Welcome

We would like to warmly welcome the many new families that have joined us at the start of term. We look forward to working with and guiding your young children and, most of all, having lots of fun during their time at Princes ELC.
Welcome
From the ELC Team

In the Classrooms

Langley
We have had a very busy first week in the Langley room and have welcomed many new friends. The children have been helping settle their new chums into the daily routine and activities of the room.

When playing we have discussed being gentle with our hands and bodies and using our words.
We created a medical centre in which the children have been playing doctors. They have been caring for the dolls and each other and asking questions about the toy medical equipment and what it is used for.
Kind regards,
Jennifer, Kerry, Hayley and Pippa

Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
Welcome back to Term 3! The children have enjoyed getting back into the old routines and exploring the classroom which is focused on our inquiry into our 'Brilliant Brains and Bodies'. We have had some interesting discussions about what our amazing bodies can do and how they work.
"I can sink in water" said Seth.
"I can stand up and turn around" said Sebstian.
"I can walk down steps. I learned how to do it when I got three" said Jack O.
"I can ride a scooter and also I can run" said Milo.
Of particular interest has been our bones and looking at x-rays of bones. There have been some fantastic drawings and paintings of skeletons and bones.
Best wishes,
Emma M, Susan and Emma G

Cooper
We welcomed our new group of three year olds to Cooper this week and they have been excitedly exploring their new room and meeting new friends and teachers. We have started to collect family photos to help us get to know the children and their families better and this provoked some family role play, drawings and paintings. A small group of children built houses with the little wooden blocks and people figure toys at a table...
“I got a family… they’re at the house” explained Sebastian M.
“They’re at the football” said Bruno, placing the people figures between two goal posts.
“They’re at the football, kick, kick” said Finn.
“Who’s in the family?” asked Mrs Blake.
“There’s my Mummy, Daddy, Nickolas” answered Sebastian M.
“There’s a tiny baby” said Chloe.
“Mum and Dad and Annabel” said Angus pointing to his people.
“What is the family doing?” wondered Mrs Blake.
“They have tea and they have to go to bed, then they wake up and they go to ELC… oh, and they have breakfast!” said Angus.
We look forward to spending more time getting to know the new Cooper children and their families over the coming weeks.
Kind regards,
Ali and Rosalie

Chapple
Welcome back to term three and a warm welcome to the new families who have joined our class! We are straight back into the swing of things with learning about our Brilliant Brains and Bodies. We have a hospital corner where children, teachers, dolls and teddy bears have been great patients for the fabulous doctors who have been bandaging, giving out medicine and writing important doctor notes! You may have noticed our display about our amazing hands and
how we look after our bodies. There has been a lot of discussion around bones and organs and we have looked at and felt our way through a sensory Braille story.
We began learning the 's' sound this week and don't forget next Tuesday, August the 2nd there will be a short information session in the classroom from 4:00PM regarding the phonics program. The readers will also be available to borrow from next week.
We are looking forward to a fun filled fantastic term!
Warm wishes,
Suria, Sinead and Sue

Edgerley
We have warmly welcomed our wonderful new group of Edgerley children this week for their first week of four year old Kindergarten….and what a week we have had!!!
We have been busy exploring our skeletons, using old x-rays as our provocation. Jasmine and Tom discovered stripes around the chest of the skeletons they observed at the light table and then discovered that they could feel the same stripes through their skin.
We looked at an x-ray of a baby from the light table and held it up to the light.
“What’s on the other side” asked Ajeet, so Mrs Bishop turned the x-ray over
“There’s pictures on both sides, they are different on the same side” explained Deacon
“No, this one is the baby’s back and that one is the baby’s tummy” said Elliott as he flipped the x-ray back and forth and tried to explain why he could see a picture on both sides.
“Maybe one is a baby sister and one is a baby brother?” suggested Cooper
We will continue to explore skeletons in the coming weeks and see if we can add some muscles and organs to our understandings of how our bodies work.

It was a great week of firsts as the new Edgerley children discussed how they thought Edgerley children behave.
“They do not pick their nose!” suggested Joshua S
“They eat with their lips shut ‘cause it’s manners” said Cooper
“They go in the line so the line is not bumpy” said Ajeet

On Thursday we met Mrs Cooper who will spend Thursdays and Fridays with us. Welcome back Mrs Cooper, we are sure you are going to love your days spent with us!

