Langley Nativity Costumes

Dear Langley Parents,

Please note that there has been a slight change of plans for the Langley childrens costumes for our Nativity play. The children will still need some denim bottoms to be brought in but the centre will be providing them with a white t-shirt for the day.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused!

Thanks,
Jess

Christmas Recipe Book

Dear Chapple and Edgerley families,

Just a friendly reminder to keep those Christmas recipes coming in to compile into our group recipe book. Please email them to Ms Giorgio at jgiorgio@staff.pac.edu.au We look forward to trying some of the delicious recipes but please remember that we are a nut free centre.

Thanks,

Chapple and Edgerley staff

Christmas Tree

To celebrate the joy of Christmas, we are considering getting a real Christmas tree for the centre. Please let us know if you are able to assist us in sourcing one OR delivering one to the centre!

Thankyou

In the classrooms

Chapple

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,

As part of our unit of inquiry this term, we have been looking into what makes us different, special and unique. It has been a challenging concept for the class to grasp, but one we will continue to focus on and develop throughout the term. We have drawn our side profiles using shadows, measured our height and weight, drawn our portraits and are currently working on special boxes that contain pictures, photos and smells that each individual child likes. Here is some of the dialogue from recent discussions we have had in the class. Next we will broaden the topic by trying to explain what characteristics we value in our friends that make them special to us.

What Makes Us Special
Some people have curly hair and blonde hair. Zoe
We have different ways to make things. Xander
I have different favourite colours everyday, I don’t think everyone else does. Tommi
I have different toys than other people. Xander
Because I’m funny. Ryan
I have more toys than anyone in this class. Jack
Sometime when I go walking I skip across the road when the cars aren’t coming. Zach H
Cause my favourite colour is red and yellow and it’s called firey. Gabe
I have different coloured skin. A whitey colour. Aston
You mum and dad (make you who you are). They use cement and a round thing with holes in it and they put it in your tummy and whoever makes it is God. God is like your mum cause God is somebody that makes you and your mum is somebody that makes you. Then you have to go to the hospital to get the baby out. But make sure you’re married first otherwise they can’t see the baby and oh oh! There’s nothing in there! Owen

We also wish Miss Freer all the best for her wedding this Saturday and can’t wait to have her back. Mrs Nacca will be with us in the Chapple Room from now on, which we are very thankful for!

Chapple Team

Edgerley

Dear Parents,

This is week we have continued our investigations about birthday celebrations with many children sharing pictures from their 4th birthdays. We have created a display board of photographs which the children are returning to frequently as they engage in discussions and share their memories. We will be continuing our birthday discussions next week and would love for those children who have not yet shared a photograph to do so next week. If your child has already shared a photo this week we'd like for them to bring along a special birthday present that they have received (please no toys).

Don't forget to send in your traditional Christmas recipes. If you are coming and sharing a plate of your recipe please remember that we are a nut free centre.

Thank you,
Juliana and Coney

Mead

Dear Parents and Friends,
This week the children have been busy extending their knowledge of silkworms and their anatomy. The children have been noticing the different body parts especially how they eat. To highlight the features, habitat and habits, Mrs Cooper brought some amazingly big earthworms from her garden. We set them up on a tray and did some recording of the children’s ideas…

Eden exclaimed “That’s a huge one!"
James W shared “Look how big they are!”
Abhi said “These are smaller” as he pointed to a couple of tiny ones wriggling in the dirt.
Izabella noticed “They have no legs”
Luca shared “They eat dirt!”
Sebastian said “I’ve seen one earthworm at my house.”
After a little while James noticed the worms had disappeared, “Where have they gone?”
He dug around a bit and found some under the dirt. Izabella was brave and picked up one of the huge ones “He’s not really hard!” as she gave it a pull and squeeze. Abhi noticed that there were no worms on view either “They’re sleeping” as he covered the worms with even more dirt.

The children were fascinated to touch and search for the earthworms in the soil. As we spend more time observing, discussing and sketching the earthworms and silkworms we shall make interesting discoveries about their similarities and differences.

