From the Director of Early Learning

Christmas has arrived in the ELC. A big thank you to our Friends of the ELC for decorating it for us.
Dear Families,

“It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas” with the arrival of our magnificent Christmas tree in the piazza and only one sleep until the Christmas Concert. What a special time to celebrate with our ELC community. We are very excited to share our songs and dance moves with you tomorrow evening. Please ensure you arrive by 5.30pm, ready for the excitement and celebration.

The last few weeks have been extremely busy as staff teams have been finalised for 2018. It is with pride that I can form such strong teams across the Centre, providing consistency with staff to ensure stability for the children. The teachers will all remain in their current rooms and will begin having transition visits regularly for the remainder of the term, as many children will be moving rooms.

We have four staff leaving us at the end of 2017 and we wish them well as they pursue either further study or jobs as teachers. The departing staff are Galia Kay, Emma Veitch, Elise Rynne and Qian Pu.

These staff members have been with us for a range of two to four years and are truly adored by staff, children and families. They have made significant contributions to the ELC with their dedication and professionalism to the jobs that they do. There is no doubt that saying goodbye will be extremely sad; however, we know already that they might be back for some Vacation Care and relief work early in 2018. We wish them well as they take on the next stage of their journey and know that our ELC will remain a treasured part for them.

We are extremely fortunate to have such stability across the centre with no new staff commencing at this stage. Contracts have been offered to our wonderful casual staff who have earnt their place on our 2018 staff list. I know you will all be happy with your child’s teaching team. Where possible, we have kept consistency in teams, with only a couple of room changes.

We are looking forward to being with you all tomorrow night where our special conversations and celebrations can take place.

Kind regards

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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ELC Christmas Celebration

The Christmas Celebration will be held tomorrow on Chiverton Lawns. Please arrive by 5.30pm. The concert will proceed regardless of the weather, as there is an alternative plan should there be rain.

We look forward to seeing our ELC community come together at this special time.

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Important Dates

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ELC Christmas Giving Tree

The ELC Christmas Giving Tree is our chance to brighten the lives of families less fortunate this Christmas. We are asking for donations of gifts and food for families in need this Christmas. By donating a present you are also giving the gift of happiness and hope to families who may otherwise go without at Christmas. When donating gifts, please ensure they are new, unwrapped and that food items are non-perishable. No second-hand or home-made items please.

All donations placed under the tree from Thursday 23 November will be collected on Friday 15 December and delivered to the Salvation Army and Backpacks 4 SA Kids. All gifts will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Friends of the ELC

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ELC Vacation Care

It is that time of year when we need to book our December and January Vacation Care. Please ensure you secure your dates by filling in the following form and returning it to the ELC at your earliest convenience.

ELC Vacation Care Booking Form

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A Letter from Ms Qian

尊敬的家长：转眼我们已经迎来了本学期的第六周，随着圣诞节的临近，我们ELC的庆祝活动也陆续开始，本周五即将迎来今年的ELC圣诞音乐会，地点在学校的Chiverton Lawns，欢迎您和家人朋友参加，届时会有由ELC之友组织的烧烤活动，现场还有奖券出售，我们建议您届时为孩子按节日氛围盛装打扮。最后，祝您和家人度过愉快的一周，我们周五音乐会见

Ms Qian

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Playgroup Explores Adelaide Zoo

This week, the playgroup children and families enjoyed visiting Adelaide Zoo. These photographs are of the Wednesday group enjoying the Panda exhibition.

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Telling stories through our hands

Using clay as an invitation for storytelling

Eva is working with a small group in our Atelier. She has been out to Ferguson Park and has collected a range of natural materials with her educators and peers. She has been offered these materials to work with, as well as a large piece of clay. Her educators sit nearby to support her and see what develops from this learning invitation. Eva explores the clay with her hands as she learns how it moves and how it feels. It’s cold at first and stiff. It takes time for it to become soft and easy to manipulate. Eva begins by breaking off small pieces of clay and rolls them in her hands. She puts them to one side and selects a few sticks and pieces of grass in front of her. The pivotal question is then asked.

