Charley's Place

Pink Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:59:00 +0000

On Friday the 10th of October, children and staff at Charley's Place celebrated Pink Day to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research.
We 'stole' a box of pink ribbon fund raising merchandise from a local retailer and raised a brilliant $102.00 by selling it. Great job everybody!

Staff and children alike had a great time making everything pink.

Springing into Summer at Charley's Place

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:12:00 +0000

This fortnight:

· Charley’s Place is undertaking the childcare accreditation process earn a Quality Assurance rating through the National Childcare Accreditation Council. We are currently participating in Step 2: Self-Study and Continuing Improvement. See over for more information.

· Parents, please ensure that your child has enough healthy food for a whole day at Charley’s Place – we are always busy and the children do get hungry. There are some ideas for healthy snacks over the page.

· Getting closer to summer the weather is warming up and hats, sunscreen and water bottles become even more important. Please ensure that you provide these daily for your child so that they can get the full benefit of our outdoor program.

Goodbye Jaye!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:03:00 +0000

We are sorry to say goodbye to one of our originals this week. Jaye has her last day on Friday and we will be very sorry to see her go. Jaye has been a permanent fixture in the Outback since we opened. Best of luck for the future, Jaye. We’ll miss you!

NAIDOC Day

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:28:00 +0000

The NAIDOC Day Celebrations were a great success in conjunction with Trudy Tronc and Len Lawton – Some of the children got to sample some great foods – such as crocodile and emu sausages.

They listened to Dreamtime stories and did aboriginal paintings and learned how to build a ‘Gunya’.

A great time was had by all and we are grateful for the opportunity to learn so much about indigenous culture first-hand.

Stop, Drop & Roll!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:45:00 +0000

We had an extra-special fire drill this morning, with a visit from the Chinchilla Rural Fire Brigade and Blazer the Koala to teach us all how what to do in case of a fire.
Everybody got to see inside the fire truck and we all heard the siren!
Thanks very much to Chinchilla Rural Fire Brigade for giving the children an experience they'll remember for a long time to come.

Happy Birthday Charley!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:52:00 +0000

Charley's Place Early Childhood Centre is one year old today!
We have had a huge party with a big green cake to celebrate an awesome year. We've come a long way from first opening our doors, incorporating family day care and vacation care into our centre, now employing 17 staff and associating with 8 independent carers in the Chinchilla community.
We love watching the children grow as they progress through the different rooms and develop into interesting little people, with a sense of pride that we have contributed.
So happy birthday to everybody at Charley's Place! Here's to many more years.

Happy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:37:00 +0000

March has been an exciting month at Charley’s Place with loads to do, see and keep up with.
We have had a couple of fundraisers this month with the Pie Drive raising over $900 and Book Club earning the centre a swathe of new books for the children to enjoy. Great work, everybody!
Congratulations to Christine for completing her Certificate III in Children’s Services – Well done, Christine! Best of luck for your Diploma.
Staff and carers have attended a special workshop on SIDS prevention this month. This is especially important for those staff working with younger children and babies, and we all learned something.
Welcome to our new staff member, Charis Cameron. Charis comes to us from the child care centre in Miles and we look forward to working with her very much.
Just a reminder, please don’t alter or add your child’s name to the Sign In/Out sheets at reception without speaking to admin or myself first. We are subject to strictly regulated staff:child ratios and the room rolls are arranged to adhere to these. There have been times in the past where it wasn’t a problem to fit an extra child in, but as we are fast reaching capacity, there is less leeway. Thank you for your assistance with this.

Congratulations Theresa!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:55:00 +0000

Huge congratulations to Theresa Boniface who was awarded a regional scholarship to do her Diploma for her excellent work during her Certificate III in Children’s Services.
She was presented with the scholarship at the awards night in Toowoomba last fortnight.
We’re so proud of you, Theresa! Best of luck with your diploma.

Adopt-A-Grandparent

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Our adopt-a-grandparent program is now under way -
We would like to invite grandparents and grandparents-at-heart to adopt one of our rooms as their very own and contribute to the programming in whatever way you wish.
You could read a book to the children, or help with painting and craft, sing, build sandcastles, baking.. Everybody has 'children skills'! If you play a musical instrument we would love to hear from you. Even if you are unable to attend the centre, you are still welcome to join our Adopt-A-Grandparent program and perhaps prepare craft items at home for the children to use, or to knit or crochet blankets for naptime.

