Change of Date

Our Centre assessment by the Education and Early Childhood Services  Registration and Standards Board will now be held on Monday and Tuesday 6th and 7th August.

New Baby

Congratulations to  Lara and Mark Paholski on the birth of their son, Charlie Laurence ,born on July 11th, a brother for Max and Harry to adore !

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,

As part of our unit of inquiry, Home Sweet Home, Miss Freer has been reading the Faraway Tree with the Chapple Room children. It’s been such a fun exploration so far, and a wonderful chance for the children to develop their listening and comprehension skills. Here are the children’s thoughts so far.

‘They went to the beanstalk.’ Seth

‘It was the Faraway Tree and there was a beanstalk in it. One is called Jack.’ Charlie

‘It’s all about Connie not believing the Faraway Tree.’ Tommi

‘And she went down the slippery slide instead of using a pillow so it wore her dress out.’ Jack

‘Some people live in the trunk.’ Tommi

‘Dame Washalot washes her things and water goes down the Faraway Tree and soapy water goes on her dress.’ Jack

‘I know who else lives in the trunk- the Angry Pixie. She was the one who threw ink.’ Tommi

‘Jack lives in the beanstalk and that’s how you get to marble world.’ Charlie

‘I think it’s going to be a land of animals.’ Zach H

‘The land of Billy Goats Gruff.’ Ryan

‘I’d like it to turn into the land of lego with cars lego.’ Zach F

‘I think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’ Oliver

Over the coming weeks, we will be transforming the classroom into our own Faraway Tree. It should be great fun!

Chapple Room Team

This has been a week of mixed emotions for Chapple Room. We said hello to Nicholas and goodbye to Flynn. We will miss you a lot Flynn, but know you will fit right in at Netherby and we wish you all the best.  
As part of our term's unit could all families please send in a photo of your house number asap. If email is easier, please send it to amarcus@staff.pac.edu.au. Shortly, we will be sending home the surveys for Father's Day and it would be great to have these back as soon as possible also. We are still collecting glass jars if anyone has some to spare at home.
 Have a wonderful weekend!

Edgerley Room

Wow, what a busy second week in Edgerley. We have continued our investigations in to homes and houses and the children described similar themes about comfort, belonging and safety in their own words.

“A home is where you live and when it rains it has a roof so you don’t get wet. It has a water tank and you can drink the water. You can go in someone else’s home only if you know them” said Cooper

“We have a home for having dinner in” said Owen

“A kid can’t have a home without a adult ‘cos if they want to cross the road a motorbike will come speeding or a stranger will come” said Alyssa

We also took a great interest in light this week, observing our shadows and how they change through the day, manipulating mirrors to create reflections and representing rainbow at the painting easel.

We also engaged in some deep discussions about where babies come from and how they grow this week, observing a puzzle of a Mum with a baby in her tummy and pointing out the umbilical cord. We enjoyed looking at our own belly buttons (not Mrs Bishop or Mrs Rocca’s!!)…can you believe that’s how our Mummies used to feed us! We will continue to share our stories about being born next week.

Kind Regards

Mel, Coney and Pip

Mead Room

Dear Mead Parents,


Our investigations into homes have led us to discuss "Can a tree be a home?" We have talked about this at great length, read many books about tree dwelling creatures and made some creatures from craft materials to inhabit our large Mead tree which is growing in our classroom. Come and have a look!


Maybe bears live in trees. Eden
No, bears live in caves. Luc
I think they live in a forest, near trees. Leroy
Owl babies and owl mummies live in trees. Abhi
I don't live in a tree. I might live in a tree house. Leroy
Bees can live in trees. They live in a bee tree. Andre
They live in a bee hive. They can be in trees. Molly
Bananas grow in trees. Izabella
Birds live in nests which live in trees. Luc


Best wishes,
Emma, Susan and Cristina

Cooper Room

Last week Zac brought in a bird’s nest to show the class and we put it in a fish tank for everyone to look at. The children were excited to see the nest and this started us on a new investigation in our Home Sweet Home unit. We examined what the nest is made of, played with bird puppets and read a variety of books about birds and nests,  the children also drew bird pictures and painted nests at the easel…

“Where is the birds?” wondered Liam, “they could be in the sky, they can fly as well.”

