Diary Reminders

Nativity
Thursday 26 November
Anzac Hall
3pm

Please make sure you have returned your reply slip To Mrs Mandy and arranged your child's T-Shirt for the Nativity play. Please see your child's teacher if you any questions.


Parent Information Night 
(for all parents of children moving classes in February 2016)

Monday 30 November
ELC Cafe and classrooms
6.30pm - 8.00pm

Invitations will be sent home next week. We are looking forward to you joining us to discuss your child's transition to their new classroom in 2016.


Graduation - Angwin, Chapple and leaving Edgerley children
Thursday 3 December
11am
School Chapel

More information to follow soon. 

Christmas Closure Dates
Monday 21 December 2015  - Friday 1 January 2016 (no fees charged during this closure)

Please let Mandy or myself know if you are going to be taking holidays over the School Holidays so that we can apply the correct holiday leave and arrange staffing. 

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley Families,

We've had another busy week in the Edgerley Room being weather watchers and recording our observations in paintings, watching our seedlings grow, and beginning our introduction to the Christmas Nativity. However our high light was a visit to China Town and the Adelaide Central Markets! All our wonderful Chinese discussions and lessons came to life as we immersed ourselves in Chinese sights, smells and sounds. Even Lao Shi (our Chinese teacher) met us at the market and joined us as our personal translator. We all saw lots of Chinese writing and some interesting Chinese fruits and vegetables which we had never seen before such as star fruit and durian. For lunch we ate fried rice from noodle boxes in the food hall. Afterwards our tired little bodies caught the bus all the way back to the ELC, serenaded by Sylas, who kept us entertained, singing us "Up town, Funk you up"!

"Look there's some Chinese lanterns" - said Johnny looking above him.

"Those are characters" - said Regan

"That is the Chinese number 10" - observed Lucas

"There's the house character" - said Oscar

"My favourite is the golden lantern" said Tommy

"I don't like the smell" - Ella said, in the Chinese supermarket

"There is Chinese writing everywhere" - said William

Zoe said to Lao Shi - "You don't have black hair. All the Chinese people have black hair so why can you speak Chinese?"

"Look - Chinese writing!" - squealed Oliver as he saw his first Chinese characters

"Look - sheep!" - said Sylas pointing to the Chinese symbol for sheep.

"Fortune cookies have fortunes in them" Ben shared.

What a rich and memorable day!

Best wishes,

Emma, Emma and Ty

Chapple

Week 3 has been outstanding. It was lovely to hear a visitor come in and observe the Chapple children during outside play and comment how wonderfully independent and social these children have become. We looked around and watched them in their own world. Two even took part in an impromptu Q&A session during a school tour. As an  Early Years Educators, our aspiration is to be the “Guardian at the gate.”  We are nearly there.

In class they have been really engaged in patterning and shape and becoming maths problem solvers.

We had a visit to a Pre School assembly on Thursday as part of our transition. One of the Reception teachers came up to us afterwards and said, “Wow! Weren’t they great, we are looking forward to them.” Next Wednesday afternoon we go to see our Buddies’ assembly.

Chinatown was again another example of how the children have developed. They were independent and such a credit to themselves and you, as they toured the market. It was great to see them so engaged in their learning and environment. Thanks for all the parents who came or offered to come. Without such kind help, we would not be able to leave the Centre.

Chapple Room

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins friends and families,

We would like to say a big thankyou to the families who have bought in their baby photo's to display in the room.

The children have loved looking at them and having discussions about how they've changed.

To continue on from last term when we had a storm at the ELC we have displayed some pictures in the classrooms and the children have used acrylic paints and the easel to create beautiful weather paintings. These are displayed in the Wilkins room and look amazing!

Miss Sarah also bought in some roses from her garden. The children have also enjoyed painting them.

"They're bery (very) beautiful," Paige told us.

Again this week we have enjoyed spending lots of time in the sandpit with the hose. We love getting wet and sandy in the Wilkins room.

We have loved watching our vegie garden grow. We have noticed some strawberries turning red ready for us to pick and eat! We can't wait.

A big hit in the Wilkins room this week has been the overhead projector. The children have used coloured blocks to make shadows on the wall. The children think its a fun game to try and catch the moving shapes.

Please remember to return your nativity reply slips as soon as possible and bring in a white named t-shirt. Thank you!

Enjoy your weekend!

Nicole, Sarah, Karla and Ellen

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

What a spooky week we have had in the Mattingley classroom this week. Dominic and his Daddy, Antonio brought in a humongous pumpkin for us to carve into a Jack-o-Lantern to celebrate Halloween. We spoke about how we were going to carve it out together.

It is really too big. It a big one- Dominic

We would need something big and sharp- Isaac

I don’t know how we will cut it up- Ashvin

We really had no idea on how we were going to make our pumpkin into a Jack-o- Lantern. Lucky enough Liam’s Mummy, Tatiana knew exactly what needed to be done to carve it out. On Thursday morning she bought in her special pumpkin carving tools and set out with the children to carve it out. To start with the children needed to stand back so she could use a really sharp knife to cut the top of the pumpkin off.

