Wilkins

Dear families,

Let’s get this party started! We have lots of our children celebrating birthdays in the next couple of months so we have been focussing on our unit of inquiry, Celebrations. We have been role playing parties in the home corner with play dough, pretend cakes and party props. The children have been eagerly discussing the different ways that they celebrate birthdays.

Neddies party and Benji Lagos too – Abi
We have cakes – Joshua
Angi’s gonna come to my party – Ellie
A dinosaur birthday cake – Eddie
Making cake. Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you – Jack
It’s my birthday, eat the cakes – Kartik
I’m gonna have a birthday cake on Thursday – Zali
Happy birthday everyone. There’s cake – Scarlet

We have also been exploring motion and cause and effect using the new car ramps with our diggers and trucks, sorting using colour, creating with cutting and collage, shopping and role playing in our shoe store and exploring the water outside in the beautiful sunshine. As the weather warms up, can you please make sure all of your children’s clothes (including socks) are well labelled and that you pack a couple of sets of spares – we will get wet and dirty!

Best wishes for the weekend.

Karla, Amy and Jess

 

 

 

Langley

Hi families and friends of Langley,

This week children have gone hair crazy! Our hair models and Langley friends have had their hair brushed, washed, clipped, straightened or curled – even the teachers were treated to some hair pampering. The children have worked really well together negotiating who will be the hairdresser and who will be getting their hair done. Great turn-taking and sharing!  

We’ve introduced froghoppers this week. Children worked on their problem solving and fine motor skills as they worked out how hard to push the frogs so they could flip in the air. Once they had figured it out, Billy wasn’t the only jumping frog in the classroom!

We also had our last session with Heidi from Dancify on Wednesday and children particularly loved Dinosaur Roar and The Wiggles dances. Thank you Heidi!

Enjoy the weekend!

Brooke, Emily and Sarah   

 

 

 

 

Mead

Dear Mead Room families,

For the past three weeks we have been thrilled to learn some groovy dance moves with Heidi from ‘Dancify’.  All of the Mead Room children have been exposed to this brilliant incursion, some more than once! It has been a fantastic experience and we have observed children revisit the songs and dances which is a testament to Heidi’s fun teaching strategies.  Even the teachers got involved!

Preparation for the Nativity has begun in earnest, please return your RSVP next week.  We have been practicing our Nativity songs for the performance and reading the story of Christmas;

Harrison T – You know Jesus isn’t always a baby, he grows up and he’s a man.

The children have been mesmerised with the ‘Marble Run’.  There have been many, many opportunities for the children to work collaboratively, take turns, share prior experience and consider trial and error.

Loukas – You have to put the pieces together

Angus – the big ones (marbles) get stuck, so you only need the smaller ones

Harrison R – You need it to not be flat, it needs to be like this (Harrison raised his elbow high, creating an incline with his arm), like a slope.

Lachlan – well I made it with my friends

Have a great weekend,

Melissa and Renee.

Christmas Toy Orders

It's not too late to still bring in your orders if you missed the deadline of the 27 October. All toys will be delivered to the ELC just in time for Christmas.

An Apple for the Teacher

Dear Families

It is World Teacher’s Day on the 7^th November and to celebrate the wonderful work the teachers/co-educators do we are asking that you write a little message of thanks to them and we will place it on our apple tree in the Town Square.

You will find a green or red paper apple in your child’s classroom. Please select an apple of your choosing, record your message and either give to me or hand it back to the teachers who will place it on the tree.

Please feel free to come and read the messages of thanks.

Regards

Melanie

 

 

Tummy Bug Alert!

Dear Families

Over the past week and a half we have had several reported cases of tummy upsets. If your child is unwell with these symptoms please keep them home until they are well. It is recommended that children do not come back to care until 24 hours after the last episode.

If they fall ill whilst at the ELC we will contact you to collect them as soon as possible as this type of illness spreads through centres rapidly and many people can get sick quickly.

If you need any further information about this please read the health notice on the door leading into the ELC café.

Thank you for your assistance in helping us stay healthy!

ELC Staff and children.

 

 

Angwin

Dear Angwin Parents and Friends,

We’ve been having a great time in Angwin with our weekly Dancify sessions. They have been very exciting and busy, but all the children have enjoyed getting involved. We have learned some great moves, including Push the Puppy, the Funky Chicken, the Funky DJ, the Serious Soldier and Muscley Man. It has been lovely to see the children laughing, smiling and having fun.

