St Joseph's Early Learning Centre O'Connor in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory | Nursery

St Joseph's Early Learning Centre O'Connor

Locality: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Phone: 6257 2990

Address: Boronia Drive 2602 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Website: www.sjo.act.edu.au/teaching-learning/early-learning-centre

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24.01.2022 The Blue Geckos (BOW) have been using their senses to explore the wonders of God’s Creation. They have investigated the sense of sight and have engaged with various optical instruments. They have also created their own crazy sunglasses, binoculars and kaleidoscopes. Our home corner has become a science laboratory for studying light and observing specimens of rocks, insects and seed pods. The children are currently investigating the sense of taste and are participating in a number of taste testing experiments to develop an understanding of the different tastes of foods.

23.01.2022 Consider a Catholic education for your child. Archdiocesan Catholic schools are enrolling now for 2021. In recognition of the COVID-19 challenges, Catholic Educ...ation is providing families with an additional week to meet with the Principal and enrol online. Visit the Catholic Education website for more information | cg.catholic.edu.au/parents/enrolment BELONG. BELIEVE. BECOME.

23.01.2022 Pack your picnic blanket for this year's Live Nativity and Carols Night. The Christmas Carol sing-along starts at 6pm, then live camels and manger animals join... local talent to reenact the events of the very first Christmas. There will be an opportunity for the children to give a letter or scroll they have prepared to the wise men, describing the gifts they would like for Christmas or a gift they wish for the world. Entry is free and all are welcome to attend. A wonderful night for the whole family. 6pm Friday 13th December St Joseph's Primary School Grounds

19.01.2022 Green Frog's nature walk on a cold and blustery day.

18.01.2022 During Winter Vacation Care, the children engaged in several themed days Garden Day, Mythical Creatures, Exploring Light, Being Artists, Board Games and Sports Day. The children assisted with the planting of bulbs and vegetables in our wonderful gardens. They also designed and created unicorns and mermaids exploring Mythical Creatures. While Exploring Light the children were invited to stand with their backs to a wall of brown paper. Mrs W set up an overhead projector to...wards the brown paper, so the children could trace their shadows and decorate them. The shadow decorations are on display in the hallway of the ELC. We also went on walks around our immediate space, saw workmen fixing the footpath, collected natural items and included these items in the afternoon play. We played in the school playground and some of the children played with their older siblings. We also played ‘Beyond the Fence’ creating forts and playing games of soccer. It was a busy, fun filled vacation care period. See more

18.01.2022 The ELC shared a lovely Grandparent's Day with the Primary School today. Thank you to all the Grandparent's and Special People that were able to spend time at the ELC followed by a picnic lunch under the trees with the whole school. I know several Grandparents traveled from Melbourne, Adelaide and the countryside making this day extra special for the Preschool Children.

18.01.2022 Baking with a purpose! St Joseph's are running a Cake Stall this Friday night at the Enlighten Festival. We will be located at Old Parliament House. The money raised from this will go towards purchasing new readers in our Foundation classes. Helpers always needed.

16.01.2022 The Blue Gecko Group enjoyed their outing to Moreshead Manor, making important connections with our local community. They had the opportunity to sing for the residents as well as engage in conversations while at the same time completing puzzles and drawing.

16.01.2022 Any reason is a good reason to dress up and make fancy hats.

14.01.2022 The Rainbow Turtles have been settling into their after school care routines and are engaging in a variety of experiences. Sandpit cooking is becoming more and more popular and children have expressed ideas about cooking real food. The children have also been developing their gross motor skills by riding bikes and balancing on stilts.

14.01.2022 The Blue Geckos have been developing their fine motor skills by participating in a range of activities such as hammering, sorting small parts and molding play dough. They have demonstrated respect for the outdoor environment by sweeping the paths, planting seedlings and watering the plants. The children enjoyed a visit from ACT No Waste and are continuing to develop their understanding of correctly sorting our preschool waste.

13.01.2022 The Green Frogs have had a wonderful start to Term 3. We are focusing on our Five Senses, through our RE theme ‘Sensing God.’ So far we have learnt about the sense of sight and painted our own amazing ‘WOW’ nature scenes. We read the book Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr and played a game based on the book with repetition and rhyme as well as making our own illustrations. Friday was National School's Tree Day. We participated by becoming little green thumbs and planting some seeds, which we will hopefully transfer to our garden when they have sprouted.

