Blue Gum Cottage in Little Bay, New South Wales, Australia | Non-profit organisation

Blue Gum Cottage

Locality: Little Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9661 4815

Address: 49 Mawson Parade 2036 Little Bay, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.bluegumcottage.com.au/

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• Non-profit organisation
• Childcare service
• Nursery

25.01.2022 Our excursion to Symbio Wildlife Park. We were all so excited and was counting down the sleeps until the day had arrived to go to Symbio Wildlife Park. We got ready and packed all our things, it looked like we were leaving for a week, put on our Hi Vis jackets and then went into the garden to wait for the coach to arrive. Unfortunately, the coach arrived a little late and so by the time he arrived we were all fit to burst with excitement!... We boarded the coach and had a long journey to Symbio, but the journey did not dampen our spirits. Once we go into the park we found a lovely picnic area to sit and have our morning tea before we begun the hunt for the animals. We chatted at morning tea, discussing what animals we were excited to go and see. There was so much to see, we saw koalas eating eucalyptus leaves and some having a little snooze in the tree. We saw meerkats, who were on watch, as two eagles flew above. We visited the reptile park and then we let off some steam in the playground area, where we climbed on the huge climbing frame, and slid down the slide. Chele pushed many of us on the crocodile shaped see-saw and Louise lost count of how many times she went up and down with the 'flying fox', by now we had all worked up an appetite, so we settled back down for our picnic lunch. Once we had eaten our sandwiches, chicken sticks, chips, cucumber sticks and drunk our juice, we had rebooted our energy levels to go on the hunt for the kangaroos, as we had bought some food to go and feed them their lunch. It was amazing how tame the kangaroos were, and they loved the food, strokes from the children and then had a cheeky sunbath! Throughout the day lots of the children were asking when we were going to the splash park, and now it was finally that time......the children were sooo excited! Once the children were changed into their swimmers ( this alone had to be organised like a military expedition!) we were ready to go and the children ran into the splash park with gusto! The time flew by at Symbio and we all had so much fun but the time had run out and it was time to board the coach. By the time we were half way back to Blue Gum, the bus was very quiet as most of the children had fallen a sleep. We all had a fabulous time at Symbio, and have some lovely memories of all the animals and the fun time we had, although it did take us all a couple of days to recover from all this fun... we were all exhausted!

25.01.2022 ART CLUB. It was our first Art Club and it was the Monet Group to go first. Today we were trying a new medium, this is a name that refers to materials that are used to create a work of art. This was our first attempt at using soft pastels. Chele showed the children that you need to have special paper when using pastels, the paper had a bumpy texture. Chele then showed the children how to use the pastels, by using our fingers to rub the pastels into the paper.... The children looked at a picture and used the pastels to interpret their idea of the picture, looking at colours, shapes and composition. The children concentrated for a long time and really enjoyed exploring the texture of pastels and how they moved on the paper. We all had so much fun in art club today, come in to Blue Gum to see our finished pictures, they look amazing! See more

25.01.2022 Our Visit from Kindifarm. We were all very excited to have a visit from all the animals from Kindifarm. The animals set off really early as they had quite a journey to visit Blue Gum Cottage, but they had been here before so knew the way! Once they arrived, we knew they were excited as the sheep were talking "baa baa" they bleated as they skipped excitedly into the garden. ... There were many differerent animals and Kennedy was full of knowledge regarding the animals needs and explained to us how to look after the animals. Some of us were a little worried at first but we faced our fears and all attempted to stroke or feed the animals. We were so excited to cuddle the rabbits; the chicks and the baby ducks and bottle fed the goats and the calf. All the children loved the animals and didn't want the time to end, it is amazing how quickly 2 hours can disappear when you are having so much fun! Harry said to Jennean that we have to speak to the animals in their language for them to understand us. Jennean said that was a good idea and could Harry have a go at talking to the animals, Harry then said, "Buck, Buck, Buck", Harry said to the chicken with great enthusiasm in his best chicken language. "Did they understand you Harry?' asked Jennean. "Nah". Said Harry shaking his head. We all had such a fun time that no one wanted the visit to end, including the animals as Kennedy, Louise and I found out as the sheep, goat and calf had us chasing them around the font yard avoiding getting back in the truck....that was a sight I can tell you.

