A New Arrival

Congratulations to Zach in the Mead Room and his family, on the arrival of their new addition, Isabella Sophia born on July 27th 2010, 1.44pm weighing 6lb. 2 oz. and 47 cm long. Zach has been a very excited big brother to his new sister, sharing news of her with all his friends. Best wishes to Zach, Mum Elena and all the family
Love from the ELC

Edgerley Room Coffee Morning

Please join us on: Tuesday 10th August
At: McDonalds on Glen Osmond Road 219-211 Glen Osmond Road, Frewville,
When: After school drop off.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Amalia, Belinda and Adriana

New Cold Weather Jackets

We have organised with our uniform shop the puchase of waterproof jackets for the ELC for cold or wet weather. These jackets are waterproof nylon and are fleecy lined. These will be ideal for the children as extra warmth for outside play or for when we go on excursions so that they are still recognisable in school uniform.(it makes it much easier to spot our children !) They will also be great for arriving or leaving the centre in wet weather. The uniform shop has samples in sizes 2, 4 and 6 .They will order them for you and they will be available quite quickly. They will cost approximately $38. The sizing is quite generous so they should last your child a while. These are not compulsory uniform but are our preference if you wish your child to wear a jacket for outside play or excursions.

Jeanine

ELC Carpark

With the recent wet weather local traffic has slowed and it seems that everyone is arriving at once in the mornings and having trouble with parking! The school is aware of the parking problem and is working on a solution . A carpark for ELC staff is currently being worked on behind the centre and should be ready in 3-4 weeks. Staff from other sections of the school have also been asked not to park in the ELC carpark.
Please be patient in the mornings and do not double park as other parents can then not get out and may be hurrying to get to work. Remember also to watch out for our young children who are still getting used to road safety rules !

ELC staff

Uniforms

Now that everyone is back from holidays could we ask you to please check your child's uniforms once again to make sure that you have the right ones , we are still missing several rugby tops.
Could we also remind everyone that pants, skirts , leggings etc must be plain neutral colours eg, denim, navy , black , beige or khaki (or moroon trackpants) Tops that are underneath the school tops also need to be plain neutral colours . If your child wears a skivvy or other long sleeved top under their rugby top they still need to wear the school polo shirt otherwise when they take off their rugby tops they are then not in recognisable uniform.

thanks for your cooperation

In the Classrooms

Langley
This week Gabe brought in a snap dragon to show his friends in the Langley room. We decided to put it in some blue water to see what it would do.
“Look! It turned into blue!” cried Jack O
“It’s blue” added Gabe
“Flower, flower” said Owen
“What happened?” asked Oliver L
“Blue flower” answered Gabe “cos it snip snip” he added imitating a pair of scissors.
“Tips on it” said Jack J
The next day the children were eager to see what had happened to the flower and we decided to do some water colour paintings to illustrate the change. We have now added Gabe’s flower to our nature table. If your child is excited by something natural, please feel free to bring it in for our nature table and to share with the other children.
Kind regardsJess, Adele, Kerry and Jennifer

Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
We have had fun continuing our exploration of shadows this week. The children have all been involved in creating a silhouette of their profile. They have also been involved in creating and manipulating their own shadows using props and a variety of materials, resulting in many entertaining performances! We have also played shadow matching games, matching shadows to pictures of common household items.
Best wishes,
Emma, Susan and Emma

Cooper
The Cooper children have had an exciting week of exploration in our room. They have investigated different textures and materials and the effects of light on them. At the light box, the children sorted, arranged and stacked little mirrors, pieces of coloured perspex and glass. They were interested in the reflective, transparent and colour changing effects of the light, "It's glassy" said Alex as he looked through a blue glass cube. At the collage table, the children glittered and glued various reflective and shiny recycled materials and watched as the sun and light shone on them, "Star" said Daisy, "A sun" said Erin. We have hung these sparkly suns and stars over the block corner where they catch the light from our windows beautifully, please come in to Cooper and see how they shine!
Kind regards,
Ali and Susan

