Easter Celebrations

The ELC  celebrated Easter today, first of all with a wonderful parade of Easter Bonnets that parents and children had worked hard to create.  We then listened to Mrs Cooper tell us the story of Easter's origins and explain why we celebrate  Easter with eggs. We then had a visit from the Easter Bunny who had hopped in and left us some eggs to search for in the playground !

Our day was topped off with yummy Hot Cross Buns that Mr Rob had left !

Have a wonderful safe Easter Break everyone !

ELC Team

Grandies Day 2013

Grandies Day 2013 was a wonderful celebration with our much loved Grandies! Thank you all so much for coming and making our event such a fantastic success! The children were so excited to perform our concert and to share their learning environment with so many Grandies. The morning tea was a delicious culmination of such a special time. A big thank you to Mrs Annie Antonas for making such amazing cupcakes and to our Mr Rob who once again made fabulous scones. We hope you had a superb morning!

Grandparents

Gentle, good natured, soft hearted and grand,

Rising always with a smile and a warm helpful hand.

Admired and regarded as knowledgeable and wise,

Nurturing their grandchildren to reach for the skies.

Delight in showing pictures for everyone to see!

Always telling stories of how things used to be,

Reading books, playing games or listening patiently.

Easy going, easy living, enjoying life’s pleasures,

Noticing that long life brings so many treasures.

Truly grandparents are wonderful in so many ways,

Special people who always seem to brighten our days.

In the classrooms

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley Families,

What a week! We have been extremely concerned with so many issues in our world that affect our environment. Some of the children decided to take matters into their own hands and sit at the writing table to write some very important letters to people in the world.

Alex wrote a letter to the Environment telling it that he wanted the animals to have a new home.

Cooper wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of Australia telling her that “We need to clean up the world because it’s too dirty and there is too much rubbish.”

Alyssa has written to Mr Andary telling him to stop using rubbish.

Rocco wrote a letter to his parents thanking them for “picking up all your rubbish at the Rubbish Dump” and “You are helping all the animals, you are recycling and that is really, really helpful” – thank goodness for the Rositano Family!

Lily wrote “To the lady in charge of Australia, its Julia Gillard.” Lily explained her concerns about the smoke and how “the animals will die if we don’t turn it off.”

William wrote to his dad questioning how he will help the Environment He also gave him some advice on how to use his computer and car effectively.

Jacob wrote to the Prime Minister about “all the rubbish left on the ground is killing all the animals – I want it all to stop happening!”

We will be sending these letters to the recipients in the hope that we hear back. Check out our classroom door for copies of our letters. We are so proud of our Edgerley children for taking action!

THE highlight of the week was our trip to the Metro Waste Dump. As Rocco said, we are all thankful for what the Rositano Family do to help our Environment by recycling. On our excursion we got to see the workers sorting the rubbish, the excavator piling up the bricks and concrete, all the different bins and really big trucks coming and going. We all got our own fluro yellow safety vests and safety glasses and even a hat! It was all so exciting and we learnt so much! We now know where our recyclables go and how they are sorted ready to be reused and made into something else. We got to bring back a chest of rubbish to sort in our classroom.

We are very much looking forward to Grandies Day next week! Keep up the awesome effort helping our Environment Edgerley Children – you are doing so much!

Coney, Juliana and Katherine

 

Chapple

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,

As part of our unit of inquiry, My Family Album, and as part of our Grandies Day preparation, we have been discussing the concept of family roles and grandparents. Here are some of our ideas about our Grandies.

My grandparents have a big brothers. They're called Melieka. Oh, Nanny Diane and Pa Gary.' Izabella

I have golden hair you know. I don't have two grandparents. I have Nanny. That's Mummy's mummy. Eden

My grandparents are called Granny and Grandad and Gran. I go to their house and sometimes I go to Granny's flat. William

I have nanny and poppy. They're the only grandparents I have. They're Mummy's parents. They do lots of things and Poppy sometimes lets me stag at work. Oscar

Some children are quite confused, and tell me that their grandparents are called Mummy and Daddy. It's an interesting concept to explore.

