Week 4

Hello again!

We've had another great week at OSHC. We've developed an interest in some new activities, as well as our usual favourites. Here is a snapshot of our week...

We had some lovely weather in week 4, so outdoor activities such as the playground and sports equipment were very popular. Lots of the children were interested in art - clay in particular - and card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Superfight. These card games are a really great way for children to practice their communication and problem solving skills!

A new activity that has been popular this week is sewing. We have had a large group of children spending their time at OSHC making pillows - we can't wait to see what they look like when they are done! They are putting a lot of effort and care into their projects.

We have a Pupil Free Day coming up on Friday 9th March - see below for more information.

 PUPIL FREE DAY

FRIDAY

9^th MARCH, 2018

LATITUDE

                                                               

We will be leaving OSHC at 9.30am and travelling to ‘Latitude’ at Greenacres.

We will be taking part in a 90 minute hosted session taken by latitude staff with supervision from OSHC staff. The activities include – trampoline, rock climbing wall, dodge ball, climbing ladders, google latitudeair.com for more information.

We will be back at OSHC 2.30/3pm

Spaces are limited, so please book in as soon as possible.

Breakfast will be provided until 8.30am.

Please bring LOTS of snacks and lunch.

Please wear clothes suitable for these activities, special grip socks will be provided.

Bookings need to be made by Tuesday 6^th March, 2018 to be able to plan adequate staffing.

Thank you, Dianne.

Please find hard copies of this letter at OSHC, and return your forms as soon as possible.

We hope you have a great week!

Maya and the OSHC team

Welcome to 2018

Hello to our OSHC families and friends,

Welcome to the 2018 school year!

After a period of inactivity, we are back online and will be uploading a blog post each week. We can't wait to share our OSHC experiences with you.

During term 4 in 2017, our OSHC centre was being renovated. During this time, we held OSHC in the SAC. We are very excited to be back in our centre this year! We are really enjoying the new layout. If you haven't already, please have a look around at pick up time!

Our January Vacation Care program was filled with lots of fun activities, with some of our favourites being nature play at Wild Imagination, making fresh smoothies and fruit kebabs at summer cooking day, and chilling out with some popcorn and our friends at the OSHC movie theatre.

It's been a great start to our school year, with some new faces joining our OSHC community. One of our favourite after school activities has been making artwork and sculptures with clay - have a look at some our creations!

This blog will be a great way to find out about all the wonderful things that are happening at OSHC. We will also be including important information and dates in our blog posts, so check in regularly to keep up to date!

Dates of Interest 2018

Pupil Free Days
Friday 9th March
Friday 8th June
Friday 24th August
Monday 29th October
Friday 16th November
OSHC available 7:30am-6:15pm

Last Day of Term (early finish)
13th April (whole school picnic in Belair Park)
6th July
18th September
14th December
OSHC available 2:15pm-6:15pm

Vacation Care
Monday 16th-Friday 27th April
Monday 9th-Friday 20th July
Monday 2nd-Friday 12th October
Monday 17th-Friday 21st December
OSHC available 7:30am-6:15pm

Special Days
Wednesday 19th September - Sports Day
Saturday 27th October - Strawberry Fair
Thursday 6th December - School Concert

If you haven't already, please collect your child's QR code to gain access to our Seesaw. We will also be posting regularly there. If you are having any issues with this, please don't hesitate to ask an OSHC staff member for help.

Until next week!
Maya and the OSHC team

Vacation Care July 2017

We have had a terrific vacation care period! We have played sports, explored museums, discovered creatures in the schools grounds and created and collaborated!!!

We started the holidays by switching on our scientific minds and learning about weird creatures from the lovely nerds at Mobile Science (Don't worry, they love being called a nerd). They had all the students engaged by comparing them to different creatures big and small, fast and slow. The students had a race and found their fastest runner who could run from one end of the SAC to the other in a quick fifteen seconds. The group were then shocked to find that a cheetah could cross that distance in only two! Our From this they had a go at drawing diagrams of different creatures. We also learnt about the star nosed mole that had an amazing ability to sense the smallest vibrations with its snout.

For the first week we had arcade games delivered to us to be spread out between the OSHC building and the SAC. We hire these every year, because with the cold wet weather we are driven indoors more often. We also encourage more arts and crafts, board games, reading and role playing games. But some students are here from seven thirty in the morning until six at night. It is nice to unwind and have a play with a mate. After some parents heard about the Daytona machine, they visited and compete against their kids. Confident that their experience with driving real cards was sufficient led to many being defeated by the kids who had had lots of practice!

