Angwin

Dear Angwin Families and Friends

This week in Angwin we have begun to categorise and sort the items that we have removed from our machines. It has been interesting to listen to the technological language that the children have as part of their vocabulary.

“I found a light” said Joe M

“I think that is called a globe actually” clarified Leon

“This string thing is called a cord” explained Scarlett

“Look, I found a battery!” exclaimed William

“There’s not a battery, there is a transformer” said Joe M

"Did you know that cogs have teeth? Not like the ones in our mouth! Some machines have springs too, but not the spring that’s the weather!" clarified Arwyn.

We have been amazed to see how many different parts need to work together for a machine to do its job!

Lucille shared a book with us for show and tell called Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty. We watched as Rosie used different parts to try and invent machines. We think we might be able to do that too.

After discussion we also thought we might like to display all the machine parts we have discovered. “We can put it on a cardboard and put them altogether then that means we can have a big, big collection,  we can make patterns like art” suggested Samuel.

Keep your eyes peeled for our machine art!

Regards

Mel, Alex, Coney, Faye and Louise

Cooper

Dear Cooper families,

This week we have delved further into our Unit of Inquiry “Marvellous Machines”. As provocation for this unit we placed a large crate full of sand and various types of machines in the centre of the classroom. The children loved exploring the different types of machines that “moved sand” and “picked up rocks”.

Many of the children were able to identify and describe the purpose of each of the machines:

Sebastien Ha. – This is a digger.

Byron – This one is a scraper. It carries rocks.

Struan – A digger. It dig, dig, digs dirt and some sand and then tips it over.

Rory – I’m using a car.

Byron – It drives around.

After the provocation to excite and engage the children in thinking about machines we asked the class what they though a machine was, these were some of their responses:  

Nyanwell – You put clothes in it.

Sebastien Ha. – A digger and a truck is a machine.

Rory – A machine is a roller, it rolls.

Byron – A digger.

Sebastian H. – An engine, they vroom.

Henry – Trains.

Rory – yeah, they carry wood.

It is exciting to see that the children have a keen interest in machines and are engaging with our inquiry topic. We love discovering what the Cooper room know about machines, the types of machines that are of particular interest and the machines that effect their lives so that we can build and extend their knowledge throughout the term.

Kind Regards,

Maddie and Cris

Mead

Dear Mead Room families,

We are still working on disassembling our marvellous machines! 

During our morning meetings and spontaneous discussions we have come to a consensus that a machine is something that helps us do things quicker and easier.

We tested that theory this week whilst making apple juice.

There was some discussion that we could squeeze out the juice with our hands.

Ned – You need to put a hole in it, break it into parts

Benjamin – You need to cut it into little pieces

Benji – You need strong muscle

It was a workout…. But no juice appeared.

Next we tried a good old fashioned manual juice extractor.

It took a little while but finally…

James – The juice! The juice!

Lucy – its taking a long time

Ellie – there’s not very much juice

Zoe - That’s not enough

Charlie L – At home my Dad makes smoothies and he has a machine that goes really fast.

A machine! We just happened to have a machine that might do the trick!

Lola – You have to turn machines on.

Scarlet – there’s lots of juice coming out

Lucas – I think one more apple

We made our juice and then came the tasting.

Zoe – it was berry yummy cause its so tasty for me

Seb – the juice was good and it tasted yum.

Addison – it was good.

Abi – Um, I loved it, it tasted like oranges

Spencer – I love that juice

Leo – me too!

Lloyd – apples!

We fed the pulp to the chickens who thought even the leftovers were quite delicious!

Birthday Celebrations – William Halkett and Kartik Gupta have both reached the amazing 4 year birthday milestone this week – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Our Mead Room café is open for business and doing a roaring trade.  Stop by for a cappuccino or a croissant!

To raise funds and awareness during National Homelessness Prevention Week we participated in our own ‘Walk a Mile in my Boots’ walkathon. Walking together on a drizzly winter morning, being cold and getting our shoes a bit muddy gave us some insight into what it might be like to have no shelter.

Abigail— We walked for nobody having a house.

Lucy—because someone doesn’t have a bath to wash themselves.

Spencer—maybe someone will give them food.

Lola—You can't clean yourself or wash your clothes.

Tate—The rain might splat on you

Seb—You can't cook food.

Zoe—We give money to help

Thankyou to the families who donated a gold coin, it will help support the work of the Hutt Street Centre.  We are still able to collect donations.

SAVE THE DATE:

Mead Room Parent Dinner

Wednesday 2 September

7.00pm

Giallo Wine Bar

Rundle Street

Hard copy invitation to follow

  

Have a wonderful weekend

Melissa and Jain

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley families and friends,

Another busy week of machine exploration has past us by in the Mattingley classroom. The children have begun using what they have found deconstructing machines to begin making their own machines with the recycled boxes that many of our wonderful families have been donating. These machines are all very useful machines and the children have loved explaining to their teachers how they make their lives easier. 

On Thursday afternoon for show and tell Wolf brought his Daddy, Dirk in to show us how to make fruit juice with their juicer from home. First we had to set up the juicer machine, Dirk showing us where all the piece went. Next we needed to carefully cut up the fruit and vegetables ready to put through the juicer machine. 

It's a fancy one- Dominic

Mummy lets me have smoothies after school some times- Poppy

Ok you can have whatever smoothies you like!- Wolf

Celery- Amelia

I have celery at home with soup- Liam

Excuse me Wolfie's dad, when you gonna put all that in the machine? Ya gonna plug dat in? Is it for little boys?- Harry BB

It eats it up- Rosie

Yummy juice- Teddy

Looks juicy- Sidney

I put apple- Robert

It's so minty in your mouth- Erin

We would like to say a big thank you to Dirk for teaching us how to use his juicer machine and to Wolf for sharing his Daddy with us. We had lots of fun learning how your juicer machine works and how it makes your life easier at home. 

