Cooper

Hi Cooper families,

What a festive week we have had in the classroom this week. We have been eagerly practicing our songs for the Nativity performance for next Thursday. We had 2 special practices, one with Mrs Bell who is the music teacher in the Preparatory School and the other in ANZAC Hall. We are becoming more confident and familiar with the songs each day, and I am sure that we will sing the house down on the day. Please remember that children are to be dressed in a red or green t-shirt for Nativity. See the weekly diary for more details about the morning.

We have also been busy making our Christmas presents for our mums and dads, wrapping presents to put under our Cooper tree and creating decorations for our whole centre Christmas lunch in week 8. 

The Mobilo has been brought back into the classroom, much to the excitement of the large group of children in the Cooper room that have a passion for creating machines. The children’s fine motor skills have developed since the experience was last in the room, which is evident as the children are now independently able to connect the blocks to create their desired design.

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend. 

Love Miss Gilbert and Miss C

Article: 10 Helpful Tips to Reduce Sibling Conflict

1.   Give individual attention to all of your children. It will never be quite equal. But when someone needs it, be there for them.  (Remember, girls like to be face to face, boys prefer side by side)

2.  When everyone needs attention and individual triage isn’t possible, either use distraction or do something together.

3.   Be aware of triggers (Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, Tiredness) and intervene early. If the children are tired and hungry, keep them separated if you can!

4.   Make sure the big ones don’t become parents to the little ones. “You’re not the boss of me!” means that someone may be over-exerting their authority and parents need to be more present.

5.   Be clear on your limits. “We are respectful. We speak nicely.”

6.   Avoid smacking. This models aggression to our children and they’re more likely to repeat it.

7.   Teach children to soothe themselves. Staring at the sky, breathing, counting back from 1000 in 3’s… dig a hole in the sandpit to bury your anger, draw your frustration, listen to music. Each of these ideas can help a child relax.

8.   If you can name it you can tame it. If you sense a child is becoming frustrated, name it. This will help them know their emotions are normal and can be dealt with positively.

9.   Teach and model empathy.

10. Remember that it’s tough being a sibling, especially when you’re young. Older siblings often ridicule and torment younger siblings. This is painful for anyone.

Every parent with more than one child – in fact, every human in a relationship – will experience some form of conflict, particularly with those closest to us. Conflict is not always bad. It allows us to re-examine habits and priorities, and gives us the possibility of progress. But it can be a problem if we don’t use it to improve.

When children fight with one another, stay calm, be clear, show empathy. They’re acting up because of the way that they feel. Help them feel better, and they’ll act better.

Then, invite them to think about how their behaviour is impacting on others. As they see how what they did affected others, you can help them to identify better ways to act towards one another, and slowly move towards making family life happier for everyone.

Emma McKenzie

Teacher - Edgerley Room

Wellbeing Facilitator

Junior Tennis

Please click on the link for information about 

Junior Tennis. 

Get Active Sports - Tennis for Juniors

Mead

Dear Mead Room families and friends,

We have made a movie!

We have sung the ‘Tadpole Blues’ song and added some of our observations. 

Please click on the link below: 

Tadpole Blues Song

Enjoy!

Take care of each other,

Melissa and Georgia

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley Families and Friends,

This week our class has been getting into the Christmas Spirit. On Tuesday, the children helped Miss Baldasso set up and decorate the Christmas tree. Some of the children have also helped create Christmas decorations that we will display in the café.

We have also looked at the story of Baby Jesus and made the connection between this story and one of the songs we will be singing at the Nativity performance. We continue to enthusiastically practice our songs for this performance and had our first dress rehearsal on Thursday morning.

Lots of the children have been enjoying dressing up as Santa and stuffing Christmas stockings. On Friday Miss Wenting taught the children how to sing Jingle Bells in Chinese.

By Wednesday all of silk worms had finally spun their cocoons.  Some of the children were curious as to know when we would see them emerge as moths.

Miss Ruggiero - How long do you think it takes them to turn into moths?