“It’s a nest” said Kristian. “Two nesties, on here, in here. There’s a big one and another big one” he pointed. “Little birds up and mummy and daddies. They fly to get food. Worms… dere no worms. Mummy and daddy birds get worms to eat… Straw and sticks, there are only twigs.”

“Where do you find a nest?” asked Miss Bowden.

“In a tree of course” answered Kristian.

“They’re no birds, they’re outside. Worms can eat worms” said Pauline.

“Eggy” said Hudson noticing the broken egg shell in the bottom of the nest. “What’s happened to eggy? It was that” he pointed to a puppet, “It’s ‘scaped.”

Kind regards,

Ali and Coral

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

We have been building and developing our Langley jungle this week, creating and attaching much needed leaves to our trees and using the bamboo construction to build different houses for our jungle animals.

“Ta da! It’s a house” exclaimed Dougal,

“Dougal is building a house for the animals” observed Alec,

“My animal live in a stable, mine's a stable” commented Dougal.

Charlie A and Angus visited the building table also,

“It’s my house” Charlie A told Angus, “it’s a little house” he continued,

“I’ll try with these big ones” Angus said.

“It’s a circle pattern, look at dis one” cried Abby excitedly at she built with the bamboo blocks in the afternoon.

Thank you again to the families who have brought in family photos and photos of their houses, but we are still waiting for lots more! We will be using these next week in our program if you could please bring them in as soon as possible. We are happy to have them emailed to jcatt@staff.pac.edu.au if that is easier.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Amelia and Nicole


We would like the Langley children to participate in the first part of Sports Day on September 20th depending on the level of parent help that we have . Please let Mrs Dry know if you are able to come on that morning to assist us. 

Martini Ball

As ELC parents you may not know other parents but we would love you to join an ELC table at this year's Prince Alfred ball which happens every two years.  Linda MacAuley from the Chapple Room is looking for other parents to share a table.  When you register below please note my name if you would like to join my ELC table.  Feel free to create your own with other class parents. Hope to see you there.  Lots of fun guaranteed. 

 Linda

2012 Martini Ball 15 September 2012 Did you know? The Moulin Rouge is best known as the spiritual birthplace of  the modern form of the Can-can dance. The 2012 Martini Ball will feature a troupe of these  eye-catching dancers.  Ooh La La! Book your Martini Ball tickets now at www.pac.edu.au Your help with acquiring items for the main and silent auctions would also be appreciated. Please ask friends, family and business contacts if they would support your school with an item for the auction. Please click here to access the auction guidelines. Please click here to download the gift form. . For further information please contact David Cornish  8334 1255 or Jayne Porter  8334 1812.

Sports Day

The annual Preparatory School Sports day will be held this year on 20th September and the ELC children in the 3 and 4 year old rooms take part in it. As we will be allocating any new children to Sports Houses could you please let us know if your child has an older brother at the school ,or a Father or Grandfather who previously attended, what colour House they were in (some of the House names have changed over the years)

Put this morning in your diary so that you can come and join in the fun !

Jeanine

Chinese Curriculum Information Night

Please note that this will now be held on August 21st , more information later !

A few reminders

Please make sure you sign your child in and out each day. This is extremely important as we use these records to verify our numbers and to account for children at all times. We would also like to remind parents that once you sign your child out at night they are your responsibility and not the staff's who are supervising other children , they would also not be counted in an emergency .

Could any families who took home their child's portfolio over the holidays bring them back now ready for us to start adding new items this term.

Please make sure you send your child's rugby top in each day as although it is warm in the classrooms  the children do play outside each day and need warmer clothes on then . If you would like your child to wear a jacket at these times (or for walking up to PE or the library) then please make sure it is an ELC jacket that is available at the uniform shop.

