July School Holidays

It is now only one week until the teachers and the rest of the school are on holidays ! If your child will be away on any days from 28 June to 19 July please let Julie or me know . We will display the program of activities for the first week next week ,

thankyou
Jeanine

Class Photos

Dear Parents,
Children's class photos have arrived from Festival Photographics and are in children's pigeon holes today ready for collection. If you would like to order any further prints or missed the due date and would like to order photos in retrospect please feel free to contact Festival Photographics directly.
Kind Regards
Mel

In the Classrooms

Langley
The Langley children have had a wonderful time investigating the colours of autumn this week. We have collected autumn leaves from the yard and looked at all the different colours. We then moved them to the light table to examine them more closely. We also placed them under tracing paper and used crayons to create some leaf rubbings. Our easels and paints went on an adventure outside as we stood under the autumn trees and used them as inspiration for our artwork. The children described their paintings;
“I’ve got lellow on dere, me make a tree” said Joshua W
“Branch and lellow leaves” said Henry
“It’s got lots of red ones up there” said Zac looking up at the tree
“Dat wed” said Oliver W
Kind regards,
Jess, Adele, Kerry and Jennifer

Mead
We have had juicers and squeezers in the Mead kitchen this week. We bought some oranges and lemons on our excursion to the Adelaide Central Market. The children have had fun exploring how to make juice and how to peel an orange ............

'I'm making some more. It was nummy' Ollie said licking his lips.
'It tastes like orange' Ryan commented.
'We like dose' Ollie said.
'Mine tastes sour' Ryan added.

The excursion to the Central Markets was a wonderful experience. Thank you to all the parent helpers. We will be dining out on the memories for quite some time and it has inspired a lot of action in the Mead Bakery/Kitchen and the Mead Market in our classroom!
Cheers,
Emma, Susan and Emma

Cooper
The Cooper children really enjoyed their trip to the Central Market on Tuesday. Before we left, the group wrote a shopping list of fruit to buy so that we could make a fruit salad for afternoon tea. At the market we looked around at all the different kinds of food for sale, smelled all the different aromas, and tasted many different fruits (thank you to the Fred McMahon stall!). The boys noticed many things and commented on the many different products available. "Some fruit” said Jack, “the man was mixing it making apple juice" and Aggie said, “I liked the tomatoes and strawberry cake.” We purchased grapes, watermelon and pears and brought them back to the ELC where we cut them and put them in our fruit salad. It was delicious! A big thank you to all the Mums and Dads who joined us and helped us on this excursion.
Kind regards,
Ali, Susan and Sue

Chapple
Hairdressing has been very popular in Chapple Room this week. Almost everyone was involved- as a customer, cutter or stylist! There were some very interesting styles! It was a very busy, but calming way to end the days as we approach the end of term. It also created a wonderful opportunity for some creative imaginative play. 'Let me show you the back.', 'Do you like the clips?', and 'I just need to spray it now.' were some of the things being said. We also had a fantastic trip to the Central Markets. After returning, children were involved in making a large fruit salad, which they later enjoyed for afternoon tea. Thank you to the parents who came with us, you were greatly appreciated!
We will be making juice next week. If you would like your child to participate, please send a piece of citrus fruit to school with them.
Thanks
Chapple Room Team

Edgerley
Dear Parents,
After weeks of playing in our own market we finally got to visit the Adelaide Central Market and see a real market in action. We were amazed at the things we saw and smelt. We met Tom the fruiterer and listened to him shouting out banana prices to his customers. He let us taste lots of different fruit including nashi and persimmon. We saw mouldy old mushrooms, soap that smelt like ice-cream and sausages with chilli that burn your bottom!... what next!
We also watched a big yellow bulldozer knock down a shed behind our kindy this week. It was really exciting! We illustrated pictures of the diggers and then enlarged them to make them into posters. We decided to write questions on them and let our teachers stick them to the outside of the fence in the laneway for the digger driver to see.
Kind Regards
Mel and Rosalie