23.01.2022 Thank you to everyone who came to help celebrate Blue Gum's 35th birthday. We were so lucky with the weather and we managed to enjoy all the fun activities. The pony rides were a great success, they definitely earned their carrots that day! Matthew Thistlewaite opened the celebrations explaining the importance of quality early childhood education and 35 years is a huge achievement, providing our local community and families with high quality childcare, well done Blue Gum! I would like to thank all the educators for making this day such a fun day, all the hard work was definitely worth it! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

22.01.2022 Our Fabulous Excursion to the Cafe! On Friday 21st we were excited to try out our new sets of wheels to take all the preschool children to, our local cafe in Little Bay The Green Olive. We were all a little worried at the clouds were looking rather dark but with rain covers for the prams packed, our fabulous Hi Vis jackets on, we were ready to go. We were so excited to be able to be out in our local community again after having such strong restrictions due to the Covid-19 vir...us. After a brisk walk, we arrived at the cafe ready for our morning tea and we turned a lot of heads as we arrived, with our flash new prams and super behaved children. The children could choose a yummy hot chocolate or baby chino, some delicious toast and a variety of toppings and also some banana bread. It was a fabulous social experience for the children, they chatted excitedly whilst enjoying the food and their surroundings, I can honestly say the children ate more than the educators! After we had many empty plates and full tummies, it was time to buckle up and ride to the Oval where we ran off some of the calories we had just consumed. The children had fun with the footballs, practicing our kicking and also we cheered each other on in our running races. After all that fun it was time to return to Blue Gum as, believe it or not it was nearly time for lunch! We all had a fabulous time and we can't wait to do it again! See more

22.01.2022 Enjoying watching some traditional Aboriginal dancing including the welcome dance and the Pipi dance.

22.01.2022 Foost...our fantastic food incursion. The children were very excited about our healthy food incusion, where the children could make their very own Bento box. The children worked in two groups and with the help of Adriana, Ivy and Kim were excited to start the preparation of their very own lunch. Firstly the children could design and decorate their own chef's hat, we then washed our hands and put on aprons learning the importance of hygiene when preparing food.... All the children had a cutting board and were really excited about having a very special foost knife, helping them with great hand and eye coordination and concentration skills. The incursion was a fantastic experience for the children to use all their senses, their eyes for the sight of the colourful ingredients, the sense of smell with the array of different ingredients and of course their sens of taste, with opportunity to taste a variety of foods. Mmmmmm! The children enjoyed choosing what ingredients they would like to add to the rice and roll up in the seaweed, to make their own individual sushi roll, giving the children agency. Next the children had to prepare the fruit, carefully and skillfully, using the knife to cut up the bananas and strawberries to add to the dried coconut. Thankfully no fingers were lost at this point! The children had fun from start to finish of the incursion and learnt so much along the way but of course the best bit was to taste the fruits of their labour and eat their lunch prepared by their very own hands. Yum, yum, yum!

21.01.2022 Our New Generation Club. We were very excited to have our new visitors from the Junction Neighbourhood Centre in Maroubra. The Junction Neighbourhood Centre The JNC, is a not for profit organisation that provides a diverse range of community services and programs for the communities in Eastern Sydney. The JNC target the significant pockets of disadvantage in the Eastern Sydney area, focusing on people who are socially isolated, disadvantaged and vulnerable. Their communit...y services and programs enhance the wellbeing and resilience of individuals and communities. At Blue Gum Cottage we have been striving to embed being part of our local community and teach the children the importance of our community and how we are a part of it. There has been lots of research outlining the benefits that are gained when children and the elderly socialise, one Australian study showed that activities that include children and older adults can increase self-esteem and promote friendships. Our first visitors were Irene, Francene and Suzi brought to us by Katharina who works at the JNC. The children were very excited and so were our visitors and they wasted no time in chatting together. They enjoyed playing with the play dough together, building with the K'nex, role play in the cafe and sharing books in the garden. We all had so much fun, the time just flew by chatting, playing and laughing with our new found friends, so we were quite sad when it was time for them to leave but we are all looking forward to next month when we have another Generation Club visit.

