Wilkins

Hello Wilkins Families,

This week our class has had a re shuffle to freshen up and re invigorate interests, especially in our home corner. We have also been moving things around and doing lots of tidying in our outdoor area. The children have been very excited watching their wheat grass grow, which is an area we will be delving into deeper and exploring in the coming weeks.  

Threading has also been a major interest in our class this week. The children have spent a considerable amount of time concentrating and persevering with their threading creations. It has been wonderful witnessing our friends further developing their fine motor control, sorting beads and pasta into colour, size and shape and overall enjoying and sharing this activity with their peers.

We have started talking to the children about what their families do for Easter and what the holiday means to them. We have had lots of comments about yummy eggs and the Easter bunny so we look forward to hearing more stories over the next few weeks. On the 24th of March the Early Learning Centre will be coming together in the town square for an Easter parade and egg hunt.

We hope you have all had a great week,

Miss Jess, Miss Nicole, Miss Ellen, Miss Georgia and Miss Kim 

ELC Carpark

Dear Families

A reminder that our car park space is a very busy area and can be a very frustrating place to be, especially at drop off and pick up times. 

Can we please ask that everyone enters and exits the car park at the recommended speed 10km/hour and to be on the lookout for unpredictable little people who can often dart out!!

A reminder too that the car park spaces are for ELC staff parking all day and for parents to drop off and pick up only- it is not to be used for long term parking. Parking is available on the surrounding streets.  

Thank you for your support and assistance with this ongoing matter. 

Regards

Melanie & ELC Staff Team

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

We have had a wonderful time this week experiencing Clipsal 500. On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a visit from one of the Holden chase cars. We were out in the car park when they arrived and they were very loud! The drivers invited us to have a closer look and even touch the cars. Back inside the ELC we had a discussion about the cars and shared with each other what we knew about racing cars. 

We saw the racing car- Lilah

Drive, drive, drive- Alice 

They go on a track- Lochlann S

Hot wheels go on the track- Oliver

Daddy drives one. Mummy drives slow- Eloise

Cars, they race- Thomas

He wears a helmet- Oliver (to keep safe)

We will see the racing cars when we go- Lilah (when she goes to the race)

Later in the week some of the children uncovered the beautiful musical instruments that Mrs Cooper had added to the Workshop learning space. We found that we have some wonderful musicians in our classroom as the children explored and experimented with sounds. 

It's a big drum- William

We playing a band- Chloe

It goes bom bom bom- Lochlann

It's really noisy- Marcel

It's Chines New Year music- Chloe

Boom, boom- James

Next week we are going to have a look in our store room to see what other musical instruments we can explore and add to our band. It's going to be a very loud and exciting  week in the Mattingley room. 

Kimberley and Coney

Angwin

Dear Families and friends,

We have had an exciting week! The children have loved our investigations in the classroom, with the hospital, a shark cave, a London bus, marble runs and even some interesting insights into how turtles lay their eggs! We have also explored having the Clipsal at our doorstep! The children loved having Austin’s aunty come and show two different cars to us. We had fun exploring them and hearing more about them from the driver and Chantelle.

Antonio: I hope the car will be my favourite colour purple!

Sebastian: It says V8. It’s for Clipsal! This one says Hot Wheels.

The children had an opportunity to look closely at the cars and then they had a turn sitting inside the chase car.

Erin: I liked going in the car and I saw lots of buttons.

Jack: I liked the colours. They were black and yellow.

Denver: Does the car have a steering wheel?

Sebastian: I don’t get into my car like that!

Then on Thursday we went for a walk up to the colourful playground to see what we could see about the real race…

Denver: The super truck’s going to come! There’s one!

Harry H: The hot wheels is there!

Poppy: I see the blue hot wheels. I can hear the race!

Wolf: I think I can see the Hot Wheels too!

Robert: I can’t see anything…

Denver: The rrrmmmmm is the super cars!

Dominic: It’s a loud race( covering his ears)

Sidney: I can see the big TV!

Poppy: Look… that’s the safety car (as we hear the sirens flash past) I saw a green one!

Our week finished with making fruit smoothies together, using a rainbow of coloured fruit. It was fun to make it together and then enjoy drinking them too!

Have a wonderful weekend! Stay cool!

Kind Regards,

Pip and Coral

Langley

Hi Langley families and friends,

This week we have continued our investigations into our bodies. We discussed having bones in our bodies to help keep our shape and took a close look at Steve the skeleton. We tried to name as many bones as we could and we also drew our bones with white chalk on black paper.

On Tuesday we went for a walk up to the Prep School Library. It was our very first visit and Mr Coleman showed us some very special puppets and read us some stories. Visiting the library and reading books to children is a fantastic way to foster their early literacy development.

Finally, on Friday we introduced a saddle to the children as some have been fascinated with horses lately. We said it was a special seat for when we are riding a horse. 

Teddy - "I seen horse"

William - "I go riding horsey"

Larissa - " Its a riding one"

We later placed the saddle outside over a hay bale and children took turns riding the horse.

A friendly reminder to please bring in a recent family photo also.

Have a great weekend

Sarah, Emily, Brooke and Jen      

Mead

Hello Mead families and friends,

This week has been full of excitement! We ventured through the big school to the rainbow playground and were able to experience the thrill of the Clipsal 500. The children displayed such happiness and joy as they watched the racing cars flash before their eyes.  We also jumped with delight as the four aero jets looped in the sky on top of us. It was very loud! We also spotted a helicopter whizzing in the sky.

Patrick: “I wasn’t scared at all”

Jaden: “Racing cars were fast”

Paige: “Rainbow in sky”

Lilliana: “We went to the rainbow playground”

As the children have displayed great interest with the racing cars, aero jets and helicopter will definitely be further exploring the array of different forms of transport.

