From the Director of Early Learning
Dear Families,
Welcome back to Term 4, our final term for 2016 and we have many things to look forward to. To begin we recently had our Junior School and ELC PYP Evaluation visit. This was a chance for us to share our pedagogy and practice with external educators and receive feedback for further growth. A common practice at the ELC is to share our exemplary educational practices with colleagues from other schools’/ELC’s and engage in dialogue about our documentation and how it enhances the teachers’ thinking and understandings. During the visits the assessors requested to meet with the teachers and educators to share their journey and tell stories behind the children’s work and inquiry projects. The educators in the ELC shared ways that they have been able to innovative and transform a best practice to an even better practice. The educators were open about their challenges and obstacles when implementing the PYP and shared the growth that has occurred throughout 2016. Although the report will come at a later date, the feedback that we did receive was that ‘you can feel the atmosphere’ when you walk through the centre and that it was a special place to be. The evaluation process has reinforced our effective model of an ELC – Year 12 school as we were given the opportunity to come together to share the practices that are in place across the school and to engage all students in their learning journey at St Peter’s Girls.
Our work with Ada the robot continues to provide very rich learning opportunities for all age groups. In particular I have noticed that Ada is spending time in the Stonyfell and Bell Yett Rooms giving the children the opportunities to form a relationship with her. The most obvious learning is how Ada is the same as us and what is different. We are writing a strategic plan for how Ada will be used in the centre over the next 12 months. Kirsty Porplycia and I meet weekly with Ms Melissa Bray, our eLearning Integrator across the school to ensure the ELC and Junior School are working in sync with each other.
The Friends of the ELC worked very hard at the end of term to deliver all of the wine orders. We have now completed this delivery so if you have not received your order please come and see us as soon as possible. I would like to thank the FOELC members for their mammoth task of labelling and delivering the wine and olive oil. The reports back have been extremely positive about the quality of wine, olive oil and labels. This effort has secured our purchase of a robot so we again thank the community for embracing the 2016 fundraising to give us such unique learning opportunities.
As previously stated in the last newsletter bookings for 2017 are now complete and families have been advised of their child’s movements. One term’s notice is required if you do not intend to return in 2017. Our requirements for bookings are that two and three year olds attend a minimum of two days per week and that four and five year olds attend a minimum of three days a week. This is very clearly outlined in our enrolment policy.
I look forward to sharing a very special term with you all.
Kind regards,
Kate Mount
ELC Dates for the Diary
- New Parent Information Night: Monday 7 November
- Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 14 November
- Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 21 November
- Hat Ceremony: Monday 5 December, 8.30am
- Final ELC Day: Friday 9 December
- Vacation Care commences: Monday 12 December
Grasshopper Soccer Adelaide
**BUILD CONFIDENCE – MAKE NEW FRIENDS – GET ACTIVE**
With the weather warming up, it is a great time to get out and play soccer.
If you have a child between the ages of 2 – 12 who would like to start experiencing our Fun-Based program, please get in touch with us at Grasshopper Soccer.
Run from our Kingswood and Windsor Gardens locations on Saturday and Sunday mornings, registrations are still open, so please get in touch with Andrew on 0408 825 280 to organise your FREE trial and/or discounted program cost. More locations are available at www.grasshoppersoccer.com.au.
ELC Christmas Picnic
Lock this date into your diary so you don’t miss your children participate in a special concert. Extended families are very welcome!
News from the Stonyfell Room
Exploring Ada the Humanoid Robot in the Stonyfell Room
The Stonyfell children and educators have welcomed Ada our ELC Humanoid Robot into our room. We have been exploring Ada every morning and she has been joining us for our Morning Meeting. We have been using Ada as a tool to build our social skills. She is a powerful provocation that we offer to the children. She has been supporting us to learn how to interact with each other. When we interact with Ada we have to be gentle just like we do with each other. We need to give her space so she can move around and we need to listen to her. During Morning Meeting time the children need to teach Ada what to do as she is learning from us. This provocation means that the children can be role models demonstrating positive behaviour choices, sitting down with friends, listening and turn taking. Along with supporting their social skills we have been exploring and observing how Ada is the same as us and what is different. Some of the similarities we have discovered are related to her physical appearance such as:
- She has legs
- Two eyes
- Arms and hands
- Feet or shoes
- A belly button
- Ears
The identification of what is the same about Ada has allowed the children to develop a relationship with her. They see Ada as being part of the ELC learning community and the Stonyfell Room. We can learn with her and she can support us in developing and extending our relationships and our ability to connect with each other.