Please ask your children to show you what they learned! I will try and post a video at some stage. We also having weekly yoga sessions which we are also enjoying.

Preparations for Nativity have also started and we are trying to assign roles for children. Please let us know ASAP if your child will not be attending the concert on Friday 21^st November.

Thanks,

Angwin Team

  

 

Cooper

Hello Cooper Friends and Families

This week the Cooper children have been exploring the world of technology. The class have been investigating the different numeracy and literacy apps on the tablets and have been working together to solve puzzles, complete dot-to-dots and matching shapes.

“Look! That’s a square and so is that!” Ben

“Look they’re the same!” Oscar

With the warmer weather the children have been enjoying water play in the outdoor environment. We have set up an outdoor mud kitchen where the children have been baking mud pies with the other three year old classes. The children have also been busily baking in the sandpit, cooking cakes for friends and family members.

“Who are you baking for?”  Miss White

“It’s for my brother, my big brother” Ella

“Yeah it’s for my brother too!” Hayley

Don’t forget to return your Nativity RSVP by Friday 7^th November.

Have a great weekend!

Jain & Cris​

 

Chapple

Dear Chapple Families

Our week has been very busy again with yoga, dance, buddies and in particular work on our very secret end of year project. This has taken us all over the whole school, seeing new places and meeting strange people.

The electrical storm, at the beginning of the week, lead to a science experiment with balloons and static electricity.

The great weather has enabled us to get outside; Kai has been hitting more sixes and Geordie and Toby have been trying to “dig to the ocean.”

We found the kayak in the shed and decided it would be great to add to our studio.

But what programmes have kayaks in?

Zeke: Sport.

Charlie: Deadly 60!

Alec: Cooking outdoors like Masterchef.

We decided on Deadly 60, but what would we need?

Toby: Green paper to make seaweed.

Dougal: Some rope to use on the boat and do some working on the river.

Jacob: Fishing off the kayak.

We have been lucky enough to get the chance to visit the Channel Ten studio on Tuesday 11^th November. Following our exciting work in the class studio, we will hopefully get the chance to sit behind the real news desk and met Seamus from Totally Wild. A few parent helpers would be greatly appreciated.

Chapple Room

 

 

Edgerley

Dear Parents,

We have had some amazing discoveries this week, from discussing where Baby Jesus was born and why in a stable, to creating moon rocks, building the most fantastic space centre to even visiting the Boarding House!

Our boys were fascinated to have a tour, led by Mr Noble, around the Hartley Wing. Mr Noble asked us about who the boarders are and why do they live at school.

Domenic shared: A boarder is a school person who lives at school! Their houses are too far away!

We had a look around their bedrooms and their common room, seeing their kitchen and bathroom

Max commented : It’s like a really big house!

One of the boarders, Will told us that he comes from a big sheep farm down in Kingston SE. He was busy studying and his room was typically a teenager’s retreat!

Jack Mc commented:  It’s messy in here! You need to tidy up your room!

It was interesting to find out that Mr Noble looks after 45 Yr 10, 11 and 12 boarders. Our children have been wondering what is inside the building we often walk past!

The boarders were happy to share their surroundings with us. I think our visit made their day!

Many Thanks for your ongoing support,

Emma, Pip, Ty and Rosalie

 

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

 

Over the last three weeks the children have been having dance lessons with Heidi from Dancify. She has taught them three fantastic dances which they have all loved learning and performing at the end of each session. Through these sessions the children have been given the opportunity to explore different ways to move their bodies with a series of steps that Heidi taught them to wonderful music.

Dancing benefits a child’s education, supporting them to develop coordination, balance, flexibility, stability and memory. It was fantastic to see the children recalling the dance steps that they had learnt and being able to put them all together to perform the whole dance at the end of each session.

We would like to thank Heidi for coming to our school to teach her dances. She was bright and bubbly and was able to engage all the children with her energy and fun dance moves. We hope that she will come back next year to teach us some more dances.

Just a quick reminder that Nativity RSVP’s need to be back by next Friday (the 7^th of November). If you haven’t already done so please hand them to Ms Garland on the front desk or place them in the reply slips box. Thank you.

