Mead

Dear Mead Room families,

Cold weather, warm weather… very warm weather!

So warm in fact that we paddled in our beautiful creek on Friday!!

Such a thrill and so full of joy to see such pleasure and delight from an outdoor experience!

We have noticed some clues to tell us that Spring is on our doorstep;

Nicolas – there are pink flowers popping.

William – bees

We have been uncovering more exciting shadows in our environment this week and whilst reading Mem Fox’s book Possum Magic the children made an important discovery……

We realised that Hush (the possum) is invisible but more importantly made the connection with our unit of inquiry to recognise that if you are invisible then you are not opaque so you must be transparent!

We have been very focussed on our Dads this week too.  We have been finding out many interesting facts about Dads and the funny things they do.  We are all very much looking forward to the Big Boys Breakfast next Thursday 4^th September and hope to see you there.

Olive – Sometimes he just jumps on the trampoline, he makes us bounce really high!

Harrison T – Daddy’s a big grown up.  We do stuff.

Oliver  - My Daddy makes me laugh. 

Ned – He cooks food, and chocolate, and eggs, and toast, and cake!

Our Indigenous painting has evolved into an exploration of dot painting techniques and the children are returning many times to explore these different ways of making meaning.

Have a brilliant weekend.

Melissa and Renee.

 

Wilkins

Dear families,

Wow, the sunshine this week has been amazing! We have enjoyed lots of time playing outdoors this week to make the most of it. We have enjoyed ball play, kicking and throwing to each other. We have also spent lots of time in the sand pit making cakes, sandwiches and all sorts of other goodies. Miss Emily and some of the children also created a tunnel obstacle in the sandpit, allowing the children to develop their gross motor coordination and spacial awareness as they manoeuvred themselves through the obstacles. Towards the end of the week, it was even warm enough to have some water play in the troughs and sandpit, we stripped down and enjoyed filling and emptying buckets, making mud and even pouring some water over ourselves and our friends!

Please be aware that as per our Sun Smart policy, from the 1^st of September (next week) we are required to wear hats and sunscreen for outdoor play. Please send a well named wide brimmed or legionnaires hat with your child each day – PAC ELC ones are available from the uniform shop next door to the ELC. Please also apply sunscreen in the mornings and staff will reapply it in the afternoon.

Best wishes for a great weekend.

Karla, Donna and Jess

Angwin

Dear Families

Spring is coming to Angwin! We have been enjoying this beautiful weather and have begun discussing the seasons and the many changes that we are about to experience. Next week is going to be very busy, with the first day of September, the first day of spring….AND the Big Boys Breakfast. We are very excited about all the events and are doing many activities and explorations at this busy time. Our unit of inquiry has taken a slight turn towards all this activity and we are enjoying seeing the signs of spring evolve and grow around us. We look at the garden on our walks around the school, we monitor the weather each day and we are eagerly awaiting father’s day and the Royal Adelaide Show- all signs that spring has sprung! We hope you all enjoy the lovely spring weather this weekend! Please take the time to look for signs of spring in our classroom over the next few weeks.

How do we know that spring is on its way?

‘It’s almost the next page in the book with all the June and April in it. The calendar.’ Max

‘Because all of the sun and flowers are coming up and we can see bees and butterflies cause they like flowers and everyone likes summer cause you can go swimming and everyone likes Christmas and Easter so spring is a good time.’ Oliver

‘Because the blossoms are coming up.’ Spencer

‘Well, the dandelions are coming up as well.’ Gabby

‘Because the Royal Show is nearly here.’ Lily

‘The trees are getting  lots of purple leaves and purple flowers. Them flowers were underneath and when the spring comes they come up the top.’ Patrick

‘Because the flowers were getting purple.’ Agoth

‘The leaves are falling off and when its spring all the leaves come off and they grow again and we know cause there’s lots of leaves on the ground and the new leaves are ready.’ Max

‘Winter was a long time.’ Archie

Langley

Dear Families of Langley room,

We have been singing our hearts out this week, getting ready for our Big Boys Breakfast performance. We’ve loved singing anything frog related as children have been observing our class tadpoles – Billy, Robbie and Edmund. Popular hits include ‘5 little speckled frogs’ (especially with the puppets) and ‘Galumph went the little green frog’. We also listened to nursery rhymes sung in German; Teddy’s native language.     

Reminders for next week –

Please send in a recent family photo for us to add to our family tree. You can email it to me if that makes it easier and I will print it off (smarotti@staff.pac.edu.au)

Dads – Big Boys Breakfast is next Thursday! Please return RSVPs and ‘On being a father’ sheets ASAP!