We are also in need two parent helpers to help with the book sales and serving the scones. Please let me know if you can help.

Have a fabulous weekend and a safe and happy Easter!

Chapple Room Team

Cooper

Dear Parents and Friends of the Cooper Room,

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and blast off! We are heading to space. Following on from the interest of a small group the Cooper children have built a spaceship to take off to space and explore the planets and the moon.

“Let’s go to the moon,” said Jackson

“We will need a rocket,” added Max

“The moon is a long way away,” said Liam nodding

“You need oxygen tanks so you can breathe,” said Hudson “like the astronauts.”

“We need a helmet too,” suggested Jack “ See like this one” (pointing to the astronaut in a book)

“It’s very dangerous in space,” said Kristian

“It is dark in space,” said Jarrah pointing to a picture of the moon.

Throughout the week the children have used teamwork to build their rocket and find a helmet and a space suit to wear. The children are also working on some very important skills to share the rocket and take turns flying in the rocket. The excited audience waits in anticipation as the rocket gets ready for the count down and then blasts off into space.

What will they find?

Where will they go?

Will PAC be the first ELC to land on the moon?

That really will be one small step for us and a giant leap for our school!

Over from the moon! Coral and Susan

Mead

Dear Parents and Friends,

The children in the Mead Room have found it fascinating to explore the bird kit from the Nature Education Centre. We have been discussing where birds live and what they need to keep alive and healthy. The kit is full of taxidermy brids, skeletons, eggs, nest and other curios. The dialogue shows the way the children are discussng and helping each other learn so much about birds.

Harry M: Was dat called?

Miss A: Quail eggs

Harry M: Oooh

Charlotte: What do birds eat?

Harry M: Seeds

James S: Birds eat seeds!

Charlotte: How do the birds go in trees?

Harry M: Fly! Wiv wings!

Charlotte: Do dese have bones in dem?

Miss A: Yes (showing Charlotte the skull)

James S: I love d’ wainbow worrikeet!

Tom M: Dis one (magpie) has d’ longest beak, longer den all d’ others. An’ dis one( starling) is d’ smallest in d’ whole bird kit.

James S: I like dese birds

Charlotte: I like dese birds too.

James S: Be careful wiv dese. Where’s d’ barn owl? Oooooh, dis barn owl is weally heavy. What’s inside d’ barn owl?

Miss A.: What do you think is inside?

James S: Bones!

(James lines up the birds) All d’ birds.

Toby comes over.

James S : Be careful Toby, don’t step on dem. Its’ all my favourite birds… I have six. The wainbow wollikeet say to d’ magpie. “You can’t have my feeders!” An d’ magpie says “I have enough feeders.”

Our children have been busy creating nests with collage materials, looking at seeds, enjoying bird walks up to the Prep School and talking more about bird features. Lots of busy learning!

Many Thanks,

Emma, Pip, Amelia

Langley

Dear Langley families and friends,

This week the Langley children went for a walk up to the big school. We went looking for leaves to recycle for our artist endeavours. First we looked in the boarding house garden under the large gum trees and found some strings of bark that had fallen to the ground along with some small leaves. Then Mr. Tye pulled up in his tractor and we asked him if he knew where we could find some large leaves.

He told us to go to the top of the oval, so we had a running race with Miss Kerry to see who could get to the big pile of oak leaves first. We found huge crunchy leaves for our art work. On our way back some of the children had noticed something else on the oval.

"Look at the rubbish," said Jack.

"Is messy," Angelina stated.

Lachlan said with concern, "we should pick it up."

We talked with the children about how we should put our rubbish in the bin and that we would go for another walk to the big school we will collect some rubbish and place it in the correct bins for recycling. The children are showing a keen interest in caring for their environment.