You will be required to obtain a volunteer blue card if you wish to attend the centre, for safety's sake. A simple matter of filling out a form - with no cost involved. Simply click the 'contact us' link on the left to find out more about how you can join.
Charley's Place has an open inclusion policy and welcomes people of all multicultural and socio-economic backgrounds and of all ages and all abilities.

Back to School!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 04:04:00 +0000

2008 has kicked off with a bang.

Now that holidays are over, the children have all settled nicely back in to the year’s routine – and what a year it will be! We have an exciting program of visitors, excursions and activities planned this year to enrich your child’s experience in care at Charley’s Place and we hope that the parents will feel more than welcome to come along and take part.
The Australia Day and Pancake Day celebrations have already taken place in the past week or so and much fun was had by all. For Australia Day the children made damper and did aboriginal paintings, learning about the Australian flag and other activities.

Charley’s Place Family Day Care has been growing in leaps and bounds with four new carers joining the Charley’s Place family in the last few weeks. A huge welcome to Len Lawton, Liz Klease, Sandra Davies & Tiffany West who have decades of combined experience in the Early Childhood industry. If you find that you require care for your children outside centre hours, enquire at the office about how we can meet your Family Day Care need

The staff will be doing some in-service training on the 19th – Foodhandling, hygiene and safety and Yolanda and myself will be attending a CCMS training workshop in Toowoomba on the 13th. Child Care Benefit (CCB) will be replaced by the CCMS system over the next few months and should make claiming your childcare benefit easier and more efficient.
Some staff updates:

* Theresa is away for three weeks visiting her brand new grandson, Denzel, in Townsville. *Emily gave birth to her new little girl, Maddie Adelle Bell on the 25th of January. She weighed in at 9lb 10oz and has her mum’s beautiful face. Congratulations Emily and David!
*Debbie completed her Diploma in Children’s Services this week – Well done Debbie!

As always, if you have any concerns, my office is always open to parents.
Selena Rinehart - Director

Merry Christmas 2007!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:16:00 +0000

What a hit the Charley's Place Christmas Party was!

Over 200 people attended the very first Charley's Place Christmas party. Parents, grandparents, siblings and all the extended family were invited to celebrate on the first December Tuesday night.

The children from Down on The Farm and In the Jungle sang "Jingle Bells" while the older children from In the Outback and After School Care all got dressed up as reindeer and entertained the visitors with "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".
There was an appearance by our guest of honour, Santa, who gave all the children gifts and left in his sleigh just before the sausage sizzle.
A great big thank you to all of the parents who have been such a great support in our first six months of operation. Thank you also to our wonderful staff who have worked so hard in the last six months to build Charley's Place to what it is today. The centre is growing at a tremendous pace as more and more families hear about us and can only continue to get bigger and better.
We say a sad farewell to the Group Leader from the Outback Room this month, Emily Bell is leaving us to have her first baby.
Good luck with everything, Emily!

22 November, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:28:00 +0000

Selena Rinehart
Director

It is lovely to see Charley’s Place Family Day Care taking off so well, and it’s great to be able to welcome them into the Charley’s Place family.
Places are available with carers for care in their homes and positions are available for people wishing to start their own business and become carers themselves.
We have an exciting month ahead, with our big Christmas party planned and a visit from Santa.
Also, a few changes to be made with staffing – We will be wishing Emily all the best next month as she embarks on one of life’s greatest adventures and starts maternity leave. Kristy and Theresa will be Group Leaders In The Outback while she is away and Erin is now a permanent assistant In The Jungle.
Several of the staff are attending workshops in Dalby this Saturday. “Understanding Autism” and “Nutrition and Behaviour”.
And a BIG congratulations to Theresa for finishing her Certificate III!

A quick recap of events at the centre:
Camp Coolibah has merged with Charley’s Place Early Childhood Centre and due to licensing, we are only able to offer 25 places per day for the coming summer holidays. So please get in early with your bookings to avoid disappointment – places are filling up fast.
Vacation Care will begin on the 10th of December to cater to non-state students.