Next week's show and tell topic is: Something that needs a battery to make it work.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Kimberley Mason & Coral Bowden

Walk A Mile In My Boots

ELC Families

A big thank you for all your generous support of our Walk A Mile for the Hutt Street Centre. It was great to hear the children expressing such empathy in their class discussions about homelessness. 

Thanks also for everyone who brought in cupcakes or bought them. It was a great success. We will let you know the final total when Hutt St comes in to collect their tin.

Chapple

To our Chapple Room Families

Thank you for your support of our Hutt Street Walk A Mile.

Before we took part in the Walk a Mile for Hutt Street Centre for the Homeless we looked at their logo and thought about what it might mean.

Lachlan: He might be a little bit sad because he has turned away and his head is down.

Christian: The bird’s on the bin.

Lachlan: He might be looking for something to eat. He might have seen the sadness.

Stephen: The bird might be looking for money for the man.

Harry: He is poor.

Hugo: The man doesn’t have any money.

Harry: He doesn’t have any food to buy.

Lachlan: Maybe he’s sad that he doesn’t have a friend and if he sees the bird and the bird see him 

they can be friends and be nice to each other.

Doane: Does he have a name?

Lachlan: He is in the park, maybe the trees can protect him.

We talked about homelessness and what shelter means and is a cardboard box a home?

Rupert: Shelter means you don’t get wet.

Harrison T:  A cardboard box isn’t strong. And won’t be comfy.

We have also opened our cupcake factory and built our Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch display. We have used patterning to build our own lighthouse.

Chapple Room

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley Families and Friends,

This week we have been investigating machines we use in our garden. The children have brought in lots of interesting machines from home. Thank you for supporting our unit of inquiry by following our weekly topics.

It has been great to see the children showing their learning and creativity through painting and machine (box) construction.

The Wednesday and Thursday children enjoyed talking to Nick our gardener about how he prunes the trees in the prep school and what machines he uses to help him. Nick explained how the clippings get taken to ‘bin land’ and then made into mulch. We decided to visit ‘bin land’ and check out what was in this mysterious land. We discovered lots of bins, rubbish, tins, tyres and of course clippings.

As part of National Homeless persons’ week the Tuesday children joined the other 3 and 4 year old ELC classes in a walk up to the Prep School to do a lap around the front oval (in very cold and muddy conditions)! Prior to the walk we had discussions about what it means to be homeless, and how a home should be secure, safe and connected. The Edgerley children were amazed by the concept that there are people who do not have a home. Thank you for your gold coin donations supporting the Hutt St Centre’s work.

We would love any donations of boxes or odd bits and pieces for our construction table.

 Kind Regards,

Emma, Emma and Ty

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families and friends,

  

What a wonderful week we have had. We have enjoyed watching the rain outside the class windows some mornings.

   

This week we have enjoyed using our fine motor skills to cut up some wooden fruit and vegetables. Our Wilkins friends have enjoyed turn taking and role playing in the home corner.

   

We have also been enjoying the drawing table the last few weeks. This week we added a drawing easel as a change. Our Wilkins friends loved this!

   

This week there has been a lot of conversation over at the counting table. There has been a lot of number recognition and one-to-one learning.

   

Mikayla – “I’m three!”

  

Xavier – “Eight!”

  

 Liliana – “That’s wun!” (one)

  

We also thankyou for all your gold coin donations for the walk-a-thon, we did our own walk around the Town Square Tuesday morning. Well done Wilkins room!

   

Thankyou Wilkins friends for another fun filled week in the room. Have a safe weekend, we look forward to seeing you all next week!

  

 Love Mrs Karla, Mrs Nicole and Miss Ellen xxxx

Langley

Dear Langley families,

What a week we have had in the Langley room.

We have introduced some new experiences into the classroom and explored the world in our Langley aeroplane. The children loved hopping into the plane and telling us about their adventures and where they are off to on their plane ride with their classmates. We have been to Lego Land, the snow and many more exciting places. 

As our new Unit of Inquiry is machinery, we have been deconstructing a coffee machine that Miss Renee brought in. The children are really getting into it, screwing and turning all the bits and pieces. They were really intrigued to see all the small pieces inside the machine that you wouldn't usually see.

On Tuesday morning the educators and Langley children went for a walk and run around the big yard for 'Walk a mile in my boots' in support of the homeless. We also had a small discussion about why we were doing this activity and how some people are less fortunate. Thank you to all the families that made a donation.   

The children are loving the art area and painting is a favourite.

We would like to ask if the new children could please bring in a family photo for us to put on our Langley family photo wall.

Also, we have a new baby corner in our room where the children enjoy washing and drying the babies. If you have any baby photos at home of either yourself, your child or their sibling, we would love to display them in that area.  

Have a fantastic weekend and we will see you next week.

Miss Sarah, Miss Emily, Miss Brooke and Miss Renee

xox

Walk a Mile in my Boots

In support of the Hutt Street Centre, Prince Alfred College Early Learning Centre will be having its own Walk a Mile on Tuesday 4^th August 2015 at 9.15am. 

The staff and children will walk up to and around the top oval and back. The children are asked to bring in a gold coin donation to support Hutt St Centre’s work.

In addition, the Chapple room will be having a cupcake stall on Wednesday 5^th August in the ELC foyer. Please bring along some loose change so that you can purchase some delicious goodies for your morning tea at work :)