Christmas Closure

Dear Parents,

Just a reminder that today is our last day before our Christmas break and we will return on January 11th. The teaching staff return ready for the Kindy program on January 28th.
Next year there will be a couple of staff changes . Ms Amanda Rees from Mead room is moving to the Prep School to take up an assistants position there. We will all miss her and wish her well in her new position. Mrs Penny White will move from the Langley room to take Amanda's place in the Mead room which will be great continuity for those children also moving up.
Mrs Jessica Catt will commence in the Langley room from January 11th . She has been with us casually for a couple of months and has been visiting the room and getting to know the children.
Jessica is a trained Early Childhood Teacher and will take on the leadership of this room. Please introduce yourselves to her and make her welcome,

Merry Christmas to everyone and see you in the New Year !

Jeanine

Fee Increase

Dear Parents,
As per the whole of the school there will be an increase in fees for the ELC next year. There is a letter and a new fee schedule in each child's pigeon hole. They are also displayed on the School's web site .These fees will apply from when we return on January 11th 2010. If you are currently on holidays and wish to make any enquiries then please phone me at the centre,

regards
Jeanine

Christmas Capers

Week 1 Holidays for 3’s and 4’s
Welcome back to the Holiday program! We’re already one week down and that much closer to Christmas, how exciting!

As we have a much longer term break, our “Christmas Capers” program format has changed slightly. Instead of themed days we have focussed on various Christmas activities and listed a range of experiences to take part in for the whole two weeks. You may have already seen some of our creations including:

- Father Christmas Faces.
We practiced our scissor skills to cut out hat and beard shapes. Added facial features of our own Santa and decorated him with collage materials.

- Paper Cup Angels.
A true mirror of each of us… hopefully! Using everyday materials, we created a personalised tree decoration or table centrepiece

- Wrapping Paper and Card Making
We used sponge stamps and marbling paint to make our own Christmas wrapping paper. We also made Christmas cards for our friends and family.

Wednesday the 23rd of December is the last day of the holiday program before Christmas. We invite the children to wear some festive or casual clothing to celebrate the last ELC day of 2009.

Next weeks activities will include Ginger Bread/Honey Biscuit Making, Festive Face Painting, more Paper Chains and Christmas stories, songs and movies.

The Holiday Team
Todd, Ali, Jess, Rosalie, Trish, Sarah and Eleanor

Fees over Holidays

Dear Parents, due to a software problem some families who pay by the automatic debiting procedure have had our closure period charged to their accounts. We have now rectified the problem and any fees charged for this period will show as a credit and be used for the fees for when we return from 11.1.10. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause ,

Jeanine

Christmas Party

Thankyou to all the wonderful parents who provided food and helped with our Christmas Party. The children certainly enjoyed the visit from Santa and all the goodies to eat. Some even had a second sitting at afternoon tea time ! If anyone still has a plate to collect they are in the art room.
The children have had a great time over the rest of the week doing Christmas craft work with Mr Kerber which will continue next week as well.
Another big thankyou for your generosity with presents for the staff. We certainly all appreciate it!
The ELC staff

Farewell from Kindergarten Staff

Dear Parents,
Thankyou for making our first semester in our new centre such a warm and wonderful experience. We have really valued having you on this new journey with us and thankyou for your support and understanding in helping us build on the strengths of our programmes from Little Princes. We have enjoyed working with your children at the new Princes ELC and their joy and enthusiasm around this new experience has been a delight to share. We wish you all a merry Christmas and safe but exciting holiday and look forward to seeing you in the new year.
Seasons Greetings
Mel, Alex, Emma, Susan, Amanda, Ali, Nicola and Pip

Farewell Mrs Cooper

Dear Parents,
We would like to wish Mrs Pip Cooper all the best as she takes a break for maternity leave for the birth of her third child. We will miss her immense enthusiasm and dedication and look forward to hearing of her new arrival in the new year.
We would like to take this opportunity to particularly thank Pip for her work during our transitionary period moving from Little Princes to the Princes ELC as well as her ongoing role in the lives of our children at the centre. We look forward eagerly to her return.
Regards
Mel Bishop

Cans at Christmas

Dear Parents,
we will be taking our can collection to Uniting Care next Friday. One can from each Princes ELC family would make a huge difference to a number of less fortunate families this Christmas. Please take the time to help your child add a can to our hamper beside our Christmas tree.
Thankyou
ELC staff

Missing Library Book

Dear Parents,
As we finalise borrowing from the Library for 2010 we have two missing books that have mistakenly been booked out to a child who does not attend Library. If you have the Library books “Don’t Lose Pigley, Wibbly Pig” or “The Flying Diggers” please return them to the centre as soon as possible.
Thankyou
Preparatory School Library Staff

Parents and Friends Representatives for Chapple and Mead 2010

Dear Parents of children currently in Mead Room or children about to move to Mead in 2010,
We are asking for expressions of interest from parents interested in being a Parents and Friends rep for Chapple or Mead for 2010. If you would like to be part of our P&F team please respond via e-mail to Mrs Porter at jporter@pac.edu.au. The positions will be decided in late January.
Kind Regards
Mel Bishop

Bowerbird Beauty

Dear Parents,
you may have noticed our growing shared threading in the café. Children have enjoyed bringing treasures to add and it has sparked much discussion about how colours work together and about the different names of different shades.
As the Kindergarten term is drawing to a close we no longer require any bowerbird treasures.
Thankyou for your support and enthusiasm during this project
ELC Staff

Beautiful Photos

Photos from our Nativity and the Chapple Graduation are available to be viewed and purchased on the Festival photos web site at:
http://www.festival-photo.com.au/
Once on their site click view your photos
then click PAC
then click 2009
If you would like to look at photos from our Nativity please click on Kindergarten Nativity and enter the password 18-11-09
If you would like to look at photos from our Nativity please click on Chapple Graduation and enter the password 03-12-09