Best wishes,

Kerry, Nicole, Emily, Hayley and Jess

                              

Parent Teacher Interviews

Classroom teachers will be holding parent teacher interviews after school on Wednesday 3rd April and Thursday 4th April. Please see Jeanine if you would like to make a time to have a chat with your child's teacher.

Easter Thursday

Next Thursday we will be holding our annual Easter Bonnet Parade and Easter Egg Hunt. Get creative and help your child to make a special Easter hat for the occasion. Children who do not normally attend on a Thursday are welcome to join us for the morning under the supervision of a parent. Our parade will commence at 10.30am followed by our Easter egg hunt (sssshhhh, it's a surprise for the children!). The morning will conclude by 11.30am.

Please note that the rest of the school will be finishing at 1pm on Easter Thursday. Although the ELC will be open until 6pm, the classroom teachers will be finishing in the classroom at 1pm at which time the coeducators will run the afternoon program. If your child will be finishing at 1pm on this day, can you please advise Jeanine early next week so that we can organise appropriate staffing for the afternoon.

Grandies Day Reminders

Don't forget our Grandies Day next Wednesday 27th March. For catering purposes, if you or your grandies have not yet RSVP'd to Jeanine can you please do so as soon as possible. Our morning will commence at 8.30am and conclude at 10.30am. If your child does not normally attend the ELC on a Wednesday, they are more than welcome to join us for the morning (in casual clothes please) under the supervision of a Grandie who they will then leave with at 10.30am. We have been very busy practicing for our concert and preparing our art gallery and are looking forward to welcoming our Grandies to our ELC!

Annual Leave

I will be away on Annual Leave next week and Mrs Jess Catt will manage the centre in my absence . Please see her for any enquiries or concerns.  Could you also please forward your replies for Grandies Day to Jess.

Jeanine

Easter Eggs

As we have children in the centre with severe nut allergies we are asking parents to please refrain from sending edible food treats (chocolate, sweets etc) in for Easter.  We will do our usual egg hunt on the Thursday before Easter so that the children enjoy this special time but will make sure that we purchase nut free chocolate.

ELC Team

Edgerley Room

Dear Edgerley Families and Friends,

The Edgerley children have become quite environmentally aware – thanks to you and the connections we are making between what we are discovering in the ELC and what we are doing at home. Thank you all for your valuable input into helping your child understand what you do at your homes to help our environment. Our show and tell times this week were a real highlight and we loved looking at the posters and listening to all your ideas and advice.

We have enjoyed making music from recycled plastic containers and glass jars and bottles. Cooper, Toby and Angus could be heard having a chat, although just barely!
“Make it louder! Try to practice it! So loud the music!!” yelled Cooper, encouraging his mates Toby and Angus.
“Doesn’t sound like music to me, just sounds like noise,” Angus contradicted.
Toby added, “The noise ones are loud!”

“We’re going to build music. You gotta practice making the loud noise,” Cooper pointed to the musical notes and the scores on the wall. “Make it louder!”

The boys were in full swing when Angus interrupted, “Stop the music! Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow down.”
Toby piped in, “Would you like to hear this music? C’mon keep making it!”
“We’ve gotta mix up the music,” again Cooper encouraged his friends.
Angus wanted to try something new, “I’m using beans to make it loud.”

Cooper pointed to the score again, “We’re on the number 3 one now. It’s sounds awesome to me.”

Please come in and make some music! We would love to hear it.

This week we excitedly look forward to visiting the Rubbish Dump where we hope to discover more and more about the world of rubbish and how we can help make our world a cleaner place.


