In the Classrooms

Langley
All this week the Langley children have been hearing some very interesting noises coming from over the fence. We have heard lots of beeping and humming. While we were out in the big yard one morning we discovered we could see the great big arm of a digger over the fence maybe that was where the noise was coming from. We went outside to have a look and to our amazement we discovered a digger, a steam roller and a giant dump truck! The children sat and watched in awe. Later we talked about what we had seen and used the trucks in our outside pretend play.
“It’s beeping” said Yeoryi
“He’s digging a road” said Sienna
“To roll the ground cos the roads a bit dirty and a bit messy on the road and it’s a bit bumpy so the cars can’t go on it. The cars are a bit bumpy when the roads a bit bumpy” said Harry
“I think dat one a roller and dat one a digger” said Jack O
Kind regards,
Jess, Adele, Kerry and Jennifer
Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
It is the end to another busy, bustling and wonderful term. The children have made some interesting discoveries and extended their learning and knowledge about farm produce and products and where they travel to before they reach our plates.
Our topic for next term is 'Shadowlands' and should prove to be an exciting adventure of discovering the differences between light and dark, night and day............. We won’t give too many secrets away!
Have a safe and restful term break and we look forward to another fantastic term in three weeks time,
Best Wishes,
Emma and Susan
Cooper
Amazingly it is our last week for this class in Cooper Room! We have really enjoyed our time with all the boys, especially the past term learning all about farms and food. We would like to thank all the fabulous Cooper parents for all their kindness, help and support over the year and hope that you have a relaxing break if you are taking time off over the holiday weeks. We are going to miss your boys, even though we will continue to see them around the ELC. We know that you will love all the new and exciting experiences that the Edgerley Room will bring and wish everyone well for the future.
Kind regards,
Ali, Susan and Sue

Chapple
We have had so much fun in Chapple Room this week. The MasterChef cook-off and party was lots of fun and the food was delicious. It was a wonderful way to finish off the unit and to cement our understanding of where food comes from. We have also been doing lots of juicing! Some children even brought in limes and lemons to juice- and yes, they were sour….Thank you to everyone who went to the effort of sending in fruit for juicing and food for the party on Thursday. It was really special that so many of you went to the trouble of making sure your meal was gluten free. We have also met the new Chapple Room teacher Mrs Baird. She is lovely and the children have already warmed to her. They will have a wonderful term together next term. The Unit of Inquiry, ‘Shadowland’, will be great fun!
Sadly, we also say goodbye to Isaac and Chinmay. They are off to school next term and will be missed. We will, however, have three new children starting in the room and I am sure that they will fit in well.
Thank you all for my divine present. I will always have it with me and treasure it dearly. It will be a lovely reminder of the beautiful Chapple Room children. I will miss them all so much and will think of them often. Have a wonderful break!
Love Miss Marcus


Edgerley
Dear Wonderful Edgerley Parents,
It is with sadness that we have said goodbye to our wonderful group of Edgerley children this week. Thankyou for coming to our graduation, it was a special moment for us. We have enjoyed the privilege of being a small part of your child’s learning journey and will keep lots of memorable moments with us when the children move on. We would like to thank you all for the support you have given us during your child’s time in Edgerley and also for the beautiful, thoughtful gifts and flowers we received yesterday. We wish you and your families a safe and happy holiday (and an exciting wait for Reception!)
We will miss you all
Thanks again
Kind Regards
Mel and Rosalie

Cooper Portfolios

Dear Cooper Room Parents,
Some of the Cooper Room portfolios have been borrowed by families this week. As they were taken before Friday, our last day of term, the children's reports have not yet been filed in them. If you have your child's portfolio at home, please bring it back in during the holidays and Mrs Porter will be able to add the report so the portfolio is complete for the Cooper Room year. Families are then most welcome to keep the portfolio for the three week break.
Thankyou
Ali Blake

Staff Annual Leave

Dear Langley and Chapple Parents,
During the three week period between term when teaching staff will be on holidays a number of other staff will also be taking leave. Miss Kerry Smith will be on leave in the first week of this break, Miss Jess Catt in the second and Miss Juliana Giorgio in the third. These leave periods will be covered by a familiar face, Miss Ciara, to encourage consistency.
Thankyou
Mel and Jeanine

Early Arrival Children

Dear Parents ,
Next term (from 19.7.10) we plan to trial starting the day in the Langley Room instead of the Cooper Room. Many of the children who arrive early are Langley children and it will be easier for them to settle and be less disruptive for them . The older children will move to their rooms at 8.15 am when the Teaching staff begin their day. If your child arrives after this time you can take them straight to their normal classroom as you have been doing currently. We will trial this for 4 weeks after which we are happy for you to give us feedback about this change,

regards
Jeanine

New Door Code

In the interests of safety we will have a new door code as from the middle of the morning next Monday 28.6.10. Please pick up your copy from Julie during this week.
Please DO NOT give the code to your children (even older siblings) as it is then very hard to keep it secure. Children are also not to use the key pad as it will then go into lock if the numbers are put in incorrectly. If you forget , just ring the bell !