Miss Caterina: “What is that, Eva?”
Eva: “A bird in Ferguson Park, and some logs and stones.”

Eva has told a story through her composition: she has linked our inquiry focus into this exploration and relates her narrative back to her experiences in the park. For her, her composition has a clear and specific narrative and it has been carefully and purposely created. Eva is a storyteller like all of our children and she has been able to share this particular story through the language of clay.

Eva’s story is one of the many stories that are beginning to emerge over this week through our explorations in clay. The clay and the natural materials have been offered to many of our children and have been selected to enable curiosity and creativity to emerge.

The children have been working in small group to explore the clay and we have been able to revisit many of the children’s stories with them over the week. We have seen many creatures emerge from the clay and Ferguson Park continues to be a focus for the children. This work will continue over the coming weeks and we are keen to see how the children’s narratives develop as well as their skills in using the clay.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

Come and sit next to me while I tell you a story…

“To foster an intimate relationship with place, we need to know the stories and histories that are linked to that place, just as we do in our intimate relationships with people.” – Ann Pelo

Children create stories about their world as they develop relationships with it. They pose questions, develop hypotheses and seek answers.

Over the last semester the children in the Bell Yett Room have developed a deep relationship with Ferguson Park. They have weaved together their identity with that of the park, naming special places and shifting their perspectives as they have developed a connection for the unexpected. The scratchy leaves and tiny creatures that sometimes frighten or annoy us have become friends. By spending time exploring the places that the children have adopted as theirs, they have developed a deep and authentic connection to them.

As educators, we have listened to and valued these stories. It is through these narratives that the children have given life to the park as they have engaged intimately in it with their bodies, minds and hearts. For young children, exploring through their senses and their imagination is the starting point for developing critical and creative thinking skills. As the children’s senses have come alive in the park, the park has come alive through their stories.

“Imagining the stories of a place can inspire new possibilities, can cast the children into an active role as people who care about and take action on behalf of a place.”
– Ann Pelo

THE FRIENDSHIP TREE

By The Bell Yett Children
Hello trees.
Hello flowers.
Hello wind.
Hello park.

Would you like to come and play in my tree with me?

We are best friends with the tree.

It helped me get up: the tree helped me.

This is my tree. I hold on tight. I won’t fall.

The tree has branches and leaves. The tree tickles me and hugs me.

The tree wants to play with me.

There are lots of leaves in Ferguson Park.
Real ones.
Leaves are like rainbows.

Brown leaves fall to the ground.
Green leaves grow.

It’s cold in Ferguson Park.
The trees feel cold too and the leaves fall down.
I can cuddle the best friend tree.

You can read more of our stories here.

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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News from the Ferguson Room

What are the skills you hope your child will develop during these early years of their education?

In the St Peter’s Girls ELC, we are guided by the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, an international curriculum framework for children from 3 to 12 years of age. Within this framework, the skills that are considered to be of global relevance and importance are:

• Thinking skills
• Research skills
• Social skills
• Communication skills
• Self-management skills

In Terms 3 and 4 this year, our focus has been on the development of Research and Thinking Skills. You will have noticed significant evidence of this through our inquiry into the ecology of Ferguson Park, where we have explored, discovered and gained insight into the life of creatures and plants within this beautiful natural environment. Not only have the children gained significant scientific knowledge and understanding, but also they have learned to wonder, question and theorise about possibilities. They have been encouraged to think for themselves before being guided to resources that can provide them with further understanding and factual confirmation of their theories. The resources available to them have included:

• Observing living and preserved animals and birds in the classroom
• Exploration of Ferguson Park supported by parents
• Use of iPads to capture and revisit images in nature
• Library books
• YouTube clips
• Google
• Peer to peer sharing of knowledge
• Teacher support
• Family support

Recently, Eoin brought in a tiny turquoise speckled egg that he and his family had found.
Miss Rynne asked: “What kind of bird do you think laid this egg?”

