End of term finish.

A reminder to all parents that school finishes at 2:30pm tomorrow (Friday). You can pick up your child from the Prep Neighbourhood. We wish you all a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Monster Celebration!

A huge WELL DONE to all the preps for finishing such a busy and exciting first half year of school!!!!! Here are some photos of the Celebration yesterday. We were so proud of what you have achieved and we look forward to the second half of the year with you. We wish all the parents and students a well-deserved, safe and relaxing break.

Purple Group - Pizza Party

The Pizza Party for Purple group will be early next term.

Visual Art News

In term 3 all students will be exploring the work of Australian artist John Wolseley. The NGV Australia is currently showing a wonderful exhibition of Wolseley's work and it would fantastic if students are able to visit the exhibition in the holidays so they are familiar with his work and are able to view it close up. (The intricacies of his line work  and mark making do get lost in photographs and reproductions.)

 

Many thanks,

Hannah Rother-Gelder

Visual Art teacher

 

 

Calling out for stockings!

Nature group are going to be making grass heads for Nature Monster.

If there are any parents who have stockings with holes that they would like to donate, please drop them off to the Learning Commons. Maddy will have a container for them to go in.

Here is a video of what we would like to make during Learning Agreement. (Ours will be slightly different though and made with soil)

Many thanks in advance!

Update on Comfort Group Inquiry

Comfort Group has been very busy during Learning Agreement time. Here are some of the things that we have been doing:

• Creating stories for our Comfort Monster library
• Creating Kimochis and sock puppets
• We talked about the Kimochis and we decided that Comfort Monster is most like Bug and Cloud
• We measured ourselves with our feet, and used Comfort Monster's foot to find out how big he might be

Thanks, Elizabeth

A Big Thankyou

On behalf of the Comfort Group, we would like to say a BIG thankyou to Erin and Russell (Hamish's family) for building us a tent for Comfort Monster. We love it!

Also, thank you to all our wonderful parents who have been helping out in the prep neighbourhood! We very much appreciate your efforts :)

Thanks,

Elizabeth, Hilary and Maddy

Pirate Day next week

Next Friday the 19^th of June is Pirate Day Friday.

This is a fund-raiser for research into child brain cancer.

JSC members will pay a visit to the neighbourhoods a few days before to remind the kids about the day and ask the kids if they could bring in a gold coin donation. On the day, members of the Junior School Council will come and give out white eye-patches for everyone to decorate and will collect the gold coins.

You can visit the link below for more information about the cause.
http://www.piratedayfriday.com/

Planting in our courtyard garden

Nature group have been planting seedlings in the Prep courtyard. They thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different parts of the plant and how to plant them correctly so that they will grow up to be big and strong. Nature Monster loves to work in the garden, so we wanted to make the garden look beautiful for him to enjoy,

We then wrote an instructional text together 'How to plant a seedling'. We will give it Nature Monster to teach him about planting.

Nature Inquiry Group: How many types of leaves are there in our school yard?

The Preps in Nature Group worked in pairs to find different types of leaves in our school yard.

We found a total of 11 different types of leaves found in the section of playground near the 'cat and mouse' area.

We then organised the leaves into a graph and discussed our findings.

Updates from Learning Agreement

Nature Group

We have been very busy preparing the space for Nature Monster's visit!

• Creating beautiful bunting to hang up and decorate the space
• Making Autumn leaves to put on our tree
• Making food for Nature monster to eat
• Toy designing - board games and stick people
• Writing stories to entertain him 
• Planting seedlings in the courtyard garden

Building Group

• Designing and constructing bricks for our giant skyscraper cubby.
• Measuring Building Monster's outline and constructing a box bed for him. How many hands long? Are our hands all the same size? Measuring and comparing those sizes.
• Writing 'Window Stories' to remind Building Monster of things he used to see out of the window of his sky scraper home.
• Making paper aeroplanes to hang from the ceiling to make the monster really feel like he is up high in the sky. We also measured how far each plane flew using our feet. How can we measure – using our feet (toe to heel for accuracy).
• Looking at 3D shapes – how many sides does a box have?

PIZZA PARTY FOR PURPLE GROUP!

Congratulations to Purple group for being the fastest home group to return all their money for the Walkathon!!



If you haven't returned your money, please bring it in ASAP. Many thanks.

Prep Neighbourhood Get Together!

Thank you to our wonderful parent representatives Laura,  Kathy and Erin for organising this...

Help with Paper Mache!

Hello parents,
If anyone has had experience or would like to learn how to paper mache, the Building Monster project group have had the idea to follow instructions and make paper mache hot air balloons and paper aeroplanes to hang from the ceiling. If you can help a small group with this next week please speak to Hilary to arrange a time. Thank you!

Parent Helpers

Dear Prep Parents,

As we move towards our end of term celebration, we are busy creating spaces for our three monsters. If you are available any morning 9-11 or afternoon 2:30-3:30, please approach one of the teachers. We will appreciate any help because we have lots of things to finish!

