Kool Kidz Rowville

Honoring Jemma Stapleton 🤍

At Kool Kidz Rowville, community is at the heart of everything we do, and some individuals leave an imprint on our hearts that stays with us forever. Jemma Stapleton was truly one of those beautiful souls. ✨

To celebrate her life, her vibrant spirit, and the joy she brought to our centre, we have created a memorial space here at Kool Kidz Rowville. This will be a special, peaceful place where her memory can live on, and where our educators, children, and families can pause, reflect, and remember the warmth she shared with us all.

Jemma will always be a cherished part of our Kool Kidz Rowville family. We are incredibly grateful for the love, support, and strength of our wonderful community as we come together to honor her legacy.

Thinking of Jemma’s family and everyone who loved her. 🕊️

Condolences and Support: In Memory of Jemma Stapleton

Dear KKR Families,

It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we share some devastating news regarding a beloved member of our Kool Kidz Rowville community. Our cherished educator, Jemma Stapleton, passed away while being on a family holiday to Thailand.

We were only made aware of this heartbreaking news yesterday late afternoon, and details remain very limited at this stage. Like all of you, our entire team is in a state of shock and deep sorrow over the sudden loss of such a vibrant, caring, and dedicated young woman. Jemma brought an irreplaceable warmth and kindness to our community, leaving a lasting, positive impact on the lives of the children, families, and colleagues she worked with. Her absence leaves a profound void in our hearts; she was truly taken from us far too soon.

To honor her memory and support her family through this unimaginable tragedy, a GoFundMe page has been established. The funds raised will assist with the significant costs of bringing Jemma home to Melbourne, allowing her family, friends, and colleagues to gather, celebrate her beautiful life, and say their final farewells.

Support the Stapleton Family: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-stapletons

During this period of immense grief, we kindly ask that our community respects the privacy of Jemma’s family as they navigate this painful loss.

Please know that we are here to support one another through this difficult time. If you, your children, or your family require emotional support, or if you simply need a safe space to talk, please do not hesitate to reach out to our leadership Team.

Our thoughts, prayers, and deepest condolences are with Jemma's family, friends, and loved ones.

Rest in peace, Jemma. You will be deeply missed, always loved, and forever remembered.

With our deepest sympathy,

The Kool Kidz Rowville Team

🍁🍂 Autumn Trees - Fork Painting 🍂🍁

The children in our Ladybugs room have been loving our art and craft activities lately! We’ve noticed so much active participation and pure enthusiasm whenever the paints come out. Since painting is a major current interest for many of the children, today we explored a unique texture experience: Autumn Tree Fork Painting! 🌳🎨

Instead of traditional brushes, the children dipped plastic forks into vibrant autumn colors and tapped them onto the paper. This clever technique created a beautiful pattern of lines, mimicking the falling leaves of the season. They repeated the process, layering different colors to create their own unique, beautiful autumn trees.

Not only was it incredibly fun, but it was also a fantastic way to develop fine motor skills and explore cause-and-effect through creative expression.

🎨 EYLF Learning Outcomes:
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners – Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, and imagination.

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators – Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media.

The Heart of Mentorship in the Honeybees Room! 🐝💛

We are feeling so proud today! One of our wonderful students just finished her placement in the Honeybees room, and she left behind this incredibly touching note and gift for our Room Leader, Jemma.

Seeing the "flavor map" for the chocolates and reading such kind words reminds us why we do what we do. Jemma, your patience, guidance, and passion for early childhood education don't just inspire the children—they shape the next generation of educators.

Thank you, Jemma, for being such an amazing mentor, and a huge congratulations to our student on completing her placement! We know you’ll go on to do great things. ✨

What a joyous excursion to Rowville Manor

Kool Kidz Rowville's children from the Butterflies and Dragonflies rooms embarked on a special journey focused on spreading community spirit, bringing immense delight to the residents at Rowville Manor. The residents' faces lit up with pleasure as the KKR children visited, and the children's infectious energy and enthusiasm brought boundless joy to everyone. Some residents were touched by the children's genuine engagement in the activities. The array of fun activities, including storytelling, colouring, ball pits, balloons, and puzzles, was a resounding success. The children showcased their talents by performing the Acknowledgement of Country and a heartfelt Mother’s Day song, filling everyone's heart with pride. As we bid farewell, we promised to return soon and hope to welcome the residents to KKR in the near future. This excursion was a truly uplifting experience, and our next community involvement will surely be just as exciting. It was a truly unforgettable and enriching experience.

Kool Kidz Rowville

🦋 Puzzle Portraits: Seeing Ourselves & Our Friends in our Butterflies Room🧩

Our "All About Me" theme took a creative turn this week! We turned our own faces into puzzles to explore identity, belonging, and the beautiful diversity within our group. 🎨✨

The children became little detectives, looking closely at eyes, hair, and smiles to guess which piece belonged to which friend. "That's Sarah's curly hair!" and "I know those glasses!" were heard all around the room.

This experience isn't just about fun—it’s about Visual Discrimination and Social Connection. By piecing together these portraits, the children are building memory skills and a deep appreciation for the features that make us all unique.

As the great theorist Jean Piaget suggested, children learn best by doing. Today, they "did" the work of building a community, one puzzle piece at a time. ❤️

Making a friendship tree 🌲
This morning after Hey Dee Ho, the children participated in a hand painting activity that will go on our friendship wall. Recently, educators have observed the children thoroughly enjoying each others company. At times, the children will collaborate and play together and during other times they will engage in parallel play, playing side by side and happily sharing the same resources.

Last week, educators begun creating a visual friendship wall at the children's height that highlight's times where they have shared happy experiences together. Since being added onto the wall, the children have loved to come along throughout the day and look at the photos of themselves and their peers together, some who have developed their language skills even naming a few of their friends. A part of this wall created was a friendship tree. The tree was bare until this morning when the children engaged in hand print painting. They first picked a colour and educators painted this colour onto their hands. The children were then encouraged to give a piece of paper a big high five. After creating their own handprint, educators then encouraged the children to give one of their friends next to them a high five with their painted hands, mixing the two colours together. After this they were encouraged to do another hand print which now shared the colour of one of their friends.💙❤️💜💛

After all the children had a turn, educators rolled out big butcher paper across the table and very excitedly the children tapped their painted hands onto the paper, creating lots and lots of handprints. Once dry these handprints are dry, they will create the beautiful leaves on our friendship tree. 👋

🌸 Happy Mother’s Day to all our wonderful Mums! 🌸

Dear families,

The Leadership team is beyond excited to share some incredible news with everyone! Our wonderful Nicola has officially been named Educator of the year 2025!

This award is a well-deserved recognition of everything we already know about her. She pours her heart into everything she does, often going above and beyond to make sure every detail is perfect.

Whether it is the children she teaches, the families she supports, or the colleagues she inspires, Nicola builds deep, meaningful connections with everyone she meets. She makes anyone feel instantly valued the moment any children or families walked into the room.

Nicola, we are all so incredibly proud of you. Your passion makes Kool Kidz Rowville a brighter place for so many little ones and their families.

Please join me in showering her with some love in the comments!