Room Information
Babies Boulevard
Lake Gardens Children’s Centre offer a 12 place babies room for ages birth to 18 months. The babies room has a room leader and assistants who are consistent in the room allowing children to develop bonding relationships with the staff and feel safe and secure within the environment.
In the babies room it is important that children develop nurturing attachments with the educators. We believe that when children feel secure and have a relationship with the educators they begin to explore
and play freely enabling the child to build a strong foundation for their development.
Educators in Babies Boulevard provide new experiences for children to ensure that children are continually learning and engaged. Educators provide children with recognition and acknowledgement during the learning process and allow children to take responsibility of their own choices.
Baby Boulevard Room Philosophy
In the nursery and following on with the centres philosophy we are committed to providing a warm, safe and nurturing environment according to the individual needs of our children.
We aim to create a relaxed and friendly atmosphere so that both children and families feel reassured and comfortable.
We aim to provide effective and courteous communication between families and carers so that there is continuity for the children between home and the centre.
Each individual child is encouraged to become independent giving them the opportunity to make choices and extend their learning.
Families are made to feel welcome and appreciated. We encourage them to ask questions and have input in our programs. We also encourage families to actively engage in their children’s learning journey at the centre.
Toddlers Terrace
In the Toddlers Terrace we strive to foster a sense of belonging so that children feel confident becoming involved in experiences and the environment. As toddlers are naturally curious learners it is important to value play as it is a vital part in the learning process.
Toddlers are unique, knowledgeable little people and therefore are treated as individuals with care and respect.
Aim:
Our aim in the toddler room is to provide a happy, relaxed and secure environment to ensure that every child feels safe and supported. To ensure that every child has a strong sense of belonging every child receives respect, care encouragement and reassurance, by doing this we are allowing every child to grow, develop and reach their full individual potential.
Goals:
Individual goals are set of each child and reviewed on a regular basis, each child is continuously observed and these are used to assist in the program planning (these can be viewed in the parent lounge). Our long term goals for the toddler room can be broken down to 5 areas:
- Self-sufficiency and independence
- Language skills
- Cognitive skills
- Fine and gross motor skills
- Social and emotional skills
Toddler Terrace Room Philosophy
In the toddler room and following on with the centres philosophy, we strive to foster a sense of belonging so that children feel confident becoming involved in experiences and the environment. As toddlers are naturally curious learners it is important to value play as it is a vital part in the learning process.
We believe that it is important for all families and children to feel welcomed and contribute to the running of the room. We believe for families to be willing to take part, there needs to be a trusting relationship between the educators and families which needs to be nurtured and maintained.
We believe that the children learn by playing and developing their own experiences therefore experiences will be based on the children’s interests, needs and development.
Children in the Junior Junction are aged two to three years and are becoming very independent learners. The educators encourage children to continue to develop their self-help skills during play and daily routines. Children are encouraged and supported during meal times to choose their own food from the plate, pour their own drinks, dress and undress themselves, toileting and other life skills.
This room plays a major part in ensuring that children are ready for kindergarten. Educators focus on teaching children literacy and numeracy while the children are engaging and learn through play.
The junior room is the perfect place for friendships to develop and for children to form bonds with one another. Children are encouraged to share with each other, to encourage, help and support each other and to explore and learn with each other.
The program for the Junior Junction is based on each child’s needs, strengths and interests while ensuring that it is gender and culturally inclusive. It is also important to have the child’s home life is brought into the program and we encourage families to share what the child has been doing outside of the service.
Junior Junction room philosophy
In the junior room and following on with the centres philosophy, our goal is to provide the children with a rich environment where they feel safe to explore initiate learning and feel free to express themselves.
We believe children are motivated to learn when they have opportunities to make choices in an environment that is enriching and stimulating for children to identify with themselves in the environment and build skills of independence.
Self-regulation of attention and behaviour to take responsibility, learning self-direction and sense of self-worth.
We also promote self-help skills such as dressing/eating/health and hygiene and to teach the children literacy and numeracy skills to set them up for the next step into kinder.
We also believe that communication between carer and the family is essential in maintaining continuity for the child between home and the centre. Families are made to feel welcome, comfortable and free to ask questions and they will be encouraged to participate and have input into the programs.
Kindergarten Crossing
The Kindergarten room continues to encourage children to develop their self-help skills and independence. We believe that it is important that we give children practice and encourage each child to develop skills in independence, for life experiences.
The kindergarten room prepares the children for school life and routines. Some things we focus on for school readiness is:
Children are encouraged to sit still for longer periods of time during group times and at activities.
Children are encouraged to dress and undress themselves, understand their feelings (hot, cold) and when they need to go to the toilet.
Children are encouraged to listen to each other and continue to develop their communication skills.
Children begin to develop their writing skills.
Children are encouraged to play together and further develop their sharing skills.
The kindergarten room offers children an environment that supports the wellbeing of the children and encourages children to respect each other and their environment. The program offers children time to explore the different experiences in the room which support each child’s individual development and focus on their needs and interests.
Kindergarten Crossing room philosophy
The kindergarten room provides for the development of each child’s physical, creative, emotional, intellectual, social and language skills through play. We believe that children are intrinsically self-motivated learners. They need time, space, materials and a teacher to act as a facilitator to provide activities and experiences which stimulate and challenge this motivation. Each child is a unique individual as well as a member of the group. Independence and self-expression should be fostered and individual strengths and interests celebrated. At the same time, children should be offered meaningful opportunities to learn how to negotiate, share, solve conflict, show empathy and work cooperatively with peers. We believe that relationships provide the foundation for best practice.
In the kindergarten room we feel that it is important for children to experience satisfaction and success of repetition and the security of the known. This in turn promotes confidence and thus challenges the children to extend their learning base. Extensions are offered to challenge them, enabling scaffolding of learning. We feel that a regular routine is essential for young children as they need to know what happens next as it gives them sense of order and structure. There must also be flexibility within the timetable for children who are engaged in ‘learning play’.
The core of our philosophy is that young children learn through experience. They need every opportunity to work with concrete materials and activities. They need time to master new skills and confidence to make choices and be adaptable to change. This will only come about through warm caring, consistent and stimulating environment, which we aim to provide in the kindergarten room.
We aim to provide a stimulating learning environment which assists in the children’s awareness of the world around them- helping promote language development as well as intellectual, physical and emotional skills- assisting in building confidence and social skills and providing opportunity for children to develop a strong sense of self in nurturing setting. We aim to provide a physically safe, clean, healthy centre, which is emotionally warm and supportive. One which is full of opportunities for exploration, manipulation and discovery.
Room Transitions
When children reach the age and are developmentally ready they will begin to transition into the next room. Children are given the opportunity to spend time in the room allowing the child to experience meal times, rest times and develop a relationship with the educators in the room.
Educators share information with each other about the child. When the educators feel that the child is able to be in the room permanently they will move the child to the new room.