And finally on Friday, to finish our week, we sang Happy Birthday to Miss Sandow and guessed how old she was turning (general consensus is somewhere between 6 and 14!) and then sadly farewelled our favourite friend, Charlie, and wished he and his family all the best at their new house. We hope Charlie’s new school welcome him with open arms.

Next week we will welcome Mrs Tiller as Miss Sandow heads towards the sun on two weeks annual leave.
See you next week
Mel, Susan, Pip and Rachel

Brilliant Brains and Bodies!!!

Dear Parents,
This term we will be investigating our PYP unit entitled Brilliant Brains and Bodies. Our primary investigation will be around body parts and functions and caring for your body and mind.

Our Guiding Questions:
How do we look after our bodies?
How does your body change over time?
What can your body do?
How do we look after our mind?
How does your mind change over time?
What can your mind help you do?
Are our bodies the same as others?
Are our minds the same as others?

Our EYLF goals that will support our inquiry:
Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities
Children respond to diversity with respect
Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing

We are excited by the scope that this unit offers the children. We look forward to exploring and moving our bodies through space and becoming aware of how our brains can help us make decisions and choices and moderate our emotions. If you have any skills or resources that you could share with us to complement our unit please let your child’s class teacher know.
Thankyou
Mel Bishop
Curriculum Co-ordinator

Welcome

We would like to welcome Denver who arrived in the holidays, a little brother for Izabella. Congratulations to the whole family

Love from the ELC

Mr McGee and the Biting Flea

Dear Parents,
We will take Chapple, Edgerley and Mead students who attend on a Tuesday to the Odeon Theatre on the Parade, Norwood to see “Mr McGee and the Biting Flea” as part of our lead up to Book Week. The show is on Tuesday the 9th of August 2011 at 10.30am. We will be walking to and from the theatre and will enjoy a picnic lunch at Coke Park on our return. We require adult assistance to walk with us, attend the play and walk home with us. (Please note that younger siblings are not able to join us). If you would like to join us on our trip please let your child’s teacher know.
In the event of rain we will still walk to our excursion. Please include a waterproof jacket if rain is predicted.
For families whose children are unable to attend with the centre, Patch theatre Company have additional performances on Saturday August 13th, 20th, 27th at 1.00pm or 3.30pm at $15 per ticket or $7.50 for members and tickets can be purchased by phone at 83330444
Thankyou
ELC staff

Portfolios

Dear Parents,
For those families who have borrowed student portfolios over the term break, can you please now return them to your child’s class so that staff can continue to add work. This allows students to reflect on their own work and experiences during the term.
Kind Regards
Mel Bishop

The Prince Alfred College Parents' and Friends' Association invites you to the

2011 Quiz Night

Saturday August 20, 20117.00pmJohn Dunning Centre
Tickets20 per person / Tables of 10 @ $200

Please bring:

A hamper of food, drinks and glasses for your table

Gold coins in abundance for games and raffles

Coffee and tea provided
Need more information?

Tania Bierlein 0411 259 377
Janine Duffield (ticket enquiries)0409 096 921

Child Care Benefit

We still need reference numbers for quite a lot of families so that they can receive the government benefit. You must register for this in order to be able to receive the government 50% rebate (non means tested) for working families. We need a reference number for both the registering parent and each child. If you have any questions please see come and see me ,

Jeanine

Softfall surface in the centre

Just a reminder that if you are wearing narrow heeled shoes please do not walk across the rubber softfall as you will find yourself sinking and leaving little holes behind !

Thankyou

Immunisation Records

Could all families please give us a copy of their child's immunisation record for us to have on file. If you have previously given us this and your child has had any further immunisations since that time (usually 4 year olds) please give us a copy of this last immunisation details.
This is part of our License requirements to have this information ,

Thankyou

Term 3 Begins

Next Tuesday our Teachers return ready for the start of a new term . Many of our children are moving up a group and there are around 30 new children starting at the centre. We will also welcome Mrs Pip Cooper back from extended leave . She will be in Edgerley room on Thursday mornings and Fridays and Mead room on Thursday afternoons.

