Maths Information

Maths information night

Tuesday the 6^th of May

5 to 6pm

(For parents only)

The information night will be held in your child’s neighbourhood and will focus on how games can be utilised for developing conceptual understanding in number and enumeration.

The night will explore questions and techniques that parents can use to allow their children to further develop their understandings and identify misconceptions.

We look forward to seeing you there.  It promises to be both an informative and fun evening.

My Secret Message

After reading 'Max' by Bob Graham, the preps discussed the small super deeds that we can do at school to be small superheros too. One of the good deeds was saying something nice to someone. In pairs the children wrote a 'secret' message' to their partner that would make them feel nice. The children used their listening skills to sound out the words as they wrote and most of all - had a go!

Superhero Masks

The preps have been designing their own mask to hide their true identity and feel more in the role of their superhero self. After making templates for their mask some students have begun to make them out of felt with the help of a volunteer parent in learning agreement time.

Zoo Excursion: Parent Helpers

Next week (week 3) the Prep Neighbourhood are going to the Melbourne Zoo to hunt for patterns. The Neighbourhood is going over 2 days, Prep H & M are going on Wednesday and Prep E & J are going on Thursday. 
Melbourne Zoo allows us to bring 1 adult for every 5 children for free this means we can take 5 parent helpers for free each day. Other parents are welcome, but will have to pay entry. A sign up list will be placed on the Parents Helper board in the courtyard. 

Knitting Club!

We had such an overwhelming response to our knitting club in the first week and we would like to thank all the children who attended. Thank you also to the teachers who came along and assisted us.  Thanks Anne Maree and Luisa. Also a big thank you to Hebo’s mum who came along to help. 

Trying to cast on and instruct many children how to knit can be tricky.  Parents and grandparents are welcome to come along on, Thursday’s at lunch time 11.10 and 11.40 am, and help.  If your child is interested in knitting can you please send them along to school with a pair of knitting needles and wool (we have some supplies but they were limited on the day).  It would be a great help if parents could cast on (about 40 stitches for a blanket square) and knit a couple of rows to start your child off.

Thanks again for your support

Jessica and Sia

Week 2 Happenings!

Please Return Zoo Excursion Notices

Parent helpers still needed for Learning Agreement

Monday
Art: Prep J & E 

Tuesday
Assembly: Farewell Esme!
Character Workshop with Aidan (Bug group)

Wednesday
PMP (Parent helpers still needed)

Thursday
Italian: Prep M & H

Friday
Italian & Sport: Prep J & E
Art & Sport: Prep M & H

Super Hero Skills Training

The Prep children have participated in a SuperHero Skills Training workshop with Super Maddy. After reciting the 'Super Hero Oath', the Preps eagerly took part in the circuit. Skills that were developed: Speed Agility Accuracy Superhero Landing Balance After sufficient training was had, the Preps participated in a game which testing their speed and memories (remembering 4 things to touch in the yard before meeting at the SuperHero Head Quarters). They developed their super hearing through games where they had to listen for the SuperHero call whilst covering their eyes then guessing where Super Maddy was hiding. Well done Super Preps!

Week 2: Parent Helpers for Learning Agreement

Making Mask: The children designed masks to hide their identity as part of the Superhero Training . We are looking for 2 parent helpers per session to help the children make the masks out of felt and elastic. 

Writing books: In the Learning Commons the children will have the opportunity to write their own books using their imagination. We are looking for 2 parent helpers per session to assist the children writing these books. This could be by helping the children to find the words on the word wall or in the picture dictionaries, encouraging them to sound out words or scribing their ideas. 

Learning Agreement Times:
Monday: 9:15 - 10:30
Tuesday: 9:45 - 10:30 (after assembly)
Wednesday: 12:30 - 1:30 (after lunch)
Thursday: 9:15 - 10:30

If you can help please sign up on the Parent Helpers Board in the courtyard. 

Flying High in the Sky!

As part of our super hero training the preps have been involved with many super experiences. One experience was practicing flying and using their imagination to think of what it would be like to fly. Students may go on to use this experience to write a story or description of their superhero in Learning Agreement.

Term 2 - Week 1 Happenings!

Welcome back!

Tuesday
ANZAC Assembly & Coffee Cart
Superhero Training 

Wednesday 
Superhero Training

Thursday
Prep M & Prep H have Italian

Friday
ANZAC Day

Knitting Club

In term 2 and 3, Sia (year 2) and Jessica (Prep) will be starting a knitting club at lunchtime.  The knitting club has two aims, one to develop knitting skills and secondly for the more competent knitters to knit for the penguins.  As part of our whole school inquiry into ‘Change’,

How can we be the change we want to see in the world? 

We are knitting jumpers for penguins who have been caught up in oil spills.