In the Classrooms

Langley
This week in Langley we have explored every inch of our imaginations with the dress ups. Tu tu’s were in high demand and were enjoyed so much they were hardly ever off! The children particularly enjoyed dancing and singing in their outfits and swapping as frequently as possible. We look forward to encouraging this experience more next week. A big thank you to all the families who bought in coat hangers.
Warm regards.
Penny, Adele, Chloe & Sarah

Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
We have had fun exploring silver this week and doing a variety of Christmas craft activities. The children have made Christmas decorations, printed their own wrapping paper and listened to and sung many Christmas stories and songs. It has been a wonderful term and we are very sad to be drawing to a close. Can we take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and peaceful new year.
Best wishes,
Emma, Amanda and Susan

Cooper
Mums and Dads will find a special surprise in their children's bags this week! The children have been very busy putting together their Christmas presents for you. They have made hand print wrapping paper and foot print Christmas tree cards in very Christmassy greens and reds. With a little help the cards have been written and the presents wrapped. Don't forget to put them under the tree ready for Christmas day!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our families!
Kind regards,
Ali and Rosalie

Edgerley
This week in Edgerley we welcomed baby Henry James, a brother for Samuel, congratulated Henry N on his special family event, observed Christian's live huntsman spider for show and tell and wrapped our Christmas presents. We also farewelled Marcos as he moves up to the Prep school, said goodbye to Miss Christina and wished Mrs Cooper all the best as she leaves us to have a baby. Phew! What a week!
Time for a rest!
From Mel and Pip

Chapple
Congratulations to all the Chapple children on a wonderful farewell ceremony. All the staff were very proud of how well the ceremony went and how beautifully the children performed. We would love any photos of the event to post on the blogsite. Please email Mel Bishop if you have some that you would like to contribute. A special thank you to all the parents for your support and cooperation throughout the semester. We hope you have a safe and happy Christmas! And thank you for all your presents!

Santa is on His Way

Dear Parents,
*Our ELC Christmas party that is being held on Tuesday the 8th of December at 11.30am.
*We would like to ask families with surnames beginning with A-L to bring a small plate of sweet finger food treats to share
*We would like to ask families with surnames beginning with M-Z to bring a small plate of savoury finger food treats to share
*Children who do not normally attend on this day are very welcome to join us from 11.15am but must be accompanied by an adult whilst they are in the centre
*We will have a shared Christmas party lunch at 12.00pm and parents are welcome to join us. We will be finished by 1.00pm
*The Kindergarten term ends at 1.00pm on this day and although our centre will remain open children who do not normally attend on this day and children who are part of the old kindergarten system must be collected at this time.
*Parents of other students are welcome to collect and take children home after this time as well if they would like to.
*Our holiday program begins from Wednesday the 9th of December
ThankyouELC staff

Dates For Your Diary

Dear Parents,
due to technical glitch we are experiencing difficulty with our blog calender in the task bar on the left hand side. The following dates should be part of that calender. Please add them to your diary.
Thank you
Mel Bishop

Week 8 - 1st December: Moving Up Morning for Mead and Chapple Students
Week 8 - 2nd December: Parent Information Meeting for Chapple Parents 3.15pm in the Preparatory School
Week 8 - 3rd December: Chapple Graduation 11.00am Town Square
Week 9 - 8th December ELC Christmas Party 11.30am (parents are welcome to join us for this party)
Week 9 - 8th December: Kindergarten Term Finishes at 1.00pm (Children enrolled on the old Little Princes system must be collected at this time)

Chapple Room Graduation

Dear Chapple Room Parents,
Our Chapple Room Students will be graduating from Kindergarten:

*on Thursday the 3rd of December
*at 11.00am
*in the Town Square, Princes ELC, Prince Alfred College

Please join us for a small ceremony, concert and farewell. Mums, Dads and Grandparents are welcome but please RSVP numbers to Mrs Julie Porter at jporter@pac.edu.au
Thankyou
Alex Marcus

In the Classrooms

Langley
At last Langley have snails
After preparing a home whilst on their 'brown hunt' in the garden, the Langley room children were pleasantly surprised thanks to Ryan Percival. Ryan found two snails in his garden, a 'Daddy snail and a baby snail' according to the children. We welcomed them into their home and discussed the type of things snails might eat like spaghetti, watermelon and sticks. We even named them 'Larry' and 'Lola'. We are all taking very good care of them and making sure we spray them with water as they can get very thirsty.
The Langley room would like to congratulate Benn, Olivia and Harry Macdonald on the arrival of Charlie David. We cannot wait to meet him.

Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
We have had an exciting week exploring the colour purple and beginning to look at Christmas! The children have been cutting, painting, gluing, writing letters to Santa Claus and exploring the mixing of colours to create others. Our next weeks colour for 'Show and Tell' is silver!
Best wishes,
Emma, Susan and Amanda

Cooper
The Cooper Room children have had lots of messy fun with finger paint this week. As they played with the finger paint the children described how it felt and made shapes and patterns with their fingers, nails and palms. The children mixed different red, yellow and blue colour combinations to see what new colours they could make and made prints of their shapes and patterns on paper. Some children even loved this gooey experience so much that they tried to swim in it and found themselves up to their elbows in finger paint!
Welcome to Ayesha and her family who have joined us in the Cooper Room this week.
Kind regards,
Ali Blake and Rosalie Nacca

Edgerley
Christmas has arrived in Edgerley. We have been busy completing our Christmas presents for our mum’s and dad’s (it’s a surprise!!) and making angel decorations for our Christmas trees at home. We have particularly enjoyed the challenge of paper chain making and quite a dedicated group have joined a teacher each day in the shade on the lawn to add to our growing chains. It has been a wonderful fine motor strengthening activity but has also sparked some wonderful social discussions as we have negotiated around whose chains are attached to whose and how working together on a shared project works.
Kind Regards
Mel and Pip

Chapple
We have finally planted our veggies in the garden and we can’t wait to try them! Chapple Room have planted some basil and bush tomatoes. It was unfortunate that some younger children immediately pulled the small tomatoes off, but we will definitely be making something with the basil. It was great fun digging the holes. We have also made beautiful ‘bird scarers’ out of CDs to make sure that nothing eats our veggies. Each day, someone will be chosen to water the plants. We are all very excited!