Kind regards,

Kimberley Mason

Early Learning Centre Teacher

 

Langley

Hi families and friends,

 

Over the past few weeks, the Langley children have been obsessed with blending, mixing and whizzing fruits into smoothies and shakes. This week we have  turned whatever we have blended and frozen it into mini ice cube blocks. They are a great alternative to ice blocks in the hot weather, so give them a go at home. On Tuesday, Heidi from Dancify was here again to teach us some new moves. Our final session with her will be next week.     

Also this week we celebrated Poppy and Miss Sarah’s Birthdays, made cupcakes and play dough, and loved playing with water and ice outside in the warm weather.     

Have a wonderful weekend!

Brooke, Emily and Sarah   

 

Arrival times

Dear Families

Recently a number of children have been arriving early at the ELC ie before 7.30am. Due to the Centre’s licensing requirements we are unable to receive children before this time and as such the ELC front door will remain closed until 7.30am.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this requirement.

Regards

ELC Staff Team

 

Edgerley

Dear Parents,

We love to cook in the Edgerley Room. Today we made some vanilla and then chocolate biscuit dough and turned them into moon biscuits! We shared some information about the different phases of the moon.

Knox shared “Sometimes a moon doesn’t come out at night.”

Domenic said “Sometimes we just see a snip of the moon!”

Alexander told us that “a full moon makes it very light”

We talked about a full moon, a slither and a half moon.

Then we got ready to cook…

The children loved seeing the whole process and an interesting discussion took place..

Max handed the recipe to Mrs Cooper and said “Here’s your map!”

Alexander exclaimed “That’s not a map, it’s a recipe!”

We went on to discuss what the purpose of a recipe is. As a class we decided that it tells us what to do and how to do it!

Together we read the recipe and talked about the ingredients.

Nathan added “The numbers tell you how much to put in”

Then we measured it all out, with different children adding different ingredients.

Sebastian told us that “the numbers tell us that there are steps to do”

The children all helped to mix the dough together.

Then we rolled out the dough and made the chocolate biscuits. By rolling out the vanilla dough, we cut shapes of the moon to pop on top.

Miss Sue helped us cook our biscuits. Before we ate them we put them in order, to show how the moon changes through each month.

Then it was time to eat them!

Cooking is always such a rich and meaningful learning experience in our room!

Kind Regards,

Emma, Pip, Ty and Rosalie

Chapple

Dear Families

 

This term is already beginning to fly and we are already wondering how we are going to fit everything in.

We have had great fun with our dance and yoga sessions and will continue with them this week.

The lovely Spring weather has given us chance to play in the water.

Our board games have proved really popular and have been really successful at helping to develop our turn taking, winning and losing and numeracy skills. It has been great to watch the children’s developing social skills. If you have any spare board games, you no longer require, we would love any donations.

Dates for the diary

21^st November- ELC Nativity

27^th November – Class party

 

4^th December – Chapple Graduation

Transition is ongoing.

Thanks

Chapple Room

 

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families,

What a glorious week of sunshine we have had this week! We have enjoyed lots of time outside playing with water in the troughs and in the sandpit. We have been exploring measurement concepts, washing babies, sailing boats and having lots of fun getting really wet!

We have loved sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk story over the last couple of weeks. We planted some of our own beans with Miss Amy a couple of weeks ago and have been excitedly watching them sprout and grow. To expand on our interest in fairytales further, some of us visited the library with Miss Karla and borrowed a big book of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have been reading, sharing and retelling our own versions of this story in small and large groups. We have also begun to read and share the story of Goldilocks.

On Friday we were lucky enough to have a Navy helicopter come and visit the school. We were so excited to venture up to the big school oval with some of the other ELC classes to have an up close and personal look at the helicopter and we even got to see it take off!!

Best wishes
Karla, Amy and Jess

Mead

Dear Mead Room families,

This week the children noticed that we explore literacy and mathematical concepts EVERY DAY. We count our friends in the morning; we use positional language when we line up; in front of, behind, next to, between; we experiment with rhyming sounds and explore the letters in our name and discover concepts of difference when we sort, order and compare. And that is just the tip of the iceberg!

Isaac placed his playdough spheres in order of size, Lachlan carefully filled his bucket with water – testing theories of volume and capacity;  we sorted our minibeast collection by attributes – six legs, eight legs, colour and size…….., and even tidied up our blocks by identifying small, medium and large blocks, or as Finny suggested: “the longest, the shortest and the middle ones”

Literacy and mathematical concepts are everywhere!!

Have a great weekend,

Melissa and Renee.