Edgerley, Chapple and Angwin

Dear Edgerley, Chapple and Angwin families,

On Monday we had a Play Ground Hop where we meet the Cooper Room children at the Prep School. The children had lots of fun playing at the playground.

With Australia Day falling on a Tuesday it made for a shorter last week to the Summer Program, we hope everyone had a great Australia Day holiday.

We had some excitement in our outdoor area on Wednesday when a ‘Bobcat’ loader came and visited to repair the grassed area. The children loved watching the operator work his machine in a tight space, digging up the ground and tipping the soil into his truck.

The children enjoyed another Classroom Cinema again on Wednesday where this time it was some ice blocks for refreshments.

Friday was a day for everyone to relax in casual clothes before the term starts for the New Year. We decided it was to time for some dancing when we had an impromptu disco party for the end of the holidays.

It has been an enjoyable summer with the Edgerley, Chapple and Angwin children playing and getting along with each other, while we have hung out together in the last weeks of the summer holidays.

To the children who are leaving us, we here at PAC ELC wish you all the best.

As the holidays draw to a close we wish all of the beautiful children embarking on their new adventure at school all the very best with this huge milestone and enjoy the next step in your life long journey! Also let’s not forget, all the best to the mums and dads!

Thank you.

Mrs Shakespear, Mrs Rocca and Mr Ty Simmonds 

Mattingley/Angwin

Dear Mattingley/Angwin families,

This week we had Sebastian’s Dad come to school to do another sports session with the children. The children used team work to carry the rope from his car all the way to the Red Centre, it was a very long way. Then the children split into teams for a tug of war, girls against boys. I wonder if you can guess who the winners were. The children also got to do some challenging circuits with press ups in. They finished with some boxing and had just enough energy to take the rope back to Mr Stewart’s car.

Parent participation is highly valued in our class. When children see their parents taking an interest in school they see how devoted you are to their education and learning. The children get very excited having parents join them in experiences and this motivation can have a positive impact on their learning outcomes. If you have any skills you would like to share please let us know.

As this is the last day of term we would like to thank all the children and families for their involvement in a fun Summer program. We welcome Mrs Cooper to the class, she has already made a positive impact on the children with her visits on Wednesday and Thursday and we look forward in term commencing on Monday.

Love Miss Bowden and Miss Kim 

Mead

Hello Mead families and friends,

It is with lots of joy and sadness that we reflect on the years experiences and activities that we have shared together throughout the year. We wish all the Mead children all the best with their big move into the Chappel classroom. 

The children have been very excited to commence their transition visits into the Chappel room; meeting and engaging with their new teachers and continuing to build on their positive relationships with peers.

We have welcomed the ‘Wilkins’ children who will be moving up to the Mead classroom, they enjoyed participating in indoor and outdoor play while discovering and exploring their new environment.

The children have shown great interest in the big yellow digger truck that has been digging up dirt in our outside yard over the last few days. We are in the process of getting some new grass and plants put into our outside area. The children have been mimicking the gardeners digging, using shovels and making big holes.

We hope that everyone enjoyed Australia Day; we have enjoyed hearing about what the children did to celebrate this day. Due to Tuesday being a public holiday we will participate in ‘Dancify’ the following week.

This week the children have been engaging in an array of indoor and outdoor experiences to further their learning development. The weather has been a little cooler and wetter this week; we would like to remind parents to please pack their children’s jumpers and pants.

 On Friday the Mead children loved watching a movie in the afternoon!!!

 We hope you have a lovely weekend!

 Miss Elodie and Miss Melissa

Cooper

Dear Cooper Room Families and Friends,

With the drop in temperature this week we have been able to enjoy being outdoors and play in the town square, engage in water trough play and explore the school grounds. 

During the week we made our way to the Prep School Rainbow Playground, went for a walk around the school gardens, practiced some relaxing yoga and decided to end the week with a movie to unwind. 

The Summer Program has given the children the opportunity for some downtime to get ready for wonderful Term ahead.

Look forward to seeing you all next week.

Miss Gilbert, Miss C, and Mrs Nacca

Langley

Dear Langley Families,

This week we have been fitting in a lot of visits for our three year old friends who are moving to the Mattingley Room. They have really enjoyed spending time in their new class room and getting to know their teachers. We have also been welcoming new children into the Langley Room, we are looking forward to getting to know you all and making new friends.

Isaac, Sophia, Ed and Declan worked together to build a train track. They cooperated with each other and negotiate roles in this play experience.

Isaac - “I go this way and you go that way.”

Declan – “Choo, choo! All aboard!”

Kaeshaav spoke a lot about mountains this week, he started to draw and   explained –

“Mummy and Daddy climb the mountain.”

“The water go down.”

“The mountain broke but Mummy and Daddy fix it.”

He moved to the blocks and decided to create the mountains.

“See it’s the mountains, here.”

Declan insisted we have a picnic, he warned us that the coffee was hot. Then suggested that we join him in the tent because it was time to go camping but he made it very clear that we need be careful of the fire as it is very dangerous!

We will continue to extend on these experiences in the coming weeks.

The children are using play to investigate, project and explore ideas, they are confident while they express wonder and interest in their environments. They have shown that they use the processes of play, reflection and investigation to solve problems and discover new knowledge.

On Wednesday afternoon, we celebrated Paxton’s Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

To all families moving to the Mattingley Room next week, it has been an absolute pleasure being a part of your child’s journey. We are looking forward to watching them develop more (over the fence) and hearing stories. Feel free to pop in and say hi anytime, we will miss you all. Good luck!

Have a lovely weekend,

Langley Girls,

Miss Emily, Miss Brooke and Miss Jen.

