Mead

Another busy week in the Mead Room!

We have been talking about the ‘Symbols of Christmas’, what we know about Christmas and how we celebrate.

Isla B – There’s Christmas decorations on people’s houses.

Leonardo – Giving presents to some people.

Jimmy – You put your Christmas tree. I put a star on my tree. It needs a star. Decorations too.

Owen – I need presents, they come from Christmas.

Lucius – We’re going to get a new Christmas tree, balls on the tree. Jingle Bells is a Christmas song.

Poppy – Father Christmas wears red clothes.

Charlie – Santa getting in, he gets presents for everybody, yes he do!

Josh – Father Christmas, presents, home.

We read books about the first Christmas and of course our Nativity concert contributed to our understandings too:

Grace-Marie – Its Jesus’ birthday.

Zara – He’s the baby in the cradle.

Ginger – Jesus loves being with his Mum.

Houyi – Baby Jesus birthday.

Teddy – The Wise Men went to see baby Jesus, they followed the star.

Vivi – I put a star on top of my tree!

Quinn – Jesus got born.

Alfie – The three Wise Men brought him presents.

Isla DG – The mum had baby Jesus in her tummy. He was born in a stable, a long way away, a little tiny baby in a bed of hay….. (then launches into a passionate rendition of ‘Born in a Stable’!)

Anwen – Mary had to go on a donkey, he was born in a stable.

Charlotte – Baby Jesus gets born on Christmas day and he got presents.

The Summer program begins next week, looks like lots of summer fun and engagement with Miss Boler and Miss Beth.

Time seems to be speeding up as the moments I spend as your child’s teacher draws to a close.  I am thrilled that they will have the opportunity to have a wonderful transition to Chapple Room, and for our Mead Room friends who are leaving for different schools and kindys – we will miss you, but hope to see you again one day!!

Be safe, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Melissa and Georgia

xxxxxxx

Angwin

Dear Families,

We have had a very special last week of Term 4! Father Christmas paid us a visit on Monday… we asked him all about where he comes from, how he leaves us gifts and who his helpers are. He gave us all special cookie cutters from all the ELC team!

On Wednesday, we treasured our special Graduation Ceremony. It was such a wonderful time to share the incredible journey our class has made over the time they have been with us at the ELC. A big thank you to Mrs Rocca for her hard work putting together the special slideshows. If you would like to have a copy of these, please give her a 2G USB and she will download it for you.

Our last couple of days have been fun to share together before some of the children will finish up at ELC. Mrs Cooper will be finishing in the classroom this week too. Next week there are plenty of meetings and PD before her Summer break.

A big thank you for all our special gifts… it has been a privilege to work with your children and to work together with all our families too.

Wishing you all a wonderful family time at Christmas and a safe holiday break.

Kind regards,

Pip Cooper and Coney Rocca

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families and friends,

Wow, we can’t believe it is the last week of Term 4, 2017!!! We have shared a wonderful year together and are sad that it is coming to an end. This week we have been celebrating all things Christmas, creating decorations, discussing what Christmas means and how we will be celebrating, enjoying Christmas sensory play - we even had a visit from Father Christmas this week!

The centre will remain open until Friday 22nd December, we will then close for two weeks and reopen in the New Year on Monday 8th January. If your child is transitioning to the Mead room in the New Year, this will only happen from the beginning of Term 1, 2018.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support throughout the year and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Best wishes,

Ellen, Courtenay, Melissa and Jess

Edgerley

Dear Parents,

It's hard to believe that we have reached the final week of Term 4. It has been a short, busy term and it is with a heavy heart that we farewell so many of our Edgerley friends. We wish Nicholas V, Nicholas Y, Lewis, Hamish, Ollie, Will A, Will G, Aston, Emilia, William P, Charlie P, Tom, Stirling, Giuliana, Grace and Olivia all the very best as they move to other schools, kindergartens and classes. They are all beautiful and unique little people and will be missed by the staff and children they leave behind.

Hand in hand with the final week of term, we have been busy preparing for our Edgerley graduation on Thursday, creating Christmas cards and gifts for loved ones and making Christmas decorations. We have been reading variations of the Christmas story and retelling our own versions with the small nativity play.

On Monday we were so excited by a surprise visit from Father Christmas! He visited all the ELC children and each child received a cookie cutter as a special gift, with a recipe attached. Those friends that do not attend on a Monday got a great surprise when they found their little gift waiting for them in their lockers. As we expected, the children had many comments and questions to ask Santa.