In The Outback:
Hello to everyone from the out back room. In the past two weeks the children have been busy using their fine motor skills. They have been writing their names and doing lots of puzzles, drawing, gluing, painting and cutting with scissors. The children have also been learning about the theme “Under the sea” by painting fish and reading sea books. Kristy and Theresa are very excited about being Group Leaders and are looking forward to getting to know the children better over the next few weeks.

Down On The Farm:
The children in the nursery enjoyed playing in water today. We have been studying India as our cultural topic and also focusing on being healthy and healthy eating. We will be starting on our Christmas activities in the coming weeks. Please remember that we have an open door policy and we would love to see parents pop in at any time to visit.

In The Jungle:
The children have enjoyed playing outside with the sand, balance beams, ball games and playing with bikes and trucks. Inside we have enjoyed playing with puzzles, playdough, dolls, home corner, dancing, singing different rhymes and reading books. We have done a range of art, painting and gluing. We will be starting Christmas activities soon. A reminder to parents to please ensure your child comes to Charley’s Place with a water bottle, sheets, hat and a spare set of clothes.

After School Care:
What a couple of weeks it’s been at ASC. The children have had a great time relaxing and chilling out after school. The girls have enjoyed our home corner while the boys have been perfecting their gross motor skills playing in the great outdoors.

4th October, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:30:00 +0000

It is immensely satisfying to see Charley’s Place building into such a warm and welcoming community. The children have done a marvelous job settling in and adapting to their new environs and the staff are developing into a cohesive and supportive team.
Parental involvement with the centre is more than welcomed. If you would like to contribute to the daily program, or if you have a special skill to share – eg musical skills, dance skills etc – please mention it. We would love to incorporate you into our activities roster for the benefit of all the children at the centre.
As always, my door is always open if there is anything that you would like to discuss with me or any way that I can enrich your child’s experience at Charley’s Place.

From the rooms:
Down on the Farm: We have had a busy time since the last newsletter. Spring is in the air and the children are spending more time outside in the mornings doing various activities while the mornings are still cool. If you wish to supply sunscreen for your child, please ensure that it is clearly marked with their name.

In the Jungle: Over the last month the children have enjoyed playing outside in the mornings as the days are getting hot. Art activities the children have enjoyed include pudding mix painting, painting bees, serviette butterflies using an eye dropped and easel painting. Inside the children have enjoyed puzzles drawing, threading, dolls and home corner play.

In the Outback: We have been continuing our theme of ‘Spring’ – the children have been enjoying learning about this. We have also been learning about the country China and have a great display in our room to have a look at. Next week we are starting to learn our numbers and alphabet, concentrating on learning to write our names.

Camp Coolibah Vacation Care: The Camp Coolibah kids have been having a blast using a clay wheel, creating cups and plates and doing loads of arts and crafts. They have taken trips to the swimming pool and movies but they all agree that the highlight of the holidays has been the clay making. Friendships were made and we are all counting down to the Christmas holidays. (10 weeks)

Charley's Place Forum!

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:53:00 +0000

Announcing the launch of the Charley's Place online forum~!

With space for staff, carers and parents and family alike to get together and discuss anything related to Charley's Place and their children's care.
Feel free to sign up and get to know the other parents.

Our forum!

27th August, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:51:00 +0000

Things have been so hectic at Charley's Place that we have branched out into Family Day Care - We are now fully licensed to provide in-home care with our network of wonderful carers. Ask at the office about family day care.

11th August, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:48:00 +0000

Staff training in Miles
Staff attended a "Sing it! Tell it! Create it!" workshop based on creative ways of working with children for child care professionals including 'Play for life: music and movement workshop.' with Rhonda Davidson, 'Storytelling' with Louise Phillips, and 'Art as language; and the language of art' with Dr Felicity McArdle.

Wild Wild West Night Bull Ride
Charley's Place Early Childhood Centre sponsored the St Joseph's School Rodeo. A great time was had by all. Activities included Open Bull Ride, Novice Bull Ride, Poddy Rides, a bungy run, jumping castle and loads more... too much to mention.