21.01.2022 More photos from the My Pet Dinosaur visit to Blue Gum!

21.01.2022 Our Fabulous Mothers Day Breakfast! Blue Gum would like to thank everyone who came and celebrated at our Mothers Day breakfast. The children were full of excitement on Friday, keen to have breakfast with their mum at Blue Gum Cottage. We had a yummy selection of toppings for toast and the mums, nannys and some grandads had the choice of a bacon and egg roll and to drink the choice of tea, coffee or some juice. Decisions, decisions!... The spirits were high, and the conversations was flowing, the children loved to be able to share this time with their mum. We all had a fabulous morning, what a lovely way to start the day. Thank you for all that came to celebrate with us.

21.01.2022 Sydney Sea Life Aquarium Excursion Over the past month, the Nursery's focus has been learning about sea life. What better way to dive straight in and see these beautiful creatures in the flesh at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium! The kids learnt more about our marine life, their ecosystems and how they all co-exist. Of course the apex predator, the shark , was the clear winner for the children's attention. Another shock to the children was seeing how the cheeky penguins sur...vive outside Antarctica and how the Aquarium has replicated their environment to make them feel at home. The children returned to Blue Gum feeling inspired and excited to tell their families of their new learnings about marine life.

20.01.2022 Imagination is marvelous! We were so excited when Chele brought in a huge box and found out that we were going to make it into a castle! We watched as the castle was cut and built and we talked to each other about who would live in the castle. Some children wanted to be a prince or princess, some thought about being a wizard, others chose to be Harry Potter!... With our magic wands at the ready, the children played for hours letting their imagination run wild. The children had some amazing interactions with each other, sharing ideas and story themes. The children's language skills were in full swing, articulating their ideas to one another. Isn't it amazing what you can get from just a plain old cardboard box! Expelliarmus!!!

20.01.2022 Dancing is like dreaming with your feet. Every fortnight on a Tuesday our children here at Blue Gum Cottage cannot wait to get their groove on in our dance session with our amazing dance teacher Donna

18.01.2022 Celebrating NAIDOC week. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. NAIDOC originally stood for National Aborigin...es and Islanders Day Observance Committee. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself. We had fun with painting using the red, yellow and black, the colours depicted in the Aboriginal flag. The colours used to create the Aboriginal flag and its design have great meaning, the black represents the Aboriginal people of Australia. The Yellow circle represents the Sun, the giver of life and protector. Red represents the red earth, the red ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal peoples' spiritual relation to the land. We were so excited when Liz came with her family to show us some traditional Aboriginal dances including a welcome dance and a Pipi dance.

18.01.2022 Randwick Business Awards. Please vote for us! The Randwick Business Awards are held every two years and we were so proud to be the 2019 Winners. So, we would really appreciate if you could get all your friends and family to support us again, as we are continually striving for excellence and be a part of our amazing community.... Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me and the Blue Gum Team! x