Chapple
Shadows, shadows, everywhere! During our Show and Tell this week, we asked to bring in something that had a light in it. We really enjoyed finding out about all the different sorts of things we brought in such as glow stations, homemade lanterns, all kinds of torches, books with space bodies and even a remote control moon. Of course we then had a great discussion about whether the moon really has a light in it, or if it has light ON it! We are so curious in Chapple!
During outside play we enjoyed drawing the shapes of the shadows that our friends made. We discovered that our shadows in the afternoon are much longer than we really are. Now we want to find out just why that is. When we got back inside we did some mathematics and we had to work out a way to measure our shadows. We found out that to be accurate we needed to make sure that our measuring tool was the same size. Here is what we found out!
“I’m going to use the long blocks to measure. I used 5 long blocks and I need 2 little blocks at the end.” Kalan
“I’m counting how long I am. I am that long; 7 blocks long.” Alex
“I need to get more of the short blocks. So, I need these 2 to make more to measure me – and that’s 7.” Katie
“It is 18 lengths. I used my hand to measure.” Olin
“You can’t use this one. It’s too small so you can’t use it to measure because it’s different and they have to be the same.” Sebastian
Chapple Room made ANZAC biscuits. You should ask us when they were first made, why they were made and how they were kept from going rotten as they were sent across the seas to our Australian Troops.
Kind regards,
Kate and Juliana

Edgerley
This week in Edgerley we have been making all sorts of discoveries and proposing lots of ideas about shadows and light.
“When I ride my bike one way (direction) my shadow is on this side of me but when I ride my bike the other way (direction) it goes on the other side on me!” said Luca
“When your shadow goes into the dark it goes away from you” said Carmine
“Your shadow is attached to you, it can’t rip away from you” said Hugo

We thought a lot about our shadows.
“If my shadow could talk it would say to me ‘Hello, lets go for a run together’” said Louie
“If my shadow could talk it would say ‘I want to go for a run on my own!’” said Lachlan Th
“If my shadow could talk to me it would say ‘I love you!’” said Roshan
We have wonderful shadows!
Regards
Mel and Rosalie

Portfolios

Dear Parents,
If you have borrowed your child’s portfolio can you please return it to your child’s classroom teacher immediately
Thankyou
Classroom Teachers

Big Boys Breakfast

Dear Dads,
Unfortunately we have been unable to distribute Big Boys Breakfast invitations this week as we are still waiting to confirm our venue. Please rest assured that invitations will come home in the coming weeks
Thank you,
Mel Bishop

Construction and Collage Materials

Dear Parents,
The Edgerley Room are on the look out for lots and lots and lots of boxes for us to use at our making table. We have reached the last of our supplies and are now desperate. If you have any boxes you could give us we would be very appreciative.
Thanking you in advance
The Edgerley Boys

Copies Of Immunisation Records

As part of our license requirements we need copies of all children's immunisation records. If you have not provided us with this could you please do so as soon as possible. I believe it is available on line through Medicare Australia's website. You can give a copy to myself or Julie Porter at the front desk,

Thankyou
Jeanine

Happy Birthday to Us!!

Wow, can a whole year have passed already? This week marked our first birthday in our new centre, and what a year it’s been! Our new building has given us moments of joy and despair (we all remember the flooding of the town square in our first heavy rains!) We have welcomed many new families and staff members in the last 12 months and feel we have formed our own special ELC family. We have celebrated Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Christmas and two Grandies Days!! We have cultivated our first crop of winter veggies and tested our garden plants with our energy and activity! We have begun to colour our environment with our art work and investigations and it has been wonderful to continue the ten year long tradition of best practice in Early Years at Princes in our new environment. We would like to share our milestone with the rest of the Princes community in the upcoming Record Magazine and are asking for any special memories or recollections of our first year from parents or children that we could publish. If you have one you would like to share please e-mail me at mbishop@pac.edu.au
Thankyou
Mel Bishop

In the Classrooms

Langley
Welcome to all our new friends who have started in the Langley room. We have been settling into classroom routines, exploring our environment and getting to know each other this week. We have also begun our investigation into our new unit of inquiry Shadowlands. We have been exploring concepts of light and dark, night and day and shadows. The overhead projector has been a big hit. Some children have already discovered that when you stand in front of the projector you can see your own shadow on the wall. We have also had coloured shapes at the projector and the children have been investigating how you get the coloured shapes to appear on the wall. Some have been trying to stick the shapes to the wall by pushing them on while others have discovered that if you put them on top of the projector then they appear on the wall. We look forward to continuing our joint exploration in the coming weeks.
Kind regards,
Jess, Adele, Kerry and Jennifer


Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
It is wonderful to see the children back and keen to begin another busy term. This first week of term has revealed a great interest and enthusiasm in our new unit 'Shadowlands'. The children have been creating and exploring shadows and fascinated by the various forms and shapes they can make. The torches have had a real work out and an interest in nocturnal animals has emerged.
Best wishes,
Emma, Susan and Emma

Cooper
We have had a lovely first week getting to know each other in Cooper! We have been delighted to see the children rising to the challenge of being in the bigger three year old kindergarten room, taking risks and embracing new experiences - saying goodbye to Mum and Dad, finding their new lockers, playing in the big playground, P.E. in the gym, show and tell, putting on their own shoes and eating at Mr Rob's kitchen (and many other exciting things). The children have enjoyed exploring their new room and all the shiny and shadowy things we have in it for our unit of inquiry, 'Shadowlands'. They have been particularly fascinated by the overhead projector in the corner of our room and the many interesting shadows they can make with it. It has been a very big first week!
Kind regards,
Ali and Susan

