From the Director of Early Learning
Dear Families
As the term concludes we celebrate together one of the best successes of life at the ELC – our festival which occurred on Friday evening. I reflect on what I wrote prior to the festival, below!
ELC Festival: Learning through Community Participation
The ELC Festival evolved out of a strong belief that children and adults should be actively involved in learning processes together. The collaboration in the sharing of the learning enables the children to articulate what they have done and demonstrate understandings and reasons for significance. We have achieved this through an interactive Festival in contrast to a more static display. We believe this demonstrates authentic and rich partnerships.
There is no doubt that the learning, excitement, relationship building and engagement were all key elements of the festival. From Playgroup onwards, our young students demonstrated a strong ownership and confidence at our wonderful event. The vibe was special as we all immersed ourselves into this amazing event. I cannot think of a more powerful way to demonstrate Community Participation and authentic learning through creativity.
Thank you so much to everyone who came and embraced our evening together. The money raised will be used to build our path which will be a spectacular representation of the children’s relationship with Ferguson Park. We are so fortunate that we have been able to work with Christine and Caterina on this very special project.
Check out the video below to see some highlights of our ELC Festival.
Kind regards
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning
Friends of the ELC and School Volunteers
The Friends of the ELC worked tirelessly to create such a wonderful event for us, providing delicious food and drinks for us to enjoy and a wonderful raffle. I would like to thank everyone involved in assisting with the rosters, donations and planning. It was definitely a team effort!
Grandpa George created a few masterpieces to add a flair to our Festival including the archway entrance which everyone loved walking through. We are so blessed to have Grandpa George as an ongoing volunteer in the ELC.
Parent-Teacher Conversations
Thank you to everyone for making the time to meet with your teachers at these very important conversations. This helps form a strong partnership in your child’s learning and deepens our understandings about each child.
Vacation Care
For the next two weeks, commencing Monday, 16 April, the Vacation Care program will be operating. This time is slightly more flexible with bookings, families are requested to fill in a Vacation Care form and return it this week so that we can confirm staffing. The teachers will be on holidays and Miss Natalie Lockwood and Miss Annabelle Redmond are in charge of the day-to-day running. Please do not hesitate to email us with any concerns or queries.
Natalie Lockwood: nlockwood@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Annabelle Redmond: aredmond@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Kate Mount: kmount@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Wishing everyone a relaxing break and we will welcome you back for Term 2 with the start date being Monday, April 30.
A Message From Mrs Yu
亲爱的家长朋友们，
我希望你们度过一个愉快的周末。在此，非常感谢大家参与上周五的ELC的节日！非常的高兴能见到各位开心喜庆的面庞。温馨提醒下周一开始就是我们的家长会了。 对了，假期马上就要到了，有需要的话，请及时把假期预定日期的表格交给我们哦。Redmond小姐（小班）和Lockwood小姐（大班）是假期中的主要负责人。 如有任何疑问或是需要任何帮助，请随时联系我或是你们的班主任。我们周一见！
ELC家长－老师 一对一对话：09-11/04/2018 下午1-6点
ELC 照片日：09-11/04/2018 下午1-6点
假期开园日：4.16-4.27
我的邮箱：syu@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Sophie Yu
News from the Stonyfell Room
Our learning journey together
This term we have had a very clear learning intention. This intention has been for all our children to connect and form a relationship with Ferguson Park. We are able to utilise Ferguson Park and use this very special space as a tool for our children to engage with nature. Ferguson Park is offering us a place to develop our ecological identity, a place to understand the intricacies of life and the movement of the seasons and a place to explore and transform it into whatever we can imagine it to be.
As the educators our intentions has been clear in our minds, when the children enter and explore this space we are watching and observing.
- What are their intentions?
- How are they using the park?
- How do they use this space?
Over the term we have seen our children use the park in multiple ways. They each have chosen a unique way to develop their relationship and to connect to this place. Our connections and relationships, even though they have been unique to each child, we have seen a common thread emerge. Our children have been using their whole bodies to connect, the park has offered the children a space to touch and to feel, the tactile nature of this space is an invitation for them. These sensory interactions have been the inspiration for our input into the ELC Pathway. The design was on show at our ELC Festival and the Stonyfell children have been able to include some of their hand and foot prints as our representation and our reciprocal relationship with the park.