Katherine , Juliana and Coney

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,

We are slowly beginning to focus on pre-writing skills, with lots of fun activities to promote fine motor development. At this age and stage, we do not expect children to be able to correctly hold a pen or pencil. The focus in Chapple Room is to strengthen and encourage pre-writing skills. This week we are using the chopsticks to manipulate magnetic shapes and letters. We are also exploring how to use the etcha-sketch/magnadoodle, which everyone is enjoying. Last week we used the pin boards and the tap tap to encourage fine motor manipulation and movement. Many children at this age still hold their writing implements with the fist grip, and may hold a paint brush at the very end. This is completely normal. We encourage children to participate and enjoy any writing/painting activity, rather than focus on the correct grip. If you are looking for any activities to do at home to further develop your child's fine motor skills, here are some suggestions.
1. Dot painting using ear buds 
2. Use tongs to select food during dinner time- cutlery should also be used competently, rather than fingers/hands
3. Use chopsticks to pick up small objects
4. Any sensory play, such as gloop, playdough, finger painting etc
5. Use tweezers to manipulate objects
A great website with more activities is otplan.com, which has quite an extensive list of prew-writing games.
Always remember to enjoy this phase of your child's development and try not to worry or pressure them.
Have a lovely weekend.
Chapple Room Team

Cooper Room

Dear Cooper Room Families,

What an adventure we had today! We caught the bus up the Parade to visit the kind fire crew at Beulah Park Fire station. The children were so excited to look for all the things they been investigating about firemen and fire engines.. After a fun ride, hailing the bus and riding up past the oval and the shops, the children discovered how to ring the bell and let the driver know they were ready to get off the bus.

Ray met us outside and then toured us through the station. We watched one of the crew get dressed in his fire safety gear – gloves, helmet, jacket, boots, torch, safety alarm, smoke mask and pants. It looked really heavy and hot under all the gear but we discovered that none of his skin was able to be touched by the fire. Then it was time to tour the station and see the kitchen, sleeping areas and recreation areas as the station is manned 24 hours a day. Outside the children shared all their ideas of the things they thought we may see on a fire engine. What a list they came up with ! Slowly Ray and his crew found all the items: hoses, ladders, lights, axe, hammer, water, steering wheel, helmets and places to sit. All the children eagerly climbed aboard to take a peek inside and sit in one of the seats high above the road. No trip to the fire station would be complete without a turn at blasting the hoses ! Everyone lined up and held on tight as they were shown how to turn the hose on and off and aim it at some orange cones. What fun it was blasting the recycled water at the garden! When the firemen turned the hose pressure up we looked to the sky to see a shooting stream of water, which would be high enough to reach the top of many buildings and it showered down all over us! We were wet but what a blast ! With the visit nearly finished we lined up to see the flashing lights and hear the warning sirens !

18 new fire recruits ready to enrol !!  A special thank you to all the parents and grandparents for joining us for the morning.

Kind regards

Susan and Coral

Mead Room

Dear Friends and Families,

This week the children have extended  their interest in gardening and have spent some time planting beans and a range of different herbs in our veggie patch. They have engaged all their senses as they have dug, watered, smelt the leaves and planted all the different plants. The interactions and shared discussions highlight the way children are learning through active engagement  with each other and when play is purposeful.

Tom: We’re gonna plant them

Jock: Oh but no rain!

James: I want a green shovel

Tom: It’s a bit hard for me (digging)

Olympia: Ohhh, a bit of dirt on me

Tom: I’m going to grow some food

Olympia: I’m going to grow these flowers

David: Look at these holes!

Tom: It smells like yum (lemon thyme)  If I see anyone pulling out my plant I will say no don’t pull out my plant because we don’t pull out plants do we?

Tom: All the basil’s falling apart when I’m pinching the roots.

Olympia: Mint.. have a smell of it! They smell fresh.

Dougal: I’m digging where James throws the worms.. Worms help the plants to grow. I dug a big hole! Now what do we need to do?

Olympia: Water!