“A blackbird because we typed it on the iPad and that’s what came up” Eoin
“The baby is going to be very little when it hatches” Amber
“The baby birds are smaller than baby people” Eoin
“I think the egg has come from a crow” Ivy C
“The eggs we eat come from machines” Eoin
“Yeah, an egg machine. I’ve seen an egg machine. But you don’t cook with eggs!” Amber
“Some eggs we eat come from female and male chickens” Eoin

Miss Rynne – “What do you think a Rainbow Lorikeet egg looks like?”

“Green, because a rainbow lorikeet is green” Yuika
“Maybe it is green” Mikayla
“I think it’s white because I have seen one” Savni
“Maybe yellow. Actually, it’s rainbow because they are rainbow lorikeets” Eoin
“I think it’s rainbow” Ivy W

We have been thrilled at the level of engagement and participation from you, the children’s families and most important teachers. The treasures, photographs and conversations that the children have brought to us from their homes have made a significant impact on our learning as a group. Thank you so much for partnering with us and the children in our inquiry this term.

Mel Angel

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News from the Hallett Room

Our visit from Tamaru has sparked inspiration! The children have immersed themselves in questions, wonderings and new insights. For them to meet a Kaurna man and hear his stories has helped enhance their understanding of our history and the Indigenous culture. After some time reflecting, the children have been replaying some of his stories, our Reconciliation story, and coming to educators with more questions and ideas.

“Where does Tamaru live?”
“What about Tamaru’s nephew?”
“Kaurna people are my neighbours.”
“They can live in Belair.”
“We can ask Tamaru how to say zero again.”

After Tamaru’s visit, we were fortunate to have Charlotte, an Indigenous student in Year 11 at St Peter’s Girls, visit the Hallett Room. This also provided the children with some more information about Aboriginal people’s lives. The children were in awe of Charlotte as they began to make sense of our learning about the historical Aboriginal stories to present day stories. Our task as educators is to support children’s knowledge of how Indigenous people live today and how their lives have been affected by past events. We can then link respect for our land to increase children’s awareness of their ecological imprint in the world.

It is an honour to see the foundations of this learning in the Hallett Room and their strong desire to share their understandings with the other ELC rooms.

Please let us know if you have heard anything that has inspired you at home and if you have any questions.

Pam Reid

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From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

Is it Christmas already? I have been listening to the children practise their Christmas songs and observing them learning their special moves with Ms Patton and Miss Sims, and I have had to ask myself the big question: is it Christmas? Are we ready for this time of year?

To be honest, my answer is no – I am not ready! I don’t want to think about finishing up on the key learning inquiries nor do I want to consider the wind-down approach. Every day is precious and our days are becoming more precious than ever with the significant learning that is happening, the way in which the children have actioned having a voice, leading their inquiry in a deep and meaningful manner. Why would I want this to stop?

My better judgement thankfully comes in to play here. Even though I do not want to stop the incredible momentum that is happening across the Centre, I am very aware that we have done an extraordinary job this year in equipping the children with the skill sets to know how to enact their curiosities no matter where they move on to in 2018. What is happening now won’t stop, but rather it will be transferred, enhanced, adapted and reflected upon. It is, after all, forming a key part of each child’s foundation in becoming independent thinkers, collaborators and inquirers.

So with this in mind, yes, we are ready for Christmas as we begin to imagine 2018, where we might be, who will be with us and what steps we need to travel to get there. My message is, don’t fight it, and embrace it as it is a time to reflect, celebrate and share who we are and the many languages of expression we have acquired throughout the past year.

As we hear the familiar tunes of Christmas and see the decorations appear, think of these as symbols of celebration and reflection. There will be much to rejoice in at our ELC Christmas Concert which will be held at 5pm on Friday 24 November; we hope you will join us for this special occasion.

