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.