Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

What a busy week we have had together. As the week went on we saw our classroom forest growing before our eyes. We collected many interesting natural resources from the Prep school as well as our ELC outdoor learning environment, adding them to our very own forest space. We have had many discussions over the week about forests, beginning to work out our own definition.

It has lots of trees and lots of grass- Walter

A forest is dark- Marcel

It has grass- Ashton

Animals live there in it- Felix

Yeah it has wild animals- Walter

Together we started to brainstorm and collect the different resources that we needed for our classroom forest to take shape. 

We have to make the whole classroom a forest- Walter

We need rocks- Samuel

I got an idea. We can put a Gruffalo in our forest- William

Trees- Jasmine

A bear- Billy

Foot steps- Audrey

A mouse going to see the Grufflalo- Joshua D

A coconut- Alice

A man. He's going to do walking- Edie

A monster- Paxton

We will continue adding to this list as the weeks go on, helping us to source the materials that we need for this project to grow. 

As we worked together creating this space we began to think about the different types of animals that might live in a forest,

Birds and poison slugs- Lochlann S

Snakes- Ashton

Crocodiles live there- Sidney

Doggies don't live in the forest- Lilah

We found that we really weren't to sure about what we would find, however using an amazing Encyclopedia that Mrs Rocca found in our ELC library we were able to begin our research. 

Next week we will continue our learning journey into forests, using our resource books and class computers to work out what type of forest we have growing in our classroom and what animals we will find living there. If we have any parents, family members or friends who know about forests we would love to welcome you to share your knowledge or skills with us. We love it when family and friends join us on our learning journey. 

Please make sure you take the time to check out our wonderful forest space. You might even find a book or two to share while you are taking in the breath taking sights.

Mrs Kimberley Mason and Mrs Coney Rocca

Cooper

Hi Cooper families,

Show and tell has been fantastic this week. Thank you for bringing in your precious belongings in to share with your peers. It is lovely to see the children’s confidence in speaking in front of their peers growing, especially since our show and tell sessions in Term 4 last year. Well done! We have also been practicing what looks and sounds like to be a respectful audience member.  This week we have been doing a great job at waiting our turn to talk and asking some fabulous questions for the child who is sharing.

Last week we had a large trough with water, syringes and different sized cups set up for the children to experiment with and explore using mathematical concepts and fine motor skills. Over the past week we have added straws to the trough where the children began to blow bubbles in the water. We then added detergent to the water, which has had some amazingly bubbly effects to the experience. We have continued this excitement and love of bubbles through to visual art experiences. They look amazing and we had a lot of fun in the process.

In the outside area this week, we discovered that you could draw and write on the stage next to the sandpit by moving around the sand. Once this discovery had been make, the children experimenting with writing on the stage using their fingers, sticks and even toy truck wheels. This was a great early literacy experience, which we have tried to recreate in the classroom with small sand trays.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Love Miss Gilbert and Miss C

Langley

This week children have been very interested in "The big book of wild Australia", which includes many different native animals to Australia. The children have enjoyed lying down with the book in small and large groups, naming all the animals that they know. On Monday, to find out more information about some animals that were new to the children, we watched some clips online.

Phoebe - "Oh look, snap, snap! Uh oh" (pointing to a crocodile)

Xavier - "Fishies, fishies here. Nemo here"

William A - "Look a crab. A scary crab. Dey (they) go nap, nap (snap, snap)"

We have introduced an ice cream shop to the Langley room which has been a flurry of activity this week. Children have demonstrated tremendous sharing and turn-taking skills as they have negotiated the amount of play dough ice cream between all the cones. The area has allowed for great dramatic play and social development.

Since we haven't had too much rain this week, we have loved our outdoor play times. Children have enjoyed playing various ball games with their peers, throwing and rolling to each other and using the basketball ring. We've also had some very courageous risk-takers who have been jumping off of the hay bale into the bark!

Have a great weekend

Emily, Brooke, Renee and Sarah   

    

Angwin

Dear Angwin Families,

There have been some changes in our learning space this week. You may have noticed that our home corner is starting to have a lot of space related pictures and creations. In the past couple of weeks we have noticed that rockets and meteorites were quite often being talked about and made during inside play. A couple of students suggested we make a space corner so this is slowly happening.

This week we also started looking at the letter 'S' and the sound it makes. On Tuesday, as an introduction, we all sat around the sandpit to do something special. The sss sound was over emphasised every time it came up in a word. It didn’t take long for the students to realise that we were going to be talking about the letter  'S' and the sound it makes. To start off with we practiced pronouncing the sound sss and brainstormed as many words as possible that started with this sound. Some of the words on our list included

sky, snake, sun, Sunday, space, swimming, stars, syrup, supper, sand and soccer

We then looked at how we write the letter. Using our fingers as the writing tools the children had a go a writing the letter 'S' in the sand as many times as they liked. After this group time the children went off to play but to our delight many children came rushing up to us adding words to the list as they were playing with tools or equipment that started with the sound sss such as swing, slide and spade.

We revisited the letter on Wednesday, adding to our list and this time practiced writing it in a tray of glitter. On Thursday, during cooking, we encouraged the children to form an 'S' with the pastry they were using to make their cheese sticks.

It has been great to see the children communicating their knowledge and understanding of the letter 'S', its sound and formation.

