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Dear readers Having been away from the Centre for four years and having been involved in other specialist educational settings, it has been an absolute privilege to be back this past term! Not many facilities can boast, as the Centre can, that their population has shown a 98 percent improvement rate from the intervention provided.

The magic that the Centre has always had continues and the passion of the teachers, therapists, and assistants are unmatched. As with every year at the Centre, there are challenges that need to be overcome; the fact that the Centre has coped with many changes this year, yet survives to serve its population despite the odds, is a testimony to the quality of educational and clinical intervention that is being implemented. Whilst I have not had the privilege of getting to know all of the children nor meet all of the parents, the happiness of each and every little face on the playground and the interest and responsiveness within the classroom is assurance that each and every child is being allowed to grow and develop to their full potential. It has been wonderful to reconnect with the longer standing members of staff as well as meet new staff and to see the tried and tested methods linking with new trends and latest educational and therapeutic practice to keep the Centre current. I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone at the Centre for making my short time here extra special! Keep up the great work and passion that makes the Centre extra special. Warmest love Phillipa Nilsson Locum Head

15 July School opens

9 August Womens Day

6 September - Midterm break

24 September Heritage Day

30 September School closes

Term 2, 2013

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Giselle Meirim

On behalf of the Centre we would like to

congratulate Jenett with the birth of her little

girl, Mankobising and Robyn, with the birth of

little Sophia. We wish them the best during

their maternity leave! Enjoy your little ones!

Play and language development Play is important for the development of children's language as well as their cognitive skills. There is in fact, a strong relationship between language and make-believe play (symbolic play), and subsequently the developmental patterns of language and play are parallel. Thus, language impairment, unsurprisingly, is related to deficits in symbolic play. Language and symbolic play both require that a child mentally represent reality - just as a child must realise that a doll is only a representation of a live baby, so he/she must understand that a word is not the object but only a representation of the object. Through play, children learn the skills necessary to effectively participate in their world. Play provides children with natural opportunities to engage in concrete and meaningful activities that enhance physical, language, social, and cognitive development. Children

experiment with language during play and use words to express their thoughts and ideas. As children become more sophisticated in their play skills, their language development becomes equally sophisticated. During play, children are also provided with opportunities for social interaction with peers. Not only does this play develop cultural understanding, but children learn the importance of social rules and how to get along with others and it is during this social interaction that children learn to express and control their emotions and to resolve conflicts with others. Some activities to encourage your childs symbolic play are listed below:

Dollhouse and Dolls. Playing with a dollhouse or dolls allows your child to re-enact what happens in his/her everyday life, using the words and phrases he/she hears.

Cars/Trucks/Animals Etc. Playing with cars, trucks and trains as well as animals provides for many new vocabulary words as children learn the names of each, what they do, what they eat or where you can find them. Children and adults can create all kinds of scenarios that the vehicles or animals might find themselves in, providing for further language and vocabulary development.

Dramatic Play. Props such as dishes and play food, empty food boxes and a cash register or stuffed animals and a doctors kit, provides your child with the opportunity to learn the sequence of certain procedures (e.g. when baking a pretend cake). Additionally, in pretend play, children use role-appropriate statements and language to maintain the play episode; plan a story line; and assign roles. Pretending to be someone else enables children to use voice inflections and language in situations they may or may not have encountered. Play helps children internalize the many rule systems associated with the language they are speaking.

Arts and Crafts. Provide your child with a variety of art supplies such as paints, felt pens, crayons, scraps of fabric or paper, empty boxes/ containers, glue, wool, buttons, sequins and stickers. Allow him/her to create anything he/she likes and then discuss this art with him/her, thereby encouraging further language development. When children do arts and crafts together, opportunities arise for children to share (e.g. the

paints/crayons) as well as to request the use of objects politely from each other.

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The importance of play for young children Play is an integral part of a childs growth and development and the school environment provides many opportunities for children to explore and extend their play skills. There is literature to support the connection between a childs play and their cognitive and language development, and it is this correlation which can affect the development of appropriate literacy skills of school going children. We know as teachers, how important it is to expose children to a wide variety of play experiences and scenarios, in order to expand and develop these important skills. There are so many opportunities throughout the school day to incorporate and use play in a functional and incidental manner. Having free play time, both in class and on the playground, allows children the chance to improve

their social skills. It is important that children are given enough opportunities to use their language spontaneously and in a social context and playtime offers them the perfect occasion to learn how to interact with peers, as well as how to express their feelings in an appropriate manner. There are various types of play that young children engage in and as they mature, so do their play skills. Children use symbolic play to re-enact and represent what they know to be true, things that are familiar and recognizable to them. Children often use play as a means of making sense of the world around them, and as a way of communicating what they might have seen or experienced but are not yet able to fully understand. Allowing children the opportunity to construct their own version of events assists them in