Laura Reiters
News from the Bell Yett Room
“To foster a love for place, we must engage our bodies and our hearts as well as our minds.” – Ann Pelo, ELC Educator and Author
Our intention at the start of this year was to enrich the ecological identity our learning community brings to the Bell Yett Room. We have explored Ferguson Park and invited the children to think like artists and scientists to enhance their observations and wonderings. We have provided the children with many materials and mediums through which to document their thinking. Mark making, painting, collage, clay and many other materials have supported the children to give form to their thoughts and theories.
We have been privileged to work alongside our Artist in Residence, Christine Cholewa, to bring the children’s learning to life in the form of a path to be created in the ELC. We were delighted to share this learning journey with you at our ELC Festival on Friday.
Throughout these experiences, the children have also been learning the skills and dispositions needed within a learning community. We value the opportunity we have had to share this with you during our Parent-Teacher conversations.
Leanne, Nell and the Bell Yett Team
News from the Ferguson Room
“Be careful of the ants” – Jessie
Every Tuesday our Dance Class goes into Ferguson park for our weekly lesson with Miss Sims. Each week we have focused on the things that move in Ferguson Park and interpreted those movements with carefully chosen pieces of music. The life that repeatedly captured the children’s attention were the ants and the birds. Gradually the movements that the children created began to develop a rhythm and a pattern of their own. The movements of the ants were represented through fast running, scurrying and rolling of arms and hands. To become the birds, the children improvised with long sticks and sheets of soft, strappy bark to make wings. They leapt from the hay bales and flapped their way along the dusty path.
Miss Sims has filmed the movements to create an iMovie, soon to be released for your viewing.
This class is a perfect example of the way in which children are protagonists of their own learning. By this I mean that children are seen as fully capable of leading and creating new understandings that are significant and broad reaching. It does not mean that they are ‘free’ to choose to learn what they like, without input from their teachers. Much planning has gone into the dance lessons: Miss Sims and I have collaborated regularly to discuss what must go behind the dance classes. Our overarching intention is for the children to develop empathy for the land and its inhabitants.
We want them to notice the life forms, the beauty and the interdependence of all of the elements of nature. How then to bring this about in a way that is captivating and fun for the children?
When we ask the children to notice the life and the movement of the park, their eyes become open to many things. Not only the ants and the birds, but the leaves moving in the wind, the vehicles on the nearby road, the clouds gently skimming along the sky. As their teachers, we help them to make sense of this by choosing one or two of these elements. We chose the ants and the birds, and the children delight in becoming these creatures through the expressive language of dance.
Last week, as the children were about go through the gate back into the ELC Jessie cautioned us: “Be careful of the ants”. She pointed to the ground and a small cohort of tiny ants were making their way along the ground as well.
I was suddenly struck by the realisation that the intentions of the teachers and those of the children had crystallised. When the children become the ants and the birds through dance, they are for that moment experiencing what it is to be those creatures. Small and vulnerable when there are great big feet tramping over their terrain! Jessie demonstrated what many of the children are now expressing: empathy for other life forms that need and deserve our protection.
Mel Angel
News from the Hallett Room
There are no more sleeps for the Festival!
The count down for our Festival was alive and kicking last week, with the children rushing in and telling their educators how many sleeps were left each day. A big thank you to all of those families who embraced our celebration. It was heart-warming watching the children, so proudly leading their loved ones around Chiverton Lawns, showing them the different stalls, art work and joining in with our Acknowledgement with Tamaru.
We had worked on ensuring the Hallett children were fully involved with the preparations and planning for the Festival. As we have built up to this moment all term, the children were itching to get out into the park and collect the leaves needed for our Palti circle. It was a big task! But the team work and collaboration we saw in the children emphasised the importance of ownership the children felt in creating the circle for the Festival. A highlight for me was seeing the children’s pride at being next to Tamaru and sharing their ‘Thank You’. In addition, the impromptu dancing in the Palti circle with the Yidaki was magical – it was just as the children had said the Palti circle was used for!
It has been a fantastic term and we are looking forward to sharing your children’s learning with you at the Parent-Teacher conversations.
Pam Reid