Prep Assembly Video!

Reader's Notebook

Starting this week, we will be using the Reader's Notebook every Friday as a part of the library session.

The preps will respond to a book read during library each week in order to help them express what they have read and develop their confidence when discussing books. 

We will also be regularly checking to see what the preps have done in their Reader's Notebook at home.

Can you please ensure that your child has their Reader's Notebook at school every Friday. 

Thanks,

The Prep Team

Week 8 Happenings

Monday

• Learning Agreement

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement
• Indigenous Book Swap 

Thursday

• Guided reading
• Physical Education: Prep E
• Art: Prep H 
• Italian: Prep M
  
  

 Friday

FATHERS DAY STALL 9.10 - 9.30

• Inquiry 
• Library
• Music
• Assembly: 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Learning Focus Week 8

Maths: Continued exploration of equally sharing amounts; eg - At the dinner party there are 5 people and 10 pies. How many pies can be shared so that everyone has the same?

Literacy: The preps will have clear direction towards their writing goals. The preps have been introduced to the genre of invitation writing and have created their own invitations. They will continue to learn strategies for reading through guided reading sessions with clear learning intentions. 

Inquiry: How do cultures around the world celebrate? Responding to photos of celebrations by writing and discussing what they saw in the image. List the wonderings about the image.

Wellbeing: The preps have been exploring how we can be grateful towards people who do something kind for us (eg. sharing a treat), and how to respect others when we are feeling silly. 

Maths in Learning Agreement

Book Week Costumes!

It was delightful to see the children turn up as a book character during Book Week. They enjoyed listening to many stories throughout the week and sharing a book with another child from year one and two. Here are some photos...

Prep Assembly tomorrow

It is the Prep Assembly, this Friday the 28th of August.

Unfortunately, due to the unavoidable clash of swimming, Orange group swimmers won't be attending this one.

We are looking forward to sharing our learning and the video will be posted on the blog for those who miss out.

Science show in the Prep Neighbourhood.

After lunch today, some of the Prep neighbourhood were treated to a science show. Afterwards we worked together to write a recount of the experience.

Today Sam, Tase's dad, came to school to show us some science experiments. He teaches science to high school kids. Sam likes to practice experiments all the time. We learnt about clear and colourless liquids. He made clear liquid turn bright pink and yellow. He also turned clear liquid black. We sang 'Abra Cadabra..Fim Fam Fime! Abra Cadabra..Water to wine!' and the water changed colour! Sam made a little explosion - it went POP! Sam told us about how he had a pet elephant as a child and used to make him special toothpaste. He made it for us and it looked really cool. It just kept growing bigger and bigger! We are excited to learn more about science.

Premier’s Reading Challenge Deadline

Hi everyone,

Congratulations to those of you who have already finished the Premier’s Reading Challenge and have entered their books online. The deadline is fast approaching. You still have time to finish reading and enter your books online.

What you must do now: You have two more weeks to enter your books online. You must print out your book list, have a guardian sign it, and then give it to your home group teacher by Tuesday 8th September.

What we will do: One of your teachers will verify your books online to say you have met the challenge. The certificates will be awarded in Term 4.

If you have trouble logging on please let one of your teachers know as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Simone and Robert 

Week 7 Learning Focus

Maths: Continued exploration of equally sharing amounts; eg - At the dinner party there are 5 people and 10 pies. How many pies can be shared so that everyone has the same?

Literacy: The Preps will continue to deepen their understanding of writing conventions; introduce the use of commas when writing about more than one idea. We will introduce a new genre of writing – invitations. They will continue to practice strategies for reading through guided reading sessions with clear learning intentions.

Inquiry: How do we celebrate friendship? Exploring how other countries/cultures celebrate.

Wellbeing: Revisit how to 'fill buckets' around the Neighbourhood.

Week 7 Happenings

Monday

• PMP 9.10 - 10.00
• SWIMMING (Group 1: 12.20 - 2.00, Group 2: 1.20 - 3.00)

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement 
• SWIMMING (Group 1: 12.20 - 2.00, Group 2: 1.20 - 3.00)

Thursday

• Junior School Book Week Parade
• Guided reading
• Physical Education: Prep E
• Art: Prep H 
• Italian: Prep M
  
  

 Friday

• Inquiry 
• Library
• Music
• SWIMMING (Group 1: 12.20 - 2.00, Group 2: 1.20 - 3.00
• PREP Assembly 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Parent Culture Sharing!