Mid-week we took a lengthy bus ride to the Motor Museum at Birdwood. We had a ‘spot’ list of different things to look at on the way including unique road signs and livestock. While this was an absolute treat for the adults, Dianne and Tom being especially interested in their motor sports, it was also a great day for the kids. Over the years the Museum has developed to become a really engaging place for children. They spent time exploring the show rooms, racing Skalextric cars and building vehicles with lego. We were delighted to find a cut out of a young family that just happened to be the grandfather of one of our students.

On Thursday we put on our creative hats and made a range of puppets, from sock puppets to paper bags and finger puppets. The kids had fun creating and then making up games with them. Some people started to communicate only with their characters.

At the end of the week Animals Anonymous visited us with a group of their friends. We had the furry sugar glider, the scaly pythons, a stern looking tawny frog mouth and many more. The ladies introduced us to many creatures and taught us lots about them. They also worked as advocates for certain species who were becoming increasingly endangered. The bettong was a particular favourite of the kids. It seemed that many had never heard of them before. 

Although many may not be aware, OSHC is guided by ACECQA (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority). They are currently conducting a survey of families to better understand the factors that you consider when choosing a service. This helped them focus their organisation on what matters to you, the family! Follow the link.

In the second week we braved the wild weather and headed to Victor Harbor. Here we were lucky enough that the rain stopped every time we needed to move between the bus and the building. We spent time exploring the Whale Centre, looking at animals and ships and all things nautical. The kids got to compare themselves with different penguins and find out who was taller. We then got to learn about penguins from our guides and made some paper plate penguins and snow globes.

Tuesday was our craft day and we focused on Clay! Our children got creative and made a whole range of objects. Some decided to make something practical like a plate or trinket box with lid, while others made images of their favourite things. We also had some children make tom boys and try to learn how to knit.

Mid-week we cooked up a storm in the kitchen. With everyone getting involved to chop or tear vegetables and prepare two soups. At lunch time we sat down together to enjoy minestrone soup and pumpkin soup with some handmade damper. We are always impressed with how many veggies the kids are willing to eat when they have had a hand in making the dish themselves.

At the end of the holidays we made mini succulent gardens. Check them out below.



On our final day we had Dwayne Nelson come to teacher us some basketball skills. He focused on the five basic skills of passing, dribbling, rebounding, shooting and defending. After learning some skills we got to verse each other and have a small game of 1 v 1.

While we have activities planned for each day, we always like to let children initiate their own activities from their interests. We had one group that went witchetty grub hunting, they spent close to an hour turning over rocks, digging with sticks and searching around the vegetable garden. We also had one student looking for a challenging craft project, she ended up constructing a bird cage and filling it with tissue paper birds.

We look forward to seeing you all back next week at school!

July 7th 2017

We have had an incredibly varied last week of term! We finished off on Friday with a cruisy night and some special food. We had nachos and our normal selection of fruit, plus a cone or bowl of ice cream with chocolate topping, sprinkles or fairy dust. Two of our older girls also treated us with some gooey chewy chocolate brownies. We also put Penguins of Madagascar on in the long room and relaxed in bean bags.

We spent some time preparing OSHC for vacation care next week. We will be having some old school arcade games set up in the long room and homework room. We have put together some different craft activities and trialed them this week. Puppets made out of socks, bags and pop-sticks are organised for the first week so we had a go at trying them ourselves. 

Please remember during vacation care to send your children to us with appropriate clothing for the activities of the day. Although some sandals and boots are trendy they are not always practical for running in the playground, walking on excursions or joining in our activities. Please send along a spare pair of sneakers and a rain jacket when possible.

Everyone was getting into the disco spirit this week. When we could we played Just Dance and watched some cool clips on youtube of different style of dance. We all tried to do the worm on Thursday night with most people flopping around on the floor with no resemblance to a worm whatsoever. 

Brandon and Sarah have donated some of their old card games to OSHC. We now have two editions of Adventure Time Card Wars and Magic the gathering to play. We have been encouraging card and board games that practise problem solving, literacy and communication skills. 

As we have been forced to be inside more often because of the season, with wet weather and less time outside because of the earlier sunsets, we have found ourselves reading more books, playing dominoes and verbal games like twenty questions and guess what I'm thinking. We have also had a chance to play cards games. Sarah taught a small group how to play spit in your eye; a game that requires speed and focus. Some of the older girls then taught us how to play Trumps.

Students have been using our water colour pencils to try and draw galaxy styled paintings. Here is some of their work.

We are getting ready to plant some seedlings in spring. We are getting an early start by trying to sprout some from seeds! All the kids have been loving spraying them with water and comparing which ones are growing quicker than the others. 

In the SAC badminton has been a favourite for the past few weeks. We have started setting challenges for students. So far eleven hits in a rally is our best score. 

Look forward to seeing you at vacation care next week! Check our previous posts for the program if you aren't sure what we are doing!