Sign in Sheets

If your child was absent at all over the school holidays please initial the sign in sheets for the days that they were away.

Thankyou
Jeanine

Princesses Tea Party

This year's Mother's Day event will be held on Thursday May 10th in the Piper Pavilion (near the Senior School). Invites are in your child's locker. Please reply as soon as possible for catering purposes.
The children are preparing with much anticipation !

ELC Staff

Birthday Cakes

We would like to remind families that you are very welcome to provide a Birthday Cake for your child , as per our Parent handbook , but please remember to send in a list of ingredients to cater for our children with allergies. Cupcakes work well as they are easy for the children to distribute and manage . Please do not send any other type of "treats" as per our Healthy Eating Policy either for birthdays or at any other time,

Thankyou

Our Newest Unit of Inquiry – Mighty Machines

Dear Parents,

with the beginning of the new term comes the beginning of a new inquiry. This term our unit is called “Mighty Machines” and we will be exploring machines great and small. We will be examining the purpose, processes and effects of various machinery and exploring how machines help us as well as how we completed jobs before machines were invented.

As part of this unit we would like children to have the opportunity to explore the inside of real machines and would ask that if you have any old or broken household appliances that you no longer need it would be great if you could bring them to Kindergarten for us to deconstruct. Unfortunately we can’t accept TV screens, computer screens or mobile phones.

Kind Regards

Mel Bishop

Edgerley Room

Welcome back to Term Two, our final term before we graduate to big school!! (it has come around so fast!!) We have begun the term diving right into our newest unit of inquiry “Mighty Machines”. We started by deconstructing some common household appliances to see what is inside a machine and explore how it’s components work. We loved using all the different tools, even though some components gave up more easily than others!!!

Following our deconstruction we decided to concentrate on reconstruction in the outdoor sandpit and began using tools to construct houses for Mrs Bishop and Miss Kasauskas. When we went inside Mrs Rocca shared a book with us to show us all the different types of machines that are used on a work site and how to keep ourselves safe. We will add scaffolding to our work site next week.

If you have any old broken house hold appliances that we could deconstruct with tools in our classroom please feel free to bring them in.

Kind regards

Mel, Pip, Amelia and Coney

Chapple Room

Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome to Term 2! It’s been a wonderful start to the term. We’ve had some great discussions about ANZAC Day and the meaning of ‘machines’. As we have tried to define what a machine is, we’ve had lots of debates and interesting ideas being shared with the group.

What is a machine?

Gabriel ‘A machine is like a robot.’

Grace ‘A machine goes around. A cement mixer is  a machine.’

Seth ‘You press a button and it goes around like a rectangle.’

Grace ‘You put something in it and something happens and it turns something around and then it makes something.’

Zac F ‘A plane is a machine because it has wheels and it lands and it carries people somewhere.’

Charlie ‘A machine is something and you have to do it yourself.’

Chapple Room Team

Mead Room

Dear Mead Parents,
Welcome back and we hope you and your children had a wonderful Easter break! The children are enthusiastic to be back in the room and are busy exploring the activities and experiences that are currently set up. This Term our Unit of Enquiry is "Mighty Machines". We are going to investigate machines small and large, indoor and outdoor, old and new. Our 'Show and Tell' sessions will follow this theme. In the classroom we have machines for the children to explore and dismantle using tools, a shop with cashregisters, microphones,scanners, computers, cogs and wheels. Come and have a look, and don't forget to let one of the teachers know if you have a machine you can share with the children.
Best wishes,
Emma, Susan and Cristina

Cooper Room

The Cooper children have begun investigating our new unit 'Mighty Machines' with great interest. They have been building machines with straw connectors and lego, reading books about machines and discussing as a class all the machines we know and how they help us. In our office play area the children have also looked at machinery catalogues with fascination...
"What's it called?" asked Finn.
"It's a tractor" answered Felix, "Wow, cool!"
"I like these ones" said Owen.
We are hoping to have many parents demonstrate machinery big and small this term as we continue our investigations - we already have one mum coming to show us how a pasta machine works - and look forward to finding out about other machines that can make life easier!
Kind regards,
Ali, Rachel and Renee

Langley Room

We have been very busy this week preparing some special gifts for our Mum’s in preparation for our upcoming Princesses Tea Party – stay tuned for further details! We have also begun our investigations into Mighty Machines, our unit of inquiry for this term. We have been examining the diggers and trucks in the inside sand tray and talking about the jobs that they do that we wouldn’t be able to do without them.