13.01.2022 On Monday the ELC children participated in the whole school Remembrance Day Prayer Celebration. The children laid wreaths which they made using hand prints and rosemary.

12.01.2022 This week the Blue Gecko group explored our outdoor environment. The children enjoyed using the oval space to play organised games and sing songs while using the parachute. The sandpit has also been another area of discovery with lots of pipe building and water experiments.

12.01.2022 ENROLLING NOW FOR PRESCHOOL 2021. Come and find out why the children enjoy preschool at St Joseph's. Call us on 6257 2990 to book a tour. The Green Frogs, Blue Geckos and the Rainbow Turtles have enjoyed Canberra's glorious Autumn weather by spending time outdoors. The children were invited to prepare our garden beds before planting pansies, donated by Hannah’s family. Nicholas, Scarlett and Laura dug the holes and Filipa showed the children how to disperse the straw around the plants before watering them in. It was fantastic to have so many helpers in the garden. Sweeping the paths and time spent in the sandpit were also enjoyed.

12.01.2022 The Before School Care Rainbow Turtles have been exploring the concept of literacy by actively engaging in telling stories with books and the matching story stones. During the term, we have built on this knowledge and understanding by creating a ‘library’ of story stones for many different children’s books. The BSC children have helped to draw, cut out and paste the characters from the books, that the children have brought in from home, onto the stones. The stones are then used to help the children tell the story.

11.01.2022 Happy News for the ELC. Throughout the week, the Preschool children have been learning different ways that we can care for our environment. To support student awareness in recycling Actsmart Schools visited our preschool to share some tips with the children. We learned how to tell the difference between aluminium foil and plastic foil, followed by a game to work out which items can be recycled.

11.01.2022 The preschool children and staff enjoyed moving rocks to help develop our newly expanded dry river bed. There were so many rocks that some of the children used wheelbarrows, some used buckets and some of the children moved them by hand, one by one. We also had the help of Mrs Henson's family and Mrs W on the weekend to move soil and sow grass seed as the working bee had to be postponed. The final product looks wonderful! A big thank you goes out to everyone involved.

11.01.2022 January Vacation Care was a success! We began to improve the ELC’s garden beds by turning over the soil and adding new soil and chicken manure to get ready for our 2020 Preschool year of gardening and outdoor play adventures. The children also made play dough with Eucalyptus oil and created pictures with Eucalyptus leaves. Fun was had by all!

11.01.2022 Preschool has continued as normal, during these uncertain times, for the few children whose families are working in essential services. Last week they engaged in hands on learning experiences when our new table arrived. The children were keen to help unwrap and assemble it, counting out the different components and using tools to put the legs on. We also had a visit from the waste management team and we talked about what rubbish goes where and why. The children enjoyed playing the guess the rubbish game. The tree contractors also came to take down all of our dead tree branches providing entertainment for all. The children were fascinated, gradually collecting near the fence to watch all the action.

09.01.2022 This term ASC Rainbow Turtles have been enjoying making their own story books. Children decided the title of their books and started working towards creating the front cover. Drawing and writing allows children to gain more confidence, develop concentration skills along with improving confidence levels.

09.01.2022 Week 2 of Preschool 2020 and the children are settling in and beginning to learn routines. They loved using the gum boots and having a splash in our mud pit!

08.01.2022 We would love to see everyone come along to this great community event. If you are able to help out, please follow the link: https://tinyurl.com/y68d474r

07.01.2022 What an amazing time the Green Frogs are having this term! In celebrating National Water Week, we discovered 'sinking and floating'. The children also experimented with how many rocks can fill a tub before it overflows. Lastly, we celebrated Book Week 2020 in grand style with the rest of our Preschool friends.

06.01.2022 ELC WORKING BEE - Saturday, September 7 Thank you to all the parents, staff and preschool children that were able to help out. We had a very successful day and we couldn't have done it without you!!

05.01.2022 The Blue Geckos have enjoyed exploring Beyond the Fence. They collected timber and sticks and worked cooperatively to build a campfire. As the children explored, they demonstrated care and respect for the environment and God’s creations as they studied worms they found hiding in the moist grass. It was also a perfect opportunity to develop gross motor skills as the children enjoyed playing chasing games, climbing and balancing.