The Giving Spirit of Christmas

A big thankyou to all the families who donated to our Christmas Colour Clothing appeal. Our rainbow of clothes has been growing and is now ready to be sent to Uniting Care Adelaide East.

In our most recent communication with them they were very grateful for our donations as this Christmas promises to be one of need for many families in our community. In response to this we are now accepting non perishable goods for food hampers. We will be taking food hampers to Uniting Care Adelaide East on the 11th of December and so if you would like to donate any non perishables before this date they would be gratefully accepted.
Thankyou
ELC Staff

Making the Most of the Morning

It must be said that I am definitely a morning lark, mornings tend to be when I do my best work. Children generally are the same, whilst it may take a while for them to wake and get ready for school, the morning is usually the most busy and productive time of a child’s day. Educational studies have taught us over the years that more complex cognitive processing reaps more benefits if experienced in the morning. It is for this reason that our Kindergarten classes all begin at 8.30. This allows us the maximum period of time in which to spark our experiences off for the day.
Unlike more formal school-like settings it is not imperative that children arrive at Kindergarten right on the dot of 8.30am, however for children to gain the most from our exciting and engaging Kindergarten programs it is helpful for children to be arriving around this time. Being present for our morning meetings help children feel a sense of belonging to the group and gets them started on the right foot so that they may make the most of their morning.
Mel Bishop
Curriculum Co-ordinator, Early Years

Childcare Rebate

Dear Parents,
We have distributed a print out with information about CCB and the Childcare rebate. It appears that manyof our families are being given misleading information by their accountants about this rebate. It is NOT means tested and is available to all families where both parents are working ,studying or training to offset the cost of care. Our ElC has registered for this specifically so that parents can claim this government benefit. In order to receive this you must register for Childcare Benefit( but may be given a 0% for a weekly fee discount- depending on your income) , you will then be able to receive the 50% rebate on your fees each quarter paid directly to your bank account. For those families leaving us shortly you may be able to claim this as a lump sum by enquiring with the FAO,

regards
Jeanine

Holiday Arrangements

Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe that it is almost holiday time again and that some of our children will be leaving us shortly. Could you please confirm with Mrs Porter as soon as possible your child's final day with us ,if they are leaving, as accounts will continue to be charged until 23.12.09 unless you let us know otherwise. All children starting school next year are welcome to stay at the ELC until the start of the new school year. For those children continuing with us next year, could you please let us know if your child will be away over the holiday period (apart from our closure dates of 24/12/09-10/1/10) so that we can arrange for sufficient staff to be here. We will assume that they will be present for their normal days (and charge accordingly) unless you let us know. Mr Kerber will be organising a fun filled activity program for us again for the 3 and 4 year olds and Langley room will run as per normal!

Thankyou
ELC Staff

Spring Cleaning Donations

Dear Parents,
It seems that Spring has well and truly sprung! For those willing to brave the heat for the annual spring clean out, the ELC are on the look out for any of the following items
*Silver coloured tin pots and pans
*Silver coloured tin ladles, slotted spoons, whisks, utensils etc…
*Silver coloured tin moulds or cake tins
*Sturdy baskets
*Artificial flowers
If you come across any of these items that would like a new home please bring them into the centre for us to use in 2010
Thankyou
Mel Bishop

Rose Coloured Glasses!

We have had great fun viewing the world through coloured lenses.

From the Chapple Children

In the Classrooms

This week in our classrooms Langley, Mead, Cooper, Edgerley and Chapple students prepared for the performance of our Nativity play. We were busy practising our songs and preparing our costumes. We enjoyed performing to some of our brothers in the Junior Primary on Tuesday. On Wednesday the sun shone, making for a very hot walk to the chapel, but all the proud Mum’s and Dad’s faces waiting for us at the end made it all worthwhile. For most of us it was an exciting event and a great opportunity to perform for our parents, for some of us it was so exciting that it was a bit overwhelming!! Regardless, we all returned to the ELC feeling very proud of ourselves. Thankyou to all the Mum’s and Dad’s and special others who came to watch us, it made it even more special.
Love from the children of Langley, Mead, Cooper, Edgerley and Chapple

Costume Check

Thankyou so much to everyone for your support with the Nativity play today , the staff and your children really appreciated it !
Despite having some reluctant little stars it was very successful. As you could see it was a huge task to dress and then redress 95 children this year ! We would ask that all parents please check that their child has come home in the correct clothing. We had each pile of clothes with a name on it but as some children were anxious to change and go to their parents we feel there may have been some mix ups. Your help in ensuring that ALL clothing that your child wears to the ELC is named would be really appreciated,

thanks for your patience
ELC staff

Dear Princes ELC Parents,
Thankyou for all your support during the busy preparation for our annual Nativity play. A particularly big thanks to Catherine, Jo and Mary who have made costumes for our extravaganza! Rehearsals are going well and the big day is this coming Wednesday. We have dress rehearsals tomorrow (Tuesday) for children who normally attend on a Tuesday so please keep those extra pieces of costuming coming in.

Our Nativity will be held this Wednesday the 18th November at 11.00am in the Eric Freake Memorial Chapel which is located at the top of the path from the car park. The temperature is forecast to be 41 degrees and with so many of us in the chapel we do recommend light clothing. Cold water will be available at the back of the chapel and due to the weather conditions we do ask that people are mindful that our elderly guests are seated first.