Kind regards

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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Celebrating Our Learning

This week was a very proud week for us. At the ReImagining Childhood Conference, Caterina and Kate presented the amazing work being done in the ELC in front of several hundred participants. The international visitors included Professor Carla Rinaldi from Reggio Emilia.

We also hosted wonderful tours on Sunday and Tuesday evening for interstate and international visitors who were very keen to see our Centre first hand.

Thank you to Caterina and Kirsty for their incredible support with the conference and to the staff of the ELC for their hard work in presenting the Centre so superbly. The additional benefits included several of the team being able to attend this big international conference at the Convention Centre.

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ELC Christmas Concert

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New Website

St Peter’s Girls’ School recently launched a new-look website. Following the successful introduction of the myLink Parent Portal for internal communications, the public site now focuses on showcasing all aspects of our wonderful School and ELC, giving the wider community a window into life at Saints Girls. Be sure to check it out, simply click this link.

Here’s a snippet from our Junior School:

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A Letter from Ms Qian

尊敬的家长：

最近您在接送孩子上学的时候应该能够看到签到台旁边有tea towel（茶巾）的样本，那是ELC小朋友们集体制作的专属茶巾，上面有您家孩子的手印或者是绘画作品，因此非常有纪念意义。这款茶巾是ELC筹集资金的一个项目，因此您可以看到在茶巾样品旁边有订购单，这款茶巾既可以自己使用或者留作纪念，也可以作为即将到来的圣诞节礼物赠送亲戚朋友，如果您还没有订购，请抓紧时间填写订购单哦！

ELC一年一度的圣诞音乐会将于本月底进行，目前各个班级已经开始了圣诞合唱的排练，音乐会的具体日期为11月24日（星期五）下午5点，地点在Chiverton Lawns，欢迎所有的家庭携带亲戚朋友来参加！

祝大家春安！

Ms Qian

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News from the Stonyfell Room

What can you hear?

Shifting our gaze skywards…

Miss Veitch: “What can you hear?”

Emily: “Birdies, Miss Veitch.”

Miss Veitch: “How do you know?”

Emily: “I don’t know?”

Miss Veitch: “Can you see them?”

Emily: “No! But I know they say ‘cheep cheep’.”

Over the year, we have spent countless hours at our fence line peering into Ferguson Park and have been rewarded with the songs of the abundant birdlife that inhabits the park. These birds are often elusive and we may only capture a glimmer of a tail or the flap of a wing. They are fast moving and by the time we may have spotted a rainbow lorikeet or magpie, they are gone. Our children have found this challenging as they have been keen to know who lives in the park and have wanted to be able to see the creatures for themselves. We have, however, been learning that there is another way in which we can know the birds are around and that is by being able to hear them.

The Stonyfell children have been developing their observational skills over the past two terms through the support of our inquiry. From our observations, we have been able to see how the children’s skills have developed and many are now observing the park through listening. We have been asking the children what they can hear and we have discovered that the common response has revolved around the songs of the birds.

This interest has continued through the weeks and we have been able to help the children deepen their listening skills with the support of our technology. Our room has been filled with recordings of bird songs and our light room has images of birds throughout the day. We are encouraging the children to shift their gaze upwards into the branches of the trees and into the sky. We invite you to take the time over the coming weeks to find a place at your home that offers the opportunity to listen and deepen your listening.

We ask you, “Can you hear the birds, too?”

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

“Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side?” – Kermit the Frog

What is it about rainbows that fascinates us? Their appeal to children is evident in the ELC. A rainbow is often one of the first drawings mastered by the children. While sharing their stories from when they have observed this illusion, they watch and learn from each other and represent the magic on paper.

As the children have explored the park, the idea of the rainbow has been surfacing in their thinking. Last term, Hannah asked for all of the colours of the rainbow to paint her tree and Eric said, “There are lots of leaves in Ferguson Park. Real ones. Leaves are like rainbows.” This term, inspired by the book ‘One Thousand Trees’, some of the children have begun calling our Best Friend Tree, The Rainbow Best Friend Tree.