Jeanine

Teddy Bear's Picnic

The children were very excited to share with us their favourite soft toy from home. The teddy bears had lots of fun playing with the children , exploring the ELC environment, and discovering what the children do all day. They were treated to stories, games of connect four, fun with the cars outside and some children made houses for their soft toys. The children eagerly took their teddy bears up to the big school to have a teddy bear's picnic where they munched down Mr Wagenfeller's yummy sandwiches. Upon returning to the ELC, some of the children took their teddy bears to bed, others relaxed quietly enjoying the company of their buddies from home.

Holiday Fun

One fine and sunny winter's day, the ELC children found some blocks, hard hats and tools....

Immediately the hats were put on heads, tool belts were worn around the waists and tools at the ready.
Oliver K set down four blocks together and exclaimed "Let's build". Roshan and Blake were quick to join in and before we knew it, the blocks were stacked high and long.
Children from Chapple, Mead, Cooper and Edgerley all worked together, sharing ideas, measuring blocks, adding cement (sand) and hammering.
"We need to make it higher" called out Roshan.
"Yes, let's do it" replied Dougal.
Zach T added 'more blocks, more blocks'. "I'm hammering the blocks said Joshua N.
Jack J took a measuring tape and exclaimed 'it's 3 long'.
Blake looked on and thought for awhile before beaming a huge smile - he was obviously very proud of the teamwork by the boys. The adults agreed - look at the finished creation!
Oliver K called to his hard working mates - "look it's a castle".

We will leave this experience out for the children to further explore and extend their interest in this experience.

Langley Room

In Langley this week we have been experiencing the wonderful texture and consistency of clay. The children have discovered ways of manipulating the clay with their hands, pop sticks, tooth picks, clay tools and hammers.

‘It feels like glue,’ commented Seb R.

‘It feels like mud. I made a table,’ said Priyanka as she rolled the clay into a ball and stuck pop sticks into it.

‘It’s squishy,’ observed Alec.

‘Mmmm… smells nice. Hands are sticky,’ thought Stella.

‘It’s soft,’ described Abhi.
‘It’s too sticky,’ stated Marcus.

‘I doing hammering in the nails. The cutting makes stripes,’ explained Seb V.

‘Look me, I making holes,’ commented Eden.

Jen , Kerry, Hayley and Bethany

Government Rebates

From the start of this financial year the Child Care Rebate that is available to all families where both parents are working, studying or training , is able to be paid directly to the centre to reduce your fees. If you would like to take advantage of this then please contact Centrelink on 136150 or visit www.familyassist.gov.au . You are still able to receive the rebate paid to you quarterly if you prefer.

regards
Jeanine

Festival Photos

Dear Parents ,

Festival Photos regularly photograph all our main ELC events . Recently they updated their website . To view any of our photos go to www.festivalphoto.com.au and go to View Your Photos. From the drop down menu select Prince Alfred College and the User name is PAC. Make sure 'school admin number' is selected and enter ELC2011 and login. You should then be able to select the year and the event and order photos on line. All our events from this year should be loaded on there shortly,

Jeanine

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Next Friday (22/7/11) we will be having a Teddy Bear's Picnic so bring along your favourite bear ready to join the fun !

ELC Staff

Pyjama Day

Pyjama day was a huge success with the children coming in their favourite pyjamas. We made popcorn and watched Finding Nemo to continue our under ‘Sea exploration’ and it was lovey to see the children playing together in their comfy night attire! We also had lovely warm milo for afternoon tea to remind us that it would be bedtime before long !

ELC staff

Chapple and Edgerley rooms

This week the Chapple and Edgerley children continued their fascination about the sea and we enquired about things that live above the sea and things that we find under the sea. They were given a piece of blue cellophane that they stuck onto the bottom of a sheet of paper and used different drawing utensils to illustrate their discussions.
Ryan said ‘under the sea is maybe a squid, two fish or lots of fish’
Jazz added ‘Sand at the beach, a man, ice cream van, people running to the ice cream. Fish under the water’
Louie explained ‘My baby is kicking in the sea and I am swimming in the sea with the fish and I built a sandcastle with a moat around it so when the waves come it won’t wash away. My family are having their holiday, we are having six sandcastles if one gets washed away we have a spare one’
Nickolas M used craypas and a silver pen to illustrate a scene and described it: ”A big shark, an octopus, two fish and another octopus live under the water. Above the sea my family is next to an ice cream van and flowers that Bash got. We are laying down on the sand watching the sun”