Why did you leave your reindeer at home? - Isaac S

Australia is too hot for my reindeer, so I need to leave them in the North Pole and use kangaroos to help me here - Santa

Do you live at the North Pole? - Brian

Yes I do - Santa

I saw you at the pageant - Alexander

I seen you before - Stirling

Were you the Santa at the pageant? - Ollie

Yes - Santa

Why don't your elves help you do your job? - Larissa

They help me make all of the toys - Santa

I'm going to tell my Mummy about you coming here - Lucas

Are elves real? - Will G

Yes they are - Santa

Best wishes and thank you for your continued support throughout the term. We wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas. 

Emma, Mel and Chris

HAPPY GRADUATION, EDGERLEY!!

Chapple

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the graduation this week. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. It is one of the highlights of the year and is amazing to see how they have grown into such confident children. It has been a great year and we have shared so many smiles. We will genuinely miss them and hope to see them about from time to time.

Thank you for all your generous words and gifts. You have been very kind and we all appreciate your thoughts. 

With the children moving on and especially the last (so they tell us) of the Munt children, it has felt like the end of an era. However, having taken a look at the Wilkins Room and seeing so many siblings on their way, 2019 could be a deja vu year! 

Thanks again

Chapple Room

Langley

Dear Langley parents and friends, 

This week in the Langley room the children have continued to be involved in Christmas related activities each of which involves the use of different skills. Whether it be using their fine motor skills to place the decorations on our small Christmas trees, exploring items at our sensory table or using a variety of resources to create bauble art works, they have enjoyed the various opportunities to be a part of the celebrations. Perhaps the biggest celebrations were a special visit from Santa on Monday and a lovely Christmas lunch prepared by our wonderful cooks on Friday.

We’ve also been enjoying focusing on using role play in the various parts of our classroom. The ability for the children to use an object and apply new meaning to it is an important part of developing their ability to think abstractly. We frequently see spoons used as microphones, wooden blocks used as tools etc. 

Another important aspect of dramatic play is the child’s ability to take on roles and apply rules to their play. This week we’ve seen children being train travellers, construction workers, chefs and a vast array of other roles and a wonderful emergence of action and language to support their dramatizations.

If you have not already done so, please mark off the dates you wish your child to attend the ELC both before and after Christmas as places are fast filling up.

Please also be aware that as the 2017 school year winds up and we begin to tidy the classroom there will be several items that need to be cleared from your child’s locker. Please check the lost property box.

Miss Olly will not be in the Langley room from this Friday but can be contacted on ojones@pac.edu.au. The rest of the team will be on hand until December 22^nd. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Miss Nicole, Miss Tayla, Miss Georgia and Miss Olly.

Edgerley

Dear Edgerley Families,

All eyes have been on our annual Christmas nativity this week and whilst inquiry has continued there can be no doubt that the children were very excited about their upcoming performance. We were thrilled to have so many families join us and loved getting up on stage in our costumes. Whilst some were nervous waiting in the wings it didn’t seem to show on stage. We were so proud of how they performed and are sure you are too. We all enjoyed a well earned ice block afterwards. 

With Nativity ticked off it was time to set our sights on our next goal, our upcoming Graduation. This Friday we went with Chapple class to the Chapel to rehearse and practice shaking hands!! We look forward to welcoming the families of our graduating students to join us next week on Thursday morning.

With only a week to go until the end of term we are madly preparing our gifts and cards and this has encouraged many attempts to write for purpose. We have also continued to play our Gratitude Game and hope that you are enjoying sharing it with your child at home if they have already created theirs. 

The children are looking forward to continuing to think about what they are thankful for with Mr Richards in the holidays. Our children are some of the luckiest citizens on the earth and with so much to be grateful for it is a wonderful skill to help them think about and be grateful for all they have.

Have a lovely weekend

Mel, Emma and Chris

Wilkins

Dear Wilkins families and friends,

Christmas is most definitely in the air in the Wilkins room! We have had some very excited children talking about Christmas, discussing their trees going up at home and sharing their Christmas wishes. 

We have been decorating our own Wilkins Christmas tree, developing our fine motor skills as we carefully thread the baubles on to the branches. We have also been creating special Christmas presents for our families which we can’t wait to share with you next week. 

The children have also enjoyed creating Christmas decorations, singing Christmas carols, exploring our Christmas sensory tub and cooking up a storm in our Christmas kitchen. 

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Thursday for our ELC Nativity, I’m sure you will all agree that the children did a sensational job up on the stage performing for you.

Best wishes for the weekend, we look forward to seeing you all next week.

Ellen, Courtenay, Melissa and Jess