Many thanks,
Emma, Pip, Cristina and Heidi

Cooper
Dear Friends of the Cooper Room,

This week we have been involved in all sorts of activities. Our interest in stories has provoked lots of ideas for play and investigation. We have read many versions of "Jack and the Bean Stalk" and planted our own bean seeds to see if we could grow a beanstalk too. The children have also been enjoying hearing the Christmas story about baby Jesus, born in a stable. The children have been retelling their version of the story using a small wooden Nativity set.

"We were all babies, like Jesus," said Zac
"Mrs Blake had a baby but his name is Edward," added Liam "not Jesus!"
"Ammar has a baby too!" said Henry
"My baby is a boy. He is my baby brother." said Ammar

Sabian also shared a kite he made at playgroup which has now become a new interest in the class - kite making. The weather has been perfect over the last few days to test out our kite flying skills. Next week we might head to the big oval to fly a real kite.

Lastly we welcomed Miss Bowden back from holidays with a big warm reception. She shared many pictures of Singapore with the children and kindly gave us some beautiful chopsticks. Today we cooked some yummy rice to test out the chopsticks and our skills at using them. What fun! What tricky rice to eat! What a mess, but it was YUMMY! Join us for more yummy treats in our Chinese Restaurant next week!

Kind regards
Susan and Coral

Langley

This week the Langley children have been very excited to discover some silkworms in the tank in our room. We have been observing them through magnifying glasses and watching them wriggle about and chomping on the mulberry leaves. The children have enjoyed helping Miss Nicole and Ms Kerry change the leaves daily. We have also enjoyed some great conversations with the children about the silkworms.

“I see leaves,” said Dougal
“Dat leave has a hole,” said Charlie A
“Why did you take da poo poo out?” Dougal asked
“They don’t want to live in dere poo poo” Charlie A responded
"They called silkworms,” Chase told us
“Dat one bigger, that one little, dat one hiding in his room” Charlie A said

“Do bite us?” Chase asked

“No they don’t bite, they are busy eating their leaves” Miss Nicole told the children.
“Leaf from mums garden,” Said Chase
“I garden with my mum,” Said Dougal
“They’re good, day not biting, day don’t have tongues” said Chase

“What will they turn into a butterfly or moth?” Ms Kerry asked the children

“A frog,” said Thomas M

“Gon to be a moth,” said Alec

Some of the children have been very keen to hold the silkworms and are learning that they need to be very gentle as they are very delicate. We will be sending the silkworms home this weekend with one of our class members to help look after them and feed them.

Best wishes,
Kerry, Nicole, Ange and Hayley

Annual Leave

I will be on annual leave from Monday 22/10 and returning on Monday 5/11. Mrs Jess Catt will be managing the centre in my absence so please contact her for any help you may need . Miss Hayley has returned to us on a casual basis and will be working in the Langley room on most days,

Jeanine Dry

Silk Worms

Our Silk Worms have arrived so please start bringing in the Mulberry leaves for them to munch through !

Thankyou

Donations Please

Dear families,

The Langley children have been exploring different personas using dressups over the last couple of weeks and we are keen to continue with this experience. If anyone has any old hats, bags, shoes or sunglasses etc that they are able to donate it would be much appreciated! Please pass on to the Langley room staff.

Thanks

New Baby

Congratulations to Mrs Blake and her husband Tom on the arrival of Edward Michael on Sunday 14th October.  Everyone is doing well and we are looking forward to a visit from them soon.

Edgerley and Chapple Rooms

Dear Edgerley and Chapple Parents,

In the week beginning 19/11/12  the Edgerley and Chapple rooms will be having a 'Traditional Christmas Fare'  morning.  You are invited to come along and share a dish of your family's traditional Christmas recipes and stay and make a decoration with your child that we will hang on our classroom tree.  We will have a fixed date later in the term but for now we'd like to begin collecting together copies of the recipes so that we can create a recipe book.  Even if you don't think you'll be able to attend we'd still like to include your family.  Miss. Giorgio will be collecting together the recipes, you can email them to her at jgiorgio@staff.pac.edu.au

Thankyou,
Miss. Marcus and Miss. Giorgio

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,

After the holidays several children returned to Chapple Room with stories of their travels. Dillon had been camping and he shared his adventures with the class. They eagerly listened as he told them about what he did and what you need to go camping. Jesse helped list necessities of camping equipment and then other children began to get involved.