17.01.2022 Our Amazing Professional Devlopment from Wandana

16.01.2022 Push the Limit Incursion. We were all very excited to have Shanon Bates from Push the Limit visit Blue Gum Cottage. Push the Limit aims to spread the message of inclusivity and social justice to as many children and educators as possible. The idea for this workshop was born out of personal experience and a desire to be an agent of change in attitudes towards people with disabilities amongst the community.... Shannon bought child sized wheelchairs for the children to experience, blindfolds for activities, visual impairment glasses, a cane, alphabetic blocks in braille for the children to experience a loss of sight or a visual impairment and soccer balls for boccia (Paralympic sport). Shanon also got the children to put their fingers in their ears, and then turned around and spoke to the children for them to understand the concept of having a hearing impairment. As Educators we recognise that diversity contributes to the richness of our society, by respecting the diversity of families and our communities and the importance of embedding this within our program. At the heart of cultural competence is our aspiration for everyone to be strong and confident in belonging, being and becoming through understanding and empathy, affirmation and opportunity. (Educators Belonging, Being & Becoming: Educators Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, p21) The children listened with enthusiasm and were all excited to participate in the blind folded experience and speed about in the wheelchairs. Some of the children shared their experiences of people they know that have a disability within their lives. Shanon's hope is that after his visits, you will see people with disabilities as capable and valuable members of our society. We all really enjoyed Shanon's visit and the positive conversations continued long after Shanon had left, we will definitely invite Shanon to visit Blue Gum Cottage again.

16.01.2022 Our Fabulous Mother's Day Breakfast! Blue Gum would like to thank everyone who came and celebrated at our Mother's Day breakfast. The children were full of excitement on Friday, keen to have breakfast with their mum at Blue Gum Cottage. We had a yummy selection of toppings for toast and the mums, nannys' and some grandads had the choice of a bacon and egg roll and to drink the choice of tea, coffee or some juice. Decisions, decisions!... The spirits were high, and the conversations was flowing, the children loved to be able to share this time with their mum. We all had a fabulous morning, what a lovely way to start the day. Thank you for all that came to celebrate with us.

14.01.2022 Mothers Day Breakfast We held a breakfast for all our lovely mums and nannas, to spoil them and show them what they mean to us. The children loved serving their mummies toast, bacon and egg rolls and coffees with the help of the educators. This was a great way to allow the children to have a nice long breakfast with their mums and nannas, as we know how rushed their mornings can be. ... The children loved showing them all the amazing work they have done that is displayed around the room. Thank you to all our Mums and Nannas for everything you do for us! #MothersDay

14.01.2022 Professional Development from Wandana. The team at Blue Gum were back at the centre on Saturday to continue their professional development with some in house training from Wandana. Wandana is Australia’s leading Aboriginal education and entertainment company that preserves & promotes Australian Aboriginal culture, their unique program is an immersive cultural learning experience for all. We started outside in our front garden with a 'Cleansing Ceremony' using the Gum leaves t...o brush away the negative energy from our bodies. The morning was packed with so much information, explaining what the difference about Welcome to Country v’s Acknowledgement to Country and why this is important, the background of iconic Aboriginal symbols and what they represent. We were introduced to some traditional artifacts and were amazed to hear the story of Isaac's didgeridoo and were so fortunate to hear him play. We all learnt so much and Wandana made our experience fun and informative, we are planning to work with Wandana again in the near future, for the educators and children at Blue Gum to continue their learning of Aboriginal culture and embedding it within our program. See more

14.01.2022 We're Going On A Bear Hunt Our children really enjoy reading and acting out the very famous story We're Going On A Bear Hunt. So we treated the children with a trip to the Sydney Opera House to watch the LIVE play of our favourite story. ... During this excursion the children had the opportunity to see a show that they are passionate about. Meanwhile they demonstrated and put into place our road rules and safety strategies including their very own hi-vis vest all with emergency contact on them.

14.01.2022 Some Fun Learning While the Weather Keeps Us Indoors. Over the past few weeks the weather has been taking a turn for the worse and the rain has been keeping us inside. So, to keep our brains busy, our hands active and our conversations flowing we have been exploring many differernt learning experiences.... The children had fun with the playdough, stones and tweezers, understanding that there are many different textures, using their hand and eye coordination by picking up the stones with the tweezers and creating patterns in the playdough. We also practised our scissor skills, using the scissors to see if we could cut along a line on the paper and also lots of snipping building up our muscle control. We enjoyed playing our new Aboriginal Snakes and Ladders game, learning about turn taking, rules of the game and counting our spaces to correspond to the number on die. The nursery children were enjoying doing some hand printing, the paint being brushed onto their hands made the children wriggled as it tickled their hands! The children love to look at the books, the current favourites are The Very Hungry Cattapillar and What Noise Does a Giraffe Make, they also love sharing the books with Katie and their friends. So, although we have not mangaged to get outside, it has not stopped us from learning, exploring a huge variety of experiences and most importantly having lots of fun!

