Welcome to Term 4
Dear Families,
Welcome to Term 4! I hope you were able to enjoy some special family moments over the break. This term promises to be an exciting and busy time, filled with opportunities for community and connection.
Week 3: Celebration of Learning
In Week 3, we will host our much anticipated ‘Celebrate our Learning Week.’ During this time, you are warmly invited to explore your child’s portfolio during drop-off or pick-up. The portfolio serves as a beautiful record of your child’s achievements, linking their learning to curriculum frameworks and early years principles, while providing a meaningful form of assessment for educators, families, and your child.
We encourage you to sit with your child in the Learning Community 1 Piazza, where they can lead you through their learning and discoveries. This is a special opportunity to share in the rich documentation of their growth and development—moments that highlight their progress and achievements.
Pathway to School
It is an exciting time for our Pathway children as they anticipate their upcoming Reception transition visits. While we will be sad to see our Pathway children leave the ELC for ‘big school,’ we are excited for the next stage of their learning journey and all the possibilities it holds.
Supporting Transitions for 2025
As we look towards 2025, we will have a focus on guiding children through key transitions. These moments are crucial in a child’s development, presenting valuable opportunities for growth and learning. Transitions help foster important skills such as resilience, adaptability, problem-solving, confidence and independence supporting children to develop the capabilities that they need to be lifelong learners.
Celebrations are an important part of these transitions, as they acknowledge growth and help children embrace the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. This term, we look forward to hosting key events with our families that mark significant milestones, including:
- Learning Community 1 Transition Celebration
- Celebrating our Pathway
- ELC Hat Ceremony
Invitations will be sent to families whose children are participating in these events, and we look forward to celebrating these special moments together.
Reminder: ELC Uniform
A friendly reminder that our ELC uniform is compulsory during both term time and Vacation Care. The uniform not only provides a smart and cohesive look for the children but also simplifies the morning routine for families. It ensures that children are dressed appropriately for a day filled with adventures and messy play, as well as being suited to the weather, offering protection on sunny days. We appreciate your support in ensuring your child comes dressed in their uniform every day.
End of Year Celebration – Friday 29 November
Our End of Year Celebration on Friday 29 November is shaping up to be a truly special event, marking the culmination of a wonderful year. We will share more details with families soon.
Vacation Care Information
Our last day of term is Friday 6 December. Vacation Care will run from Monday 9 December to Friday 20 December and will reopen in the new year on Monday 6 January. Information regarding bookings will be sent out later in the term.
We are looking forward to a term filled with creativity, joy, and rich learning opportunities. Together, in partnership with you, we will continue to support your child to thrive.
Warm regards,
Liz Schembri
Director of Early Learners’ Centre
Vacation Care at the ELC
Learning Community 1
Our Centre was abuzz during Vacation Care, with lots of wonderful learning experiences. Children in Learning Community 1 focused their research on ‘a journey of a plant – from seed to plate’. The children engaged with each stage of the journey, gaining a deeper appreciation for the food they eat, and the natural processes involved in bringing it to their plates. The books ‘Planting a Rainbow’ and ‘A Seed Grows’ inspired and provided us with several opportunities to explore this concept. The Atelier of loose parts offered us a fantastic and creative way to design a vibrant rainbow garden. It allowed the children to play and experiment, share ideas and discuss what to plant next in the ELC Community Garden. We delved deeply into the life cycle of a seed, providing an exciting opportunity to explore important mathematical concepts like patterning and sequencing.
Our Community Garden is an incredible space that offers rich learning opportunities. With spring upon us, children from both Learning Communities collaborated enthusiastically to prepare the Community Garden and plant new crops for a bountiful summer harvest. We planted herbs, tomatoes, capsicum, native plants, quandong, cape berries, native raspberries, and saltbush.
While working in the Community Garden, educators took the opportunity to challenge the children’s thinking and explore concepts of sustainability and responsibility, learning how to care for the environment, to think of creative ways to repurpose items to create planters and greenhouses. We used milk bottles as a greenhouse and an old, broken laundry basket as a strawberry planter. Our Community Garden truly enriches our learning journey, creating many opportunities for engagement and education.
Valentina Fernandes
Learning Community 1 Vacation Care Leader and Co-educator
Learning Community 2
Building on their previous inquiry, our Learning Community 2 children in Vacation Care continued exploring their curiosity, diving deeper into the captivating world of birds and their nests. As they learned about different bird habitats, they creatively used a variety of materials to recreate these environments. Their imaginations truly blossomed as they became both authors and illustrators, crafting their own storybooks and informational books. The joy they experienced while sharing their creations with others was inspiring and a testament to their growing literacy and creativity.
Catherine Jiang
Learning Community 2 Vacation Care Leader and Co-educator
Video wonderfully made by Catherine Jiang – Learning Community 2 Vacation Care Leader and Co-educator
Sun Smart in the ELC
As spring arrives and the weather warms up, it’s important to stay sun smart. Following the Cancer Council’s advice, our Centre has clear guidelines for sun protection, especially on days when the UV index reaches 3 or above. Recently, the UV levels have been higher during certain parts of the day, so we ask families to be mindful of the following:
Please ensure your child’s hat is returned to the ELC so we can be prepared for warmer days throughout the rest of this term and into Term 4. Outdoor activities, including visits to Ferguson Conservation Park, are an important part of our program, and children need their hats to enjoy these spaces safely.
To help us keep everything organised, please label your child’s hat clearly with their name. Thank you for supporting our sun safety practices. For more information, please visit the Cancer Council website.
The Importance of Signing In/Out at the ELC
To ELC Families,
A friendly reminder to please sign in and sign out your child/children each morning and afternoon when entering and departing the ELC.
This is part of our regulatory obligations as an early learning service and ensures our Centre has a record of your child’s attendance in the case of an emergency or evacuation.
If you forget to sign in or sign out, please call, or email our Centre at your earliest convenience with your child’s full name and room/teacher.
We appreciate your cooperation.
Centre phone number: 8155 5733
Centre email: Wolita Harding, ELC Manager: wharding@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Donation of Recycled Materials
We invite you to bring in recycled materials such as paper towel rolls, bottle caps, colourful packaging and ribbons for our children, so they can transform them into unique creations.
This is a wonderful opportunity for our ELC children to explore their imagination while learning about the importance of recycling. Thank you for helping us inspire creativity and foster a love for art in our children.