Health Checks

A reminder that these are available for children who are over 4 years 3 months next Wednesday 25th July. Please make an appointment through Mrs Porter.

Illness in the ELC

This week we had a couple of cases of conjunctivitis reported to us . This is extremely contagious so please keep your children at home until there is no more discharge from their eyes if your child develops this. We also had a child diagnosed with Scarlet Fever. This can come on quite suddenly so please pick up the information on the cupboard inside the double doors to familiarise yourself with the symptoms. You can also access information on the website www.health.sa.gov.au/PEHS/youve-got-what.htm  (under streptococcal sore throat)

Edgerley Room

What a wonderful first week in Edgerley Room. We welcomed lots of new faces into four year old Kindergarten. It was great to meet and get to know the new children and their families (thankyou to all the parents who attended the information session on Tuesday, we hope it was informative). We spent the week familiarising ourselves with our new environment and were excited to discover that we could venture out into the breakout space outside our classroom by ourselves. We talked about some rules for the breakout space to keep us all safe and happy and were thrilled when we could remember them all. We enjoyed dancing, exploring reflections, completing puzzles and creating a house, all outside our classroom!! Inside our classroom we talked about different types of houses and shared a book with houses from around the world. We used our big map to board an aeroplane with Mrs Rocca to visit all the countries we had read bout…it was very cold in Alaska because it’s right at the top of the world! We can’t wait to begin to share our own houses with each other next week… I wonder if any of them will look like the tee pee tent we saw in Alaska??

Kind Regards

Mel, Coney and Pip

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,

It's been a fun filled week in Chapple Room this week. It's been great being back together! Many of the children made the most amazing books. Some chose to do lovely still life paintings of the jonquils that Jack brought in for us. The most fun has been in the shop, however. Many of the children have enjoyed experimenting with the till system, giving change and writing menus and lists of products for sale. It's been wonderful to watch. Thank you for a beautiful week one Chapple Room!

Chapple Room Team

Mead Room

Dear Mead Parents and Friends,

The term has got off to a wonderful start with the Mead children being very busy builders. They have been using a variety of of natural and man made materials to create their buildings. Many have constructed homes, their parents workplaces, cubbyhouses and even a zoo. We have started to discuss where they live and what their homes look like with children bringing in photos for show and tell.
"My home in on the ground." James
"I live in Adelaide." Izabella
"I live at Alfa Street." Suzannah
"My home is India." Abhi
"My house is in North Adelaide." Leroy
"My house is far away." Eden
"My house is really, really far away." Gwen
"My home is in Australia." Adu
"I live in Australia." Luc

Kind regards
Mead Room staff

Cooper Room

This week we welcomed our new children and their families to the Cooper Room. The children were keen to explore their new room and meet new friends and teachers. As everyone settled in, and as part of our Who We Are inquiry unit, the children looked at mirrors and at photos of themselves and drew self portraits in black pen.
"Look at me! Look at you Jack, I'm showing you" said Ammar holding the mirror up for Jack.
"I look in the mirror - my eyes and my nose and my hair" noticed Oliver.
"Looks like Sabian" said Sabian.
"I'm big!" exclaimed Spencer.
We have also enjoyed hearing about the children's photo pages from home, which they have been sharing with the group, and have found out about their families, pets, holidays and favourite toys - a big thank you to the mums and dads for helping with this homework!
Kind regards,
Ali and Coral

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

Welcome to all our new children who have started in the Langley room this week. We have started our investigations into our new unit of inquiry, Home Sweet Home, with much enthusiasm. We have been examining jungles and oceans and talking about the different types of animals that live these environments.

“I got a fish” commented Dougal

“A star fish” added James

“A crab, a crab. I got a hermit crab at my house. They walk on the floor” said Joshua

“A turtle go in da water” said Charlie A

“A frog lives in the water” added Dougal

“What sort of water do you think frogs live in? Do they live in the ocean?” questioned the teacher,

“A river” concluded Dougal

“Yes, I think the frog might live in a pond” said Tom

“And a scary fish!” said Jada

“Sharks!” agreed Tom.