‘We need jumpers and a hood jacket.’ Jesse

‘You have to bring your sleeping bag and your pyjamas.’ Dillon

‘We need sunscreen and we could read a book.’ Harry H

‘I’ve got marshmallows and a torch.’ Seth

‘And we need tissues for if we get boogers so we can use them for the night.’ Dillon

Miss Freer then brought in her tent and we made a list of things we’d need for our camp set up. We went to collect sticks for the camp fire and made our own homemade marshmallows to toast on the fire. Miss Freer’s husband-to-be came in and we did some campfire cooking with him. It’s been a great journey and the whole class has been involved and enthusiastic. We are looking forward to seeing where this experience leads next.

Chapple Room Team


Miss Freer will be on Leave from Tuesday 23rd Oct for her wedding and Mrs Nacca will replace her.

Edgerley Room

Dear Parents,

As we start our song practise for the Nativity, we have begun to discuss the Nativity Story.  We have been talking about the shooting star that the shepherds and Wise Men followed to find the baby Jesus. Also how, unlike Mrs Blake's and Mrs Bishop's babies, Jesus wasn't born in a hospital but in a shed, with sheep and cows !  The children are enjoying exploring the Nativity scene that we have set up in the block corner.  We are still talking and thinking about birthdays and this week our home corner has turned into a birthday party.  But in order to have some guests we need to send our invitations and the only way to do that is through the post, so together we made a post box.  We hope the postman will come and deliver our invitations!

Thanks,

Juliana & Coney

Mead Room

This week the children have welcomed some silkworms to the classroom. We have had them out for the children to observe and discussions have been most interesting!

Mrs Cooper said “Silkworms only eat mulberry leaves.”

Raphael shared “ I can see one silkworm having a sleep.”

James S.  reflected “I can see some silkworms eating.”

Sebastian observed” They’re growing!”

Raphael continued “They’re black!”

Eden said “One’s having another sleep.”

Jacob noticed “That one’s crawled up.”

William shared “He was crawling into a little ball.”

Lucas observed “They’re eating the leaves.”

Andre asked “I’d like to hold one.”

Eden giggled “He tickled my finger.. I tickled the worms too…”

Raphael noticed “They have little eyes and little noses!”

We are really looking forward to watching how they change and grow as they eat and eat and eat!

Cooper Room

Dear Parents and Friends of the Cooper room,

It has been another busy week in the Cooper Room, especially with Miss Bowden being away on holiday. The children have continued to be interested in birthday celebration and created many cakes, pancakes and treats with the playdough. We have also continue to test out our amazing cutting skills. This week we folded pieces of paper and then cut through all the layers to create amazing , magical patterns. Some children thought they could even create masks! Kristian bought in an egg to grow in a bowl of water. We are all eagerly awaiting the surprise when the creature pops out! What will it be?
All children have started to work on their self portraits and tell us about their favourite activities. Our portrait gallery will be open soon.

"In my picture I'm not happy. I have curly hair. My feet are hard to draw. I love playing and making things with play dough."  Hugo Sanders
"I love to paint at Kindy. I am good at painting. I am drawing a happy face for me. I have curly hair - my hair's not long but my Dad's is long." Liam

Kind regards
Susan, Rosalie and Emma (Relief staff)

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

The children have recently taken a keen interest in bugs. We have been searching in the garden, discovering all different sorts of bugs including spiders, ants and slater bugs. We have been talking about how we can look after the bugs in our environment and keep ourselves safe, remembering not to squash them!

To examine some of these bugs more closely, we have been looking at some bug specimens at the light table, exploring non fiction texts about bugs and engaging with large plastic bugs in the sand trough. In keeping with this interest, we have introduced some silk worms to the classroom for the children to watch grow and change. If anyone has access to mulberry leaves, we would love a constant supply over the coming weeks!

