representation by crafting poppies using playdough, enhancing their fine motor skills and imaginative expression.
Kinder 4 children created Anzac silhouettes, encouraging creativity while deepening their understanding of the day.

To conclude the day, children enjoyed freshly made Anzac biscuits, providing a shared cultural experience and connection to tradition. 🍪
A thoughtful and engaging day of learning, reflection, and connection. 🌿

Our centre had the pleasure of welcoming a group of Grade 4 students who visited our Kinder 4 children 😊✨
This experience provided a valuable opportunity for our kinder children to begin building familiarity with the school environment in a warm and supportive way 🎒🏫
Visits like these play an important role in easing the transition to school, while also strengthening our connections within the local community 🤝💛 It was wonderful to see the children engaging, interacting, and learning from one another 🌱👫