Edgerley Graduation Ceremony

Dear Families of Edgerley Students,
The time has come for our Edgerley children to graduate from Kindergarten and move to the big school! Where has the time gone? To celebrate this special milestone for this very special group of children (hmmm perhaps we are biased!) we would like to hold a brief informal ceremony on Thursday the 24th of June at 11.00am in the Town Square. The children will perform some songs and receive their certificates. Official invitations will be in children’s pigeon holes above their lockers next week but we would like to welcome any Edgerley family members to join us and confirm their attendance by e-mailing Mrs Julie Porter at jporter@pac.edu.au. In the past many families choose to sign their children out after the ceremony and go for a special lunch with Grandma and Grandpa. If you intend to do this please let Mrs Bishop or Mrs Nacca know verbally.
We look forward to seeing you then
Mel Bishop and Rosalie Nacca

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

Dear Parents,
We have experienced several cases of Hand Foot and Mouth disease in the centre and with your assistance seem to have halted it’s march all together. However we would like your continued support to prevent any reinfections.
Please continue to collect your child’s drink bottle at the end of every day and clean it with hot soapy water before sending it back in the following day.
Please ensure that if your child presents with any small blisters on their face, particularly around their mouth, hands or feet please do not send them to the centre. Instead, do not panic and see your local GP. If you require any further clarification please feel free to give me call.
Thankyou for your assistance and understanding
Kind regards
Mel

See You at the Footy

Looking forward to joining you all to cheer on Mr Weatherald in his 299th league game at Unley this Sunday the 13th of June at 2.10pm at the House Brothers Oval, Unley.

Scareapillar!

Dear Parents,
To finish off our unit based around food production and farms our Extended Care Vacation Program are planning to build a scarecrow (we hope they keep the caterpillars away too because something is munching our cauliflower!). If you have any old work clothes such as flannelette shirts, overalls, old pants, straw hat or work boots that are at the end of their life and you are willing to donate can you please see Mr Todd Kerber
Thankyou
Extended Care

School Holidays

It is now only a couple of weeks until our school (and the Teaching Staff ) go on holidays from 28.6.10 , returning on 20.7.10 . If your child is going to be ABSENT at all during this period please let Julie or myself know. As we have to maintain our correct staff ratio at all times I need to organise any casual staff that we need in advance and I need accurate attendance numbers to be able to do this,

Thankyou in anticipation !
Jeanine

Photos from Princesses Tea Party

These photos are now available for viewing and ordering at www.festivalphoto.com.au. The date of the event was 06-05-10


Jeanine

In The Classrooms

Langley
This week in Langley the children had lots of fun experimenting with making bread. As a group we also spoke about what we would like to eat on our bread once it was cooked. The children suggested that we could make some butter to go on our home made bread so we set to work.
We spoke about how we would need to shake our cream to make the butter. All the children loved having a turn shaking the cream and found it fascinating to see the cream thickening and turning to butter. The children also had the chance to be involved in mixing all the ingredients to make the bread. This made an exciting day of watching the bread rise and smelling the bread as it cooked throughout the day. Once our bread and butter had been finished we were able to all have a try of our it for afternoon tea. This was a real highlight for the children to be able to taste their own home made bread.
Thankyou
Jess, Kerry, Jen, Adele

Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
We have opened a Market and a Bakery in the Mead Room and the children are flat out measuring, mixing, baking, selling and shopping to name a few things! There is a huge amount of imaginative play and wonderful socialising taking place at these venues.
The hair on the children's stocking face people is starting to really grow - some really cool hair styles are beginning to reveal themselves! Also, we are having a focus on the student portfolios for the rest of the term so please take note if it is your child's sharing day (you will receive a note in their locker) and take a little time to sit with them and look at their portfolio folder.
Best wishes,
Emma, Susan and Emma

Cooper
The Cooper cooks have been busy making and baking this week using different produce to make porridge and bake an apple cake. Our little crops in pots have really grown and our oats are very tall – we examined these and the oat grains, and then looked at some rolled oats which we made into porridge. The boys ate the porridge with honey and milk and thought about the bees, cows and farmers who had made them. We were also very lucky this week when Miss Kerry brought us some apples from her house. We mixed these up with other ingredients from the farm and baked a yummy apple cake. The boys were problem solvers as they tried to match the ingredients with their origin and discovered that sugar comes from sugar cane and sultanas are really dried up grapes! The cake was delicious and the boys ate every last crumb “I’m already finished ‘cause I love the apple cake” Louie told us!
Kind regards,
Ali, Susan and Sue