Best wishes

Jess, Kerry, Nicole and Ange

CAFHS Checks

There are still a few timeslots available for these 4 year old screenings if you would like to book one ,

Jeanine

Big Boy Breakfast photos

These are now available to purchase on Festival Photos website.
To view any of our ELC photos go to www.festivalphoto.com.au and go to View Your Photos. From the drop down menu select Prince Alfred College and the User name is PAC. Make sure 'school admin number' is selected and enter ELC2012 and login. You should then be able to select the year and the event and order photos on line.

Mulberry Leaves

We will be having some Silk Worms at the centre over the next couple of weeks. If anyone has a Mulberry tree we would love some leaves to feed them ,
  Thankyou

Edgerley Room

Dear Edgerley Parents,

This week in Edgerley we have enjoyed having Mrs. Bishop for one last week. We have been talking about what we think her baby will be.  Together we have made a graph and our guess is that the baby will be a boy.  The children have also begun to think about traditions, particularly in relation to birthdays.  We discussed what we always do at birthdays;

“Birthday cakes” Cooper

“I had my birthday at the gymnastics gym and I had a huge Elmo cake” Caleb

“Presents” Sophie

“Friends come over” Athan

“Sing Happy Birthday” Olivia

I would like to thank you all for your warm welcome to the Edgerley class.  I am enjoying getting to know the children and I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the term with such a great group.

Juliana and Coney

Dear Edgerley Parents,

I would like to take a quick opportunity to thank you for all your support during the term, and well wishes as I leave to go on maternity leave. I would also like to thank Coney Rocca and Pip Cooper for being such a great team. I am thrilled that Ms Juliana Giorgio is replacing me as the Edgerley Room teacher and from my time working with her previously I know that the children will have fun packed, noisy, wonderful days with her…just the way they like it!!  Although Mrs Cooper has moved to the Mead Room it makes leaving the children so much easier knowing that they will be in the exceptional hands of Mrs Rocca, with whom Pip and I have both enjoyed working with so much. She is a very exceptional educator, just right for an exceptional group of children !

I wish all the children the best of luck as they continue on their respective educational journeys .I hope that I might see some of your familiar faces upon my return in a year’s time.

Kind regards and warm thoughts

Mel

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,
Thank you to all the famillies who have sent in cards and gifts and who even came to the church for my wedding. I have felt very spoilt! Now it's Miss Freer's turn. She will be leaving us on Monday 22nd for a couple of weeks to get married and have a well earned, relaxing honeymoon. I can't believe this is our final term in Chapple Room! It is going to be busy as usual, with the graduation, Nativity and lots of birthdays.
We also welcome our three new students to Chapple Room this term. Zoe and Brodie Clarke and Xander Green have joined us and have settled in well. All the children have helped to make them feel welcome. We are looking forward to a wonderful term with them.
Thank you,
Chapple Room Team

Cooper Room

It has been a lovely week in the Cooper Room. We have spent time getting to know Mrs Lock and played lots of group games to get to know each other and further develop our knowledge of one another's names. The children have been very helpful and settled back into the class routines well. The children have also been very interested in the bubbles of colour on the light table. As the gel moved through the cylinders children shared their joy and ideas. Come in and see them next week and share your ideas..

“The poo is coming. It’s pooing bubbles.” Jarrah

“It’s jelly!” said Pauline

“The bubbles are coming. They coming out the little holes. It’s coming out of the gutters.” Kristian

“It’s green ink, it’s like Christmas all over again.”

“There jelly.” said Harrison

“They look pink and red. Their still going,” Hugo Sanders

“I like it spinning round. They mix and then go back to the dots!” Jarrah

“Look what happens when you roll it on the side.” said Mrs Lock

“When you roll it on the side it makes the bubbles really long and then tiny small.” added Oliver

Kind regards

Susan and Coral

Mead Room

Dear Mead Parents,

The children have settled quickly back into the term. One of the favourite places in our room this week has been the home corner set up with birthday balloons, party blowers, candles, pattypans and playdough. The children have been so busy wrapping presents and writing cards and invitations to present in their birthday play. Many of our children will be turning four over the coming months so exploring birthdays is very relevant to everyone! Our show and share next week will focus on sharing birthday celebrations with photos from home.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Emma, Pip, Cristina and Heidi

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

We were excited to discover a newly arranged classroom when we arrived at Kindy on Monday. To begin our investigations around our unit, Who We Are, we have been observing ourselves in the mirror and creating self portraits and we have been using costumes and dress ups to explore different personalities and characters. Some of these have been very funny!