10th August, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 02:44:00 +0000

Down on the Farm: Please mark your child's belongings - hundreds of bottles, nappy wipes, socks and hats make it hard for staff to keep track. Also, with the warmer weather, please remember their hats and water bottles. At the moment in the Nursery we are discovering about what lives in the sea. The children have been very busy with the art activities. Outside play is very popular. If parents have any queries, please feel free to talk to Debbie or Kylie.
In the Jungle: Over the last few weeks, we have been getting to know the children and their routines. It has been great doing this. The children have enjoyed a variety of art activities - hand paints, easel painting, painting with sponges and chalk drawing. We celebrated NAIDOC week by painting snakes and boomerangs with earth colors. All of the children have enjoyed playing with the playdough and exploring the other toys. In the next few weeks we will be starting to investigate colors, farm animals, fruits and vegetables, shapes and sea creatures. - Priscilla, Group Leader.
In the Outback: The last month the children have been learning about colours. They have painted red apples & strawberries, glued red craft hearts. The next colour was yellow and the children enjoyed marble painting which we cut out yellow fruit from and painted ducks. The blue activities were string painting, making blue flags and painting blueberries and eyes. Also the children have enjoyed dancing to The Wiggles with ribbons, playing with the train set, cars, animails, puzzles, drawing and other activities. Outside throwing and rolling balls to each other and playing in the sand with the trucks has been popular.
Under the Sea: The Under the Sea room has been merged into 'In The Outback' in the initial period until places fill.
After School Care: The children have been doing well with their homework and enjoying free play and cooking activities. They have a trip to the park coming up.

Opening month - 25 July

noreply@blogger.com (Charley's Place) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:21:00 +0000

The opening month has been incredibly exciting here at Charley's Place. Everything is brand new and gleaming after years of preparation and planning by Raschelle & Jason. The staff have worked hard to make sure that everything is in it's proper place and up to scratch in time for the opening day.
Places are being taken fast and it's wonderful to see the rooms filling up with children. They all seem to love the huge play area - especially the sandpits!.. If my shoes come home full of sand, Mum, it just means that I've had a great time!
Down on the Farm: Everyone is settling in well in the Nursery. At the moment we are doing "Colours". The children are having a great time painting and gluing. Outside play is great fun, exploring the sandpit, playing with the balls and riding the bikes. Thank you to all the parents who have made us feel so very comfortable in our job. Cheers. - Kylie, Di & Debbie - Nursery Crew
In the Jungle: Over the last few weeks, we have been getting to know the children and their routines. It has been great doing this. The children have enjoyed a variety of art activities - hand paints, easel painting, painting with sponges and chalk drawing. We celebrated NAIDOC week by painting snakes and boomerangs with earth colors. All of the children have enjoyed playing with the playdough and exploring the other toys. In the next few weeks we will be starting to investigate colors, farm animals, fruits and vegetables, shapes and sea creatures. - Priscilla, Group Leader.
In the Outback: It has been great getting to know all the children in our room for the past few weeks and for them to get to know each other. The children are settling into routines well. It has been an exciting time in our room. We have had two themes in our room since we started. Our first being 'Me', during this theme we explored different things about ourselves and talked about our likes and dislikes. This helped for staff and children to get to know each other better. Our second theme which is still continued is 'Being Healthy' which is focusing on being totally healthy, not just what we eat, but the importance of sleep, exercise, drinking plenty of water etc. We have also been doing lots of painting, gluing playing with playdough, cooking, role playing in home corner and when it is warm enough the children love playing outdoors. We are looking forward to exploring more about 'Being Healthy' and our next them will be on 'Seasons'. Emily - Group Leader
Under the Sea: Charley's Place is now up and running and it is lovely to see children enjoying the facilities. In our room we have been focusing on "Me", "Family/Friends", "My Body", "Stranger Danger" and "Good Eating". I would like to ask parents to send along a family photo with your child for us to share, please, and if your child would like, something for 'Show and Tell'. Also, please don't hesitate to contact either Erin or myself if you would like to discuss our programme or even have some ideas to share. - Helen - Group Leader