13.01.2022 Were Going On A Bear Hunt Our children really enjoy reading and acting out the very famous story Were Going On A Bear Hunt. So we treated the children with a trip to the Sydney Opera House to watch the LIVE play of our favourite story. ... During this excursion the children had the opportunity to see a show that they are passionate about. Meanwhile they demonstrated and put into place our road rules and safety strategies including their very own hi-vis vest all with emergency contact on them.

12.01.2022 Sunshine Breakfast at Blue Gum With the lovely weather in the mornings, our educators have started to have our family groupings outside! What is 'Family Grouping'? It's a great way for our children to get to know one another, siblings to spend time together and build good foundations for friendships. So why not enjoy our breakfast in the company of friends warmed by the sunshine

10.01.2022 The Generation Club We have started up a community project called The Generation Club! We have invited the residents at the Mirrabooka Retirement Village to come in on a Monday once a month for morning tea to interact with the children. ... This month's morning tea of fruit, biscuits and freshly made scones (by the children) also included working together to manicure and plant veggies in our vegetable garden. The children also put on a dance show for them to enjoy. Recent research revealed the benefits of the elderly and young interacting and engaging with each other, we felt this project would be the perfect way to allow the two age groups to spend quality time together and learn from one another. The verdict? The children loved it! The next day, parents mentioned their children could not stop talking about the new friends they had made and all the fun they had

10.01.2022 What's been happening at Blue Gum. We have been super busy at Blue Gum having so much fun, I thought we should tell you all about it! Over the past few weeks, we have been busy, busy, busy, with a huge variety of learning experiences....Continue reading

09.01.2022 Fun in our garden. We love to be in the garden enjoying the fresh air and the freedom to move around. The educators take time to set up the garden area every day, reflecting on the children's interests maximising each child's individual learning.... The educators observe the children moving freely and exploring the activities, which provides information on the developmental and socio-cultural needs of the children. With critical reflection the eductors can provide opportunities and scaffolding, supporting the children within the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1896 1934).

08.01.2022 Green Fingers at Blue Gum! At Blue Gum we love to potter in our garden attending to the plants in our raised garden beds. We know that we must water the plants to ensure they grow and we have been rewarded for all our hard work with some strawberries and blueberries.... We really enjoyed picking them but of course the best bit was EATING THEM!!! Yum Yum!

08.01.2022 Generation Club Update On Monday the 18th of July some of the residents from the Mirrabooka Retirement Village to visit us at Blue Gum Cottage. The children wanted to make some scones to share with our visitors, Tom, Sheree and Pam; for our morning tea together. Sheree reminisced ith the children and educators that the smell and taste of the scones reminded her of her childhood days, she told the children that the scones were delicious!... Tom chatted with the children and also took this opportunity to visit the younger children in the Nursery. After a lovely morning tea of baking and conversation it was time for Tom, Sheree and Pam to leave, although Pam said she had such fun she didnt want to go but would definitely be back. We are all looking forward to our next generation club morning tea!

08.01.2022 Thank you to everyone who came to help celebrate Blue Gums 35th birthday. We were so lucky with the weather and we managed to enjoy all the fun activities. The pony rides were a great success, they definitely earned their carrots that day! Matthew Thistlewaite opened the celebrations explaining the importance of quality early childhood education and 35 years is a huge achievement, providing our local community and families with high quality childcare, well done Blue Gum! I would like to thank all the educators for making this day such a fun day, all the hard work was definitely worth it! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