Parent Sharing!

We have been exploring our new inquiry question:

How do we celebrate friendship?

We have noticed that there are a lot of families in the prep neighbourhood that may have valuable knowledge of other cultures. We are inviting parents to share their knowledge of another culture with the preps.

Because we are looking at how we celebrate, we want to look deeper into cultural identities and cultural diversity. We would love if you could come in and share something that might enlighten the preps in other ways of how to celebrate with each other.

You might like to share:

-      a game from another country.

-      Cooking food from another culture.

-      Storytelling.

-      Photos/ videos.

-      Songs/music.

-      Costumes or dance.

-      Craft.

If you could write down your name and details of what you would be able to share and from which country it is linked to, we will begin to know whether we will be able to have a whole morning of parents sharing all at once or individual sharing during Learning Agreement. We will contact you when we have enough interest to organize it.

Our sincere thanks,

The Prep Team

This Thursday Book Week Dress up

A reminder that this Thursday the children can dress up as a book character of their choice. We will be celebrating Book Week by having a dress up parade and some shared reading with all children in the junior school.

We look forward to seeing what characters come to school!

Wednesday Swimming Clothes

Dear parents/carers,
We have been informed that on Wednesday the children are required to bring some old clothes to wear on top of their swimming clothes for a swimming safety session. The children will be wearing the clothes in the water to help them experience the feeling of wearing clothes in the water.

Thank you,

The Prep Team

SWIMMING - preparation

We had an excellent start to our swimming program on Monday.

Some ideas which will support your child during swimming

1. Get them changed into their swimmers before school. (Make sure a full change of clothes is packed in their swimming bag)
2. Pack a plastic bag for their swimmers to go into
3. Put a water bottle in their bag
4. If possible, choose footwear which is easy to take off and put on. 

Many thanks to the parent helpers who came! 

Weel 6 Learning Focus

Maths: Continued exploration of ways to count more efficiently; counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. The Preps will be introduced to the concept of sharing an amount into equal quantities.

Literacy: Writing about a celebration that they have been to. 'At my party there was....' They will be writing about the experience of swimming, brainstorming different words to describe swimming and exploring different word families (e.g. swim, swimming, swam / splash, splashed, splashing)

Inquiry:  What emotions do we feel at swimming?

Wellbeing: How can we draw the different feelings that we have? Link to 'My Many Coloured Days' text about how colours can help show our different emotions.

Book Week

Saturday the 22nd to Friday the 28th is Children's Book Week.

To celebrate, the Junior School will be dressing up as their favourite character on Thursday the 27th of August (next Thursday).

The student's will also be voting for their favourite book of the shortlisted books for the Children's Book of the Year (displayed in the library). We have been reading these during library times this week.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone dressed up!

Thanks,
The Prep Team

PMP

Thank you to all the parent helpers that helped PMP to run so smoothly this week.

Here are some photos of the preps working hard at PMP!

Don't forget to sign up on the sheet or let a teacher know if you are interested in helping out with PMP on Monday morning.

Thanks,
The Prep Team

Science Week

To kick off science week, the preps were involved in some experiments during Learning Agreement. In the art studio, we tried the rainbow in a jar experiment that we saw on this video.

Ours didn't work like the one in the video, but we did have a good time mixing up the colours!

The Prep Team

Week 6 Happenings

Monday

• PMP 9.10 - 10.00
• SWIMMING (Group 1: 12.20 - 2.00, Group 2: 1.20 - 3.00)

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement 
• SWIMMING (Group 1: 12.20 - 2.00, Group 2: 1.20 - 3.00)
• Handwriting 

Thursday

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

 Friday

• Inquiry 
• Library
• Music

• SWIMMING (Group 1: 12.20 - 2.00, Group 2: 1.20 - 3.00)
• Assembly 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Bus times for swimming

To the parents who are attending swimming,

Group 1 will be leaving school at 12.20 and returning at 2.00.

Group 2 will be leaving school at 1.20 and returning at 3.00.

Come a little earlier to allow time to sign in at the office.

Many thanks,

The Prep Team

Swimming on Monday

  

 A reminder to all parents and carers,

Swimming begins on Monday and we ask that you please ensure your child bring a separate bag with your child's name on it to take to the pool. We recommend that, if possible children wear their bathers, pack a towel, spare dry underwear and goggles.

