Merry Christmas

Thankyou to all the wonderful families who have spoilt the staff with presents and treats over the last couple of weeks. We all appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are able to enjoy some time off with your children !

We will be closed from tomorrow December 23rd and will return on January 9th 2012. We will also be closed for one further day on Friday January 27th due to the public holiday falling on Thursday 26th Jan .

Jeanine

Account payments

If your Direct Debit payment is normally due between now and January 9th it will be deducted from your account late (9.1.12)due to the centre closure . The normal payment cycles will begin again from 9.1.12.


Jeanine

Langley Room

Dear Langley Families,

We have had a very merry week listening to Christmas carols, playing with sparkly Christmas play dough and having a relax leading up to Christmas. Thank you to Jack T who brought in the Six White Boomers story and CD to share with us; it was a big hit with the children!

We wish all our families a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you back in 2012.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Hayley and Pippa

The Week before Christmas

We have been busy having lots of fun in the ELC, and enjoying each other’s company before we have an enjoyable break over Christmas. This week some of the children delighted in preparing some green jelly for afternoon tea for the whole centre which was well received at the end of the day…yum! They also enjoyed some face painting consisting of angels, a few Christmas trees, snowmen and Rudolph with his nose so bright was a real favourite amongst the children.
We wish Miss Mackay all the best with her new job and she will be sadly missed!
Wishing you all a very happy and safe Christmas!

See you in the new year..
Friday the 13th January is ‘Wheels Day’ ,bring a bike, scooter, pram or anything with wheels.

ELC Team

Christmas Activities

Next Tuesday the 3's and 4's will be having some Christmas themed activities and they are invited to add something "Christmassy" to their outfit for the day,

ELC Team

Staffing for 2012

Next year there will be a couple of changes to "who's who " in each room. At this stage our plan is as follows :
Langley
Miss Jess ,Miss Kerry ,Miss Hayley and Miss Pippa
Mead
Mrs Lock /Mrs Mckenzie , Ms Diotallevi
Cooper
Mrs Blake , Miss Caratozollo ,Miss Janine
Edgerley
Mrs Bishop/Mrs Cooper ,Mrs Nacca ,Miss Rachel
Chapple
Miss Marcus, Miss Gray

Miss Wendy Mackay will be leaving us at the end of her contract next week and taking up a Team Leader position at Il Nido Child Care Centre. She will be replaced by Miss Danielle Capes. We thank Miss Mackay for all her hard work during her stay at PAC.

Jeanine

Visit from Santa

It's Christmas time!!
Santa made a very special trip to come visit us at the ELC, even though he was so busy at this time of year! We were all very surprised and happy to see him. It was very exciting for everyone and we all got a yummy Christmas ornament to keep. We have all spent time during the week singing Christmas songs and reading Christmas stories. We were all busy little elves making Christmas decorations and cards. Both the 3’s and 4’s decided to make delicious Christmas cupcakes. We all helped to put the mixture together, put the icing on top and then we got to eat them all up! The children explained how we made the cupcakes:
‘mix it a lot’ said Daniel B
‘use some oil’ said Aidan
‘and 2 eggs’ mentioned Max A

‘milk and chocolate’ added Deacon
Nathaniel suggested ‘it gets bigger and bigger in the oven’.

ELC Team

Langley Room

The Langley children have been very keen on gardening this week and have been fascinated by the water disappearing into the soil of the lemon tree. I wonder what happens to the water once it has sunk into the soil……
The water sink and up, up, up to the leaves – Stella
Where has all the water gone? It’s gone up into the leaves now – Marcus
It’s all wet. It goes up the top quickly – Leonardo
It goes in the tree – Andre
Up the trees – Advaith
It gone, up in the tree. It up in tree – Eden
There’s no more water in there - Luc

Don’t forget we will be closed next Friday the 23rd December and will reopen on Monday 9th January.


Kind regards,

Jess, Kerry, Hayley and Pippa

Visit from Santa

Next Tuesday (13th Dec) we are expecting a brief visit from Santa at around 12.30pm .We hope he has a little something in his sack for each of our children ! All children are welcome to come at this time but parents must stay if it is not your child's normal day

ELC Team

Holiday Dates

Next Tuesday,13th December is the last day of term and our Teaching staff will then be away until Tuesday Jan 31st 2012.
The ELC will be open as normal until 22nd December . We will return on January 9th but will be closed on Jan 26th (public holiday) and Jan 27th. Please let us know if your child will be away at any time over this period.