It’s empty. Why is it empty?- Robert asked when the top of the pumpkin came off. We were lucky that Dominic’s Daddy, Anthony had bought us in a special pumpkin that had been grown especially for Halloween carving.

“What do you think is inside it?” Tatiana asked the children.

Seeds- Poppy exclaimed, and she was right. There was no pumpkin inside just the seeds.

Using special scoops and their hands the children worked together to remove all the seeds.

“What would happen if you plant the seeds?” Tatiana asked

They grow!- Liam

It smells like pumpkin- Dominic

It took a little time, but with the help from Tatiana the children were able to use her special tools to make two different faces on the pumpkin.

One is happy and one is sad- Dominic

 You will find it in our classroom window if you would like to take a closer look. We would like to say a big thank you to both Antonio for bringing in the pumpkin, and to Tatiana who taught us how to carve it out, safely, to make a fantastic Jack - o - Lantern.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Kimberly & Rosalie

Mead

To start off Week 3 we revisited the lifecycle of the Butterfly.

We talked about the caterpillars we had in Mead Room way back in Term 1 and recalled what we had observed so long ago.

James – Egg. A caterpillar came out. He was little. He got spikes (antenna) on him.

William – When the caterpillar came out it eats some leaves and then it turns into a chrysalis.

Zoe - …. A cocoon.

Ned – Wiggle. Wiggle. The caterpillar changed. Crack. Crack. A butterfly comes out.

Maxime – He’ll be doing it again and again.

We are having many conversations about babies, and it is especially relevant because Spencer’s mummy had their new baby Lincoln this week!

Noah – Babies are small

Lloyd – no teeth!

On Tuesday we were able to look inside an ambulance.  Matt (Hamish’s Dad from Cooper Room) and Tim, showed us through the ambulance and even organised an amazing way for us to exit the vehicle.  We found out that the siren is to tell other cars on the road to be alert that an important vehicle is coming through – it was very loud!

Happy Birthday to Benji who turns 4 on the weekend!!

Happy weekend fun to you all!

Melissa and Jain

Angwin

Dear Angwin Parents and Friends,

On Tuesday, we had a wonderful excursion to the Central Markets to further develop our understanding of Chinese food and culture by exploring China Town. It was a great adventure, with lots of new things to see, smell and taste! After wandering through food stalls and Asian supermarkets, we had a shared lunch of fried rice, which was delicious. We saw lots of Chinese characters, heard some familiar Chinese language and found lots of new fruit and vegetables that we hadn’t seen before. It was a tiring, but very fun day! Thank you to all the parents who joined us and helped us explore.

What did you see at Chinatown?
I saw lanterns- Anthony

I saw lions- William

I smelled fried rice- Rachel

What was your favourite?

I like the tigers at the front under the big house of Chinese and it looks like it plays soccer - Samuel

The characters after I saw the lanterns. I wrote one of the characters. I means baba -Anthony

The characters. It means gege. I saw the mouth radical and I knew it says gege - Oscar

We have begun to talk in earnest about our new schools and are beginning to make a wall of information about them. Please feel free to e-mail us any photos that you have of your child in their new uniform etc… for us to share.

The Angwin Team

Langley

Dear Langley families

This week the Langley room has been focusing on how we change as we grow older. During our morning meetings we discuss the changes to our body, such as, height, strength, voices and the colour of our hair and eyes. We have created a board in our room which displays our baby photos and a current photo. The children love looking at the photos and seeing the difference in themselves and also their friends and educators.

A lot of our Langley friends have brought in their baby photos but we still have a few friends that are missing on the board. So, if you have not already brought in a baby photo of your child we would really like for you to next week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Brooke, Miss Emily, Miss Renee and Miss Sarah

Cooper

Hi Cooper families,

We had quite an exciting week in the Cooper room this week. On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a special visit from Hamish’s Dad and Tim who brought in an Ambulance to show the children. The children were able to go inside the ambulance and see where “the sick people go to get to the hospital”. The children had so much fun lying in the patients beds, sitting in the drivers seats and even sliding down a slide on the back of the ambulance. 

After the visit we spoke about what ambulances do and the important job that we have. These were some of the children’s responses:

Hamish – They drive the Ambulance to the hospital.

Sebastien Haskett – Hamish’s dad and Tim takes the sick people.

Struan – They take the sick people. They put the sirens on…why?

Zara – Because they are very noisy.

Rory – they put the sirens on because it’s an emergency.

Sebastien Haskett – Yes, that’s right Rory.

The children loved the visit so much that we have had discussions about building our own ambulance in the classroom!