It is our challenge to create connections between the children’s passions, in this case, the rainbow, with the knowledge, skills and attitudes we want to develop in our young learners.

Together, we are wondering:
• Can trees be a rainbow?
• Do trees have leaves all the same colour?
• Are leaves only one colour?
• How can we find out?

The children have begun expressing their wonderings through the language of painting which in turn supports them to verbalise their thinking.

Kermit expressed his thoughts in his famous song:

Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

We believe we found our rainbow connection when one of our three year olds expressed her thinking…

“When people go to sleep, when there is rain and sun and rainbow,
that’s when they grow, when the rainbow trees grow.
When we wake up, they stay up when it’s morning light.”

Do you think a tree can be a rainbow?

Watch below to see the creation of our rainbow trees in action:

You can keep up-to-date with our investigations on our Canvas Page by clicking here.

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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News from the Ferguson Room

What do birds need?

Asking the children to think more deeply about a topic requires framing the right questions. Questions that are open and allow for many possibilities. Questions that don’t give away too much of the answer, or are too obviously looking for a ‘right’ answer. If we want children to be confident, competent learners, then we must support their enormous capacity for research, wonderings and hypotheses with careful questioning and respectful responses.

Our inquiry into birdlife in our local area has really captured the children’s imagination and curiosity in recent weeks. A walk around our classroom will reveal the many ways in which children have expressed their thinking and understanding of different birds and their needs. We have explored their colours and patterns through observational drawings, nests of all shapes and sizes in our work with clay, and are now venturing into the way in which birds move. We will explore this in our dance classes as well as researching though video clips, photographs and reference books.

During our walks in Ferguson Park and around the School, we have discovered many feathers on the ground. This has led to us thinking deeply into why this might be.

Why do we keep finding feathers at school and at home? Why do birds lose their feathers?

“Maybe they are old birds.” – Mikayla
“The tiny birdies were growing and got old and then lost their feathers.” – Delilah
“They are like grandpas and grandmas.” – Dorothy
“A magpie might take feathers from other birds because sometimes magpies get angry.” – Elodie

Why do birds have feathers?

“To keep them nice and warm.” – Dorothy
“To help them fly, they fly up to the trees.” – Mikayla

Having these discussions enables children to co-construct meaning and share their knowledge with one another.

Thank you for your support in sending feathers and photographs to school, and for having conversations with your child about birds you have observed at home. We invite you to come into our room and explore the documentation of the children’s learning.

Mel Angel

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News from the Hallett Room

Niina Marni,
We thank the Kaurna people for our land
We welcome you to play with us
At the ELC and Ferguson Park, sharing the land and the plants
We will look after everything on the land, the people and the animals.

This is our Acknowledgment that we say every morning in the Hallett Room. Putting focus on our thank you, not only at the start of the day, but during spontaneous moments, has shone a light on some of the children’s understandings and what it looks like in practice.

“You can’t squash the stink bug!”
“You are breaking our thank you!”
“We say we will look after everything on the land…we can’t hurt animals.”
“Or people.”
“It will make the Kaurna people sad.”
“We can add things to our Essential Agreement.”
“What about the other rooms in the ELC – do they know the thank you?”
“We need to teach them.”

The children’s connection to the Acknowledgement has led them to show an increased interest in the Kaurna people and what their connection is to the Australian land. The children have begun to explore our history through the Reconciliation Story. It is helping to build the foundations to their understandings but we realise this is an ongoing process and that children need the opportunity to be exposed to honest and real information on a regular basis for them to reflect, question and investigate further. For the older children in the Hallett Room, it is a poignant moment not only hearing them express their understandings, but their desire to share this information with others. A recent idea from the children is to put on a performance retelling the Reconciliation Story. In this way, we hope to expose the children to a clearer understanding that people can express their thinking in different ways. Already, the children have communicated that some of the friends will love to be on stage while others would prefer to make a movie, perhaps in Ferguson Park. The main idea for this performance however is to share our message – “the Kaurna people were here first.”

Pam Reid

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