The start of spring means sunscreen and hats! Please apply sunscreen to your child in the morning (we will reapply in the afternoon) and pack a named hat.  

 

See you next week!

Emily, Brooke and Sarah   

Spring has sprung!!

Sunsmart

September 1^st marks the start of our sunsmart policy. We need all our children to come prepared every day with a clearly named hat. We ask that the children’s hats remain in their lockers so we can keep track of them more easily. Please apply sunscreen every day before you get to ELC. We have sunscreen in every room and we will reapply it before the children go outside after lunch. Please help us with this important health programme.

Edgerley

Dear Parents and Friends,

We have had such a busy week preparing for our Big Boys’ Breakfast next Thursday! There are lots of lovely surprises awaiting our Daddies!

We have been sharing stories about Dads and singing songs… We even had a reflection time where we thought about things we like to do with our Daddies.

Here are a few of our thoughts…

My Daddy stays at home with me when I am sick. We play games and Daddy has a sleep.

Oliver B.

My Daddy plays basketball at the park with me. Ryan

My Daddy rides a bike to Kindy with me on the bike too. Sahil

My Daddy is good at running fast and playing football. Nathan

He fixed my Mummy’s Toyota Corolla. Jack Mc K

My Daddy builds trailers for customers with Cameron. Harry F

My Daddy puts petrol in my Mummy’s car last night. Joe

We play dress ups with Daddy and ride on our bikes. Sebastian

We have been enjoying the sunshine this week, finding lots of shadows and even cooking pancakes and eating them with lemon juice and sugar!

Thank you for all your ongoing support…

Kind Regards,

Emma, Pip, Ty and Rosalie

Big Boys Breakfast Reminder

Big Boys Breakfast
Thursday 4 September 8am

We are really looking forward to seeing you all there. It is such a special time for you to share with your child so please keep your mobile phones on silent so you can enjoy your breakfast. Please remember to bring your donations for Beyond Blue.

See you there,
Kimberley

Cooper

Hello Cooper families and friends

This week we have been reading the book 'Night Watch' written by Phil Cummings. The children have thoroughly enjoyed finding the different shadows in book and talking about their changing shapes. The book also focuses in team work and being part of a group which is a topic we have been exploring recenlty.

We have also been continuing with our shadow hunt in the outdoor environment. During this experience we talked about how our shadows follow us and also about how they occasionally disappear when the sun is blocked by the clouds.

Have a great weekend!

Jain & Cris

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

What a busy week we have had celebrating birthdays in our classroom. August has been a busy month for birthdays for our class. On Wednesday Miss Bowden, Miss Tiarna and the children threw Miss Mason a surprise birthday party. We really did surprise her and had a wonderful time eating fairy bread, birthday cake and there were even party games!

On Thursday we had a lovely birthday party for our friend Angus who will be turning 4 on Friday. He brought in some yummy doughnuts which he shared with his friends.
 
“I’m gonna be 4 real soon. Like tomorrow that’s why we got to eat the doughnuts!” Angus explained before we sang to him.

“I love these doughnuts! They are the best! Thank you Angus.”- Joe

“Yummy! They are so good.”- Angelina

Miss Bowden had her last day on Wednesday as well which made us a little sad and very jealous. If only she could have fitted us all in her suit cases. We are planning on skyping with her in the next few weeks to catch up on all her adventures.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Mattingley Team

Chinese Curriculum Evening

Chinese Curriculum Evening

What a wonderful session we had with Kath House, our Chinese Teacher, on Tuesday Evening. It was a really fun and informative session where Kath helped us explore just what goes on in her lessons each week and how she delivers the most age appropriate content through play, songs, rhymes, books and role play! Kath aligns her beliefs about how children learn best in the Early Years with our ELC pedagogy. We are most fortunate to have Kath come into our rooms to stimulate a love for language learning!

 

Thank you to those who came, participated in the session and shared some great conversation over a drink or two!

We are always happy to answer any questions you have about the ELC curriculum and our Centre philosophy. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

 

Katherine Baird and Lisa Foster

Langley

Dear Langley families and friends,

 
We have had a very busy week indeed! On Tuesday, Langley children participated in our Book Week Parade. We had many different book characters – a ladybug, fairies, a construction worker, a monster and a tiger just to name a few. Children also walked up to the Prep school library and enjoyed more storytelling and books.