Mrs Prest set up a sensory experience for the children which consisted of exploring shaving cream. It was interesting to see the different reactions when they manipulated the shaving cream with their hands.  The children were able to use their sense of inquiry while they used their touch and smell senses.

On Monday and Tuesday we had Chinese lesson, during these classes we continued to extend our knowledge in recognizing Chinese characters.

Unfortunately we did not have our P.E class on Friday however instead we took this opportunity to walk up to the rainbow playground and further our gross motor skills while discovering another outside environment. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Prest, Miss Elodie and Mrs Nacca

Chapple

Our seeds have really started to grow so we have planted them outside in our planting boxes. We hope they get big enough before the chickens eat them! 

We have even thought about what plants need to grow. We think they need “water, sun and dirt.”, but we are not sure so we are doing some experiments to see if this is true. 

Our countdown  game was great fun and has given us lots of chance to practice our counting skills. Our balloon rocket whished across the class and Mrs Shakespear did an “explosive experiment” with vinegar and Bicarb, but we are not sure if it would power a rocket?

Sorry for the late notice, but we have the opportunity to join the Edgerley Class at the Museum on Thursday to continue our investigation into tracks and bones. Also there is the trip to the zoo later in the month. Please return your permission slips asap. 

Chapple Room

Wilkins

Hello Wilkins Families,

What a big week we have had! Recently the children have been exploring animals. We have been reading Walking Through the Jungle, Brown Bear Brown Bear and The Cuddliest Hug to Name a Few. Miss Georgia thought it might be a great idea to introduce the children to her very friendly pet snake Jerry. During this special visit Miss Georgia fed Jerry, here is some dialog from our excited children;

Billy: "It got da mouse"

Samuel: "He's got a mouse"

Ronnie: "He's going night night's"

Stirling: "Where did the mouse go"?.

On Wednesday we continued with our interests of cooking. We often overhear discussions in the home corner of different foods and pizza is often a favourite. Miss Ellen brought in some muffins and yummy toppings and we took it in turns to create our own. Miss Kim in the kitchen cooked them in time for us to enjoy with our afternoon tea.

During the week we have also been looking into one of our Units of Inquiry, Our Natural World. The children are often outdoors and very inquisitive with things that grow. Miss Georgia has spent time with each individual child making their own little wheat grass garden cups. We are looking forward to watching them grow.

We hope you have all had a great week! Again, if you haven't brought in a family photo please try and bring one along for us to add to our mobile in class.

From, Mrs Jess, Mrs Nicole, Miss Georgia, Miss Ellen and Miss Kim

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley families,

What a busy week we have had again this week. We have been busy in our classroom exploring as paleontologists.

“You find bones and put them in a museum. They have to go under the dirt, that’s how real ones do it” said Stefan

“You find them and put them together, they are fossils, not bones” said Sylas

“A big rock came from out of space and killed all the dinosaurs” explained Luke

“You look in the sand and in mud too” said Mateo

We also have enthusiastically continued to explore magnets. We have begun to wonder about what is really pushing and pulling our metal objects as we have noticed that we can move metal without even touching it. Some of the boys showed others how magnets could move iron filings inside a plastic bottle! The magnet was not inside the bottle so how did this happen. We read a book about something called magnetic force.

“The magnetic force is connected to the stuff inside the plastic. The magnet is using it to pull stuff down” said Luke

“There’s strong senses of lines and whatever it can stick to it grabs” said Varish

That seemed to be what was pushing and pulling our objects but no matter how closely we looked we couldn’t see it… then we realised, it’s invisible! Then we discovered something else invisible…air! Can you think of anything else that is invisible?

With Clipsal at our doorstep we decided to go to the Prep school on Thursday to watch the Roulettes fly overhead. It was very exciting and on our return we had lots of boys professing that they will be pilots when they grow up. It was wonderful to experience just a small part of mad march in our beautiful city.

Next week we are heading to the museum to find out more about fossils. This trip will be for Thursday students. Please help us by returning slips promptly and letting us know if you are able to assist us on our trip.

Have a lovely weekend

Mel, Emma and Ty

Cooper

Dear Cooper families,

We had a very exciting start to our week when Miss Georgia brought in her pet snake Jerry into the ELC. The Cooper and Wilkins children all gathered in the classroom and watched in awe as Miss Georgia fed Jerry his dinner.  These were some of the children’s comments about what they had seen:

Lexie – Jerry was eating a rat. He ate a rat and he covered himself with the rat and then he finished. He twirled around the rat.

Harry – I saw a snake eating the mouse.

Aston – We saw a snake. He turned around in circles because he liked doing that.

Sebastien Ha. – He was eating mouse for the food. I thought he was going to eat another snake.

William A – I could see it wiggled a bit and then I could use it was moving a little bit. I thought it was tired.

Rory – It was a snake. It was eating the mouse. It was sucking it because snakes don’t have teeth. It was curling around it.

William L – We saw a snake. He eat it. He looked cold. He did this.

Struan – We looked at the snake. He eat a mouse by his big mouth.

Zara – Miss Georgia touched him. He was eating. He opened wide like that and then he ate it and then he finished.

Ryan – I don’t know why the snake wrapped the rat around his body. Maybe, because he was trying to eat the rat.

Stemming from our seed experiment, the children have been increasingly interested in the little creatures that are found in our gardens. We have loved talking about the life cycle of bees and butterflies, with help from the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. 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 the various the stages that the caterpillar goes on before it turns into a butterfly.

Happy Birthday to Lexie, who turned 4 years old on Tuesday. We were lucky enough to have cupcakes in the afternoon to celebrate this special event. Some of the children decided to make party hats to wear during afternoon tea using plastic bowls and decorating them with various craft materials.

We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

Love Miss Gilbert and Miss C