Thankyou

Roseola Virus

There was a confirmed case of this in one of the 3 year old rooms last week. It is a viral infection which begins with a high fever followed by a rash . Please watch your child for any symptoms in the next week or so. A printout about the virus is on the information cupboard outside Chapple room.

In the Classrooms

Langley
Wow what a busy week we have had this week! We have been enjoying creating and building with the big coloured bricks outside this week. We have created all sorts of structures; some have been so tall we’ve had to use the step from the bathroom to be able to reach the top to put more on!
Our big three year old children had their moving up morning in the Mead room on Tuesday and we welcomed some new friends into the Langley room for a visit. On top of this, we have also been very busy creating a special surprise to take home to put under the Christmas tree for Mum and Dad, make sure you check your child’s pigeon hole next week!
We would like to thank Miss Bethany for all her help in our classroom over the last three weeks and look forward to welcoming back Miss Kerry on Monday.
Kind regards,
Jess, Hayley, Pippa and Bethany
Mead
Through out the term we have explored school buildings, houses and community facilities. The children have talked about their own homes and what they are made of. When we went on our excursion to Lightsview we were able to see houses and an apartment building in construction. The children have been busy creating a duplo town in the Mead Room full of fire stations, police stations, schools and hospital. In preparation for our class party we constructed an edible town.
"We are really going to need a skyscraper. Careful it doesn't fall down." said Tommi
"Ree..a fire station and fire engines too. A shed for the trucks." added Leon
"What about my house?" asked Jesse. "We can make it too."
Using carefully created edible cement we constructed our buildings, starting with the walls, then the ceiling. The fire station was completed with doors open for the trucks to drive straight in and the skyscraper was four levels high!!
Kind regards
Susan, Emma and Susan
Cooper
A small group of Cooper children helped to cook playdough this week. They added and measured the ingredients in the bowl and then stirred them...
“We mixed it all together” explained Chanel.
“We put some salt in there” said Angus.
“Some oil…flour” said Toby.
“Hot water” said Sebastian M.
We decided to make our playdough a little Christmassy..
“We used green water” added Toby.
“And glitter! Glitter!” exclaimed Chanel.
The children helped to knead the dough until it was smooth and had cooled down and then had great fun making Christmas trees and other festive shapes with their hands.
Kind regards and merry Christmas,
Ali, Rosalie and Janine
Chapple
Congratulations Chapple boys! The boys did a fantastic job with their beautiful singing voices - they really are proud Princes Men!
Thank you once again for attending our graduation ceremony, we hope you enjoyed it as much as the boys did.
We wish you a great Christmas and a happy New Year, thank you for a wonderful year.
All our best wishes - Suria, Sinead and Sue
Edgerley
This week we continued our investigations into castles and further explored the idea of day to day life inside them. We discovered that a castles town square is called the bailey and we also found out that places inside the bailey that used fire (like bakers, kitchens and blacksmiths) had to have stone roofs because hay ones would catch on fire! We still wondered about the role of arches and on the students request took another walk to our main building to check that this wasn’t a castle inside…it was just a building, how disappointing!
We also began a new inquiry this week as Zac shared all he knew about volcanoes in Hawaii and we looked through non-fiction books to see different types of volcanoes. Will we be able to squeeze this one in before the end of term??? We can always try!
Kind regards
Mel, Pip, Rachel and Renee

Chapple Graduation

Chapple Room will be having their Graduation Ceremony at 11.00am on Thursday Dec 8th . All Chapple boys and their parents (and Grandparents too) are invited to join us for this special occasion in the Town Square. (please dress your child in uniform even if it is not their day )

ELC Team

Staffing for 2012

There will only be one change to the Teaching staff in the ELC next year with the return of Miss Alexandra Marcus to Chapple room. All the other teachers will remain in their current classrooms.

Jeanine

Transition Sessions

There will be information sessions for all parents whose children are moving into Langley , Mead or Chapple rooms next year on Monday 5th December at 4pm ( parents only please). All current Mead and 3 year old Langley children will then move into their new rooms for a visit on Tuesday 6th December from 9-10.30 am . Children who do not normally attend on Tuesdays are welcome to come but parents must stay with them . Children new to Langley will also visit from 9-10 am.
The boys in Chapple room will be going up to the Prep School for their final visit on Tuesday also from 8.50 am to 10.55 am. Please send a healthy snack and drink with them. Chapple students who do not attend the ELC on Tuesdays may go straight to the Prep School Office.