Science Week

Princes Hill Primary School is participating in National Science Week 2015, 15th – 23^rd August, as a way of further promoting science in our school. Science activities will be scheduled to run in each neighbourhood next week. 

We want to encourage children to try more science at home and at school.

We also encourage parents who are interested in science or work in a field of science to come along and talk to the children about the work that they do.  

Please contact your child’s teachers to book in a time to organize a talk, demonstration or a hands-on activity that the children can participate in.

Thank you for your support.

Swimming next week

We would greatly appreciate a few parent helpers to come assist with swimming next week.

If you are keen to come, please pop your name onto the swimming helper sheet on the parent notice board.

Green and Purple groups will attend the session at 12.50pm
and Orange group will be at 1.45pm.

The exact time of arrival and departure for each group is TBA. Stay tuned.

Many thanks,

The Prep team

Week 5 Happenings

Monday

• PMP
• Reading, writing and mathematics workshops

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement
• Reading, Writing and Mathematics workshops
• Handwriting

Thursday

• Learning Agreement
• Reading, writing and mathematics workshops
• Italian: Prep M
• Physical Education: Prep E
• Art: Prep H 
• Guided reading

 Friday

• Wonderings
• Wellbeing and mathematics workshops
• Library
• Singing
• Assembly 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Week 5 Learning Focus

Maths: The children will continue to explore representing teen numbers using tens frames. We will explore ways of counting more efficiently; counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. Some children will have the opportunity to create and analyse graphs through the football card and animal mini-inquiry.

Literacy: The children are exploring celebrations; in particular birthdays. We are finding out how many children have birthdays in each month, season and year. We will be writing ‘I was born on the ____ of ______.’ The children will continue to be challenged to add more detail to their reflection

Inquiry:  What emotions do we feel?

Wellbeing: When have we all felt happy? What made us feel this way?

Party photo

We would like all children in the Prep neighbourhood to bring in a photo of themselves at a party or celebration. We are exploring the different types of celebrations that we have. Please bring in by Friday next week.

Happenings last week in Learning Agreement!

David Hornsby Parent Information Night Summary

Literacy consultant David Hornsby conducted a parent information night on Tuesday the 28^th of July on how parents can support their children with reading. The focus of the day was on how we can develop thoughtful literacy with our children.

David spoke about the pivotal role of content knowledge in the making-meaning process that is reading.   Meaning generated by the reader will be influenced by the background knowledge they bring to the text. With this key idea in mind, David emphasised the role parents can play in ‘stirring-up’ their child’s background knowledge around the content of the texts they are reading.  This requires parents talking about the content of the books your children are reading before, during and after reading.  What do you think this text is about?  What do you know about…?  What do you think you will learn about…?  What did you learn about…?  What would you like to learn more about…? Where can we go to find out more about…?

David also emphasised the importance of teaching phonics, but always within the meaningful context of a whole text. He spoke emphatically about the importance of starting with a whole complete text before dealing with abstract decoding practices such as sounding out words.  ‘Meaning is the way into phonics’.

David spoke passionately about the centrality of the Literature strand in our national curriculum and the importance of quality literature for building thoughtful, feeling, literate citizens. ‘We hit them in the heart, before we hit them in the head’.

David’s presentation was appreciated by all the parents and staff who attended for the clarity, poise and humour in which it was delivered.  

 David is away at the moment but is happy for the presentation slides he used on the night to be shared with the community. Once these slides are made available, they will be posted on your child’s neighbourhood blog.

Tim Aris

Head of Curriculum

THE GREAT BOOK SWAP

As part of Indigenous Literacy Day on Wednesday September 2, we are holding a Great Book Swap to help raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to buy books for remote indigenous communities who don’t have access to books. There are schools involved all across Australia and the target is $100,000 to buy 10,000 books.

If every child can please bring a book (or books) to school that they love but no longer want and a gold coin donation on Weds Sept 2, then they can be part of the book swap. By donating a gold coin, they can then swap their book for a new book that someone else has donated.

1. Books need to be dropped off in the gym before school starts, and the swap will happen at lunch time.

2. If you're wanting to swap more than one book, it's a gold coin for each book you want to swap. So if you swap five books, it's five coins.

3. This year if you want take home a junior book, please donate a junior book. If you want take home an older book, please donate an older book. Otherwise we end up with lots of books for little kids, but no books for the older kids.

4. Please don't donate school readers, library books, board books or really young picture books. Please just donate books you think someone will love!

See you all on Weds September 3 so we can raise money, and all have a terrific new book to take home.