08.01.2022 Blue Gum Cottage's 1st Creative Retreat Night! On Wednesday 5th May we held our very first creative retreat night which was Card Making. We had some yummy snacks to fuel our creativity, and of course a cheeky glass of wine or two! At first our brave participants were a bit overwhelmed with all the gadgets and equipment but soon relaxed and let their creative juices flow.... There was a choice of cards to make an abundance of decorative papers, embellishments and of course the obligatory 'bling' to chose from. We learnt new skill such as embossing and die cutting and colour choice and placement to make our amazing and individual projects. The creative retreat was booked for an hour, but everyone was having so much fun we finished crafting 2 hours later! Thank you to the parents and staff that joined us, it was lovely to have time to spend with you and giving you a little time to relax, chat and make! We look forward to seeing some more of you when we release the next date and time of the Creative Retreat Night! See more

07.01.2022 We have had such fun learning about Lunar New Year! February brings to us an exciting event on the calendar where we all join in our community to help bring in the new Lunar New Year celebrating with the Asian communities. Having our Chinese teacher Shelley here at Blue Gum, it enables us to have a wider knowledge of Lunar New Year and the festivities that Shelley shares with us. ... Shelley explained that they no longer call it Chinese New Year but Lunar New Year as there are not only people from China that celebrate but also people from other Asian cultures such as Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, Laos and many others. With 2019 being the year of the pig the children have been creating lots of artwork with pigs and cherry blossoms, making fans and decorating it using the colours red black and gold, which are considered good luck! Lots of free painting, imaginations flowing as the children express themselves through their individual creations. Some children chose to be experimental using all painting resources while others preferred to quietly select a few pieces and use softer brush strokes in their techniques. We had lots of discussions about differences relating to food and art from the Asian culture. Shelley demonstrated how to make noodles, where we helped measure the ingredients to make them. We helped to mix, roll the dough and through trial and error we stretched the dough. We followed Shelley who was guiding us in this Chinese age old custom of noodle making. Jennean and Louise joined in the cooking festivities with us learning how to make San choi bao (mince and vegetables wrapped in lettuce leaves) We helped chop all the ingredients, carrots, celery, and mixed bean sprouts into our bowl. We then added the mince to the mixture, we all stirred adding sauces. When the ingredients were fried they were ready to be added to our lettuce, wrapped up and ready to taste. Yum....Delicious!

07.01.2022 Blue Gum Cottage are the Winners! Well, you may have already heard but just in case you havent I wanted to let you know that Blue Gum Cottage Childrens Centre won the Randwick Business Excellence Awards 2020! Out of all the childcare centres in Randwick, there were 27 centres nominated and out of the 27, there were just 7 finalist us being one of them. Also, I nominated Louise Turner for the Outstanding Youth Award and we are so proud to announce that Louise was a finalist,... what an outstanding achievement Louise! The awards night took place on Wednesday 23rd October at Randwick Racecourse, so we glammed up, something you dont often do when working with children and excitedly waited for our category of Outstanding Childhood Centre to be called. Finally, the time had come, and the finalists were announced, and of course there was a large cheer from our table when Blue Gums name was announced. Then the amazing words "and the winner of the Randwick City Business Excellence Awards Outstanding Early Childhood Centre is Blue Gum Cottage Childrens Centre!" Wow!!! What an exhilarating feeling, we were all so proud to hear our name and go up on stage to except our award. It feels that all our hard work and Blue Gum Cottage has been recongnised as the outstanding centre that it is! Thank you to all of you that voted for us and a huge thank you to our parents who give up their time to be on the Parent Committee, as without them we cannot operate. CONGRATULATIONS Blue Gum Cottage Childrens Centre!!!