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families and friends,

We have had lots of fun this week in the Wilkins room to celebrate the last week of holidays.

We have enjoyed lots of outside play in the sandpit, climbing, playing on the playground and washing the babies.

Inside we have enjoyed easel painting, magnetic letters, musical instruments, and reading stories.

Outside our highlight was watching the bob-cat dig up the big yard.

Hello driver digger- Stirling

Digger- Yash

There’s a digger in the yard- James

It’s a ‘ractor (tractor)- Ben

Its lots of noisy- Sam H

He’s digging the grass- James

We would like to wish all the Wilkins friends who are moving to the Mead room all the best as they continue their ELC journey. It has been a pleasure looking after you all and we hope you have an amazing time in the big room!

Next week we welcome back Miss Jess from maternity leave and the following week we will welcome Miss Kim into our class!

Enjoy your weekend!

Transitioning Boys into School

Dear Families

Our Head of Schools, Neil Andary, will be hosting an information evening for parents of pre-schoolers, at the College, on Tuesday 9 February from 6.30 pm until 7.30 pm. 

Neil has had vast experience in the ELC and Prep School areas and has a wealth of knowledge on the more formative stages of education. 

Our aim is to make this an informative and interactive session that will help families address, or at least start to think about some of the queries you may have around your son's preparedness for school. 

This session is aimed at parents of pre-school aged boys and is open to all parents (i.e. not just parents of boys enrolled to come to PAC). Please see the attached flyer for details.

Regards 

Melanie

Click here for Transitioning Boys to School Information

New Mattingley

Dear Mattingley class 2016 parents,

In the last few weeks, small groups of children from Langley have been enjoying visits in their new classroom a few hours each day. This helps them settle and be familiar with their new environment and also gives us an idea of their interests and social interactions with peers. 

Currently, they have been loving painting at the easels, gluing and sticking at the art and craft table, build with blocks, play with sensory bins and listening to stories. 

It has been a pleasure getting to know your children little by little and we are all excited to spending more time having fun learning when the term starts. 

If you have not sent back your parent questionnaires yet, please remember to do so. This is a great a opportunity to update us of current happenings in your home environments especially changes in your child's routines health needs. If you  have any questions please email at crocca@staff.pac.edu.au while Ms Mason is still away

Coney

Chapple & Edgerley

Dear Chapple and Edgerley families,

A hot start to the week, but what a perfect day for our water day. It’s always fun to get wet on a hot day.

The children had a ‘Dancify’ lesson on Tuesday where they learnt some dance moves. At the end they were able to perform a complete dance to the tune ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ from the Lion King.

Our School Adventure took us through the Prep School Office where we saw some carpet layers installing new carpet. After working our way through the Prep School we found the ‘Rainbow Playground.

‘Tickets Please’. At our Cinema Day every child had a ticket for entry to the movie, a ticket for popcorn and a ticket for a juice. We set up the Chapple room like a theatre and sat back and enjoyed the movie.

On Friday a barbeque was held as a farewell day for Miss Emma Gray. Emma is undertaking a new adventure in her life in the UK where she will be teaching and travelling. Emma is loved by all the children and staff here, is fun and engaging to work with and will be missed by all of us she leaves here at PAC ELC.  Good Luck Emma Gray!

From Mr Ty, Mrs Shakespear and Miss Gray

Mead

Hello Mead families and friends,

We started off the week with a big splash as Benji brought in coloured water balloons to share with his friends. This was a great way to keep us cool with the warmer weather at the start of the week.

The children and teachers enjoyed participating in ‘Dancify’ on Tuesday morning furthering our movement and co-ordination skills while having lots of fun. Another big hit was watching a movie in our dining area with our friends from other classrooms.

We explored and furthered our creative and imagination skills by finger painting with assorted colours; we also created our very own rice balloons to use for painting with Miss Elodie. The children really enjoyed this experience as they discovered creating with a new form of texture. We will continue to explore painting using different forms of materials next week.  

Miss Melissa created some green play-doh with the children as they have demonstrated lots of interest over the past week with manipulating and making a variety of shapes and objects with the play-doh.

On Friday some of the Mead children helped our garden workers do some digging in our outside yard. They used their strong muscles digging up the dirt with spades. What great helpers!!!

Over all, this week has been jam packed with indoor and outdoor experiences to further their learning development.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Miss Elodie and Miss Melissa

Angwin

Dear Angwin families and friends,

This week the children had lots of opportunities to engage in a variety of fun activities. On Monday, we tackled the hot weather with a nice soak under the sprinklers. Apart from throwing water balloons at each other, the best of it was sneaking up to our friends (and Mrs Rocca) and pour buckets of water on them. 

On Tuesday, we got into a groove as we learned new dance music and moves with our Dancify instructor Erin. We got to show our dancing styles and loved the relaxation activity at the end of it.  On Thursday, we enjoyed the whole cinemas experience as we watched a Disney Movie called Bolt. There were tickets, drinks and of course pop corn.  

And on Friday, we had a lovely sausage sizzle with Mr Ty, our King of the Grill! Sausages and fruit punch on a hot humid weather was just a perfect lead up to our Australia Day celebrations .

Indoors, we enjoyed a few board and group games especially the Cat in a Hat one. We continue our discussions and observations about things that grow and touched on what we can do to help save the planet. We tossed around a few ideas that we gathered from the book 'Arthur turns Green'. The children were amazed at even the simplest things we can do to in our homes like turning power off, recycling and planting trees. Please continue to encourage these kinds of conversations with your children at home. We better start their awareness on these matters early .

A few more Angwin children have said their goodbyes this week as they prepare for their new adventures this year. We wish them well.

'Til next week

Coney and Faye