Emma – Twelve seconds

Mack – Four minutes

Sarina – About a hundreds of years

We are keen to discover how long this process will take.

We hope to see you all at Nativity next week and hope you have a lovely weekend.

Cass and Liana

Angwin

Dear Families,

We have had a big week including a longer transition visit for our boys heading up to the Preparatory School next year. They will finish off their program with their whole morning transition visit to their teacher’s class for 2018 on Monday November 27^th.

This week we have managed the very hot days, drinking lots of water and keeping cool, especially in the afternoons.

It has been exciting to see our long awaited silkworm moths start to hatch. We have a record total of 86 cocoons! We will lose count of the silkworm eggs that will start to arrive soon!

Here are some of our reflections..

James: They are wrapped up white things

Freddie: It is silk outside

Joshua S: They are busy making hard cocoons

Audrey: Inside the cocoon there is the silkworm

Daniel: It’s the larva and inside it is a pupa

Felix: The Langley cocoons have made moths

Oscar: They need to make a big hole

We have had lots of practices ready for our Nativity next Thursday @ 9:30am. The children have worked hard to learn many songs and this week our focus has been on staging. It is a big experience for them to have lots of practices and remember lines and roles. We are super proud of them and look forward to sharing our gift of the Christmas Nativity for you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards,

Pip and Coney 

Splash into Summer

Hello Friday Families!

We will be celebrating ‘Splash into Summer’ 

on Friday the 1^st of December 2017. 

This event will provide the children with a wide variety of exciting and engaging water play experiences, including a water slide, a dinosaur swamp, a backyard beach, a slip-and-slide mat, and more!

The Langley and Wilkins children will have their session 

from 9:00am til 9:45am.

The Mattingley, Cooper, and Mead children will have their session 

from 10:00am til 10:45am.

  

The Angwin, Edgerley, and Chapple children will have their session 

from 11:00am til 11:45am.

 Could you please ensure that you send your child to school wearing sun-smart bathers and sun cream, as well as having a hat, towel, and spare change of clothes in their bag.

 If you have any further questions please speak with your classroom teacher as soon as possible.

 Thanks again, and we look forward to celebrating this event with you soon.

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley Parents,

We have had a wonderfully busy week filled with incursions and inquiry. We were lucky enough to have Christina from RAA Street Smart Road Safety come and work with us on keeping our bodies safe around the road. She had lots of fun activities and songs to share with us to help us remember how to keep safe as a pedestrian. Lotti listened very closely when Christina suggested wearing bright clothing to make it easier for cars to see you and insisted on wearing bright ribbons in her hair for the rest of the week. Good thinking Lotti. 

We also had a visit from Isaac S’s Mum on Thanksgiving to tell us all about both the origins of Thanksgiving as well as how Thanksgiving is celebrated today. Isaac was very excited to have his Mum in the classroom!! We loved seeing photos of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and talked about what pilgrims would have eaten on the first Thanksgiving. Louise shared with us the four f’s of Thanksgiving, family, food, football and floats! Afterwards we talked about giving thanks and Mrs Bishop introduced the grateful game. We shared some of the things we are grateful for. 

Isaac S - I’m thankful for my family and friends  

Lotti - I have been to Singapore and I’m very thankful that it is still there so I can go back  

Will A - I’m thankful for my house because I get to stay there and it makes lots of room  

Charlie - Turkey  

James - Custard  

Alexander - I’m thankful for my lemon tree ‘cause it’s going to grow  

Will P - I’m thankful for my body  

We record our discoveries about Thanksgiving in our Edgerley Calendar Book

We enthusiastically jumped into preparation for Christmas as well this week. You might see some of our Christmassy creations around the classroom but would ask that you please do not take anything home until they have been placed in children’s lockers. If your child has taken home their clay Christmas ornament can you please return it as soon as possible as they have not been fired in the kiln yet.

Excitingly our silk worms have finally begun to transform into moths. We discovered on the internet that they are flightless, just like a penguin. We are quite pleased about this because it means that they are unable to fly away from our overwhelming love and attention! We are learning to be very careful and gentle with them. I wonder how many moths we will have on Monday?