06.01.2022 Munch and Move is so much fun! At Blue Gum we all enjoy being a part of the Munch and Move program. Munch and Move is a fun, play-based program that supports the healthy development of young children. We use this program to encourage children's healthy eating and physical activity using a range of learning experiences. ... Through developmentally appropriate play-based active play, the educators' program scaffolds the development of Fundamental Movement Skills. Many developmental theorists, such as Piaget, Donaldson and Bowlby believe that the educators facilitate children's learning by planning a rich environment, with routines and play-based experiences appropriate for children's unique and holistic development. The children used the Munch and Move picture cards to practice balancing, hopping, jumping and running. The children had fun playing musical chairs, walking tentatively around the chairs antisipating when the music may stop, getting ready to run to claim the remaining chair. They also had great fun with the balls, working on their coordination whilst kicking and throwing them, gosh we all had so much fun and what a fun way to burn off lots of energy!

05.01.2022 Our New Community Street Library. We are so excited to announce that Blue Gum Cottage Community Street Library is now open. As a not for profit, community- based centre we understand the importance of our community and we have been continuously working to embed the sense of belonging with our community. We were so lucky to have had Mick Taylor, Harry and Annabelle's dad kindly build the community library for us, donating his labour and materials...Thank you Mick!... Once the library arrived, we were all very excited to get to work to paint and decorate the library. The children had so much fun painting together, chatting about how there will be books available for everyone to share. Once the base coat of paint was dry, we all set about adorning the community street library with a very personal touch.... our handprints! The children were very proud to be placing their painted hands to decorate the library. Once the library had been installed, some children carried some books, some for adults and some suitable for children to place inside the library. The children carefully climbed the little steps and placed the books into the library. If you haven't already checked out Blue Gum's very own community street library based in Kenny Avenue situated near the driveway, we would love you to do so. The idea is to borrow 1, read 1 and/ or leave 1, ensuring a continuous variety of books to share. Happy Reading!

05.01.2022 We love to make playdough! At Blue Gum, one of our favourite things to do is make some fresh, soft playdough. We are always excited to choose the colour and help the educators to measure out all the ingredients. It is really easy to make and we all love having a stir of the mixture, it can be quite tricky and you need big muscles! Once the dough is made, we can't wait for it to cool down, so we can begin to shape it and squeeze it. Playdough learning experiences help childre...n to develop their hand and eye coordination, mathematical skills and of course their social skills, as they have such fun chatting to their friends what they are making with their dough. Harrison is concentrating so hard, trying to make a snake from one end of the table to the other, fantastic measuring Harrison! Recipe for playdough:- 2 cups of plain flour 1 cup of salt 2 cups of water 2 tablespoons of cooking oil 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar food colouring/essential oils for smelln (optional) Playdough can be cooked on the hob or in the mircowave, so why don't you have a go and see how much fun it is!

04.01.2022 We love lunch time! At Blue Gum we look forward to our lunch. We get to practice our self help skills by serving our own lunch and pouring our water. We practice using our cutlery and the educators are here to help us if we are not sure what to do. Serving ourselves and using our cutlery helps us to improve our hand and eye coordination and builds our confidence in our own abilities, as it is important to practice these skills. Sometimes we spill things and make a mess but th...at is ok because by making mistakes is how we learn these skills, we just have to keep trying! Once we have served our lunch we take our plates and walk back to our table trying really hard not to spill anything, no mean feat for us young ones! It is also a very sociable time, where we get to chat with our friends about what we have been doing in the morning and what we would like to do after we have eaten our lunch. Whilst we are enjoying our lunch we are also working on our table manners and trying to remember to sit nicely and not talk with our mouthful, very important things to understand as we grow up. Once we have finished our lunch, we scrape our plates and take our things to help with the tidying up process, more self help skills are being practice and we learn that we all are responsible for the things we have used and need to help to tidy up. So, as you can see not only to we enjoy eating our lovely lunches but who would have thought we would be learning so much at the same time. Bon appetit!

03.01.2022 Sydney Sea Life Aquarium Excursion Over the past month, the Nurserys focus has been learning about sea life. What better way to dive straight in and see these beautiful creatures in the flesh at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium! The kids learnt more about our marine life, their ecosystems and how they all co-exist. Of course the apex predator, the shark , was the clear winner for the childrens attention. Another shock to the children was seeing how the cheeky penguins sur...vive outside Antarctica and how the Aquarium has replicated their environment to make them feel at home. The children returned to Blue Gum feeling inspired and excited to tell their families of their new learnings about marine life.

