PHPS Gardening Club Committee Invites You…

A meeting of the Gardening Club will be held on Monday 5 August 5.00-6.00pm in the Meeting Room, new red brick building.

Please come along and support the Committee and our gardening plans. To receive the agenda and previous minutes in advance, please contact the Convenor.

Charles Pinnuck e) charles.pinnuck@serco-ap.com.au

 

Counting On

This week in mathematics the Prep Neighbourhood has been focused on the concept of 'counting on from the larger number'. In our workshops we played a game called 'Around the World'. The game begins when 2 dice are rolled at the same time and the players add the 2 numbers together as fast as possible. The children were encouraged to identify the highest number first and to count on from that number to add the lower number and therefore find the total. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this game and may like to play with you at home.

Action Required: Lost Property

If your child has lost clothes or Tupperware please come and take in our lost property box located outside of room 11 in the courtyard.

Telling Our Stories

 

 

Today we started to share stories about our community, the Prep Neighbourhood. The children shared a story from their lives with a partner (later the children will write their partner's story). As the weather was so lovely we held this workshop outside in the courtyard. You may like to ask your child what they learnt about their partner's life. If you would like share a story from your life with the Neighbourhood please speak with a member of the Prep team. We would love to organise a time for members of our wider community to share their stories.

 

Nina shared Iris's story to the Neighbourhood



Our Sustainable School

Maintaining PHPS 4 Star Sustainability Rating & Moving to 5 Stars!!

Our school has a strong history of working to have an environmentally sustainable learning community where biodiversity and waste minimisation are encouraged and valued. The school currently has a 4 Star rating with the Resource Smart Aussi Vic scheme. PHPS needs to demonstrate compliance with the scheme in order to maintain our rating when re-accreditation occurs in early 2014.

 

One of the tasks involves going through our school archives and copying the various energy, water, waste and paper bills. The data will be used to measure our consumption and to track how we are reducing our ecological footprint.

 

The Science and Sustainability Committee is seeking a volunteer to locate our various energy/waste bills from 2012. We expect this project might involve, more or less 5-6 hours.

 

To volunteer for the ‘Bills Project’, please contact Mark Riley (Library) or Alexandra Hilvert (34 N2). Or, email: riley.mark.g@edumail.vic.gov.au. Thanks

Premier's Reading Challenge Information

Thank you for supporting your child in the Premier's Reading Challenge. The final cut-off date for completing the required reading is Friday 30th August. When your child has completed the challenge, please ensure that  all the books they have read have been entered online using their username and password.

IMPORTANT: The booklist then needs to be printed, with your child's name and homegroup and signed by a parent and returned to their teacher by the Monday 9th September. Once this has been returned, the books will be verified on the system by the coordinators and your child will receive their certificate when they are printed by PRC.

Please remember: Children in Prep must read 30 books in total with at least 20 from the Challenge booklist.

Thank you, Sia

Our caring community

As part of our inquiry ‘Our Caring Community’ in term 3 the children in our neighbourhood were asked to tell us: - What is a community?  We used the Visible Thinking routine ‘Chalk Talk’ for children to develop their thoughts.  ‘Chalk Talk’ is a teaching routine to build understanding in a collaborative way.  Children were asked to write on a piece of paper what they thought the word ‘community’ means.  The term ‘Chalk Talk’ refers to the chalk/pen/texta doing the talking rather than our mouths (in our case it was the texta).    ‘Chalk Talk’ a silent visual conversation and children were required to write their thoughts without talking.

Here are examples of some of the children’s thoughts:-

 
 

 

(Sorry the photos are the wrong way around, but we can't change it. We hope you can still read the children's thinking.)

After presenting children’s written responses to the neighbourhood, the children further discussed the common thread of thought and developed some common understandings.

The following understandings of ‘What is a community?’ were developed by our neighbourhood.

Trivia Night

Trivia Night

Telling our stories

Last week Oliver Baldwin’s mum Belinda came into the writing space to talk to children about telling someone else’s story.  Belinda is an academic and journalist and described how she has written books and articles on other people and told their stories.  Children were given the task of writing the story of another child.  Some children chose to tell their own story.  Here is an example of some of the wonderful stories the children wrote and are continuing to write in the writing space.

Nina chose to write Iris’ story. 

 

Iris’ Story

By Nina Bagaric

Iris went to London.

Iris went to Big Ben.

Then, Iris went to Paris.

After Iris went to Paris,

she went to the Eiffel Tower too.

She went on the aeroplane

and she unpacked.

She had a rest.

 

 

 

Week 3 Happenings

Tuesday
9:00 Assembly: Preps present their learning  
9:30 Coffee Cart: The Prep Team will be available for a chat

Wednesday
Library: Please return your books

Learning Agreeement: The Art Space

The focus in the art space during Learning Agreement has been creating artworks for our community.