Thankyou

In the Classrooms

Langley
The Langley children have been role playing in our Langley farm shop this week, purchasing a range of farm products; milk and eggs and all sorts of fruit and vegetables. To further consolidate our farm knowledge, the children have been searching through catalogues and magazines for foods that come from the farm. The children have been practicing their fine motor skills by cutting out the pictures and pasting them on to paper. The children have also been very excited about “writing” this week. They are beginning to learn that the marks that they make on the page can have meaning for others.
“Wat dat say? It say apple!” said Sebastian M
“Look I write my name” said Daisy
Kind regards,
Jess, Adele, Kerry and Jennifer

Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
Our six legged visitors have caused a great deal of interest in the Mead Room this week. Here are some of the observations that we made:
They brown. Zachary
They got one, two, three, four, five, six legs. Jade
Them eat green leaves. Henry
Leaves from an insect tree. Ryan
It tickle my skin. Ollie
It soft. He walking (up my arm). I a little bit not scared. Ryuta
We got a big one and a little one. It wont eat us. Zachary
I don't like it any more. It hurt me. Sam
(I want to hold the....) Small one. Lihang
We look forward to a busy final week of Term 2 next week!
Best Wishes,
Emma, Susan and Emma

Cooper
In Cooper we have been growing little crops of oats, canola, barley and wheat in pots this term. We have been talking about the food that is produced from these grains. Recently, while we were reading a non-fiction book about wheat we found out that pasta is made with flour that comes from wheat, which lead Carmine to suggest that his Mum could come in and make pasta for us. On Wednesday Carmine's Mum and Yia Yia joined us in Cooper to make the pasta. We watched with great interest as they mixed eggs and then water into flour and this turned into dough, "There's eggs from a chicken" spotted Aggie. They kneaded and kneaded the dough and the boys all felt what it was like and then it was time for it to go through the pasta machine. Everyone was fascinated to see the dough becoming so long and flat, "You just rip the dough apart and you put it in and it turns into long" explained Carmine. The pasta was cut into long fettucine pieces which we cooked and ate with some parmesan cheese and a little parsely from the vegie patch. Yum! Thank you to our two fantastic pasta master chefs for the demonstration!
Kind regards,
Ali, Susan and Sue

Chapple
This week in Chapple we have set up the overhead projector with magnetic letters as a means of extending phonetic awareness. We have been practising writing our names, reading simple words and sounding out. Some Duplo letters have also been available to use with the construction projects. There has been a lot of interest and excitement about 'reading' words and making new words. On Wednesday, when Sam's grandparents came in to make 'Flopsy' the scarecrow with us, the word scarecrow was put on the overhead projector. The class sounded out the letters and then read the word together. These letters were then rearranged by one of the children to make a new word...He was very proud as he looked up on the wall at his new word! Come into our room and see his writing.
Thanks
Chapple Room Team

Edgerley
Dear Parents,
We have continued to be authors extraordinaire this week, creating more stories about the origins of foodstuffs. Our interest in autumn leaves has continued and we are now looking at the leaf veins by pressing them in clay…could they be the reason the leaves have changed colour? hmmmm!
Kind Regards
Mel and Rosalie

Change to Cooper Function

Just a reminder that our next coffee morning is on Monday 21st June at 9am.
However, we have changed the location to McDonalds Café on Magill Rd, Trinity Gardens, this is due to the weather and giving the kids a place to play too.
If you are thinking of attending, can you please let Adriana know.
Thanks and see you then!
Adriana and Amalia

End of Term Reminders

Teaching staff really require all children’s portfolios back immediately so that we can continue to prepare them for the children to take home at the end of the term.

Mrs Gilchrist in the Library requires all Library books returned before the end of the term. Please pass any outstanding books to your child’s classroom teacher.

Thankyou
Mel Bishop

Farm Day

We recently advertised an opportunity for families to visit a farm on the weekend of the 26th of June. We had a wonderful response but at the last minute have had some families pull out. The farmer, Mr Martin (an ex PAC boy), sounded a little disappointed but was thrilled to have the Jeffries family confirm their weekend. He would be very happy to have few other families join for the weekend. He has a sheep farm and lots of lambing going on at the moment so it sounds like it would be quite sweet for the children to see that, and Willunga is only about an hour away. If anyone is interested then I would suggest they speak with Rebecca Jeffries on 0430 244 373.

Fun at the Oval

Thanks to the families who joined us for an afternoon of running and kicking…and more running and kicking at Unley Oval to see Mr Weatheralds 299th game. He was very appreciative of the support and passed on that it felt very special that boys had come to see him. For those of you who are willing to brave the weather you may like to join some of the PAC staff to cheer Timmy on at Alberton Oval this Saturday for the big milestone…300 games
Mel Bishop and Steph Hart

Older Children at the Centre

Dear Parents,

Please do not arrange to have your older children wait for you after school at the ELC as it puts us in a difficult position of having to take responsibility for them . Under our license conditions all children who are not accompanied by a responsible adult have to count as part of our ratio. This makes it difficult after school if we have extra children here as we would not then have the correct ratio . The children are also not signed in and we would not be able account for them in an emergency situation.
We are quite happy for them to come with a parent/guardian to help collect a sibling but would remind you to ask them not to play on our equipment as it is not designed for older children and makes it difficult for our afternoon staff who are supervising the ELC children,


Thanks for your co-operation

Jeanine

Edgerley Families

As your children finish with us shortly could all parents please check the sign in sheets over the past 2 terms to make sure they have initialed for all days that their child was absent. I know this is a nuisance but it is a CCB requirement that we must comply with !!

Thankyou
Jeanine

July School Holidays

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

thankyou
Jeanine

Class Photos

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

In the Classrooms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Edgerley Graduation Ceremony

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

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

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

See You at the Footy

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

Scareapillar!

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

School Holidays

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

Thankyou in anticipation !
Jeanine

Photos from Princesses Tea Party

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


Jeanine

In The Classrooms

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

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

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

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

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

Jeanine In Absence

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

This Little Pig Went to Market

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

Centre Accreditation

Dear Parents,

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

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

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


thankyou

Jeanine

Footy Fanatics

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

On the Scrounge

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

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