regards

Rosalie, Sinead, Pippa and Rachel

Cooper and Mead groups

This week in Cooper and Mead we discovered that working with clay is a very different experience to working with play dough. It has a different texture, smell, colour and even taste, and best of all you can keep it!
The children were given small amounts of clay and were encouraged to simply use their hands to feel and manipulate the clay. As they became more familiar with the clay they were given rollers and simple tools...
We're making a mobile to hang from the roof! said Harry Mac. We are putting clay on it, When the clay goes hard you need to put it in the microwave - that is how it gets hard, like your bones are hard He told us.
The clay smells like dirt from the ground, wet dirt Henry noticed.
It felt like soggy cardboard, I made patterns Said Jack O
This afternoon the children sealed the clay creations and next week we will continue our clay journey.

Don't forget next Friday is our Teddy Bear's Picnic, if your child would like to bring a teddy in please do - they might even like to dress their bear up for the occasion!

Have a lovely and safe weekend.
Emma, Wendy, and Susan

Langley Room

This week at the story table, the Langley children have been narrating and acting out their own version/s of the much loved “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” story.

‘They can’t go over it, they can’t go under it, they’ll have to go through it’ sang Toby.

‘River, a blue river, splosh! Can’t go over it, can’t go over it, dot to doe through it!’ said Lara.

‘Splash splash’ commented Toby.

‘Not scared, swelch swelch swelch’ said Chanel.

‘ Dey going to go through the cave now’ Toby.

‘We tip toe through the cave’ said Chanel.

In da cave’ said Luca.

‘One shiny nose’ said Lara.

‘Two scary eyes’ said Toby.

“A bear’ All children.

‘Run! Need to go back home. They gonna leave the door open, need to close the door so the bear doesn’t come in the house!’ Seb V.

‘They close the curtains. Bed, bed. They not gonna go on a bear hunt. He tip toes back to his cave’ said Chanel.

regards

Jennifer, Hayley , Kerry and Bethany

Volunteers for digging !

Recently we had the wonderful donation of a worm farm for the centre (housed in an old fridge) .We have positioned this in the yard near the vegetable garden . The top of the fridge is a little too high for safety next to our fence and we would appreciate any volunteers who could help dig the area to lower it by about 20 -30 cms. If you are feeling energetic please let us know , the soil should be quite soft at the moment !

Jeanine

Cold Weather

This week has been particularly cold and wet (even hailing !). We are lucky enough to still be able to take the children outside in our undercover area to let them use up their energy each day . Please make sure you send their Rugby top and/or a school jacket for outside play. The polo shirt and a skivvy is fine in the classroom but gives them very little protection from the wind and cold temperatures outdoors and an extra layer is necessary when they go from a warm room to the cold play area ,

Thankyou
ELC staff

Cooper and Mead groups

The Cooper and Mead Rooms combined, and this week has been about "Being Active" together.

We discussed what "being active" means...

"It means play" suggested Ajeet

"We do drills" said Jesse

Austin suggested "we throw a ball through a hoop"

"And a net" said Erin

"I have a boogie board to be active" Hannah told us

We decided to go to the hockey pitch to do some of the healthy, active things we had discussed.

"If your going it's called joggling" Jack O told us and we all tried "joggling" around the pitch together.

"Hey we could play rug - lay next!" Jack suggested

We have been jogging, participated in a dance class, played games, and been for walks. The children had lots of wonderful suggestions on how they could be active at school and at home.

Don't forget next Wednesday is "Pyjama Day" !

Have a great weekend!

Emma, Wendy and Susan

Edgerley and Chapple Rooms

As a provocation, the staff hung a simple blue piece of material in the corner of the room and left it. We waited for the children’s response…

All of a sudden we heard James call out very, VERY excitedly ‘it’s the ocean!’
Roshan quickly added ‘can we put boats in it?’
Zach T then said “I’m good at drawing underwater animals’
Blake said ‘some fishes’, followed by Max C “some sharks” and Henry “some coral”.