recognising what is happening around them, and creates a platform for discussion. Younger children love including a variety of props in their games. Having a house corner or fantasy corner in the class is a fantastic way of introducing play opportunities in a non-threatening but stimulating way. Free play is a great time for young children to integrate newly learnt skills in an informal manner. Children love to role play, and it is important to provide them with dress up clothes, props, dolls, household items and the freedom to be creative and play. As teachers we know the importance of play in a childs overall development, and much time is set aside throughout the day in order to facilitate appropriate play. There are many aspects of the curriculum where play can be incorporated or utilised as a teaching tool, and lots of time is spent planning and brainstorming how best to stimulate, encourage and extend the childrens play skills. Appropriate play encourages so many positive aspects that contribute towards a childs overall language and literacy development, and it can be a useful means for allowing children to develop and expand their comprehension skills. Through the use of dramatization, children are given the chance to re-enact events in stories, and unpack and discuss the different elements that create a story (characters, plot, and consequences of actions). Engaging in dramatic play and representing fantasy characters enable children to explore the concept of fantasy versus reality in a casual and fun way. Often teachers will get the children to re-enact a fairy tale, or nursery rhyme as a group, giving the children control of the plot, characters and actions, and allowing for turn taking during the process. The ability to differentiate between what is real (reality) and what is only found in books and stories (fantasy), is often a difficult concept for young children to grasp. Early Literacy skills emerge in the world of play, from very early on children will attempt to

replicate and include versions of writing during dramatic fantasy play e.g. playing school, or writing shopping lists, reading prints/labels on items/books, acting out adult roles, teaching friends or being a doctor. When children are very young they are merely pretending to read a book to peers or write down a list, however these are the precursors to the development of key literacy skills needed later on in life. Play stimulates a childs imagination and creativity, and helps to develop and consolidate a wide range of skills across all areas of development. It is something that all children should be encouraged to do whenever possible. Children have the ability to play in many different ways using any means given to them, and its our job as teachers and parents to join in the excitement, encourage the fantasy, dress up, be silly, play along and most importantly have fun!

Mara

Blokpoel

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We have learnt all about colours and about our body parts.

We learnt why mommies are so special and that we must help mommy at home.

Now we are learning about seasons and Autumn and of course we are very busy growing into BIG children.

Willy

This term has been all about animals! Our class

has learnt all about pets, farm animals, wild animals, sea creatures and also insects and bugs!!

Each child made a My pet poster and it was great fun to share all the information about their pets.

The kids absolutely loved making different animals

with a variety of materials; from biscuit-fish, sweet pig cookies, soft cotton wool sheep, wiggly paper

jellyfish to growing caterpillars in which we planted

seeds!

Weve also done several sensory activities and the children are turning into little Picassos as they learn to draw in the shaving foam.

Pauli

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The Friendly Pets class have had a busy second term!

We have learned all about meals and how we grow!

The Farm Yard class invited us to join in their tea party and

we enjoyed warm tea and the tastiest cake!

We also went to The Kinder Theatre and watched a wonderful puppet show. We sat in little chairs and ate popcorn while we

watched.

The show was about a fairy that lost her wings, and another story about a dinosaur. We had such fun!!

Robyn

It has already been such a busy 2nd term in the Farm Yard

class. Even though we learnt about Autumn and the changing seasons right at the beginning of the term, we are

still waiting for all the leaves to fall down so that we can talk

about cold winter days!

We enjoyed our Theme all about meals. The children learnt how we make cooked jungle oats, watched how I made

scrambled eggs and toasted bread and we boiled spaghetti.

The best part was eating the food for breakfast and lunch.

Our group baked a delicious cake which we iced for tea time

and we invited the Friendly Pet class to join us for a tea party

in the garden. All the children loved drinking tea from a real tea cup and eating a slice of yummy cake.

We would also like to welcome our new children and their

parents to our school, Faith, Jordan and Jamie.

Maryann

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The children in the Jungle class have been extremely busy and productive this term, working on our pre-literacy skills. We are becoming experienced rhymers and developing a love for letters and sounds that is truly delightful! We have been spending lots of time practising initial and end sounds in words, playing rhyming games, and generally becoming aware of different letters and sounds. We have been incorporating letter

recognition and generating words from initial sounds as part of our daily ring time. The children in the Jungle class have really acquired a love and interest for letters, and they are quickly and enthusiastically learning to recognise the names of friends and teachers, as well as proudly distinguishing what letter a word begins with. All these skills are imperative to learning to read and write. Without a good foundation, those higher level more complex skills become tricky.

I am so proud of all of them, and cant contain my excitement at their ever-growing enthusiasm to learn, its infectious! We had a fantastic Innings with Talita, who came and did a special Drumming Circle for the older group children. It was such a hit! Not to mention the ecstatic squeals when the children found out we were having a pizza picnic on the grass, followed by rainbow cake! It was a wonderful treat for all involved, and definitely a highlight on this terms calendar.

Mara

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 The Bird Class have been working extra hard on their numeracy skills this term. The children have been exposed to various informal games and formal rings to master

the picture symbols/dot symbols for the numbers 1 to 6. We frequently played with dice, board games, matching cards,

counting blocks and even built different pictures to represent amounts from 1 to 6. For example number 3 is a triangle with

3 dots and number 6 is a rectangle made up of 6 dots. It is important that the children learn to associate a dot symbol

with the correct amount without necessarily counting each dot. This will help them master numeracy activities faster and

aid them with more complex calculations later on. Happy counting!!

Maryke