We've had rockets blasting off into space at the light table, quiet stories under the night sky in the tent, and painted daffodil collages to commemorate Daffodil Day.

 

In the coming weeks, we will be creating a family tree. Could you please send in a recent family photo for us to add to our tree. Also a friendly reminder for our Dads – could you please return your RSVPs and questionnaires for our Big Boys Breakfast ASAP! If you need another copy of either form, please ask a staff member.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Emily, Brooke and Sarah   

Give away!

Juan the one year old hand reared black and white guinea pig is looking for a new home.

If you would like to adopt Juan please call Pip Lundy on 0411 264 092

Mead

Dear Mead Room families,

Book Week August 16-­‐22, 2014

THEME: Connect To Reading

We were definitely ‘connected’ this year!  On Tuesday the ELC came together for our annual Book Week Parade in the Town Square.  So many fantastic characters from favourite books!

Clementine – I’m the little rabbit in Guess how much I love you.

Angus – I am the Cat in the Hat

Sterling – I am too – but I come from this book (holding The Cat in the Hat Comes Back)

Scarlett – I am Rascal (Paul Jennings – Rascal at the Show)

Not to mention a Princess, Cowboy, Knight, Bob the Builder, Hedgehog and Dinosaur just to name a few!  Additionally we had the amazing good fortune to have special visitors drop by during the course of Thursday 21^st to share stories with us. Mead Room had Mrs Foster and JJV from the wider school community and we loved the books they brought with them – THANKYOU!

WE LOVE SHADOWS!!

The children are still very much immersed in the exploration of light.

We had noticed that when sunlight streams through our window in the morning we occasionally see the shadows of people walking past.  A few of us ventured outside and surprised the rest of our Mead Room friends by suddenly appearing at the window!  As they couldn’t see exactly who we were the children had to rely on their skills of observation to deduce whose shadow was whose!

 

Lachlan – The height was the clue! You are the tallest Mrs Prest

Scarlett – I saw the shadow of pigtails – that was Olive

Ned – I knew it was Loukas because of his hair

Annie – I saw Loukas’ hair – all curly

Doane – Oliver has short hair – I see ears shape

 

I’m glad the children observed my height as a point of difference and not my width!!

Have a brilliant weekend.

 

Melissa and Renee.

Congratulations!

We would like to welcome little Sebastian Roussos. Little brother to our very excited Oliver in the Angwin Room.

Bon Voyage Miss Bowden

Lucky Miss Bowden is leaving on her holiday home to England next Wednesday. She will be away for five whole weeks. We will miss her terribly, however we wish her a fantastic time. We look forward to hearing all about her time spent with her family and friends when she gets back. ​

Big Boys Breakfast

Dear Families

Just a quick reminder that the RSVP's for the Big Boys Breakfast were due in this week. If you haven't done so already please, please, please bring them back in before Wednesday next week.
​
Thank you,

Kimberley Mason

 

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families

Another busy, adventurous, fun filled week in the Wilkins room this week! Look at all of the things we have done.

-       Shared our favourite stories

-       Dressed up as book characters

-       Paraded around the Town Square

-       Had special storytellers visit us

-       Ventured up to the library

-       Built rockets

-       Painted the night sky

-       Experimented with colours on black paper

-       Developed our cutting skills

-       Cooked up a storm

-       Role played home life

-       Created group train tracks

-       Explored shadow making

-       Sorted colours

-       Created images on the whiteboard

-       Celebrated birthdays

Phew! I wonder what next week holds in store for us……

Best wishes,
Karla, Amy and Jess

A couple of notes -

-       If you haven’t returned your Big Boys Breakfast RSVP and survey, can you please do so as soon as possible

-       Miss Amy will be away for the next five weeks while she completes her final teaching placement. We wish her all the best and welcome Miss Donna Warren into the Wilkins room to cover her.

Edgerley

Dear Parents and Friends,

We have had a terrific week celebrating Book Week and promoting our love of reading and quality literature this week. Our storytelling sessions have been a huge success! The Dress Up Day was superb. A big thank you for all your creative efforts with the costumes! We have some lovely photos up in our room, so please come and have a look!

Another highlight has been the toasting and tasting of marshmellows on the boarder’s camp fire! Our senses were truly engaged with the smell of smoke, the sound of leaves crackling, the warmth and of course the taste of melty marshmallows! A big thank you to Mr Noble for making this possible!

Our investigations into growing things, shadows and weather watching continue to amaze and fascinate us all.

Many Thanks for your ongoing support!