05.01.2022 During Vacation Care at the ELC, the children enjoyed experiences such as Artist’s Day, Science Day, Space Day and time spent outdoors. The children created their own rockets, moon dust (using cornflour and baby oil mixed together) and then used the mixture to build a moon display. They made salt dough to build mini volcanoes and in the sandpit they created a large exploding volcano. They also explored how to make a paper box and attached a ball that they decorated to create a hot air balloon. Using sprigs of wattle for inspiration from our local Wattle trees the children designed their own ‘Wattle inspired’ artwork. A big thank you goes out to our staff who worked during Vacation Care to make the program a success. We couldn't have done it without you!

05.01.2022 We are currently accepting enrollments for Preschool 2021. Children that turn 4 before the 30th of April, 2021 will be eligible to apply. We are Child Care Subsidy approved for Before School Care, Preschool and After School Care. Please give us a ring to book a guided tour. 6257 2990

05.01.2022 During Spring Vacation Care, the children engaged in a variety of activities including: Handmade Crafts, Science Day, World Habitat Day and Garden Day. They designed and created their own cushion covers by choosing different materials and optional extras. They also worked on their fine motor skills by weaving their own patterns on mesh squares using strips of material, lace and twine. On Science Day, the children explored how to create ‘A Storm in a Cup’ by creating a cloud on top of water and observing the ‘rain’ effect underneath the cloud. There were also several wet and rainy days which provided a small flood around the mud pit! This provided an opportunity for the children to engage in water play which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

05.01.2022 Enrolling now for Preschool 2021. Please enjoy our virtual tour of our Early Learning Centre and contact us on 6257 2990 or [email protected] for further information.

04.01.2022 Enrolling Now - Get in quick! Our enrolment period ends on the 22nd of May for Preschool 2021.

04.01.2022 Thank you to our lovely ELC families who were involved in our "social-distance working bee" on the long weekend. They raked leaves, weeded and mulched, to help maintain our beautiful environment and play area for the children.

03.01.2022 The children have been developing confidence in the preschool environment and are engaging in a variety of experiences. They have been expressing their ideas using a range of media including painting and drawing. The children have also been experimenting and demonstrating their problem solving skills by designing and constructing in the outdoor environment.

03.01.2022 Following the children’s interest in the song ‘Popcorn’ a lesson was planned where students were invited to listen to the music, consider the tempo, apply simple symbols to represent fast and slow and then ‘write’ their own music. As a large group the children then painted the tempo of the music they were listening to onto the paper. Afterwards the children then read the music’ back. Dots representing fast and lines or swirls representing slow.

02.01.2022 This week Rainbow Turtles enjoyed mulching the ELC entrance garden. Children demonstrated a great team effort by planning the jobs and sharing responsibilities. They helped by transporting the mulch from the large mulch piles, using wheelbarrows while some children enjoyed filling buckets to move the mulch. It was a wonderful team effort and the garden now looks amazing.

02.01.2022 Rainbow Turtles, After School Care, have been expressing their interest in dress ups. They had the opportunity to choose their favourite costumes and experimented with the new dress ups by role playing many different characters and scenarios. Role playing gives them an opportunity to strengthen relationships and improve their communication skills.

01.01.2022 Our ELC children had a wonderful time performing at the St Joseph's School musical "A Night In The Library". It is wonderful to be part of our whole school community.

01.01.2022 St Joseph's ELC has had a wonderful year getting to know all of our preschool children and their families. We look forward to welcoming back some of our Preschool children next year and wish everyone else a great 2020 in your new classes. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

01.01.2022 The ELC children have experienced the Hatching Chicks program this week. They enjoyed watching as the chicks and ducklings hatched out of their eggs and were given the chance to hold them. This links in well with our religious education unit for Term 3, Sensing God and learning about God's creations.

01.01.2022 The Blue Gecko (BOW) class celebrated Grandparents Day 2020. The children drew pictures for their grandparents and then walked to the post office to post them. The children shared their memories of their favourite things to do with their grandparents and participated in a prayer of gratitude for the role their grandparents play in their lives.