“Dig, dig” said Alec,

“It’s a truck, for dig, dig, dig” said Jackson,

“A digger, a digger truck” observed Sabian,

“That digger digs the road and the roller rolls the road so the cars can go along it” commented Hugo M,

“Pick up the rocks with your hands” said Angus,

“What if the rocks are too big for you to pick up with your hands?” asked the teacher,

“you use a digger” suggested Angus as Hugo demonstrated with his toy truck and rock.

If anyone is a keen chef or handy around the house or has any mini (or mighty!) machines that they would like to come and show the children, please let us know. We’d be delighted to welcome you into our classroom!

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Pippa and Amy

National Quality Standards

As part of the new National Standards Regulations all Childcare centres and Kindergartens must do a self review of their centres and submit a Quality Improvement Plan outlining their strengths and plans for improvement. Our plan is due to be submitted by May 21st and we will then undergo a review(2-3 days worth) soon afterwards.
The staff have been involved in producing this plan for quite some time but would welcome any further parent feedback . We will also continue to review our policies and will place the next ones in the foyer for you to read and comment on .


ELC Team

Term 2

Next Tuesday our Teaching staff will return from holidays and normal classes will resume for Term 2. Please note that our sun protection policy requires that we continue the use of sunscreen and hats until 30th April .

Next Wednesday is Anzac Day and the centre will be closed.

4's and Holiday Fun

Baking and Shows Galore!

This week, the 4 year olds have displayed very keen interest in the cooking section of the room set up with baking ingredients, utensils, oven and fridges. As a group they've shown their ability to lead, follow instructions, share and take turns and came up with wonderful ideas on how to make yummy tasting cookies and cakes.They've even baked complimentary show cookies for the Hi 5 show put together by Grace, Tommi, Daisy and Fergus. How exciting and fun it was to watch when they were they doing their dances and showcase of various talents in front of their peers, teachers and families!

Because of this, the teachers and children agreed to engage in a baking spree making Short Bread cookies. Nearly all the children participated in measuring and mixing the ingredients. The others helped knead and roll the dough and the rest enjoyed cutting them in shapes of a pig, star and butterfly. But of course the best parts of it all was EATING it and telling our families about it!

Well done children!

Mrs Nacca , Miss Gray and Mrs Rocca

3's and Holiday Fun

The 3 year olds have been keeping extremely busy with the holiday program. We have been planting the herbs parsley, basil and mint in the veggie garden promoting empathy. We extended on this experience by making punch, juicing oranges and adding strawberries, kiwi fruit and mint leaves for a fresh flavour. The children were involved and interested and very eager to taste the punch. The majority of them went for a second taste.

We experimented with shaking cream in a bottle , adding marbles to create butter. After a 30 minute procedure the consistency thickened ! The children all had a taste of the butter on biscuits.

We also made some beautiful butterfly paintings mixing colours the children were able to take home and continued to go to the 'Big Oval' for runs, stories under the tree, group games and yoga.

Miss C ,Miss Renee , Miss Rachel amd Miss Janine

Langley Room

The children have been busy examining their faces this week using mirrors to study their features and create funny faces. We have been talking about which emotions people are displaying with their different expressions.
“Happy, sad, grumpy” James labels as he examines Boasi’s photos.
We have also created representations of our faces using paper plates and collage materials.
“I gonna put a buttons, to stick it. Eyes. Stuck it, yes it nose. Hair on top” says Joshua as he constructs his face. “Happy” he continues as he places a mouth at the bottom.
“A mouth and eyes and hair” says Abby.
“Nose, eyes and mouth and hair” identifies Sabian.
Jock looks in the mirror before starting his face, “I see Dock (Jock), one, two guys (eyes)” he says excitedly.
“It me” says Alec as he finds himself in the mirror.
“Two eyes, put some lids. Dere is a nose. It my face. It have some blonde hair” comments Pauline.

We look forward to further examining our facial features, expressions and other parts of our body in future weeks.