Show and tell has been going well the last 2 weeks. The children are very eager to share what they have brought in from home, which is lovely to see. The children are asking fantastic questions to the person that is sharing, which is demonstrating their keen interest in the topics and the things that the children are sharing.

We hope you have had a lovely week.

Love Miss Gilbert and Miss C

Cooper

Hi Cooper Families,

We have engaged in some very exciting experiences this week in the Cooper room. 

We now have brought in a ‘Shadow Machine’ (overhead projector) for the children to explore and experiment with. The children loved placing their hands over the light and wiggling their fingers to see what happened to the shadows on the wall. The children started to bring small toys onto the shadow machine and began to create imaginative stories about the shadows on the wall.

On Thursday we went on a lovely nature walk around the centre. Before we left the classroom we all put our nature goggles on and went to explore the environment in the ‘Big School’. On our walk we saw lots of beautiful plants and colourful flowers. We were even lucky enough to see some bees and a bird perched on the plants and flowers that we were observing, which the children were very excited about. 

Next week we will hopefully have more lovely weather so that we can go on another nature walk.   

We hope you have a lovely week and enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend.

Love Miss Gilbert and Miss C

Langley

Hello Langley Families and Friends,

This week with our farm barn set up, the children have taken a keen interest in cows and have wondered where milk comes form. Miss Renee used our soft toys to explain that milk comes from a cow’s udder, then showed the children a clip of a farmer milking a cow.

We moved our waffle blocks to a new location outside for more building space this week. Larissa, Joshua and Jed enjoyed creating roads with the blocks for their trucks to drive on.

Edward and Teddy had lots of fun working on their hand/eye coordination. They took turns at throwing a small ball out of a hard hat and trying to catch it as it fell. 

Next week, please bring in a photo of your child as a baby so the children can start to see how they have changed over time.  Please feel free to email photos to smarotti@staff.pac.edu.au 

Enjoy the weekend,

Sarah, Renee, Brooke and Georgia

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley Families,

This week the children have been observing the changes in the weather. On our way back from Library we decided to stop and lay on the grass with a great view of the changing weather surrounding us. The children had some interesting ideas about what they saw.

 It’s windy, because the trees are bowing (blowing). Luke

The clouds are moving. Napoleon

Maybe the wind is blowing them across the sky. Luke

They’re disappearing, coz (because) they’re moving. Stefan

When the wind blows the clouds move. Aadeesh

No, they always move. When I was driving there was no wind and they were still moving. Denver

The sun is there. Jasper

The clouds are moving, coz (because) they’re air. Sylas

The trees to push the clouds. Mateo

The clouds might make a shape. Zoe

I can see a pig. Sylas

That looks like a stegosauruses’ pointy bit. Luke

Imagine if you were on top of the sun, you would get burnt. Luke

We will continue to observe the changes in the weather and use a variety of ways to document what we see.

Hats – Please make sure your child has a named ELC hat.

Have a great weekend!

Emma, Emma and Ty

Angwin

Dear Angwin families,

What a busy week we have had this week! Not only did we manage to pose perfectly for our photos (we’re not kidding, we did look gorgeous!) we also visited our buddies to share things with them about our home cultures. They recorded us counting in Spanish as well as some of the information we shared on video and will share it as part of their assembly next week. We counted over 11 different cultural backgrounds in our class alone, what rich and complex bunch we are! Don’t be surprised if you hear Mrs Rocca singing the Philippine national anthem this week J 

We also joined our buddies in the K21 challenge, helping them run around the oval (they have to do it twice a day for 21 days, we are only going to help them on Wednesdays!).

We have really enjoyed exploring numbers in different ways in the classroom in the last two weeks.  We have begun to explore print making, developed a play script for our Nativity, made all sorts of creations at the carpentry table and begun to role play the story of Goldilocks and the three bears! 

Phew! No wonder we built a wall around our mat with our buddies, we needed to keep the interruptions out! 

In the lead up to Christmas we are keen to look at the end of year celebrations from different cultures. You will find a form in your child’s pigeon hole to fill out if you would like to share any special celebrations that you have coming up soon.

Please don’t forget to complete and return your nativity RSVP slips so that we can begin to assign children’s roles.

Looking forward to next week J

Love from the Mel, Alex, Coney and Faye

Chapple

Dear Chapple Families

This week we have continued our George’s Marvellous Medicine fun and watched our own crazy experiments. Mrs Shakespear even made some smoothies with the children, which looked as if they came from George’s kitchen.

We have started our construction of the set for our big movie- “The Nativity.” Bernie organised the stable and scene for inside the house. Then we realised that we didn’t have an angel amongst our knitted cast. Luckily Annie came to the rescue and made one. Hopefully now we can start filming next week.

In our transition visit this week, we went up to the Prep School when the reception children weren’t there. The children had a good look around and noticed that a lot of things are very similar between school and the ELC.

We even managed to catch up with our buddies as well this week.

Have a great weekend!

Chapple Room