Chapple
What a wonderful week we’ve had in Chapple! All Chapple Room students have made a big effort to welcome our new students Harry, Samuel and Alexzandr and also our new teacher, Mrs Baird! During the week we’ve explored the letter S and we were particularly interested in scary snakes and spine-chilling spiders. We also made snowballs on Thursday; we’ve sure we can remember the recipe and the method so we can make them at home – scrumptious! The Chapple Room also began inquiring into shadows as part of our new unit Shadowlands. Here is a glimpse into the conversations we’ve had discovering just what a shadow is…
“I see some shadows of me!” exclaimed Luke.
“Look! Because of the sun we’re blocking it so we make the shadows!” pointed out Olin.
“Yes, you have to have something to block the sun so you can make shadows,” confirmed Regan.
“When my shadow appears, it’s bigger than me,” states Olin.
Luke tells, “Because your back looks just like your front”
“Why is the shadow gone now?” questions Sam G.
“It’s the dark clouds. The clouds are blocking our shadows,” says George confidently.
“What’s making the big shadow now?” asks Mrs Baird.
“It’s clouds. There are 251 clouds,” declares Lloyd looking curiously up at the sky.
“We need the sun! Bring the sun back for the shadows!” exclaimed Samuel W.
Katie states, “The Sun is the torch in the sky.”
“So what do we need to make a shadow?” queries Mrs Baird.
Harry professes, “We need to look at our shadows to see moving. We also need the floor and the bright sun. When the moon comes up we can’t see our shadow.”
“We need the sun! Bring the sun back for the shadows!” exclaimed Sam G.
Kind regards,
Kate and Juliana

Edgerley
Wow, what a week! The new Edgerley room boys settled in fantastically this week, ready for the new challenges that are part of the four year old room…. but we were still very pleased to see Mrs Blake as we passed our old Cooper Room on the way to the playground. We had to stop for some enthusiastic waving! We welcomed Luca and Henry who have already found some great friends and enjoyed lots of different activities in the room. As part of our unit Shadowlands we created our own shadows using the overhead projector and talked about how the shadow was moving from the projector to the wall.
“The light is going up to the mirror and the mirror is making it go to the wall” explained Jamison
We enjoyed our first visit to the dark room and excitedly observed the lava lamps and lit dinosaurs. We look forward to continuing our investigations next week.
Regards
Mel and Rosalie

Big Boys Breakfast

Dear Dads,
We would like to inform you of an important date to add to your diary. To celebrate Fathers Day this year, we would like to invite you to the Big Boys Breakfast! All you have to do is bring your child and your appetite! We would encourage you to wear something blue and bring a donation, as we will be raising money for Beyond Blue research and support for male mental health.

When: Thursday the 2nd September
Time: 7.30am

We will enjoy a breakfast of bacon and eggs before your child performs a special concert for you. We hope to be finished by 8.30am in time for you all to get to work. Unfortunately due to the large number of guests expected we are only able to allow one guest per child or pair of siblings. Children who do not normally attend on a Thursday are more than welcome to attend until 8.30am with their Dad.

Families will receive an invitation with a tear off RSVP slip in their child’s pigeon hole next Thursday. If you do not usually collect your child and would prefer to have your invitation sent to you through the post please let me know via e-mail at mbishop@pac.edu. Please note that you must return your RSVP slip or e-mail your RSVP to Mrs Porter at jporter@pac.edu.au to attend.

Next Thursday we will also be sending home a survey for fathers to complete. Please fill it in and add your photo where requested and pass it back to Mrs Porter at the front desk.
We look forward to celebrating this special occasion with you!
Thank you,
The ELC staff

Portfolios

Dear Parents,
If you have borrowed your child’s portfolio during the holiday period can you please return it to your child’s classroom teacher so that we may begin to add more evidence of your child’s learning.
Thankyou
Classroom Teachers

Chinese Information Evening

Dear Parents,
We would like to invite you to an evening of information, vocabulary and fun with our very own Chinese Teacher, Lao Shi Kath House. Kath will be sharing some of the Chinese vocabulary that our children experience in class in an informal and enjoyable way. We will publish more details closer to the date but wanted to share the date with you now so you may add it to your diaries.

When: Tuesday 17th of August
Time: 7.00pm
RSVP: by 10th August via e-mail to jporter@pac.edu.au

Thankyou
Mel Bishop