New Babies

Congratulations to Matthew and Mikala Amber on the arrival of William Benjamin on Jan 2nd. A Brother for Charlotte and Jack (Cooper Room)





Also to Stuart and Ann Warwick on the arrival of Grace Audrey on January 29th , a sister for James (Chapple Room)

Welcome

Dear families,

Welcome back to the school year for 2014! We have excitedly opened our new rooms this week and welcomed lots of new children and families to the centre. We look forward to an exciting year ahead as we settle into our classrooms and make new friends.

Each term, we focus on and explore planned Units of Inquiry as part of our programmed classroom curriculum. Our Units of Inquiry for this term are:

Unit title: Celebrations

Central Idea: We make choices that affect our own health and wellbeing.

Transdisciplinary theme: How we express ourselves

Our lines of inquiry are:

• How we express beliefs/feelings through the arts
• The purpose of celebrations
• Celebration similarities and differences

Our guiding questions are:

• What is a celebration?
• Why, how, when do we celebrate?
• Who do we celebrate with?
• What is the purpose of celebrations?
• Are all celebrations happy?

Unit title: Body and Mind

Central Idea: Celebrations allow us to express our feelings and beliefs.

Transdisciplinary theme: Who we are

Our lines of inquiry are:

• Caring for your body
• Healthy mind
• Body parts and functions

Our guiding questions are:

• How do our bodies work?
• How do we care for our bodies?

 

 
Best wishes,

ELC staff

 Some snapshots of our week !

Food in the Centre

Please remember that no food should be brought into the centre with out checking its suitability with a staff member. There are several children in the centre with severe allergies and many packaged foods contain traces of products that cause these. Please wait until you are outside the centre to give your child a home time snack and  remind your older children not to bring or eat food in the centre also .

Thankyou

Items Needed

We are adding to our dress up supplies and would love some donations of handbags, dresses, coats, shoes, hats, jewellery ,uniforms or costumes(no super heroes please) . We would also like cane baskets, buttons and ribbons,

Thankyou

Uniforms

Please note that our preference is for Moroon pants/shorts/skirts but if you are unable to get these please keep to neutral tones of navy, denim or grey. Pants must be plain with no prints ,stripes ,logos etc. Footwear needs to be sandals or sneakers that are supportive and suitable for lots of running, climbing, PE classes etc. Thongs, Crocs, plastic sandals ,gum boots or slip on shoes are not suitable for all day wear for young growing feet,

Thankyou

Date to remember

Dates to remember next week:

Tuesday  28th Jan : Come dressed in Aussie clothes (Eg. Red, white, blue or green and gold) to celebrate Australia day (there may be some water play involved so pack labelled spare clothes please)

Term starts Thursday 30th January , Teachers return and normal classes resume

Edgerley and Chapple Rooms

Dear Edgerley and Chapple families and friends,

What a busy week this has been for our  friends. We said our goodbyes to our peers going to their schools next week and welcomed new ones having their visits.

We further explored ‘mermaids’ and ‘mermen’ by painting them and dressing up. Lots of sparkly tails splashing on blue waters and listening to waves using pretty shells.

So many questions  were asked about these mythical creatures. Some answers were given too.

Where do mermaids live? Oliver K

How do mermaids do a wee? Mrs. Rocca

The wee comes out of the tail. Out in the bottom. Gabby

Are mermaids scary? Henry

NO! Ariel is not scary! Kristian

I can see lots of mermaids in the globe. Archie

The marble run has been a popular activity which help us solve problems, share and take turns. Thanks to Kristian for bringing his lego diggers to share. The children had so much fun digging through the sand and tipping them out in little containers.

We are also currently keen on measuring everything! Even the teachers got measured up  - body, arms, legs, neck and all! Though they weren’t sure who among the teachers is the tallest, the children are definitely certain that Mrs Rocca is the shortest! 

The highlight of our week was our Wet and Wild Day! We all had fun running around the sprinklers, making water balloons and blowing and bursting bubbles. Wet, soaked and drenched they couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces.

We hope you enjoy celebrating Australia Day and can’t wait to see you again as we welcome our teachers and new friends to Term 1 2014.

Mead and Cooper Rooms

Dear Mead and Cooper families,

Last week we saw a lot of building with different kinds of blocks, so this week we added safety construction hats and cones so that your budding builders could get straight to work. Children have been very busy making little cities, towering towers and very interesting structures.

 Our crazy hair day was another week highlight with all kinds of whacky hair designs going on. We had spiky hair, curly hair, green and gold hair, blue hair, pigtails and even mohawks! Thank goodness for all the styling gel and hairspray! To help children practice their hair styling techniques we set up a salon, complete with models, combs, brushes, shampoo and conditioner – the works. Although, children enjoyed brushing the teachers’ hair the most!       

 We have also loved getting messy this week with finger painting! Once children had had a turn at creating their designs on the perspex window, we printed it by rubbing a piece of paper on top and pulling it off. Children watched on fascinated to see how their finger paintings would look when the paper was pulled off. Here is what a few had to say while painting:

Jacob – Its all squishy on my fingers

James S – it’s a bit cold when you rub it around

Eriks – paint on fingers

Jock – I’m gonna do it in big circles like this

On Yellow day we saw lots of bright, happy children dressed in yellow with lots of mellow yellow arts and crafts activities. Finally, ‘Wet and Wild day’ finished off our busy week, with all children having an absolute ball running through sprinklers and getting completely saturated!