We have also been keen to explore our shop pretend play corner. The children have been taking it in turns to be customers and shop assistants. Not only have we been developing our social play skills through this experience but we have also begun to talk about money and monetary units as we pay for our different items and collect our change. We look forward to growing and developing this pretend play in the coming weeks.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Amelia and Nicole

Miss Amelia will be on annual leave from next Monday 15^th October for four weeks. We hope she has an amazing holiday and look forward to welcoming Miss Ange back into our classroom to cover her.

Class Photos

Don't forget these will be taken next Thursday at the following times :
Edgerley 9.00 am
Chapple  9.30 am
Cooper   10.00 am
Langley   10.30 am
Mead       11.00 am

Please return your order envelopes prior to the day as only families who have returned these will have photos   taken. Please make sure your child is in ELC uniform even if it is not their normal attendance day.

Jeanine

Chapple Room

Dear Families and Friends,

We've had another lovely week of holidays ! Beautiful weather and so many happy faces! One again this week has been directly children lead. We haven't totally stuck to the program as the children have given suggestions as to what each new day should bring which is AMAZING!

The children have really enjoyed creating patterns this week. Using bottle tops, lids and the circular carpet mats, the children have worked beautifully together to create some "pretty impressive" (as Tommi would say) designs.

The change around in the room has received fantastic feedback from the children, although they are asking when it will be "back to normal". The children are finding new ways to use the space and it has extended their play ideas.

Sadly today we say goodbye to Henry as he starts a new adventure beginning school ! You have been such a joy in the Chapple room and a great friend. We will miss you but know that you will have the best time in Reception! Congratulations Henry !

Term 4 begins next week and we will welcome back the newly married Miss Marcus ! We're looking forward to another great term of fun ! The last term before you all go to school, time flies!

From Miss Freer and Mrs Nacca 

Edgerley Room

Dear Parents

With the beautiful weather we had this week it was certainly a great time for us to enjoy our outdoor play. We spent lots of time exploring the PAC campus and we've discovered where the big Senior boys spend their free time and lunches. We had a great time playing chasing games in the hockey pitch and played our circle games under the cool shade of the tree in the back oval.We loved our baby bird song too.  For some reason the children thought that since we were sitting in a circle we should make a camp fire. The children gathered a few sticks, leaves and bark and rubbed sticks together to make fire but we had our water bottles close in case we needed to put it out. Amazing how much fun pretend play can be ! To top it off in the distance we could hear fire sirens but we made sure it wasn't us !

Indoors we've noticed that our sprouts have grown beautifully and we even tried tasting the snow pea sprouts.  In the block corner we had lots of things going at once. Some children were in a car racing game, some were building a car shed for broken cars and others were building a ranch for lots of animals. We also made some cool sounding shakers using the cardboard tubes by wrapping them in paper and masking tape and filling them  with different materials such as beer crowns, small and big pebbles, wheat grains and dried pasta and we enjoyed listening to the different sounds they made. We painted our shakers in our favourite colours too. When they dry we will definitely make some cool music with them.

It has been a wonderful week with the children engaging in their chosen activities in and out of the classroom. Looking forward to the next holiday ahead.

Coney

Cooper and Mead Rooms

Dear Cooper and Mead families

For the last week of the holidays, we have had an exciting time enjoying the weather outside. We became detectives and found a secret drain cover which led to a pipe. When we used our spanner to twist the pipe lots of water came out of the nearby fountain. All the children had great fun splashing in the puddles and making footprints on the dry concrete.

We also made orange ice cubes, and waited a whole day whilst they were in the freezer. After waiting patiently they were ready to eat and we found a perfect spot in the shade outside to enjoy the cold treat.

We have had fun in the holidays, and look forward to welcoming back all the children and teachers to the new term.