In week 1 the children made collages and small sculptures to show the community what they saw at Scienceworks. This can be seen in the courtyard outside room 12.

This week the children have been working on 2 projects, creating a Prep City and creating a Neighbourhood Paper Quilt. The Neighbourhood Paper Quilt was made up of weaving squares and symmetrical cutting squares. The result is beautiful.

Our bulbs are growing!

The bulbs we planted at the Botanical Gardens are growing. Some lovely grade 2 children have planted them in the courtyard garden. Please come and take a look, when do you think it will flower?

The Preps identify with the Kimochi characters.

The children participated in a workshop today where reflected on each of the Kimochi characters and the characteristics that make them unique. After each Kimochi was introduced, the children were asked to identify with which character they felt had similar characteristics.

Cat is a leader who can sometimes be a bit bossy. Bug can be afraid to try new things. Lovey Dove likes to help out and solve any problems with the Kimochis. Huggtopus can get very excited and needs to learn boundaries. Clover is very funny and also quite forgetful. Bella Rose is friendly but takes a while to warm to people. Cloud's mood can be a bit unpredictable.

Lottie visits Princes Hill.

This afternoon, Anton brought in his beautiful puppy Lottie to share with Prep M. The children asked Anton interesting questions about Lottie and then Lottie had a wander around to say hello to everyone. She was very excited to meet them! The children used the thinking routine "Think, pair, share" to think about words that described Lottie.

Thank you to Bridget, Aleksei and Yvette for joining in our sharing today. It was great to meet and learn about the new addition to your family.

What we learnt about Lottie:

• She is a Border Collie X Blue Heeler
• She is from a farm
• She sleeps in a box
• She barks at bigger dogs (and Lottie barks at Anton when he barks at her!)
• She is friends with Linki the kitten (they are from the same farm)
• She likes to chew things

Words that describe Lottie:

• cute
• furry
• hairy
• black and white
• chewy
• energetic
• friendly

Assembly

The Prep Neighbourhood will be sharing their learning at the whole school assembly next Tuesday (30th July). The Prep team will be available for a chat at the coffee cart after the assembly between 9:30 - 10am.

The assembly in week 5 (13th August) has been cancelled due to an in school conference.

Seminar: Responsible kids – At home and at school

Professor Ramon Lewis, from the La Trobe University Faculty of Education, is conducting a seminar exploring the use of different forms of power to gain responsible behaviour from children and to foster a sense of responsibility.
Professor Lewis has worked with many Victorian schools, especially in the former northern metropolitan region, and is well-known for his research and writing on child behaviour.
The seminar – in an interactive workshop format – is suited to parents, carers and educators (primary and secondary) and is a free event with limited places. Bookings are required.

 

Event details: Alumni Seminar: Responsible kids – at home and at school

Date: Thursday, 25 July 2013

Time: 6.00pm start followed by drinks and canapés at 7.30pm

Venue: Mezzanine Level/The Spring Street Conference Centre

Address: 1 Spring St., Melbourne (enter via Flinders Lane)

RSVP: by 19 July 2013 to k.micallef@latrobe.edu.au

 

Further information

Contact Kali Micallef (La Trobe University Alumni) on 9479 3832 or by email: k.micallef@latrobe.edu.au or Rhonda Jewell: r.jewell@latrobe.edu.au .

 

Salt Crystals

In the maths/science room, the children have had the opportunity to take part in a science experiment where they can grow their own crystals. The crystals are made from a salt and water solution. Thank you to Anna for your assistance in running the experiment.

It will be great to see the crystal grow!

Week 2 Happenings

Tuesday
9 - 10: Assembly (Instrumental Music) and coffee cart

Wednesday
Library: Please return your books so you can borrow new books

Welcome Back!

The Prep Team would like to welcome everyone back to school for an action packed term 3. It was lovely to see everyone today and hear all about your holidays. We are lucky to begin the term with an excursion to Scienceworks on Wednesday. We would like to welcome Amrita and her family to the Prep Neighbourhood. Amrita has moved here from England and is in Prep J. Please continue to regularly check the blog for information about what is happening in the Prep Neighbourhood.

Action Required: Scienceworks Excursion

The Prep Neighbourhood is going to Scienceworks on Wednesday (17th July) and we are all very excited (Jessica, Sia and Maddy may be more excited than the children). We will be leaving school at 9:15 and returning at approximately 2:30. Children are to bring their lunch and a small snack in a labelled plastic bag for easy transportation. Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who have volunteered to join us. A printed list of helpers will be put up outside of room 11. If you can no longer join us please notify a member of the Prep Team.   

Action Required: Swimming

Expressions of interest for swimming must be returned by tomorrow (Tuesday, 16th July). If your note has not been returned it will assumed your child is not interested in taking part. If you have lost the note please speak with one of the Prep team. Thank you.