By now the boys had established that the blue material was going to be the ocean and that they wanted to decorate the corner.
The following fabulous “ocean” ideas were added by the boys-
“shells” said Francesco
“Jellyfish” added Carmine
“How about seaweed?” asked Nathaniel
“Could we put some sand in it?” was Oliver’s question
“How about some seals?” asked Dougal
“Octopuses” added Jesse
“A submarine!” shouted Charlie H
James then informed the children – “a hundred water animals live in the ocean, and stingrays’ do!”
Ryan added “whales”
Roshan then thought for a while before asking ‘can we put some ships?”
“Turtles” said Carmine AND “crabs” was Sam’s idea.
Oliver then said we should add killer whales, when James finished off by telling the boys “and eels!!”

Noah thought that we ‘could put people”. The children decided that people could be swimming or digging in the sand….

regards

Rosalie, Sinead ,Pippa and Rachel

Langley Room

This week’s weather has led to the discovery of many rainbows in the sky, prompting much discussion and investigation by the Langley children.

When asked about what colours make up a rainbow?
‘red and orange’ stated Seb M
‘green and blue and purple’ said Chloe
‘no indigo and violet’ corrected Toby.

Miss Kerry then posed the question ‘What are rainbows made of?
To which Felix replied ‘they are made of drips coming down’
‘When the rain drops down’ added Sophie
‘They are arched’ mentioned Felix
‘round’ remarked Gwen
‘green, orange, purple, lellow (yellow)’ replied Susannah

Kind regards,

Jess, Kerry, Jennifer and Hayley

Farewell and Good Luck

To the families of Edgerley Class,

we thank you for your support and trust over the last two years that your boys have spent with us. We were thrilled to be able to celebrate the boys graduation with you yesterday and absolutely loved the surprise you had prepared for us. The boys commended your bravery for standing up in front of everyone and also your lovely singing voices!

Thankyou for the gift of the two free standing play spaces in the form of the wine barrels and umbrellas, they have already added another element to our playground. Every time we look at them and play with them we will remember the Edgerley boys 2011. When the grass begins to take root we look forward to a visit from Reception C boys for a play with the farm animals and dinosaurs!

Thankyou for collecting the children’s portfolios and art work yesterday and we hope you enjoyed the video slide show. Student reports will arrive in the mail in the coming week and for the families that we will not see again, we will also include the children’s Letterland books (in the last minute rush they were accidentally omitted from their portfolios).
Thankyou again for all your support and from the bottom of our hearts we wish the boys all the best of luck for the exciting future at big school
Love from Mel, Rosalie and the ELC team

In the Classrooms

Langley
The Langley children have been keenly interested in patterns recently, particularly spots and stripes. The children have been spotting them all over the place, on their school jumpers, in the playground and especially in books. They love looking out for leopards and tigers and cheetahs and giraffes. Inspired by the children’s interest, we decided to create some patterned pieces of art work at the easel. The children have created some spotty and stripy masterpieces!
“I did stripes” said Hugo proudly as he looked to the tiger print for inspiration for his painting,
“A leopard” commented Izabella as she spotted paint all over her paper,
“Stripe, stripe, stripe, spot, spot” said Stella as she painted.
Please note that this is the final week of Term 2 for 2011 but it is business as usual in the Langley room and we look forward to seeing many of you during the holiday period.
Kind regards,
Jess, Kerry, Jennifer and Hayley

Mead
Dear Mead Parents,
All year the children have been fascinated with mixing colours, painting and creating new patterns. This week they have experimented with mixing colours in milk. Using eye droppers they slowly added colours before touching the milk with a cotton bud dipped in dishwashing liquid. The reaction was AMAZING…

It made all the colours change. Then it just went green. Ella
It movers. The colours all go around and around. Jack O B
It put in green then blue. When you put the drop of cleaner in it moves all around. Jack J
Look it turned out a cup of tea. It looks like a cup of tea. Erin
It got some more colours. Henry
It’s changing by the colours. Hannah
It’s getting bigger. Charlie
It looks like a rainbow. It’s moving. It’s moving everywhere. Ryan
It goes big, the colours make it change. Molly
The colours go off. They go off to the edge of the plate. Dillon
Look it’s changing purple. The colours are moving fast. Oliver
It’s getting it all away. The colours are moving. Oh, now there’s a bubble. There’s no milk now – it’s all gone. It changed into ice cream – coloured ice cream. Now it’s back to milk when you mix it. Tommi
I can make the milk into a rainbow sprinkle ice cream. Then I mix it back to milk. I can make the colours change. Sebastian
It’s turning into blue. It’s changing, if I put more in there look what happens. It’s turning into different ones. Seth
Oh, wow I’m making pink. Look I’m mixing up the colours. I’m making lots of different colours. They just keep moving. Zach