To help with our investigations into different types of homes, we would love it if all children could bring in a photo of their own homes in addition to a family photo if you have not already done so.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Amelia and Nicole

Uniforms

Just a reminder as we have lots of new families starting with us that our uniform now needs to be moroon pants or skirts (or dark grey if you cannot find these) All undershirt tops need to be plain white. Thankyou to all the families who have changed to this. Children who are leaving us by the end of the year can continue to wear neutral pants/skirts rather than purchase new items at this stage.


Jeanine

Big Steps in Early Childhood Education and Care Campaign

We had a visit this week from United Voice who are the organisation campaigning for better conditions for Child Care Educators. If you are interested in their activities you can view information at www.bigsteps.org.au

Langley Room

Creatures and Critters

We were very fortunate to have a visit from Animal Capers at the ELC this week. They bought with them some very interesting wildlife. The animal keeper explained about the animals and  their habitats to us and the types of food they eat.
We all sat very quietly so as not to frighten the animals then the keeper bought them out one by one for us to hold and feed. We had to handle them very gently especially the green tree frog named Napolean.
"He is Chocolate?" questioned Erin.
" Feels like a marshmallow" said Kristian.
"Its he's water"  said Boasi pointing to Napoleans Terrarium.
"It says BRUB BRUB" Joshua explained.
"Its a big one, he's lovely" Harrison said sweetly.   
Textures
We have all also been very involved in sensory play this week, experiencing various textures such as gritty (with moon sand), slimy (paint), and bubbly (shaving foam). We got very involved, right up to our elbows!
"It multicolour! Like a rainbow" said Kristian, who was playing with colourful shaving foam.
"It suncream. I putting on suncream" said Erin.
"Mine like a rainbow. I washing my hands with it" said Gabby.
"Dis from da moon" said Angus as he let the moon sand crumble through his fingers.
What a lot of fun!

We also had a new addition to our staff team in the Langley room this week so please make Ms. Amelia feel welcome .  Miss Nicole joins us on Monday ,farewell and thankyou to Miss Ange !
Farewell to our big 3 year olds as they move up to Cooper Room next week !
Jess, Kerry, Amelia and Ange

3's Holiday Fun

On Tuesday the three year olds had a visit from animal capers.

The children met 'Mildred' the Chinese Silky Chicken and they bravely took it in turns holding the container of food for 'Mildred' to eat out of. They also had the opportunity to touch 'Wrinkles" the snake with his smooth scales and for the very brave children they held their arms out straight to hold him. 'Thumper' the rabbit was very popular and all the children stroked the rabbit gently and some spoke about their pet rabbits at home.  'Bandit' the ferret made the children laugh as he tickled the children with his nose on their faces.  'Napoleon' the frog was very slimy and the children learnt how ,as he has dry skin, they needed water sprayed on their hands so as not to damage him. Finally there was "Hercules' the Pine Cone Lizard and the children discussed where he lives and what foods he likes to eat.

The children got to look at, touch and hold a variety of animals learning about their environments and how they live differently from humans. 

4's Holiday Fun

It has been a fun packed week for the 4-5 year olds as we spent the last week of the Term 2 holidays engaging in fun and learning activities. Everyday we spent our afternoons going for mystery walks around the PAC campus. We even got to visit and explore where the big senior boys eat their lunch and spend their breaks. And on one special occasion we got to visit the school museum. Thanks to Grace's mum Melissa ! The children were in awe looking at the memorabilia of the boys from PAC.
"Wow! Look at those old cricket balls and bats!" Fergus exclaimed.
"There's lots of names on the wall! added Henry.
"They must play lots of sports before" said Elliott.
What a fun time that was for everyone. Not to mention we got to explore the rainbow playground at the reception school too!
The children have also explored the art of Origami and our first project was making a dog by folding a piece of square paper. "It was a bit tricky"the boys said. But luckily Ms. Freer was there to talk us through it. Some children were able to make frogs and fish.
On Tuesday Ms. Jodie from Animal Capers came to show us some wonderful animals and the children just loved looking at, patting and holding them. There are some photos in the Chappel Room to see too.