The children have enthusiastically prepared their story about the first Christmas and are looking forward to seeing you there.
Kind Regards
The ELC team

In the Classrooms

Langley
Prehistoric LangleyThis week in Langley the children have been very interested in dinosaurs so we have introduced our very own dinosaur called Donny into the room. The children have really enjoyed spending time playing with our dinosaur figurines and have also loved doing lots of stamping with our dinosaur stamps. We have made a display to show all our hard stamping work from throughout the week.
We look forward to more dinosaur games to come. Please bring in any cardboard boxes from home so we can make some dinosaurs of our own!
Thank you
Adele, Penny, Chloe and Sarah

Mead
What a hot week. We have been very busy keeping ourselves cool washing babies, playing with water and watching coloured ice melt, creating lots of discussion about colours among our friends. Happy Birthday to Kyla who turned Four this week. We have also spent some time observing our silk worms and chatting about their lifecycle
“We cant wait until they start weaving their silk”, said Max G
Don’t forget our nativity performance next week and please visit our own stable in our class room
Keep cool
Amanda, Emma and Susan

Cooper
The Cooper children have continued experimenting with colour and different mixtures of it this week. Using bright paints they mixed two, three or even six different colours together to see what happened and often discovered that brown was the final result. The children painted individually at the easel and have also enjoyed painting in a small group around a big table, so that they could share and discuss their mixtures with their friends. We have added a variety of music to this experience to see how you can move your body and the paint brush along with the beat and then see what shapes and patterns you might make. The Cooper boys had some great moves and made a very bright and colourful painting! Kind regards, Ali Blake

Edgerley
This week in Edgerley we were posing questions about butterflies and moths. We were fascinated by the parts of them, particularly the antenna and tongues. We juiced fruit from home and pretended it was nectar and then used lots and lots of straws to create butterfly proboscis to drink with…it was little bit messy but a lot of fun. We illustrated our understanding of how butterflies eat and coloured them in with inks.
Regards
Mel and Pip

Chapple
The marble run has been helping us deal with the heat this week! As usual, it has been very popular and there have been some marvellous masterpieces. At one point, some of the children had used it as a sausage roll making machine!

End of Year Family Christmas Picnic Presents – Please Read

Dear ELC Families,
In regards to our End of Year Family Christmas Picnic we have had a fantastic suggestion from one of our Kindy staff in regards to the $10 gifts that Father Christmas will be handing out to the children!
We would prefer everyone to please buy a book for their child/children attending and then everyone will get the same thing and this way we won’t have any comparison issues. I have now put two Christmas sacks in the Mead Room Storeroom for everyone to start popping their gifts into. Don’t forget to put a name tag on the front with your child’s full name please!Looking forward to seeing you there!
Jude Searles & Brendt Parisi

Transition Visits for Mead, Chapple and Langley Children

Dear Parents,
As the end of the academic year draws to a close we have begun to prepare Mead, Chapple and three year old Langley students for their move to their new classrooms. In the coming weeks children will be participating in various transition visits. We have tried to schedule these across the school week so that all students are able to participate. Apart from the formal activities below, children will also be exposed to spontaneous and less formal transition walks and activities as the program permits.

Chapple Transition
Monday 16th November – Chapple children will be visited by Miss Hart and Mrs Leeson for a stay and play
Thursday 19th November – Chapple children will be visited by Mrs Burford
Monday 23rd November - Chapple children will be visited by Miss Hart for a story time
Tuesday 24th November - Chapple children will be visited by Mrs Leeson for a story time
Wednesday 25th November – Chapple visit Reception classrooms in the Preparatory School
Tuesday 1st December – Moving up day for Chapple Students. Students will spend the morning in the Preparatory School and will require a packed snack and drink bottle from home. Students who do not normally attend on this morning may do so by going directly to the Preparatory School

Mead Transition
Thursday 19th November – Mead children will be visited by Miss Marcus and will also have the opportunity to spend some time in the Chapple room
Tuesday 24th November - Mead children will be visited by Miss Marcus
Wednesday 25th November – Mead children will be visited by Miss Marcus and will also have the opportunity to spend some time in the Chapple room
Tuesday 1st December – Moving up day for Mead Students.
Students will spend the morning in Chapple

Langley Transition
Langley students will be invited to visit Mead in small spontaneous groups during week 7, 8 and 9
Tuesday 1st December – Moving up day for three year old Langley Students. Students will spend the morning in Mead.

Warm weather treats

Thankyou to the parents who kindly brought in iceblocks for the children during this past hot week. If you are sending these as an alternative to Birthday cake then please send only Lemonade iceblocks to accommodate children with food colour allergies or intolerances (as per our parent handbook).
As our rooms are quite cool and we prefer to stick to our healthy food (and only occasional treats ) we would prefer that you do not send these in other than for birthdays .

Thankyou
Jeanine

Children finishing at the ELC

Dear Parents ,
If your child will be finishing with us in December or January prior to starting school, could you please inform Julie or myself what their final day with us will be (we require 2 weeks notice).
We will be open until Dec 23rd and returning on January 11th and your child is welcome to stay until school commences in the new year on 28.1.10.