Kind Regards,

Pip, Emma, Ty and Rosalie

Missing jacket

Campbell Brown has misplaced a Katmandu spray jacket. It has 'Brown' on the tag and has been missing for a couple of weeks.

 

If you know of its whereabouts please return to Mrs Cooper in Edgerley Room.

 

Thank you.

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley Families and Friends,

We have had such a fantastic time this week celebrating Book Week. On Tuesday we had some very interesting characters arrive for school for the Book Week dress up parade.  We had Captain Cook, two dinosaurs, Grug, Bob the builder, Thomas the tank engine, Lightning McQueen, Cinderella, a puppy dog, a witch, Fireman Sam,  Peter Rabbit's Mother,  Fancy Nancy , Mr Bump, and Dorothy join us (Wow what a mouth full!). The children had so much fun getting into character and were amazing at the parade.
 
We continued the celebrations later in the afternoon when we welcomed Mr Coleman from the Prep school library to read some of the books that were nominated for awards this year.  Our favourite book he read with us was and oldie but a goodie, 'Alexander's outing' written by the very talented Pamela Allen. Using a plastic container and some water Mr Coleman was able to show the children what happened to Alexander when the people in the story added water down the hole he was stuck down.

He went pop!- Sam

On Thursday we were lucky enough to welcome Mrs Baird and JJV into our classroom to share with us some of their favourite books.

On Friday we finished off our week of celebrations watching the Prep school boys Book Week parade. There were some fabulous characters and we had lots of fun guessing who they all were.

Phew! It was such a busy week celebrating literacy through picture book, but we all had such a magical time.

A book is a gift you can open again and again. —Garrison Keillor

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Mattingley team.

Cooper

Hello Cooper friends and family

This week the Cooper children participated in various Book Week activities. On Tuesday we had the Book Week Parade where the children came dressed as their favourite character and paraded around the Town Square. On Thursday we had two special story times where Mrs Baird and Mr Sparks visited us in the Cooper Room and read stories.

This we have also been talking about the sun and how our surroundings become darker when the sun sets. The children spent some time looking at different photos of the sun setting and then painted their interpretation of what it looks like.

Have a great weekend

Jain & Cris

Angwin

Dear Angwin families and friends,

 Week 5 saw us all so busy with book week and all in a week's learnings and adventures. The children were all excited to participate in our book week events may it be dressing up as their favourite book character, bringing a favourite book or being read to by special visitors in the classroom. The ongoing interactions among the children have helped build new friendly relationships in and out of the classroom. Another area that's gaining popularity (and costumers) is our very own "charity shop", planned and set up by the children themselves in addition to our home corner shop. This is sparked by the children's own conversation about having a shop for poor people.

"Do you have food at home? If not, here, you can have this from the shop so you don't get hungry", Lily said.

"We need more stuff in the shop so more poor people can come", Max suggested.

"Gloves! Cause it's so cold these days", Lily added.

"I think, there should be beanies and blankets", Gabby said.

"More male stuff, like shoes and ties", Oliver reckoned.

"How about bags and more food?", Keziah wondered.

"We can also give poor people money I think", Harry P shared.

"And toys too. Those that we don't play with but still work", Spencer added.

"Baby clothes for those who have babies", Jarrah shared.

"Houses! We need to give them houses!" Harry P exclaimed.

"Cause some of them just sleep on the road or the park too", Patrick added.

It is great to see and hear children have this developing concept that enables them to practice a sense of empathy and care for people other than themselves and their families. We will continue to explore this area and see where the children take this learning and discovery.

The Angwin team

Monday is Walkathon Day with the goal to raise money for Loreto Vietnam, a non for profit organization providing care and education in a less fortunate village in Vietnam. Please bring in the Sponsorship Letter sent out to you by  the 29th of August. Your support on this cause will be greatly appreciated and having this conversations with your children will also further strengthen their understanding of care and charity.

Chapple

Dear Chapple families

 

What a busy week it has been. Book week has been a great success with the parade and story tellers coming in to share their favourite books. Thank you for all your efforts with dressing the children up. We even had our first visit to ANZAC Hall to watch a Prep Assembly as part of our transition to “Big School.” Our i-i igloo is taking shape. We have had an impressive selection of “i” show and tells when we thought it would be tricky.

 Just a reminder that on Monday we have the Walk a thon taking place, please could all sponsorship forms and money to be handed in to classroom teachers by Friday (29th). Spare forms are on the shelf if required. 

Chapple Room