What is Melbourne Cup?

The Melbourne Cup is an annual horse racing event where horses aged three or older race around a track at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It’s often called ‘the race that stops a nation’ due to its size and importance as one of the most prestigious racing events in Australia.

The Melbourne Cup always takes place on the first Tuesday in November. That means that the Melbourne Cup 2023 will take place on Tuesday 7th November. 

When is Melbourne Cup?

Tuesday, 7 November

You can have a day of laughter and memories in your centre by hosting your own Melbourne Cup party and using some of these ideas for activites:

• Everyone knows that Melbourne Cup is all about hats! A hat made from newspaper is easy, cheap and quick and it can be decorated with flowers and foliage collected from the garden!  Kidspot shows you a step by step way of making some smart hats suitable for Melbourne Cup.
• Why not have some racing fun, by first making your own Melbourne Cup Horse. Children to colour in their own horse printable. To make these horses ‘race-able’, sticky tape the hourse to a large papple popstick.
• For more activities click the following link: https://www.brisbanekids.com.au/host-great-melbourne-cup-party-toddlers/

From our overall summary comments:

“Your service is commended on its achievements in Exceeding the National Quality Standard. In particular, careful planning, reflective practice and willingness to collaborate with families and other community organisations to enhance children's learning and wellbeing demonstrate the commitment to quality by educators at your service.

 Management and educators demonstrate a willingness to consistently reflect on service processes to ensure the best possible outcomes for children and families are present. Practices within service delivery are fostered around meaningful engagement with families and the wider community”.

We are a 90 place service in North West Sydney catering for children aged six weeks to six years of age with approximately twenty educators working each day. We are honoured to be recognised as an Exceeding service!  It is deeply gratifying to have two officers visit our service and recognise the emphasis we place on reflection of our practices and our commitment to continuous improvement. Recognising our links with our families and the wider community also means a great deal to us as we absolutely love our families and wider community and have been proud to have been a part of this community for the past ten years.

In true Berry Patch style, we celebrated by taking all our educators out to dinner at a local restaurant.  It was a lovely celebration to highlight our achievement.  We are looking forward to the future and know our wonderful educators will proceed with even more dedication and passion for the industry than they have demonstrated thus far.  We thank all our educators, children and families for making Berry Patch such an awesome place to be!

What is Halloween?

Halloween is a popular American holiday for children and adults. It is celebrated on October 31st every year. Children dress up in costumes and  go after dark house to house, knock on the door and say  trick or treat! People then give the children "treats" like candy. Costumes can be scary. You will see many witches, monsters, ghosts and vampires but you might also see lots of children dressed up as fairies or princesses. It is also a time that people have Halloween parties where you can play fun games like bobbing for apples, go through a haunted   house, or have a costume party. You will also see lots of jack o'lanterns on Halloween.  

Many Australians celebrate Halloween, which occurs annually on October 31. It is also known as All Hallows’ Eve and is the day before All Saints’ Day. Costume parties are held and many children go trick-or-treating around this time of the year.

When is Halloween?

Tuesday, 31 October

Halloween Activities:

• Halloween dress up - children dress up in halloween outfits for the week.
• Host a halloween disco party
• Paper Strips Halloween Pumpkin - Develop cutting skills with scissors for preschool age children by making a paper pumpkin.
• Hand and foot painting - Make spooky Halloween inspired works of art with hand and foot prints.
• Fluffy Pumpkin Slime - Recipe here
• Straw Skeletons - Make a skeleton from straws or cotton buds.
• Puffy Ghosts - Glue and cotton balls, what could be more fun than that to create a super soft friendly ghost.
• Create Halloween shadow puppets

For further ideas and resources, click on the following links:

• https://one-child.com/595/10-halloween-activity-ideas-early-childhood-educators/
• https://www.weareteachers.com/halloween-classroom-games-activities-crafts/

What is National Grandparents Day?

Grandparents day is celebrated every year on the last Sunday in October. In 2023, Grandparents Day will be celebrated on Sunday 29th October. It's a day for Australians to say ‘thank you’ to their grandparents for their care and support and for sharing their knowledge, experience, and traditions with younger generations.

When is National Grandparents Day?

ACTIVITIES TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL GRANDPARENTS DAY

• Children bring in a picture of their grandparents as share with the educators and peers.  
• Make a Frame - Another thing most every grandparent loves is a picture of their grandchild. You can make it extra special by making them a frame. In making your frame you can get creative. You can make a frame from twigs, foam, seashells.The important thing is to make it unique and about your grandparents.
• read a book about grandparents
• create a family tree with your family and share it with your peers

What is Diwali?

Diwali is referred to as the festival of lights and is celebrated to honour Rama-Chandra, the seventh avatar. 

The festival is often celebrated through traditional Indian foods, dancing and musical performances. It's a colourful festival where it is encouraged to wear traditional Indian outfits while listening and dancing to traditional tunes.