Jeanine

Clothing Donations

Thankyou so much to the families who have been bringing in the donations to fill our Coloured Christmas Charity Collection. Many of the children have enjoyed bringing an item to add to this collection. We hope that this will be an opportunity for the children to help you choose a preloved item and begin to understand the concept of giving to others. We look forward to seeing the colours change and grow over the next few weeks,

Thanks in anticipation,
The ELC team

Bookings for next year

Dear Parents, If you would like to book extra days for your child next year (or change the days that you attend ) could you please see me as soon as possible. Bookings are filling very quickly as I have had lots of enquiries from new families !

regards
Jeanine

Big Boys Breakfast Photos

Dear Parents,
The photos that were taken at the Big Boys Breakfast are available to purchase on Festival photos web site. The address is www.festival-photo.com.au . Once you are on their site you need to click on "view your photos" then "PAC" then 2009. You will then need to enter the date of the function that you wish to view the photos from. The breakfast was on 03-09-09

regards
ELC staff

Our Nativity Cast

Dear Parents,
Thankyou to those who have returned slips to indicate whether their child will be attending the ELC nativity. We have now finalised the cast and parents of attending children will receive a slip in their children’s pigeonhole in the coming week outlining where their child will be located on stage to assist you in your seating choice. Some children will require some additional costuming from home which will also be outlined on the slip.
Thankyou
Mel Bishop

In the Classrooms

Langley
Langley children set up shop this week, selling everything imaginable. Our boxes came into use and were sold off to customers. The children all took turns in using the cash register, taking the money in and out and speaking over the phone. We discussed the different foods and objects being sold to our friends like the weet bix and green cucumber.
Following up this shop interest we look forward to getting out the fruit and vegetables and setting up a fruit and veg shop in the week to come.

Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
We have continued to investigate colour this week in the Mead Room. This week's focus colour has been green and the children have mixed colours, printed, finger painted and modelled with clay. We have made a graph of our favourite colours and in keeping with the colour theme some children have brought in Show and Tell items focusing on specific colours. Hamish brought in a green fern, and we decided to try and print the fern leaves onto green paper. They did a wonderful job. We are practicing hard for the Christmas Nativity which is looming quickly.
Emma, Susan and Amanda

Cooper
This week Cooper Room have begun investigating colours on the light box. The boys looked at coloured cellophane with the light behind it and found their favourite colours. We glued the different colours to clear container lids over the light and then discovered that when you overlap the colours they change... blue and red making purple was very exciting! Many of the boys have chosen to return to the this activity over the week to see what new combinations they can make. Next we will hang these at the window to see what happens when sunlight shines through them. Kind regards, Ali

Edgerley
Dear Edgerley Parents,
This week has again been a wonderful investigation into the world of colour. We worked together to create paint from cell mix so that we could illustrate the rainbows we had created with prisms. We learned about the colour green and really enjoyed mixing up our own greens, we made a lot of different ones. Towards the end of the week we began to create butterfly prints and squashed colours together in between paper. We mixed primary colours in our super silk trays and finally looked for rainbows elsewhere in our room….we found them… on the face of CD’s!!! They were beautiful!
From
The Edgerley Children

Chapple
After some creative imaginative play with the playdough over the last couple of weeks, the children were invited to make pasta on Thursday. It is a great hands on, messy activity, with a fantastic reward at the end- yummy, fresh, home-made pasta! Everyone was left wanting more!

End of Year Family Christmas Picnic

Dear Langley Cooper Mead and Edgerley Families,
Just a quick reminder that our ELC ‘End of Year Family Christmas Picnic’ is fast approaching us!It’s being held on Sunday the 29th of November, from 11am to 1pm, next to the wading pool at Tusmore Park. If the weather is warm make sure you bring bathers and towels for the children.
Father Christmas will be visiting the children at around midday. Can parents please organize a small gift (valued at no more than $10) for their own children attending and bring them into the ELC no later than Thursday the 26th of November. I will put some Christmas sacks in the Mead storage room where you can discretely leave them.
It’s a BYO picnic, so please arrange your own food, drinks, chairs etc.If you have any questions/suggestions please get in touch with Brendt or myself.
Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you all there!
Warmest Regards,
Brendt Parisi and Jude Searles

Adelaide’s Christmas Cracker

A number of Cooper and Mead parents have expressed an interest in attending Adelaide Christmas Cracker on Friday 11th December 2009 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. It promises to be a great night of entertainment, including some from one of our own Cooper Room mums. If you would like to gather a table of 10 you can book now by contacting Aleisha Huckel on aleisha.huckel@adelaidecc.com.au or on-line at www.adelaidecc.com.au. Payment in full is required at time of booking.
Entertainment
‘A Christmas Folly’ floorshow
Lucky Seven Swing
Hepburn
Dress
Cocktail/After five
Tickets
$105.00pp (inc. GST) Groups of 10 will be allocated their own table.

Chapple Room school visit

Dear Parents, The letter that you received recently about the school visit on Dec 1st should have had your child's name in the first paragraph where it says "preferred name", this visit is for the boys only,

our apologies !!

Jeanine

In the Classrooms

Langley
With the weather warming up Langley have been experimenting with water and ice.
When Miss Chloe’s water bottle froze the children began to become very curious, wanting to listen, feel and look at the ice frozen inside the bottle.
Following up this curiosity we filled up the outside water trough with lots of ice and water for the children to explore.
“ooo it’s cold” said Lucy,
“Yummy” said Zac, rubbing a cube on his tongue.
We look forward to having more ice experiences in the near future particularly with this warm weather!
Warm regards
Adele, Penny, Sarah and Chloe

Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
We have had a colourful week! The children have been experimenting with colour using all of their senses. They are discovering some interesting things about what happens when you mix colours together and how to create new colours. We have discussed favourite colours and talked about what colours remind us of and how they make us feel.
We did an experiment to watch colour (yellow dye) creeping up a flower stem and changing white carnations to yellow ones.
"The flowers are drinking the yellow water. The flower is turning yellow" Olin explained.
"They (the flowers) don't like the yellow water" said Katie.
"Yellow is in a rainbow. Rain and sun go together and a rainbow appears" Regan told us.
Emma, Susan and Amanda