 Love Cass and Coral

Chapple

Chapple this week we welcome a new member of the class. His name is Alfie and he is a fish. Say hello when you are next in the class. We have looked at caring for him this week and looked at what happens when we put things in the water that shouldn't be there.

Harley brought in a life vest for show and tell and it got us talking about what keeps us safe.

Tails continue to be popular and we had mermen and mermaids appearing in the class.

We also had an investigation into what it means to be bigger and smaller. We used an elephant to measure how tall we are, with surprising results.

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families and friends,

It has been a wonderful week this week! The children have been showing lots of interest in art and craft including painting, threading, cutting and pasting. This is a great opportunity for our Wilkins friends to build muscle strength in their hands and fingers to prepare them for future writing, as well as a great excuse to decorate our room with their wonderful creations.

Dialog throughout art and craft-

Ginger: 'I'm making this for mummy's fridge'

Grace-Marie: 'Mine is beautiful'

Tom S: 'Mum, mum wow'

Christian: 'For my mum'

Belle: 'Mine is for my Poppa, he will like it'.

Over the last week we have set up some indoor and outdoor balance provocation. We have noticed some of the children stepping out of their comfort zones and pushing themselves physically to achieve new things. We have witnessed some wonderful balancing on our wavy tactile path, jumping off of our wooden stumps and climbing towers they build with our cushioned blocks. Experimentation with these experiences is enabling the children to further develop their balance and coordination which is favorable in their involvement of future sporting activities and day to day activities. 

Finally, as we are starting to get some rainy days please pack a spare set of clothes for your child in case we get caught in the rain or have a messy day. We do have some spare PAC jumpers which have kindly been donated, if one of these does get sent home with your child please return it at your earliest convenience so we can make sure all our Wilkins friends are rugged up.

Have a lovely weekend,

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

Edgerley

Dear Parents,

This week we have explored the letter E. It was a little confusing to some of the boys as it makes different sounds as in elephant and easter, and also sounds a lot like the letter I! However we managed to brainstorm a huge list of "E" words. 

We also received an email from Mrs Bishop who is still on her holiday in Asia and the boys decided they wanted to write back to her. We talked about how you format a letter with a beginning, middle and end. They told her all about the Princesses Tea Party and what the weather has been like in Adelaide. 

The boys have drawn their self-portraits this week while observing themselves in the mirror. Their fine motor skills have really developed since they did this same task in Term One. At the light table the boys observed slides and created their own on translucent paper.

Outside there has been some amazing space themed play in the form of space ships and rockets being constructed and meteors being formed in the sandpit. While on the grass a competitive game of AFL took place with The Adelaide Crows versing The Geelong Cats!

As the Edgerley café is up and running the boys decided they needed some food to sell. Rana, Ben's mum, came in and did some cooking with the Tuesday boys. They made delicious cupcakes which were devoured very quickly by many satisfied customers. Come in and have breakfast some time. Once the café's rent expires Lucas and Aadeesh have requested a hair salon takes its place. They were practicing some interesting styles on Mrs McKenzie this week!

Best wishes,

Emma, Amelia and Ty

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley Families and Friends,

This week we welcomed Mrs Rocca back to our classroom. We were all very excited to see her and to hear all about her adventures back home in the Philippines with her family and friends. It sounds like she had a beautiful holiday, but is very happy to be back with us. 

Throughout the week we saw the children continue making their wonderful creations and the box construction table. There was lots of care taken when choosing the different bits and pieces needed to to make some very marvellous machines. We would like say a big thank you to those families who have started to bring in recycled boxes. They have certainly been put to good use. If you have any at home that you are able to donate we will appreciate them. I am sure that some of them will make their way back home with new life. 

Later in the week in our out door learning environment some of our friends begun to build a forest in the sandpit explaining what they were doing and what a forest is. 

We are planting the seeds. They are very special seeds. they are apricot seeds. Apricots will grow- Walter

We are making a forest- Samuel

A big forest- Lachlan B

A forest is a very scary place- Samuel

A forest means it dark and monsters live in them- Marcel

 It just looks like something that is a bit foggy. Has lots of trees and wild animals. Monsters don't live in the forest. I said wild animals do- Walter

The boys discussion and creating has  got us thinking about what a forest really is. We will continue these discussions, using our classroom computer to do some research. I wonder what really does live inside a forest? We will then begin to create a Mattingley forest for us to explore and continue our learning. We look forward to seeing where this inquiry takes us using our 'Unit of Inquiry', Sharing the planet as a lens. 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Kimberley Mason and Coney Rocca

Langley

We had an amazing time on Monday at the Princesses Tea Party with our Mums. There was lots of fun to be had building with Lego, reading stories, manipulating play dough, and the all important - making crowns and tiaras for our marvellous Mums! We hope you had as much fun as we did!

Following on from our leaf collecting expedition last week, we have been creating gorgeous autumn artworks at the easel. Children have used paint with glue to stick the leaves onto there paintings to represent their thinking. They look very effective - have a look on our wall!

We have also been exploring seasonal sensory bags on the light table. Each bag contains items to represent a season, and children have loved feeling them and moving what is inside in the process.

Outside this week we have loved constructing with the large foam blocks and since they are so soft, we can jump and climb all over them! Children have also worked on their balance skills walking along the frame.

Since the weather is getting a little cold and wet outside, could you please provide a named warm coat and gum boots for your child. Please place these items in the box and coat rack by the door.  

Enjoy the weekend

Brooke, Renee, Emily and Sarah