Here are a list of things that we will need help with:

Comfort Group (Elizabeth)
- Printing on fabric
- Cutting, pasting and sewing a felt blanket
- Filming some stories with puppets
- How to books

Building Group (Hilary)
- Connecting boxes to build a tower
- Painting small boxes (skyscrapers)
- Making counting stories
-

Nature Group (Maddy)
- Grass Heads
- Story books
- Leaf Project

Thanks,
Elizabeth, Hilary and Maddy

Prep Neighbourhood Celebration Afternoon!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We would like to invite you to our end of term celebration in the Prep Neighbourhood on Wednesday the 24th June at 2:30pm to 3:30pm. We will be sharing the three spaces that we have busily been preparing for our special monsters to stay in. 

The preps will sing a song for you and give you a tour of their learning through the inquiry so far. We hope you can join us! If you have any questions please ask one of the prep teachers. 

Prep Monster Assembly Video!

There's a monster in my house!

There's a Monster in My House

Eric Herman

Verse1

There's a monster in my house. I hear it every night.
It sounds like it has big, sharp claws and nasty fangs that bite.
There's a monster in my house. It makes it hard to sleep.
I hear it growling on and on in a voice so scary and deep …

Chorus

There's a monster in my house,

and it's coming after me.
There's a monster in my house.

There's a monster in my house. I shake and scream with fear.

My Mum and Dad come running in, but suddenly there's nothing to hear.
So they go back to their room, and leave me all alone.
But soon enough that sound is back that chills me to the bone …

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!     ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!

 
Now the time has come to face that monster,  once and for all.
Armed with a high-powered squirt gun, I creep out into the hall.
I listen hard to follow the noise, but soon I'm filled with gloom,
for the monster's sound is coming from within my parents' room!

I slink inside the door and see a big lump on the bed.

I shoot a stream of water and it soaks the monster's head!
The lights go on as the monster wakes, and boy is it ever mad.
I guess I should have realised that the monster's just my Dad.   WOOPS!

 

Chorus  (… then  ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!! to end of song)

Blog Subscription

Dear parents, As we have received feedback that some parents were not able to subscribe successfully to blog updates, our school technician has been looking into this. We were notified that the problem should have been resolved. If you are still experiencing problems could you please speak to Hilary in the prep neighbourhood and she will look into it further. Thank you. The Prep team

Week 9 Learning Focus

Maths

• Exploring time and events during of the day
• Sequencing numbers along a number line
• Maths writing piece - "When I first started Prep, I could....Now I know....."

Writing

• Profile writing - each child will introduce themselves we will leave for our monsters to read.
• Learning Agreement reflection
• Reflection about school - "I used to think....Now I think....."

Reading

• Strategies for reading: Using illustration, following the repetition, getting your knowledge ready, using the initial sound and making predictions.
• Guided reading: Small group reading with teacher.
• Step Inside: Understanding character perspectives.

Inquiry:

• Inquiry groups - working individually and collaboratively to create what the inquiry monster needs during the holidays.
• Singing with Deb

Thanks,
The Prep Team

Week 9 Happenings

Week 9 Happenings

 

Monday

• PUBLIC HOLIDAY - Queens Birthday

Tuesday

• Inquiry
• Italian: Prep H and E
• Physical Education: Prep M and H
   
• Art: Prep E and M
   

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement
• Reading, Writing and Mathematics workshops

Thursday

• Learning Agreement
• Italian: Prep M
• Physical education: Prep E
• Art: Prep H 

 Friday 

• Inquiry groups
• Mathematics, Handwriting and Word study
• Library
• Singing
• Assembly 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Action Required

Dear Prep Families,

Last week a green notice went home which was to collect details for the parent reps. If you could fill in this form and return it to your homegroup teacher as soon as possible that would be fantastic.

A reminder that the parent reps are:

Prep E - Kathy Oh
Prep H - Laura Wilson
Prep M - Erin Tibbits

Thanks,
Elizabeth, Hilary and Maddy

Week 8 Happenings

Monday

• Inquiry workshops - monster recipe books
• Totoro film - analysing the features of the monster Totoro and making comparisons with our monsters. Discussing how Totoro's habitat made him feel safe.

Tuesday

• Learning Agreement
• Italian: Prep H and E
• Physical Education: Prep M and H
Art: Prep E and M
 

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement
• Reading, Writing and Mathematics workshops

Thursday

• Learning Agreement
• Italian: Prep M
• Physical education: Prep E
• Art: Prep H 

 Friday 

• Inquiry groups
• Mathematics, Handwriting and Word study
• Library
• Singing
• Assembly 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Week 8 Learning Focus

Here are this weeks learning focuses so that you can support your child at home:

Maths

• Exploring time and events during of the day
• Sequencing numbers along a number line
• Revisiting making 10

Writing

• Illustrating and annotating the events occurring throughout the day.
• Write a profile about themselves. Focus on writing sentences with attention to directionality, letter size and punctuation.

Reading

• Strategies for reading: Using illustration, following the repetition, getting your knowledge ready, using the initial sound and making predictions.
• Guided reading: Small group reading with teacher.
• Kimochis: The children will learn about the importance of positive interactions with their peers by reading Cat’s not so perfect sandcastle and participating in role play.

Inquiry:

• Inquiry groups - working individually and collaboratively to create what the inquiry monster needs during the holidays.
• Singing - There's a monster in my house.

Thanks,
The Prep Team