Big Kids in the ELC

To all the mums and dads,

We really love seeing all the big brothers and sisters when they come to collect their siblings - they can do great tricks, climb great heights and are just amazing!

However, we try and copy them and sometimes what they do is a little too tricky and dangerous for us. Our teachers are busy doing a great job looking after us but can't look at what the big kids are doing as well.

So can we please ask all the mums and dads to please keep your eyes on the big kids and make sure that they are doing the 'right thing' at the ELC like playing safe and looking after our toys.

Thank you 

from the ELC children

(on behalf of the ELC staff)   

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

What beautiful friends we have in our classroom. We have been having lots of fun playing name games and getting to know each other over the last few weeks. Some friends already knew each other from the Langley classroom, but we do have lots of children who are new to our ELC, and it has been lovely to see everyone taking such beautiful care of each other. Lola is always close by with a cuddle for anyone who is needing a hug. Alannah is always ready to help someone out , especially if they need help with their shoes. Nathan always asks what is wrong when someone is upset and needs a friend to look out for them. This had us thinking about how we feel about our friends.

We love our friends- Alannah

When you cuddle somebody then you love them- Kaeshav

We take care of them- Lachlan

Love means you give them a cuddle- Sarina

It means you give someone a hug and a kiss- Phoenix

It means you love somebody else- Teddy

Later in the week Sarina had a great idea.

Can we make ginger bread?

We all thought this sounding like fun, but we weren't really sure what we needed to make ginger bread. Together, using our iPad we began to search for the perfect recipe. 

That one. I can see the buttons- Phoebe exclaimed. 

After looking at the recipe and writing the shopping list to give to Miss Kim in the kitchen we started brain storming what else we might need.

A spoon- Phoebe

A bowl. For mixing- Sarina

Peanuts- Teddy

Chocolate- Dylan

Eggs- Kaeshav

1 egg- Didier

10 eggs- Levi

Tea pots for tea- Mack

Buttons and little chocolate eyes- Sarina

Sprinklers. So we can decorate our ginger bread men- Alannah

We can't wait to make our ginger bread cookies next week. 

Kimberley and Liana

Cooper

Hi Cooper families,

It has been a jam-packed week in the Cooper room this week. On Tuesday, we made our very own blackberry jam inspired by the story “Mr McGee and the blackberry jam”, which the children have read daily over the last few weeks. We all helped to squish the blackberries in a bowl and added sugar and a little bit of hot water and mixed it round. We spread the “jam” on bread, just how Mr McGee wanted to do in the story book. It tasted delicious!

The machines that we are creating in the classroom are becoming more elaborate each week. We discuss what the children want to create and they select the shapes that they will need to create their design. Many of the children then share their creations and communicate with each other to explain how they work and what their machine can do. We are going to look more closely into various types of vehicles and emergency services over the next few weeks.

The children have been very interested in the “Three little pigs” story table. The children have been role playing and re-enacting the storyline and taking turns being the storyteller, actor, director and stagehand. It was great to see the children adding their original twists to the storyline and discussing how to best build the little pigs houses so that the wolf wont huff and puff it down. Next week we will be using these familiar stories and adding music to retell the story as a class.

We hope that you have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Love Miss Gilbert and Mr Richards

2017 Clipsal 500 Adelaide Road Closures

It’s that time of the year again. 

Road restrictions have already commenced and end on Friday 10 March 2017. 

Click here for Clipsal Map

Please remember to leave home earlier during this busy time. 

Langley

It has been a pleasure getting to know the Langley children and families over the past 4 weeks. The have all settled in beautifully and are beginning to develop strong and trusting relationships with their educators and peers. We look forward to seeing these relationships flourish even more over the coming weeks. 

Miss Sharon began some bark painting as a calming activity when the children were waking up from their afternoon sleep. The children throughly enjoyed exploring the different textures of the bark and discussing where it came from before adding paint to the large pieces.

This week we further explored our individually identity while creating our self portraits. We explored the features of our faces and bodies using mirrors and then recorded them on paper using paint. We have begun reflecting on these masterpieces and will be creating a display in the classroom over the coming weeks. Some of our reflections included; 

Archie - Arms, hair, legs and eyes. 

Aeson - It’s black. It’s blue. 

Grace - It me. Eyes, hair, legs.

Cara - Cara. I legs and body and eyes and body. 

Isla - I have head, arms, legs, that is all. 

Eddie - Black, blue ….. more blue. Painting, Eddie. 

Sebastian - Sebastian. Arms, legs, head. 

Henry B - Face. Yellow, blue ….. no red. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

From Miss Kathy, Miss Amelia, Miss Sharon, Miss Georgia and Miss Tayla

Mead

Dear Mead Room families and friends

This week the children have dipped in and out of exploring colour.  Colour mixing, colour perception and colour identification.  Vivienne, Jack and Iverson utilised the large and small translucent blocks to research colour mixing and identification:- 

Vivienne placed a small red block on top of a yellow one  – I made orange!

Jack – Blue and blue – blue!