But the best part of this week was the children making 3 layers of Jelly! Jelly made with berries and orange that they juiced themselves. Of course we loved eating our share humming to the song "Jelly on a plate".

Til the next school holidays.

Coney and Kelly

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

We were excited to discover a new basketball ring in the Langley yard this week! The children have been using a range of different types of balls to practice their goal shooting skills. We’ve been slam dunking, throwing long shots, jumping up with the ball and bouncing balls off the back board. All of these strategies are helping to develop our gross motor control as well as our eye hand coordination. This has also become a social experience as we share the balls, take it in turns and celebrate each other’s successes.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Pippa and Ange

Miss Ange will be finishing in the Langley room next Friday 13^th July. We thank her for her time helping us while we recruited our new staff member. We are excited to welcome Miss Nicole into the room from Monday 17^th July, please introduce yourselves to her.

Animal Capers Visit

We are having a visit from some special animals next Tuesday morning .  This will be set up in our Art Room and the first session will be at 9.00am .  Cooper and Mead Rooms will be going to this session so please make sure your child is here before then on Tuesday. Please return your form and payment  to Mrs Porter .




Jeanine

New Baby

Congratulations to Corrina and Phil Jeffries on the arrival of Harriet Grace this week . A sister for Tom (Edgerley Room)

Danger Warning

A warning has been issued by the government of the dangers of small ball bearing magnets that are popular with Teenagers at the moment . Here is the web address to check this :
www.ocba.sa.gov.au

Jeanine

Impetigo

There have been a couple of recent cases of Impetigo (School Sores) within the centre. If your child has any unexplained sores on their face or body please take them to a doctor as they are contagious and will only clear with antibiotics. Children can return to the centre once they have begun treatment but sores need to be covered until completely dried. There is an information sheet in the entrance area.


Jeanine

4's Holiday Fun

This week we created our own cafe in our breakout space!  Set with table cloths and centre pieces, we enjoyed our lunches in our own space. Mr Wagenfeller served our lunch to our cafe and Miss Freer, Mrs Rocca and Miss Kasauskas were the waitresses.
"We need to be responsible to show the Langley children how the big kids act in a restaurant." said Henry
"This is my best cafe I've ever had!" exclaimed Jack.
"I love this restaurant it's so nice!" said Grace.
As the lunch was served to the tables, Grace said "This is exactly what I ordered!"
Having our own space to dine in was so delightful and definitely something that we will continue on occasions in the future. All of the children reflected so positively about the experience and we feel it really gave them a sence of ownership over the space.

To tie in with our week looking at being in a cafe, some children made signs, others made placemats and we looked at how we need to be safe when handleing food to reduce the risk of sharing germs. With the help of a food safety dvd, we learnt that certain foods must always be kept in the fridge. Oliver added that "this is to make sure that the germs don't get in it".

After an utterly delightful week, we are looking forward to another week of holidays to come with many more exciting events in store!

Have a lovely weekend! Kelly and Coney

3's Holiday Fun

During this week we made 'fruit smoothies' with the 3 year old children. They were excited to engage in this experiment and have a taste . The ingredients we added were yoghurt, milk and mixed berries. We used the kitchen blender to mix and thicken the consistency. This science experience triggered interesting conversation for the children as they had many questions they wanted answered. We discussed the mixing of colours, blending the fruit and the levels of liquid rising.

The second experience that took off with a huge amount of interest was the string painting. The children explored and created different images by pulling the painted string onto paper. When the children opened the page they had an image, the children came up with ideas they had about the images linking it to their own experiences.

The children kept busy with a variety of other activities and regular walks to the senior oval. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Cristina, Rachel, Renee, Rosalie and Amelia.