Knitted Penguin Jumpers

This is not a fashion statement!

These knitted penguin jumpers play an important role in saving little penguins affected by oil pollution. A patch of oil the size of a thumb nail can kill a little penguin. Oiled penguins often die from exposure and starvation. Oil separates and mats feathers, allowing water to get in which makes a penguin very cold, heavy and less able to successfully hunt for food.

When oiled penguins are admitted to the Wildlife Clinic at Phillip Island Nature Parks, a knitted jumper is placed on the penguins to prevent them from preening and swallowing the toxic oil before they are washed and the oil removed by staff.

453 little penguins were affected by the last major oil spill near Phillip Island in 2001. 96% were successfully saved and rehabilitated at the Wildlife Clinic and released back into the wild.

Other websites for your information:

ABC penguins 

The knitting club will be held on Thursday at the start of lunch break until 11.40am.  We would appreciate if children brought along their own needles and wood.  Experienced parent, teacher and student helpers are welcome. 

Parent Helpers: Learning Agreement

This term the Prep team will be asking for parent (grandparent) helpers to assist in specific Learning Agreement tasks. Your child may not be involved in the Learning Agreement task, but the Neighbourhood will greatly appreciatedyour involvement and it is a lovely way to get to know your child's peers. A sign up sheet will be in the Prep courtyard outlining the task, how many helpers are needed, the day and time. If you would able to help please add your name to the sign up sheet. If the sheet is full don't worry there will be plenty of opportunities to help in the Prep Neighbourhood this year.

Action Required: PMP Helpers

The Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) will be running each week in Term 2. It will be on Wednesday mornings from 9.15 – 10.15. The children will participate different activities at stations around the gym; each one focusing on developing a particular motor skill. Any parents who are available and keen to help out with running one of the stations, please pop your name on the PMP sheet out the front of the Learning Commons.

Many thanks

Kids Matter Survey

Dear Parents,

Princes Hill Primary School has taken up the Australian Government initiative called KidsMatter. The school's KidsMatter action team is currently collecting data from the school community to assist in the planning and implementation of the framework. We would be grateful if you could take the time to complete the online survey that is attached (approx. 15 mins).

Thank You



KidsMatter_Parent_Survey.pdf

We found patterns!

Our Maths Inquiry into patterns has lead us to seeing and hearing patterns in a variety of places:

This week Tom saw a pattern in the short date: 1/4/14 - do you see the pattern

Lola stated: The days of the week is a pattern

Matteo recognised a movement pattern today when we played follow the leader

We danced the Macarena which is pattern and created our own 8 beat dance patterns.

In The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle there was a growing pattern as the caterpillar ate one more piece of food each day.

We sang growing pattern when we sand Mr Clicketty Cane by Peter Combes.

We saw many pattern on the xylophones: The letters on the keys ABCDEFG we repeated, the size of the keys was a growing.

Knowing and seeing patterns can help us read as many of the books we read have a text pattern.

Here are some patterns we saw in nature on our pattern

The Teddy Bears Picnic

The Prep children have been counting down the sleeps to the Teddy Bears Picnic and this morning the Neighbourhood was buzzing with excitement. We were all a little worried that rain would ruin our picnic, but in the end the weather was perfect, overcast and not too hot.

In the morning we used the teddies in our Maths workshop, we ordered the teddies from smallest to largest and classified them according a variety of features including size, colour, what they were wearing and how many colours were on the teddy.
The teddies were also used in our writing workshops, the children described their teddies using adjectives and wrote a simple sentence about their teddy. We have started an adjective wall so we can use the descriptive words in our writing next term.

We ventured to the Railway Park after lunch with our teddies in hand. When we arrived the children sang the 'Teddy Bears Picnic' song beautifully and then we enjoyed all the yummy food that the families brought in to share and had a play on the fantastic play equipment in the park.

We all had a lovely day and a few tears were shed as we packed  up because the children didn't want the picnic to end.

Thank you to all the family and friends of the Prep Neighbourhood who helped make the Teddy Bears Picnic such a special day.

Teddy Bears Picnic

Action Required: Parent Contact Forms

Hello everyone, 

 

Thanks to those who have completed their contact details for the neighborhood lists and parent reps. We are still missing about 1/2 of the schools forms. It seems the form is a bit confusing, we apologize for that and will look at amending it for next year. In the meantime there will be forms in the classrooms to be completed and returned to your homeroom teacher who will then pass on to your parent rep. If you have not returned one can you please fill it out. Even if you don't want to be included on the list there is that option to fill in. If we have a form from every parent then the parent reps will not have to contact you individually to see what you want to do. 

 

Thank you,

Tina Winn

On behalf of the Community Relations Committee