Junior School Library Change!

There has been a change to where the Junior school library/ take home books are stored. They are now located in the main library (see picture below) and parents, carers and students will be asked to please scan the books into the system if borrowing before school. Our staff member Leigh will be there to assist you in the library from 8:45am to 9 am. We hope that the transition into this new system goes smoothy and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask a teacher.

Leigh has also ordered the six shortlisted picture story books for Children's Book of the year and will be encouraging students to read these and vote for which one should win the prize.

THE 3rd Annual PHPS TRIVIA NIGHT

THE 3rd Annual PHPS TRIVIA NIGHT

THIS YEARS THEME – THE 80’s – PLEASE DRESS UP

(TABLES OF 10)

 

WHEN:                                  Saturday 15th August, 2015

 

WHERE:                                The Gymnasium

 

WHAT TIME:                       7pm for 7.30pm Question Start

 

WHAT COST:                      $10 per person

 

WHAT DO I BRING?         Food, drinks, humour and your favourite 80’s outfit

 

WHY:                                     To have some fun people!!!

 

HOW DO I BOOK A TABLE? Contact Kathryn Fraser on Kathryn@jonestid.com.au

(Don’t have enough for a table of 10? Contact me and I can help you out – the main thing is you come!)

Reading with your child - learning blends

Texts by Pamela Allen are excellent in supporting your child to learn 'blends' (the sounds that two letters make when they are put together).

For example:

'cl'



'oo' 'ee'



'sh'

Blue day

This Friday is BLUE DAY!

Come to school dressed in blue and support UNICEF. UNICEF is the United Nations Children's Fund. It works in 190 countries and territories with a focus on improving the lives of the most disadvantaged and excluded children. 

Gold coin donations can be handed to your home group teacher in the morning.

Prizes will be awarded to the bluest person in each Neighbourhood.

For more information about UNICEF visit this link: http://www.unicef.org.au/about-us.aspx

Week 4 Happenings

Monday

• PMP
• Reading, writing and mathematics workshops

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

• Learning Agreement
• Reading, Writing and Mathematics workshops
• Handwriting

Thursday

• Learning Agreement
• Reading, writing and mathematics workshops
• Italian: Prep M
• Physical Education: Prep E
• Art: Prep H 
• Guided reading

 Friday 

• BLUE DAY
• Wonderings
• Wellbeing and mathematics workshops
• Library
• Singing
• Assembly 3 - 3.30pm in the Gym (pick up from the Prep neighbourhood)

Week 4 Learning Focus

Week 4 Learning Focus

Inquiry Question - How do we affect other peoples emotions and how do you know what other feel are feeling?

Reading: The children will continue to expand their strategies for reading through a range of reading experiences. The children will be explore emotion through ‘My many coloured days’ and complete ‘Colour symbol image’ reading response. We will make a book where they can match photos of faces to feeling names.

Writing:  Writing an explanation of their ‘island'. Writing a reflection of Learning Agreement – with focus on writing goals. Handwriting practice.

Numeracy: The children will explore how to represent teen numbers using tens frames. Some children will be given the opportunity to represent larger numbers using bundles of 10 and 1s.

Wellbeing: Body language. How can we read the signs of other people to understand how they might be feeling? We will be exploring face, tone of voice and body movement.

 

Wellbeing workshop - Body language

Today the Preps participated in a workshop about body language. Learn to 'read the signs' that people give us that let us know how they are feeling and is an important skill to learn that promotes positive relationships. If children recognise how someone is feeling through their body language, they can try to support their peers; giving them space to calm down if they are feeling cross, giving a hug if a friend is feeling sad or recognising that someone is feeling left out and including them.

Body language

• facial expressions
• tone of voice
• body placement / movement

PMP

Here are some photos of the kids in action during PMP today.

Many thanks to the parents who came to help.

Gardening Group

This Friday, the 7th of August, there will be a Gardening Group happening.

If you would like to be involved, meet at the veggie plot near the gym just after the 9am bell.

There are lots of seedlings to be planted and plots to be prepared for the neighbourhoods to plant out.

Please come along if you are free and interested!!

Books we have been reading...

The preps have read and discussed "The Terrible Suitcase" below. The book involved a girl who is angry about having a suitcase instead of a back pack but during the course of the story she realizes she just needs her imagination to turn things around and make others around her happy too. As we have begun to talk about our emotions in our inquiry, this was a great book for the children to relate to.