Kind Regards,

Emma, Pip and Amelia

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

Many of the Langley children have taken a keen interest in the alphabet recently. They have been identifying and recognising letters in the environment and have been experimenting with creating letters using chalk in the outside environment. To support this interest we have begun a small literacy project with a focus on letters. This week the children have been using wooden letters to create images in play dough. This has sparked many interesting conversations about letters as children share their existing knowledge. Some children are able to identify letters that are familiar to them such as the first letter of their name and other family members. Other children have been exploring the letters by creating imprints in the play dough and asking adults to identify them. We will continue to explore letters and writing next week as we further experiment with the formation of letters, identify them in our environment and look at different forms and uses for writing.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Nicole, Sarah and Emily

Head Lice

There has been a case of head lice reported within the centre . Please check your children and treat them if necessary.(repeat after 7 days) Information will be available on the cupboard inside the first set of double doors.

Requests and Reminders

As the invites for Grandies Day have now been sent out for March 27th please let us know as soon as you can (for catering purposes) how many "Grandies" will be attending with your child. We also need a couple of Parent helpers from each class for this occasion. Please see your child's Teacher if you are able to help. 


We are looking for old vases - large and small for display purposes. Also all those coffee drinkers - Maconna jars (labels soaked off) would be greatly appreciated.

Please make sure you close the double doors that go out to the Town Square when you are arriving or leaving as these prevent children from wandering away from their supervised classes.

Please avoid walking on our outdoor rubber surfaces if you are wearing high/narrow heels as they tend to leave holes in it .

Langley Room

Dear Langley parents and friends,

Wow! what a busy week we have had in the Langley room!
We have enjoyed keeping cool by playing with the water and putting
water in the sandpit and making mud. That was lots of fun!
We have also spent lots of time inside. We have enjoyed the playdough and
recognising letters of our name and printing them into the dough,
painting our self portraits, playing with our dolls house and have especially loved the
coloured foam blocks.
We set up coloured mats around the floor and encouraged the children to match the
colours of the blocks to the colour of the mat. The children had a great time building towers with matching
colours and knocking them down and starting all over again.
We have also set up a stage and microphone with cardboard air guitars.
Many of the children have found their inner rock star!
They have been singing anything from abc, twinkle twinkle, ee i ee i o
and many other nursery rhyme classics.
They have also been singing songs obviously played and listened to at home;
rock and roll to the music- Lachlan
sing pretty woman- Miss Kerry
rock and roll, rock and roll- Jack

Enjoy your long weekend!

Jess, Nicole, Kerry, Emily & Sarah

Mead Room

Dear Friends and Families,
Following on from our exploration of seeds this week the children's involvement in growing things has really sparked a huge interest in our room. We have had a dirt patch set up with pots, tools, cuttings and gloves. There has been so much rich language and discussions between children relating to their gardening!
Tom: I plant some plants and fill one up with a spade.
Toby and Dougal: We're gardening.
Toby: I planting sausages...and eggs...and pineapple...and pears!
We have also used some seedpods  to make imprints in clay which has been a different way of interacting with natural materials.
James W: Look... how about sticking this.. I'll bang this now and take it out and see what you did.. .da da! Look at all the spikes disappear!
Henry: It feels good.. bumpy like a pancake!
Henry: It prints!
The children are now desperate to plant some real plants in our veggie patch...so be prepared for some dirty play next week from our keen gardeners!
Many Thanks,
Emma, Pip and Amelia

Cooper Room

Dear Cooper Room Friends and families,

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle - that is the message from the Cooper Room this week!

The children have been really getting into our Sustainable Planet unit. Kristian and Ammar both shared posters they had made this week during show and tell, reminding us about the importance of looking after our world. Ammar thought it was a good idea not to drive everywhere "cos' the cars make the air dirty. You could ride a bike," he suggested.

During pack up time we have been working together to make sure we are looking after our resources and not wasting them too.

"We can use this paper again" said Gabby

"This bit of sticky needs to go in the bin," suggested Sebastian

"What about the bottle tops?" asked Harry A

"I put them in my rocket," said Henry

We read a story about Where the Rubbish goes? This lead to some very interesting discussion and a tour around the school trying to locate special rubbish bins.