We began looking through the coloured perspex and found our whole world was a different colour too! Harvey and Harry joined Vivienne at the light table where she created orange once again, showing them how two colours can make a third.  And to continue the orange theme the children made orange playdough. 

We continued our discussions of kindness and found that being kind most definitely extends to the chickens too.  We decided that chickens have a brain and a heart so they must have feelings too, just like us.  We thought that perhaps great, big people looming up behind them might give them a fright so we will be gentle and thoughtful in our interactions with them.

Elsie – I don’t want to scare them! I only want to touch their feathers…..

Alfie looked for tomatoes in the vegie patch, to no avail…. So we have procured a pair of late fruiting bushes – stay tuned, the chooks may well like a nibble before we harvest!

PE was pretty amazing – jumping, running and balancing, we even utilised the parachute and found our own Mead Room home underneath.

Have a terrific weekend.

Melissa and Georgia.

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families,

We have had another wonderful week in the Wilkins room. 

We have continued to enjoy creative expression through dress ups, dancing, music and movement. The play dough corner has continued to be a highlight with the children cooking up a storm, creating different types of food with the playdough, sharing their thoughts and ideas.  This role play has extended to the home corner where the children have been cooking and enjoying making coffees for all their teachers and peers - baby cinos have been the order of the week! 

We will explore this love of cooking further in the coming weeks. 

To extend children’s interest in creative arts, we have been using different art mediums to create images including paint, sponges, markers, crayons and textas. As we lead up to Harmony Day in a couple of weeks, we have started examining our faces, creating our self portraits and looking at what makes us the same and what is different about us.

Thank you for your continued support, we look forward to seeing you all next week.

The Wilkins Team

Chapple

It has really been a busy week of learning in the Chapple Room this week. We have had Dancify, Chinese and PE and also our ice world has led into some science as Ms Kaur did a science experiment with the children to grow our own ice crystals.

Cooper noticed that his feet were a lot smaller than Mr Charlwood’s and this led us in a numeracy focus this week. We retold the story of the King’s Bed with Cooper as the King, Alana as the Queen and Tommy as the poor carpenter who gets it wrong because he uses the wrong sized feet to measure the bed.

We had great fun playing bigger or small. Comparing abstract and real proved a bit trick! It’s a great game to play in the car. Think of an object and then the next person has to give something bigger. Next person gets smaller. And so on.

It proved challenging when there were pictures. The picture of the cat was bigger than the piano in the picture. It’s amazing how many children say they have cats bigger than pianos at home!

We have also been practising the idea of using our own brains as William R reminded us. Just repeating the answer our friends have just said is not proving very successful.

We are still collecting cardboard boxes for construction if you have any spare.

Also could you please check your children’s bag for adequate and appropriate spare clothes. The children are loving the water play in the warm weather, but they don’t always have spares or there are winter clothes and this makes it difficult to get them changed.

Reminder: Monday is the start of the Clipsal road closures and Monday is usually the worst day as it catches people out.

Regards

Martin Charlwood

Angwin

Dear Families,

Our week has been filled with building and scissor snipping! The children are exploring tower making in many forms, the block corner, popstick and cork towers, the making table and even when we go outside! Cutting is a favourite at the making table and as a class we have come up with an essential agreement about the safe way to use scissors in our room!

We had a wonderful experience making Chinese dumplings last Friday with Wenting. The children really enjoyed being involved in the process, making the dough, rolling and kneading it, watching the chicken being added and the dumplings being formed. Wenting shared with us that in China families make dumplings together to share at Chinese New Year celebrations. Everybody in the family helps, some make the dough, others mix up the chicken or  pork, while others get the steamer ready. Jason’s mum Isabella came in to help too! Together they mixed the dough, using flour and water. The children took turns to help too.

Lochlann: It’s all sticky on the spoon

Alina: It’s hard to stir

Daniel B: My tummy’s rumbling!

Lochlann: I can mix it!

Leo: We need a bit more water

Lochlann: Your hands are messy (to Isabella)

Ryan: It’s not playdough, it’s dumplings!

Sophie: It’s sticky on your fingers

Wenting: We’re adding lots of water

Lochlann: It’s a long snake!

Then Wenting rolled the dough out into a long snake. Jason helped to cut the snake into smaller pieces of dough. Then the children helped to roll the bits of dough into a ball. Then they flattened it on their hands. There was lots of squeezing, pushing, kneading…. The children enjoyed helping!

Daniel B: It takes a long time

Jason: I love rolling out the dough

Oscar: It feels soft

Lilah: It’s still a bit sticky (getting some more flour on her hands)

Ryan: We cook dumplings at my house. I like to eat them

Wenting asked Ryan if his family puts a gold coin in one of the dumplings for Chinese New Year

Ryan: Yes, if I find it I put the coin in my pocket and eat the dumpling!

Jason: I’m rolling it into a ball

Sidney: You roll then you squash it flat

Ryan: It looks like a pancake now!

Lilah: We’re making dumplings!

Enjoy your weekend!

Kind Regards,

Pip and Coney