Have a fabulous long weekend

Miss Bowden, Mrs Nacca, Miss Sarah, Miss C, and Mrs Kerr    

Langley Room

This week we have had a busy week and have enjoyed the cooler weather!
We have spent lots of time playing outside in the big cardboard boxes that were leftover
from unpacking our new couches for the new classrooms.
The children all climbed into the box and Sterling decided he would make a good
driver!
"Come on everyone lets go to Sydney. Put on Your seat belts," Sterling told his friends.
"Click, clack, front and back," Said Miss Kerry
 The children pretended to go to the zoo, the beach and even to visit the Queen.
 Sterling climbed into another box "This is the lift its going to take us to the airport.
Ding, get out now," Said Sterling
 David was in the tent next to Sterling "We sweeping in the tent," David told Miss Kerry
"Its still blue, its not night time yet," Sage told the children.
"I got a rocket ship," Angelina said
"I'm in the lift," Said Angus T

The children also enjoyed pushing the cars down long cardboard tubes and having races.


We would like to say thank you to Miss Gray for helping to look after us these holidays
and hope to see her again soon!!!!

Have a fabulous and safe long weekend!


Nicole, Kerry, Emily and Emma

Welcome Back

Welcome back for another exciting year at the ELC ! We hope that many of you were able to have some time off over Christmas and enjoy the break ! (We did have a lot of comments that parents were glad we are back though !)
We are looking forward to a busy year with the opening of 3 new classes and many new families (and several new staff) joining us. Please be patient as everyone adapts to the change in size and we work out new schedules, routines, procedures etc. Make sure you welcome the new families and help them settle into PAC !

The ELC Team

New Baby

Congratulations to Michael and Yen-Lee Selby on the arrival of Thomas Cooper on December 23rd. A very adored brother for James and Lucy !

Door Code

The new Door Code applies from Monday 20th. If you do not have it yet please ring the door bell and wait for a staff member to open it .

ELC Team

Fee Increase

Please note the the increase in fees applied from this week , if you have a deduction limit on your Direct Debit account please see me to make sure this still covers the new fee,


Jeanine

Updating your information

Please remember to pass on any updated home or email addresses, phone numbers, changes to Bank or Credit Card details , immunisation or medical details

Thankyou

Chapple and Edgerley Rooms

Dear Edgerley and Chapple Families and Friends,

It has been a  great  start to the year , welcome back! Although we have not been lucky to have great weather this week, the children still didn't pass up the chance to have fun.
They grabbed every little morning opportunity they had  to play outdoors with the water feature, pipe and hoseline . We had the occassional "Ooops! I splashed some water on you" with little cheeky giggles at the same time or just playing pirates in our boat. With the scorching weather our tent city found its way indoors and became little nooks for some closer social interactions. We will keep having these nooks for more fun next week. Indoors, we enjoyed our Hama beads making beautiful patterns or bracelets with them.  I'm sure some Mummies and Daddies were delighted to receive some special presents just for being special. If you would like some quiet time for yourself for a few minutes at home, this is a highly recommended activity! The children also seemed to be captivated with the idea of mermaids as they found some images on one of our globes. This sparked lots of interest, investigation and research. If you happen to overhear some unfamiliar names, that's because we've been busy painting mermaids and "mermen", giving them names and telling "interesting" stories about them from our vault of imagination and wonder.

Please remember that Friday next week is our "Wet and Wild Day" our pre Australia Day celebration! You are welcome to send in your child in their sun safe beach attire but please pack labelled towels and uniforms. Thank you and we are looking forward to seeing you next week.

Coney, Pamela, Nickarla and Renne


  

Cooper and Mead Rooms

Dear Cooper and Mead families,

The children were welcomed back this year with a newly constructed ball play area in the town square.  They climbed the play equipment and rolled a ball through the tubing and eagerly awaited to see where it would come out. Once they found it at the other end they did it all over again!

This led us to investigate how water could move through tubing, so we assembled tubes and funnels in the water tray in our classroom. Many children noticed that they couldn't see the water moving so we added green dye.

We have spent a lot of time inside as it has been a scorching week so we had a discussion with the children about the weather.

Luca - Australia is the driest

Knox - My mummy said that it is the hottest in the city

Miss Bowden clarified that Australia is the hottest city in the world today

Jock - ‘cos it’s really hot and that's why fires can start

Dougal - Do you know that thunder makes fire too?

Jacob - When it’s really dry the fire catches on fire

Angus - When I came to school today there was fire on our street!

Events to look forward to next week are...

Tuesday 21st January - Crazy hair day (come with wacky hair or we can get creative)

Thursday 23rd January - Yellow day (come dressed in yellow)

Friday 24th January - Wet and Wild day (just bring your bathers please)

Love Miss Sarah, Miss Bowden, Mrs Nacca, Miss C and Mrs Kerr.

Langley Room

Dear Langley parents and friends,

This week we have been playing with water and ice to try keep ourselves nice and cool.

We filled a tray with a bag of ice, it was so lovely and cold !

Sterling – This ice cube is too big to eat

Clementine - This is yummy to eat, it’s icy, icy cold. I need to put it in my drink bottle to keep it nice and cold. Remember, Ice needs water.

Ms Kerry turned on the hose and put the fine spray on to squirt us,

Sterling – come get me

Brooke – come get me, come get me! Neh, neh, neh, neh!

David – ahh my head is wet Ms Kerry

Elle – It's cold, I wet

Angus T – Don’t get me

We played with the water tub inside and put giant ice blocks into it, Miss Adele helped fill containers with water for us, we put it in the freezer and waited for it to freeze. Even though the weather was hot we managed to keep our cool !

Miss Nicole, Ms Kerry, Miss Emily, Miss Grey, Miss Adele.