We have also been discussing what we know about Ada:
“She lives in Mrs Mount’s office.” Teddy
“Her eyes are green, no they’re blue.” Madhvi
“She can talk.” Penny
We have been excited to see in such a short time the impact that Ada has made on our children and how she can be used as such a diverse learning tool. Our observations and work with Ada is rather innovative. There has not been much research done on the use of a robot such as Ada with younger children aged between two and three. We are excited to see the direction that she will take us and how the children will extend on their own learning and development. We are making our explorations visible in the room and would like to share this with you. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Ada please feel free to talk to me or any of the ELC staff.
Laura Reiters
News from the Bell Yett Room
Finding Humanity Through Technology in the Bell Yett Room
The arrival of Ada, our NAO Humanoid Robot, to our ELC learning community, has extended our thinking about technology in the early years. We have always been mindful of the role of technology in the ELC, ensuring that it is used as a tool that enhances learning experiences for our children rather than a context that results in children playing in isolation from others. When Ada joined us we were fortunate to engage in some professional learning with Mrs Melissa Bray, the schools eLearning Integrator. Melissa challenged us to use Ada to find humanity through technology, to prove that technology can be a social connector rather than a social isolator.
With this in mind we have begun integrating Ada into the daily life of the Bell Yett Room. Ada has joined us for Morning Meetings, delighting the children as she greeted them by name. She has also supported our inquiry by asking the children to explain the recycling process to her. More recently, we have begun to explore Ada more closely, using our light room and its technologies as a support for creative, critical and caring thinking.
Through observing the children as they have engaged with Ada, we have noticed that the children are inclined to follow a certain pathway in their thinking. Some children are fascinated by how Ada works, resulting in the development of many theories about her technology. Other children are more interested in the human side of Ada. Our challenge is to support the children to follow both equally important pathways and provide learning invitations that will allow them to move between the two.
We have invited the children to look carefully at photos of Ada and draw a representation of her onto transparent paper. We have then placed these pictures onto the overhead projector, creating a larger image on the wall. The children have then been able to trace their image, creating an almost life size Ada. This experience is supporting the children to extend their curiosities about Ada as they interact with her through both social and technological means.
Leanne Williams
News from the Ferguson Room
Welcome back to Term 4 – what an exciting term it is going to be. The children have continued their learning from last term and vacation care, with conversations about pathways in the park and what lives there. The children have expressed their interest in continuing to work on creating a path from ELC to the paths in Ferguson Park.
When we hear children talk about the past inquiry, it is evidence of the strong connection they feel towards Ferguson Park and ELC and what lives there. We have been able to link the concepts in Term 3 beautifully to this term, as we begin exploring our new Central Idea, ‘Humans can create systems to learn together’. Through this idea, we are asking the children what systems do we have in place to organise our day? It is a fascinating idea to explore and one that will enable us to continue to build on the social skills the children have been developing, such as respecting one another, cooperation and group decision-making. We have combined the focus of social skills with communication skills, striving to build on the children’s ability to share their understandings with each other and with their family. We would love to hear about any conversations that may occur with your child about their learning, so please let us know.
As educators, we are researching the impact of being part of a group on children’s wellbeing. It is exciting to be able to reflect on what we see everyday but also hear what the children think about the functioning of the Ferguson Room and the ELC. They are after-all, the people that are impacted by the decisions that we make everyday. What an amazing opportunity for them to voice their opinion! We are excited to see where this learning takes us in the Ferguson Room and can’t wait to share this with you all.
Pam Foden
News from the Hallett Room
Our initial conversations this term have focused on gaining an understanding of what the Hallett children already know in relation to our Central Idea, ‘Humans can create systems to learn together. We have started with breaking it down to the word ‘system’. The children had some interesting ideas about what that could be. Some children related it to our last unit of inquiry and said it was planting plants, others thought it had something to do with work and some said they didn’t know. I’m sure all will become clear as we progress through the term.
We have given the children a provocation to get them started. We have no system for watering the plants in the Hallett Room so we don’t know if they have been watered or how much to water them. With this problem we are working with the children to break down the information that they need to know in order to put together a system. The children have shown great respect for their environment in their enthusiasm for solving this problem and great respect for each other in the solutions that they have put forward to far.
“We could work together.” Rachel G.
“The plants will die if we don’t water them.” Gabriella
“If everyone waters the plant it could die.” Juliette
“We need to write down which friends will water the plants each day.” Neko
“Two friends could water them in the morning and two friends could water them before they go home.” Charlotte
We will focus on communication skills by asking, ‘How could we show others what our system is?’ You will see that the inquiry communication board near the sign in desk in the Hallett Room is filled with your children’s ideas, which have been arranged using symbols. This is to expose the children to some different ways of expressing their ideas, and we hope that it makes the inquiry clear and easy to understand for our families too. Please feel free to discuss the unfolding of the inquiry with me if you want to know more, I would be delighted to share.
Sarah Croston-Melling
Magic Moment