Cooper
The Cooper Room children have been great builders this week. We have seen all sorts of constructions including animal houses, roads and train tracks, cranes and vehicles, vacuum cleaners and very tall diving boards. We have been building with big and small wooden blocks, soft blocks, duplo and gears. The boys have enjoyed playing with these with their friends, sharing ideas and all the talk and action that goes with construction play. Brilliant building boys!
Kind regards, Ali Blake

Edgerley
Dear Edgerley Parents,
We have been working hard to complete our statues this week. We thought about what statue we would like to make and then modelled it with our bodies, letting a friend take a photo. We used the photo to create a plan and have begun to use boxes to put our shapes together. They are receiving their final coat of paint and next week we will type our titles on the computer and put together our statue gallery!
Kind Regards
Mel and Pip

Chapple
We are continuing to explore colour in the Chapple Room. We have been investigating mixing colours and the rainbow colours in bubbles. It’s been very exciting and has created a lot of intrigue and curiosity!
Thank you, Alexandra

Please Return Nativity Slips

Dear Parents,
Thankyou to those of you who have returned your slips indicating wether your child will be participating in the ELC Nativity. If you haven’t returned your slip can you please do so as our deadline has already passed. As ever, feel free to e-mail your response directly to Mrs Porter at jporter@pac.edu.au
Thankyou
Mel Bishop

Clear Yogurt Tops

Dear Parents,
Cooper room students require clear round plastic tops from yogurt and sour cream containers for a project they are working on. If you have any can you please pass them to your child’s teacher who will send them to the Cooper Room
Thankyou
Ali Blake

Child Youth Health Visit

Dear Parents of Chapple students,
As students are about to move to school we have scheduled Child and Youth Health services to visit us so that children can have their final check before school. Parents have received a form to complete in their pigeon holes this week. If you would like to avail yourself of this opportunity please complete the form and hand it back to Alexandra Marcus. Then simply pop into the classroom and choose a time slot on the published schedule. Please note that a parent is required to attend the health appointment with the child and that you will need to bring your blue CAFHS book with you (if you can find it). Participation in these health visits are not compulsory and they are offered for your convenience only.
Kind Regards
ELC staff

Christmas Party 8th December

Dear Parents,
We have received many queries about our ELC Christmas party that is being held on Tuesday the 8th of December at 11.30am and we would like to clarify what will happen on the day.
*We would like to ask families with surnames beginning with A-L to bring a small plate of sweet finger food treats to share
*We would like to ask families with surnames beginning with M-Z to bring a small plate of savoury finger food treats to share
*Children who do not normally attend on this day are very welcome to join us from 11.30 but must be accompanied by an adult whilst they are in the centre
*We will begin at 11.30 with some shared songs and a Christmas story.
*Children will receive a small gift. Please note: if your child would like to share gifts we recommend cards. If your child would like to share or exchange gifts with only a few of the children in their class we would ask that you do this outside the centre to avoid upsetting other children.
*We will have a shared Christmas party lunch at 12.00 and be finished by 12.30
*The Kindergarten term ends at 12.30 on this day and although our centre will remain open *Children who do not normally attend on this day and children who are part of the old kindergarten system must be collected at this time. Parents of other students are welcome to collect and take children home after this time as well if they would like to.
*Our holiday program begins from Wednesday the 9th of December
Thankyou
ELC staff

Summer Uniform

Dear Parents,
As summer has well and truly arrived it is now timely to reflect on our summer uniform policy. We would like to remind parents that sandals are wonderful footwear options. Children are not allowed to wear thongs, slip on shoes or crocs. Also shorts are to be navy, maroon, khaki or cream in colour. If you have any queries please refer to the section on clothing in our parent handbook.
Thankyou
ELC staff

Missing Clothing

Dear Parents,
With the warmer weather the children are now often removing their rugby tops during outside playtime. Unfortunately as the tops (and hats) all look the same the children often pick up the wrong one before returning to their rooms. Could we please ask you to assist us by checking the name in your child's clothing on a regular basis.
We are currently missing a couple of rugby tops and hats. If you find that your child has brought the wrong articles of clothing home would you mind phoning us so that we can let the families concerned know their whereabouts.
Our children in Langley room are currently particularly fascinated with getting out their bags frequently which has also resulted in some mixing up of belongings recently. We apologise for this and are working on teaching them to leave things in their lockers but we would appreciate it if you could help us by checking their clothes when you collect them at the end of the day,

Thankyou in anticipation,
The ELC Staff

Cooper and Mead groups

Dear Parents,
During this term our Speech Therapists who regularly work in the ELC will be offering free speech and language assessments for all our 3 year olds. This will be done during your child's normal day and parents will not need to attend. If they have any concerns about your child's development you will be contacted through the school. We are offering this service as part of our belief that early intervention is always best practice.
If you do not wish your child to be involved in this screening process (or have already had an assessment) then please let me know as soon as possible,

Jeanine

In the Classrooms

Langley
This week, the Langley children have enjoyed having their morning meetings with stories, songs and games. With the beautiful weather and the energy our boys and girls have, the children have been visiting the 'big boys' yard to have a run around in the morning. The children are loving this time as they ride around on the bikes, play in the 'fire station', climb and even do some gardening with shovels and wheel barrows. We look forward to more beautiful weather and fun times in the big yard. Thank you also to all the parents who brought in some recycle boxes for us to use in our box construction activities.
Adele, Penny, Chloe and Sarah

Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
This week the children have drawn wonderful self portraits in white chalk on black paper.
"I have flat hair but sometimes I make it spikey with hair gel. I am learning to draw my hands and ears" Luke told us.
"I have a head with hair. That's light brown. My eyes are dark brown and I have a long tongue" Tyler described himself.
I have really, really, really long legs. That's why I run so fast. Better not forget my lips. Arms now! I need to do little spots inside my eyes" said Sebastian.
"This is me.....Lloyd. I have big eyes.... see them here. A little bit of black, a little bit of brown and then lots of white" explained Lloyd.
Emma, Susan and Amanda