01.01.2022 We were delighted to welcome Matthew Thistlewaite to officially open our fantastic new garden. It was the opportunity to apply for a grant for the Stronger Community Program that gave us the funds to transform our garden and we are delighted with the results. The children absolutely love the changes and were so excited for the official opening. Thank you Matthew for taking the time to support Blue Gum Cottage Children's Centre, we are so grateful for the opportunity. The conditions of the grant were on the proviso that Blue Gum Cottage matched the amount received from the grant and this was of course only possible fro. The continued support of our families, so we all shot be very proud of our achievements. Thank you to all our families at Blue Gum Cottage. X

01.01.2022 Making Soup. As the weather has become a lot chillier, there is nothing better than to have a lovely hot soup to warm you up! So, at Blue Gum the children were excited to help Chele make some roasted sweet potato and capsicum soup.... First, we looked at all the ingredients we were going to use; 1 large red capsicum 1 large sweet potato with the skin on 1 large red onion 200ml of stock 200ml of cream garlic salt smoked paprika The children were keen to get started and with some help the children cut up the sweet potato into large chunks and then spread them on to a baking tray. Next the children carefully cut the capsicum in to small chunks and then we quartered the onion and also put them on to the baking tray. The children had to concentrate as we were using a very large knife but with Chele's help we all kept our fingers! lol We then drizzled some oil all over the vegetables on the tray and put them in the oven to roast for 30 minutes. While they were cooking, we prepared the stock and the cream in a jug. The smell in the centre was amazing as the roasted vegetables and spices smelt delicious! We then carefully put all the roasted vegetables into a blender a long with the cream and stock mixture and whizzed it all together. Once all the ingredients were nicely blended together we put the soup in to a sauce pan to heat up, ready to eat. There were very eager faces to try the soup, which the children ate for afternoon tea.....Mmmmmm...Delicious!

01.01.2022 Blue Gum Cottage are the Winners! Well, you may have already heard but just in case you haven't I wanted to let you know that Blue Gum Cottage Children's Centre won the Randwick Business Excellence Awards 2020! Out of all the childcare centres in Randwick, there were 27 centres nominated and out of the 27, there were just 7 finalist us being one of them. Also, I nominated Louise Turner for the Outstanding Youth Award and we are so proud to announce that Louise was a finalist,... what an outstanding achievement Louise! The awards night took place on Wednesday 23rd October at Randwick Racecourse, so we 'glammed up', something you don't often do when working with children and excitedly waited for our category of Outstanding Childhood Centre to be called. Finally, the time had come, and the finalists were announced, and of course there was a large cheer from our table when Blue Gum's name was announced. Then the amazing words "and the winner of the Randwick City Business Excellence Awards Outstanding Early Childhood Centre is Blue Gum Cottage Children's Centre!" Wow!!! What an exhilarating feeling, we were all so proud to hear our name and go up on stage to except our award. It feels that all our hard work and Blue Gum Cottage has been recongnised as the outstanding centre that it is! Thank you to all of you that voted for us and a huge thank you to our parents who give up their time to be on the Parent Committee, as without them we cannot operate. CONGRATULATIONS Blue Gum Cottage Children's Centre!!!

01.01.2022 We love Yoga! We all look forward to Katie from Inner Child Yoga coming to Blue Gum Cottage. Our Yoga sessions help us to relax and stretch out our muscles and one of our favourite positions is the Downward Dog.... Every yoga session with Katie helps the children to recognise their emotions and how to deal with them. Breathing is key to managing our emotions, teaching the children breathing techniques in a fun way. This encourages the children to recognise how they are feeling and gives them some positive strategies to deal with their emotions. We all notice a sense of calm come over the children and the centre once Katie has been and we cant wait for her to come and visit again! You can check out some of our lessons on Katies facebook page at - Inner Child Yoga [email protected]