ELC Team

Holiday Dates

Please remember to fill in the holiday booking sheets to let us know if your child will be away over the school holiday period,

Thankyou
ELC Team

New Baby

Congratulations to Amy and Steve Gavin and big brothers Elliott and Marcus on the birth of Benjamin Daniel last week !

Nativity Video

If any parent or grandparent happened to video our Nativity play last week we would love a copy so that the children could watch themselves and each other !

Jeanine

In the Classrooms

Langley
Ahoy me hearties! In response to Harry’s spontaneous boat role play in the sandpit last week, we have added props to the sandpit to further extend the children’s play scenarios. We have added a steering wheel, sea creatures and a sail to our boat. The children have also created, imagined and suggested some of their own props;
“Get paddles” commented Jack S retrieving the spades from the sandpit to use as paddles,
“Put sea weed” suggested Eden,
“Lobster” observed Hugo M
“I do a sail” said Jacob as he helped to create the sail for the boat,
“I’m dotting all around” commented Harry as he drew dots on the sail.
Kind regards,
Jess, Hayley, Pippa and Bethany
Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
Following the Nativity, and in preparation for the festive season, the Mead children have been busying themselves in many related activities. They are printing, wrapping, drawing, painting and decorating. The children were joined by their ELC friends from other classes in a joint Christmas Tree decorating venture. Have a look as you enter the ELC foyer at our wonderful tree!
We have had discussions about what Christmas means to us.
"I love circling things in magazines that I would like from santa" -Tommi
"I like buying the Christmas turkey. I cook it!" - Jack O
"I like when I put my Christmas tree up. I already put my lights on my tree" - Milo
"I love the Christmas ham. Mmmmm!" - Sebastian
"If I am good I will get a skateboard and a guitar!" - Gabe
Best wishes and ho, ho, ho!,
Emma M, Susan and Emma G Cooper
Last week we went for a walk around the Prep School and looked at the different sorts of buildings and structures there and on the way. The children were most interested in ways of going up, such as ramps, stairs and a lift that we found near the library. We also looked at shapes and patterns and the different materials that buildings are made of. This week we revisited the photos that we took on our walk and the children remembered and discussed what they had seen, then used black pen and wash paint to make pictures of the places...
“Another tennis court and I saw a gate… AND a roof – a stripy one” said Alyssa.
“The stairs, they’re brick” said Sophie.
“There’s five stairs. Up the stairs I saw some children down there” recalled Bailey.
“This is Charlie’s school. It’s where they have a lift” Finn told us.
Kind regards,
Ali, Rosalie and Janine Chapple
This week in the Chapple Class we have been busy with Christmas craft and counting activities. The children have enjoyed making Santa beards and decorating Christmas trees. On Wednesday we were involved in the school assembly in the Anzac Hall where we showed a short slide show of the children's work from our Build It Up unit as well as a movie about a Building Alphabet that the children made. They did a fantastic job of singing, building and knocking the blocks down at the end to give everyone a big surprise!
We have a busy week ahead of us, please refer to the weekly diary for all the details.
Warm wishes, Suria, Sinead and Sue

Edgerley
This week in Edgerley Room we explored all things knightly. We spent a lot of time exploring non-fiction books about castles and knights and made some interesting discoveries. We discovered that the Lord or Lady’s family in a castle lived in the keep and that knight’s and soldiers lived on the top floor of the keep to protect the family. We also discovered that people didn’t keep their clothes in cupboards in castles, instead they kept them in chests (just like treasure chests). We were very interested in knights and learned that knights were very good men who served the king, country and God. Girls couldn’t be knights in the olden days but our Edgerley girls were happy to play the role of princesses (pink ones!). We have had lots of fun playing knights this week and there may be some interest in knight play at home. Our Edgerley boys understand that knights were helpful and helped others and don’t run around chopping peoples heads off. We hope that you have good helpful knights at home too!!
To follow up on Oliver’s herb show and tell and the links Alex made between the herbs and lasagne, next week we plan to make fresh pasta with herbs in it. If there are any Mum’s and Dad’s who know how to make fresh pasta from scratch who would like to come in and assist (the very inept and unculinary!) Mrs Bishop we sure could use some help! Please e-mail Mrs Bishop at mbishop@staff.pac.edu.au
Have a lovely weekend
Kind Regards
Mel, Rachel, Pip and Renee