Best wishes,
Emma M, Susan and Emma G

Cooper
Well, what a huge final week we've had in Cooper! We have sent all the children's art work home, played with all our favourite things, had a very successful moving up morning visit to Edgerley and, of course, enjoyed our brilliant class party. The children are really excited about the next step in their ELC journey and we wish them all well as they move onto big four year old kindy (and Miss Sandow as she goes with them). A big thank you to all our parents for their help, generosity and kind words over the year, and particularly this week.
Kind regards,
Ali and Susan

Chapple
We have come to the end of term two already! We discussed the things we experienced this term...
I liked the magic potions - Jazz
The leaves changed green, red and yellow - Lucas
Chameleons change colours - Charlie
Seeds change to a plant, like my chilli plant - Ashraf
Tadpoles grow legs and change to frogs - Jesse
Lemons can turn to lemon juice when we squeeze them - Nicholas
We made jelly - Theodore
The leaves we picked went hard and crunchy - Zachary
We made lots of planes and parachutes - Ryan
We made volcanoes in the sandpit - Daniel H
I liked the lava lamps we made - Nathaniel
Don't forget about the slime - Jesse
Wow, we fitted a lot into the term! - Mrs McGee
Good luck to the children and their families who are moving onto new schools, we wish you all the best and we will miss you! Thank you all for your ongoing support this term, it was been fantastic! If you are continuing through the holiday program, I know Miss D has some exciting activities planned for you and if you are having a holiday - enjoy!
See you all next term, best wishes - Suria, Sinead, Rachel and Sue

News From Lao Shi

Dear ELC parents,
Lao Shi has arrived safe and sound in Beijing and is enjoying her course. Below is a snippet of the e-mail she sent us.

Ni hao Everyone,
Greetings from Beijing where it is hot, humid and smoggy. I am enjoying feeling warm none the less after the cold of Adelaide…I walked through a great market yesterday and when I saw all the fruit, I of course thought of the ELC kids. There is xigua and xiangjiao everywhere. I felt like buying a bunch of bananas just because they were so cheap! Cherries are also in season. They also were selling dragon fruit, longgan and lychee (and cherry tomatoes in the fruit section)
I had my favourite breakfast of beancurd milk, with deep fried dough sticks and some egg and chives crepe. I am missing my Cibo latte but am close to the university where there is a coffee shop so may try that later…

She wished the graduating Edgerley boys all the best and will miss them a lot. We look forward to her return
Mel

Welcome

We would like to welcome the latest addition to the Hamood clan, Ben Ely a brother for Jake and Alex and future PAC scholar! Ben arrived on the 15th of June. Congratulations to Rana and Richard. We can’t wait to meet him.

Thankyou Danielle

The Edgerley children were not the only ones to celebrate their graduation this week! Thank you to Danielle, Chanel’s mum who made a beautiful graduation cake for the Langley children to share on Thursday. When asked what she wanted written on her cake, Chanel responded,
“Goodbye Langley, Hello Cooper!!”

Thanks again Danielle, it was delicious!

Uniforms

It is lovely to see all the children in the new waterproof jackets this term , they have proved to be very popular ! We encourage the children to put them in their lockers when they are in the classrooms as it is quite warm in there but they are welcome to put them on for any outdoor activities.
Can we remind everyone again that only plain neutral coloured pants , shorts ,skirts, stockings , skivvies etc are to be worn with the uniform . This means , white ,navy, black , beige ,denim or grey . (moroon of course is fine!) and no stripes, large logos etc. We know that the children can often be difficult when getting ready in the mornings but we would ask you to stick to our uniform policy and not allow them to wear clothes that do not comply with this.

New Families

Next term we have approximately 30 new families starting across the centre , please intoduce yourselves and make them feel welcome to our ELC community !

Jeanine