Best wishes,
Jess, Kerry, Pippa and Amy

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Next Tuesday (17.4.12 ) we will hold another Teddy Bears picnic so all children who come on that day are encouraged to bring along a favourite bear to join the picnic fun with them .

ELC Team

Health Checks

Our local CAFHS nurse will be here again on Wednesday May 2nd to do Health Checks for Chapple Room children (or any Edgerley children who missed it last time). If you would like to take advantage of this service please make a time with Mrs Porter. Parents must attend with their child and bring their Blue Health Book. This is a free government service and is a good opportunity to get your child's hearing and sight checked and discuss any other concerns you may have.


Jeanine

3's and Holiday Fun

On Thursday, the 3 year olds had a great time kneeding dough to make spaghetti with a pasta machine. The children were extremely intrigued with the process and were excited to give it a go.
The children experimented with a Science activity dropping heavy and light objects into water exploring what sinks and what floats. The foam sticks dissolved which initiated lots of group conversation.
We also went for a nature walk to the 'big school' to collect natural resources to make collages that children have been taking home with them.

It's been a fun week for all!!

4's and Holiday Fun

The children came to ELC dressed in different colours on Wednesday to show which colour is their favourite. Looking at them all, it was a a true rainbow of children.

The 4 year old children went up to the Prep school playground to practice their climbing and show us how fast AND far they can run. We have had a truly fun week at Holiday Care this week: playing in Dinoland, playing cricket on the Prep school oval, using Lego to create and build and paint using cel mix and food colour.

ELC Team

Langley Room

It was lovely to see everyone back and refreshed after the Easter weekend. We have been busy experimenting with writing this week, using our own name cards as inspiration. Children have been searching through them, looking for letters that they recognise in order to find their name,
“Where’s the S?” asked Spencer as he hunted through the name cards,
“J, A, C, K, S, O, N, Jackson!” said Jackson excitedly as he pointed to each of the letters on his name card.
Many of the children have then been closely examining each of the letters on their name card before attempting to reproduce them on long strips of white paper.

Next Tuesday the 17th April we will be having a Teddy Bear’s picnic and so all Tuesday children are invited to bring their favourite teddy or soft toy to Kindy to join in the fun.

Thank you to Miss Janine who has been helping us in our classroom this week. We look forward to welcoming Miss Pippa back on Monday.

Best wishes,
Jess, Kerry, Amy and Janine

Holiday Program

Following on from our Conversations in Colour unit this term the children are invited to come dressed in their favourite colour next Wednesday 11th April !


ELC Team

Farewell Miss D

Sadly we will be saying goodbye to Miss D next Wednesday. Sinead has won a Teaching position at Holy Family Catholic School at Parafield Gardens teaching a reception class. She has been a wonderful assett to our centre and we will all miss her .
We have rearranged staffing a little and Mrs Coney Rocca (who starts with us on Tuesday) will go into Edgerley Room and Miss Kelly Freer will go into Chapple room . We will appoint a new staff member to work until 6pm as soon as possible.

Jeanine

Easter Fun

We have all had a wonderful week making things related to Easter. This was topped off today by a fun egg hunt after we spotted pink footprints and fluffy ears ! We found lots of eggs in our garden and the teachers helped share them out.

Thankyou to all the parents who helped make our wonderful Easter Bonnets and came to watch our Parade!

ELC children

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,
This week has been all about eggs, chicks and bunnies in the Langley room. At our Easter table we have been putting on bunny ears and twitchy noses and been sharing stories about Easter. We have continued to explore colours and textures as we decorated our Easter baskets and eggs at the easel. We have discovered that for two and three year olds Easter tends to mean chocolate! We shared the book ‘I Love Easter’ by Anna Walker which prompted a discussion;
“Easter bunnies got eggs” said Thomas,
“Easter bunny coming to my shack” commented Kristian,
“I don’t like chocolate” said Erin,
“Easter bunny makes eggs in the oven” suggested Dougal,
“Easter bilby brings eggs too” added Thomas,
“Chocolate eggs” said Pauline excitedly,
“Easter bunny lives in a forest in a cover” Jack told the other children,
“The bunny’s going to buy some eggs cause he wants to eat them all” suggested Max.

Easter wishes,
Jess, Kerry, Pippa and Amy

Miss Pippa will be on holidays next week, returning on 16th April. Miss Janine will be in the Langley room to replace her.