"I put things in the bin and my mummy and daddy do too." said Kristian

"But new things don’t go in the bin! You can make new things out of them if you don’t want it anymore,"explained Jarrah.

"You can give it to someone else! " said Liam

“Maybe the rubbish guy will put it in the bin and the garbage man will scrunch it and crunch it." thought Jackson

"You need to put your rubbish in the bin," said Hugo

"Then the rubbish goes to the dump," added Harry A. "The rubbish will all go away. All the people will take it."

"If it’s almost full they’ll have to sort it out."  suggested Liam

After touring the ELc and the big school we could not believe how much we found. The children were able to spot many different coloured bins and are now thinking of strategies to help solve the problem.

Later in week we started to make things using recyclable materials. Reusing things from home and the ELC they created some great pieces.

We would love the hear from anyone who has a really, really big box because we would also like to build a spaceship too!

Kind regards

Susan and Coral

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Room Parents and Friends,
Welcome to Samuel Stojsavlevic who has joined the Chapple Room. I am sure he will fit right in!
We have been exploring the change in months and seasons in Chapple Room. As we walk up to PE and wonder through the Prep School, we look at the trees, collect fallen leaves and observe any seasonal changes that are occurring around us. It is an interesting concept for four year olds to understand. We are using our hand and foot prints to make some autumn trees for our display board. Making the prints has been a great sensory exploration and we hope that the trees will further develop our understanding of how we are affected by the seasons, and changes around us.
I will be at professional development next week and Mrs Mckenzie will be filling in on Thursday and Friday. It will be fun to have her back with the group!
Have a great long weekend!
Chapple Room Team

Edgerley Room

Dear Edgerley friends and families,

What a jampacked week this has been ! We have taken "busy" to another level this week.
Thank you for bringing in boxes for the children. As you can see in the construction area, the children have turned it into a "Bird City" inspired by the book " Window" by Jeanie Baker.
"It's a city for birds" Angus said.
"It tells a very important story about birds and people" Toby added.
"We have to take care of the trees so birds don't fly away and leave", Rocco said.
''If people chop the trees, it will be so sad", Alyssa informed us.
The children have been very keen to make people aware of how to look after the environment so we shared the story of the Bird City with the Mead class.

As we went on with our week, we talked about objects made out of plastic. It's amazing how much the children know already. In the process we found out that Mrs. Rocca had a problem that has been worrying her. The country where she came from had trouble with their tons of rubbish and we helped her find a solution to it.
"People should stop using plastic" a brilliant idea from Jacob.
"They should build a concrete dump so rubbish dont go everywhere" Fletcher added.
"We should tell the President to stop the people from making rubbish", Rocco said.
"They should put bricks around the rubbish so it doesnt go to the rivers and beach," Alyssa uttered.
"Yeah, coz then then the dolphins and fishy will die," Cooper agreed.
"They can make a really tall tower but you have to put a roof on it so it doesnt touch the moon," Max reiterated.


As a class, we came up with plans, ideas, and solutions to this serious problem and we hope to speak to the President of the Philippines one day and tell him all of our brilliant ideas.



For families who havent taken a poster yet, please let us know so we can provide you with one for your child's show and Tell. Please return the permission slips next week  for our excursion to Metro Waste on 19th March.


Katherine ,Juliana and Coney

Curriculum Night

On Thursday evening we welcomed many parents for our "Play Based and Natural Environments" Curriculum night. It was a wonderful night of sharing, discussing and creating with the added bonus of candlelight, wine and cheese. We explored the different types of play that our children engage in during their learning and discussed the stages of play that children work through. At the conclusion of the evening we launched our "Natural Detective Bags" that will be available for you to take home and bring back wonderful natural treasures for us to use at ELC. If you were unable to attend, please chat with your child's teacher who will be happy to discuss our explorations. The beautiful natural collages that were created will be displayed very shortly in our entrance way. Thank you all for your enthusiastic contributions!