Cooper
On Wednesday Aadi's mum, Ruchi, joined us for his show and tell time. They told us about Diwali which their family has recently celebrated. Aadi showed us his special clothes and we found out his favourite sweet is called laddu. We talked about the meaning of Diwali and how it is celebrated with many lights for decorations. We lit candles and sparklers and even had sweets for a celebration treat. Thank you Aadi and Ruchi for a special show and tell!
Warm regards,
Ali Blake


Edgerley
Edgerley students enjoyed investigating and creating rainbows with prisms this week. We proposed theories about rainbows and tested them in class. We discovered pink is not in the rainbow, colours stay in the same order in rainbows and red always comes first. Next week we will continue to discuss whether black and white are actually colours… the jury is split at the moment!
Mel and Pip

Chapple
Our investigations into colours and their properties have taken an interesting turn. This week, we used mirrors in shallow dishes of water to make rainbows on the walls. It was a wonderful time of experimentation and discovery. We will continue to look at rainbows and other properties of colour in the coming week. And just in case anyone is confused, indigo is a colour in the rainbow, not Bendigo, as some of the Chapple Room children are saying.
Thank you, Alexandra

Mulberry Leaves

Dear Parents,
In the coming term some classes will be attempting to hatch silk worm eggs and grow silk moths. If you have a mulberry tree easily accessible to you we would love it if you could let us know via e-mail if you are willing to assist us in providing us with leaves once our worms have hatched.
Thanks
Mel Bishop

Parking in the Loading Bay

Dear Parents,
Some parents have begun parking their cars in the designated PAC Grounds Staff Loading Bays. This problem has gotten a little out of control and is causing ongoing issues with the work schedules of our grounds staff who have been forced to find alternative parking around the college and carry heavy loads quite some distance. Please assist the wonderful work that these men do for us at the college and do not park in these bays.
Thankyou
ELC Staff

Reminder for Get Together for Edgerley Cooper and Mead

Don’t forget our get together next Friday night 30th October at the Alma Tavern, 66 Magill Road, Norwood from 6.30pm @ the inside bar
See you there
Brendt Parisi

Coming to the Nativity?

Dear Parents,
We have begun preparations for our annual Nativity play. Please check your child’s pigeon hole for a newsletter regarding your child’s attendance on this day. We would be very appreciative if parents would be able to return this slip to Julie Porter as soon as possible so that we can begin to assign cast roles.
Thankyou
Mel Bishop

The Bower Bird Bag

As a centre we would like to record the children’s understanding of the relationship between different colours. Each child has been provided with a Bower Bird Bag. This bag is a place for your child to collect bright coloured threadable or hangable treasures. During show and tell children can add their treasures to our shared weaving.

A Coloured Christmas Collection

As this is the last term before Christmas we would like to help the children participate in some community service for those less fortunate at this special time of year. We would appreciate it if you could help your child find old items of clothing (for children or adults) or a toy that you would be happy to donate to the Wesley Mission. To tie in with our unit we would love it if you could add items to our donation clothes line in order of colour
Week 3: White (26th – 30th October)
Week 4: Red (2nd – 6th November)
Week 5: Green (9th – 13th November)
Week 6: Yellow (16th – 20th November)
Week 7 : Blue (23rd – 27th November)

Premier Visit

We were pleased to show Premier Mike Rann around our centre this week. He was interested to hear about our response to the Reggio Emilia project and was also interested in the construction of our centre. He commented on the pleasant feel of the centre, use of natural light and evidence of the children’s investigations.

Free Family Sessions - Burnside Council

Saturday 7th November – Family Information and Play Day. 11am – 1pm at the Burnside Council’s Community Centre. 401 Greenhill Rd. This FREE event will have various displays from different services that assist families and/or children in the East. There will be a huge amount of activities for children to participate in; including art/craft experiences, face painting, hands on interactions with animals from Animal Capers, Cool 4 Kids will be performing as well. There will also be food and drinks available to purchase on the day, feel free to BYO. Please register your interest today.
Monday 9th November – FREE Parenting Information session on How to facilitate children’s learning of speech language, reading and communication. Presented by Speech Pathologist, Debbie James 7.00 – 8.30pm at the Burnside Council Hall – Taking bookings now
Friday 13th November – FREE Parenting Information Session on Terrific Toddlers, making a difference in your toddler’s behaviour presented by well known author Mel Hayde. To be held during the day 1.30 – 2.30pm in the Burnside Library. Children welcome to attend. – Places are limited, so please be quick to book

Missing Hats

Dear Parents,
Would all parents mind checking the name inside their child's hat as we seem to be having a problem with hats being either mixed up or going missing. We appreciate that it is difficult as the children often put them down and then they all look the same ! To help us out could all parents ensure that their child's hat (and all clothing) is clearly named and perhaps check that they have the correct hat when collecting their child's belongings at the end of the day.

Thanks for your help
Jeanine

Cooper Families Christmas Party

Cooper ,Edgerley and Mead families will be all joining together on 29.11.09 at Tusmore Park as per the Term 4 Dates schedule that has just been distributed. We inadvertently added another date of 6.12.09 for the Cooper families, please ignore this,

regards
ELC staff

Missing Rugby Top

Ryan Percival's rugby top is missing from the Langley room . Could all parents from this room check their child's top as it is clearly named,

thanks

Langley staff

New Arrival

We would like to congratulate the Roberts family on their new arrival. Brodie would like to introduce the arrival of his baby sister, Chelsy Maree Roberts born Wed 7 October at 9.39am weighing 8 Ilbs 3. Brodie has been very helpful and singing Chelsy train and dinosaur songs!! Both Chelsy and Tatia are doing well.