Chapple
One of the games new in Chapple Room this week was Rocket Man! This is a fun version of Hang Man. One child took on the role of word keeper and the others had to guess the letters or sounds in the word. A page of Letterland letter pictures was placed next to the game for assistance if needed. It was an interesting insight to where children are at in their development of phonetic skills, and it was fascinating to watch children use this knowledge to their advantage to win the game, but also to help other children increase their understanding of the letter system. The game also provided the platform to practise turn taking and letter formation.
Thanks
Chapple Room Team

Edgerley
Dear Parents,
This week in Edgerley we have been madly authoring books using the Too Simple, Too Publish program at the computers. Although students were very eager it took a bit of practice to understand that a story has a beginning, a middle and an end that all relate to each other, rather than a series of random illustrations. Children assisted each other by reminding their friends to revisit the pages they had already authored to help them think about what might happen next. It was pleasing to see this skill transferred to our busy making table where children paused to reflect on their constructions and made conscious choices to improve their work.
“We can write real books” said Samuel proudly
“And people won’t even know that we made them ‘cause they look like real books” said Hector after he finished writing his title on his front cover.
Kind Regards
Mel and Rosalie

Jeanine In Absence

Dear Parents,
As you will now be aware our Centre Manager has become a grandmother for the second time with the arrival of her first granddaughter, Poppy Lucinda. Jeanine will be away next Wednesday through to Friday. In her absence please direct any communication to our Director of Curriculum, Mel Bishop. We wish Jeanine the heartiest congratulations and look forward to sharing grandma’s photos the following week!
Regards
ELC Staff

This Little Pig Went to Market

Dear Parents,
As part of our Unit of Inquiry this term, we are planning to take students to the Central Market on Tuesday, 8th June to support the children’s interest and investigation about food products. Children will have the opportunity to look around the market, shop for particular items and record some of what they see. Whilst we will not be purchasing any foodstuffs that are listed as allergies for any child, please let us know if you have concerns about your child attending this trip due to health issues.
We will break into smaller shopping groups and so are very keen for some parental assistance, as our adult/child ratio will be 1:2. If you would like to join us on our trip please let Jeanine Dry know. If you have not joined us on a trip this year this will be a fun opportunity for you to do so. Due to the nature of this excursion, siblings will not be able to join us. Please complete the permission form that has been placed in pigeon holes and return it to Julie Porter as soon as possible.
Date : Tuesday, 8th June
Time: 9.30am to 11.30am
Thank you,
ELC staff

Centre Accreditation

Dear Parents,

As our centre is registered as Long Day Care - to give you the benefit of operating longer hours and across holidays (and be able to claim government benefits)- we are required to undergo an accreditation procedure. This will involve us as a centre examining all our practices, procedures and programming. We will then write a self study and submit it to the National Accreditation Council by January of next year. They will then set a date and send one of their reviewers to spend 2-3 days with us observing and talking to the staff to verify our self study.

As part of this procedure we will review our centre policies. We are very happy to have parent input with this and welcome your feedback. Our policy folder is located on the wooden dresser outside the office window. Feel free to read our policies and put any suggestions that you have in the box next to it. We are also happy to have feedback/suggestions about things other than our policies left in this box also.

You will receive a brochure in your Child's locker outlining who the NCAC are and their role in our centre,


thankyou

Jeanine

Footy Fanatics

Are you joining us for our trip to the football on the 13th June at 2.10pm at the House Brothers Oval, Unley? If so, don’t forget to pop by and see Mrs Porter so that your child can collect a poster, sticker and some of the AFL footy cards that are available to be collected now!

On the Scrounge

Dear Parents,
We continue to be on the lookout for materials that will support our next unit. If you have any of the following things that you could donate to us we would be most grateful.
Kind regards
ELC staff

*Old lamps or strings of fairy lights
*Collage materials that make good shadows eg: paper doilies, old lace, etc…
*Collage materials that refract light eg: old CD’s shiny paper, sequins or jewels etc…
*Lava lamps that are looking for a loving home
*Disco balls
*Shiny or sparkly doorway curtains (lots of strings of beads that hang down in the doorway to keep flies out!!)