Have a lovely weekend

Mel and Emma 

Langley

Dear Langley friends and families,

This week the children continue to enjoy creative arts experiences including painting and drawing from observation and several that are focused on Christmas celebrations. When you next pass the tree in the foyer look for our stars and baubles.

A reminder for those families of children moving to the Mattingley room in 2018

that Parent Information Evening will commence at 6:30pm in the ELC Town Square on Monday 27 November.  After a brief introduction, you will be directed to the Mattingley classroom to meet the teaching team.

This coming Thursday 30 November is our Nativity performance. Please drop your child off at the ELC by 8:30am. The performance begins in the ANZAC hall at 9:30am. The Langley children will immediately make their way back to the ELC where they will have morning tea and wait for you whilst you enjoy the rest of the performance. You can then collect them from the Langley room and sign them out if they do not usually attend on that day. All 2 year old’s are asked to wear a white T-shirt and plain denim jeans for the performance.

Please remember to pack spare underwear, t-shirts and shorts for your child as we have been doing lots of water play and gardening in the hotter weather.

We look forward to seeing you for these up and coming events,

Miss Olly, Miss Kathy, Miss Tayla, Miss Georgia and Miss Nicole

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families and friends,

What another wonderful week we have had in the room.

This week we have been busy rolling different patterns in our playdough and creating different shapes! What great fun this has been and a great way to enhance our fine motor skills.

We have also welcomed some new friends into the Wilkins room this week. We have watched our cocooned silk worms turn into moths! What a wonderful experience this has been to observe and study over the past few weeks.

Liam – Dat poo in dere!

Ariana – Why he not wipe his bum?

Lachlan – Why poo?

Chiara – How are there moffs in there now?

Blake – Dey turned in to da butterfly!

Blake – Day not tockoons anymore, dey butterflies!

We have also been exploring different forms of expressing ourselves through arts. This week we have created some wonderful paintings on fabric with food colouring. We were able to spray the food colouring onto the fabric and watch it change colours. Our Christmas preparations are also in full swing, we can’t wait to share some of our creations with you!

A friendly reminder also that our Nativity performance is next Thursday 30^th November. 

Please drop all children to the Wilkins room dressed in their denim bottoms and white tops by 8:45am at the latest, regardless of whether Thursday is their day. All children will need to be signed in, there will be a separate sheet for non-Thursday children.

After drop off, please make your way up to Anzac Hall to secure a good spot for the performance. Please do not linger in the foyer or approach the stage when we are up there, as this upsets children. After our songs, staff will walk all children back to the ELC for morning tea while you enjoy the rest of the performance.

At the conclusion of the performance, families who are taking their children home can come and collect them from the ELC. If your child is staying for the remainder of the day, we ask that you please just leave rather than them seeing you and upsetting them. Please come and see a staff member if you have any questions about this.

We hope you enjoy your weekend,

Jess, Ellen, Courtenay and Melissa

Chapple

Nativity is very much at the front of our minds, as it will soon be our performance -Thursday 30 November at 9.30am.  The children can come in ELC uniform and we will change them here.  All children are to come to the classroom and we will walk up together. After the performance all children will return to the ELC and be collected and signed out from there  - even if it is not their day. If your child has a speaking part, please could they arrive around 8.30am to give us time to change them into their costume.

As a class we thought about Christmas and how we know it is near.

Paige: When the Christmas tree is up.

Jonas: We put bells on the tree. 

Flynn: Sometimes at night, people put their Christmas lights on.

Tom D: When the Jacarandas are up, it tells you it is almost Christmas.

As part of our continued work on "Keeping Safe", Christina from the RAA came in and taught us all about how to safely cross the road. She also told us all about the importance of seat belts.

To welcome the start of summer we have having  a "Splash into Summer" celebration on Friday 1 December. The children will need to wear their bathers and rash vest under their ELC uniform. They will also need to bring a towel and a change of clothes for a fun packed water play day. Please remember to apply sunscreen prior to children coming to the ELC.

Chapple Room