Congratulations again from the ELC staff

In the Classrooms

Langley
Welcome back to those families that went away for the holidays. The start of a new term brings some changes to the Langley room routine. We have started to implement a ‘Morning meeting’ time at 8:45am to 9:05am. In this time the children get a chance to talk about the weather, the name of the day, gain a social awareness of taking turns to talk as well as a time for stories and songs. It is a great way to get the day started and also have some formal routine with the children. We look forward to a great term with all the children.
Adele, Penny, Chloe and Sarah

Mead
Dear Mead Room parents,
The children have settled back in well after the holiday break. We have had a busy week culminating in our Sports Day this Friday. We defied the odds with the weather and our little Olympians did a fantastic job!
It has been lovely watching the friendships in the room rekindle after the break and new ones developing.
Here's to a wonderful fourth term.
Emma, Susan and Amanda

Cooper
We have had a great first week in the Cooper Room and enjoyed meeting with old friends from Mead and our new friends joining the Early Learning Centre. The children have discovered their new play spaces in the room and have settled well into our Cooper Room days. We have been considering colour in our play with different toys and materials and have talked about our favourites. We were amazed to watch a bright bunch of poppies open up and to discover the different colours of petals hiding in their buds. We finished the week with a very energetic sports day - a big thank you to all the parents who helped us with this event.
Warm regards,
Ali Blake

Edgerley
We had a wonderful week back at school, enjoying each others company and catching up about our holidays. We began to investigate colours by blowing ink. It was lots of fun but very messy!
Mel and Pip

Chapple
Ready! Set! Go! The race to the end of the year has started well with Sports Day. It was a wonderful morning and the children all enjoyed the activities. Thank you to all the parents and friends for their support! We are looking forward to a busy, but lovely term. Thank you, Alexandra

Sun Screen and Hats

Dear Parents,
It is now the fourth term and so we must remind parents that children need sun screen applied before they come to school in the morning. This allows the sunscreen to begin to work before the children venture out to the playground. We will reapply sun screen after lunch but are relying on the fact that you have applied the first application in the morning. Please ensure that your child’s hat is hanging on the hook inside their locker door as if they do not have a hat they cannot participate in outside play.
Thank you
ELC staff

Attendance Changes

Dear Parents,
Thank you to those who participated in our round of Parent Teacher interviews last term. Many interviews included discussions about changes to children’s attendance patterns. If you were interested in adjusting your child’s day please ensure that you contact Jeanine at jdry@pac.edu.au as soon as possible so that she may check on day availability for you.
Thank you
ELC staff

Only a few seats left!

Just a quick reminder that there are a few seats left at the ELC table for Cup function at Sparrow. If you are interested please speak with Sharon Laing (Chapple Room)

Dates for the Chapple Diary

Friday 23rd October – Friday night drinks and nibbles from 6.30 pm. at The Archer Hotel, Cnr. O’Connell St. and Archer St. North Adelaide. Nibbles have been organized @$16.00p/person; purchase your own drinks from the bar. We’d love to see as many of our group as possible. Please place your name on the list near sign in if you’d like to come so we can pre-organize the nibbles.
Friday 6th November – Coffee Morning after drop off at The Store, Melbourne Street, North Adelaide. (On the corner of Jerningham Street)
Sunday 6th December – Christmas BBQ at Burnside Swimming Pool cnr. Greenhill Road and Howard Tce. Bring your meat and salads to cook on the Barbecue’s there or purchase something from the café. We’ll be located beside the babies and toddlers pool. We’ll be there from 12.00 – fingers crossed for perfect weather!!
Julie Watson and Karen Gough (class reps)

Welcome back !

Welcome back to all our families who have been away over the holidays ! This term we have quite a few new children starting so we would like to welcome them and their families also. There are a few changes this term as our final room (Cooper) opens with Mrs Blake as our teacher and Mrs Nacca assisting on Tuesdays and Thursdays at this stage. We anticipate our numbers continuing to grow and a full time assistant being appointed with that group shortly.
Mrs Nacca will also be helping in the Chapple and Edgerley rooms on Mondays and Wednesdays.
As we say goodbye to Miss Andrea we welcome Miss Sarah Betteridge into the Langley room joining the team of Miss Adele, Miss Penny and Miss Chloe. We thank Miss Andrea for her contribution in setting up Langley Room and wish her all the best for her endeavours in the future. We understand that changes can be difficult for children at times and we have tried to keep as much continuity as possible with this in mind.
A big thank you to Mr Kerber and the team who worked across the holidays and provided lots of fun and learning activities for the children !

Jeanine

Week 2 of the Holidays for 3’s and 4’s
After the long weekend break our holiday program continued with new themes, experiences and discussions. This week we immersed ourselves in role play, dress-ups , experimentation and creating with a broad range medium.

Tuesday – Art and Craft
Wednesday – Water play
Thursday – Dress up and movie day
Friday – cooking

With art and craft we made our own play dough recipe, and then created many different sculptures, cakes, people, shapes and racetracks. In the art room we honed our skills with scissors, masking tape and glue, then outside we painted pictures, wrote letters to post and drew maps with textas and pencils.
Even though the weather was a little cool Water play experiences were still very popular. We painted with coloured water, built boat racing canals using the water fountain, and experimented with brightly coloured ice cubes! We used the freezer to transform water to ice and played with the ice in the warm sun to reverse the process.

Many children took part in the Dress up and movie day by becoming different characters all morning with the different costumes. We saw singing princesses, clowns, fairies, footballers, cooks and chefs (just like Mr Wagenfeller). There were even police officers at the station to keep us all in line. Not to mention the movie “Cars” we all enjoyed watching; even if we have seen it many times over!

Monday the 12th of October is the last day of the holiday program, where we will ask the children to decide what the course of the day will involve. We have had a great time third term break and are looking forward to beginning term 4.

Until next holidays, Todd, Sarah, Trish, Rosalie and Eleanor