Thank you and Merry Christmas!

We have had such a wonderful year blogging and making new friends all over the world. We are now beginning our summer holidays and will be back in February 2012. 
Prep K and Mrs Kennedy would love to thank all our families and friends who have supported our blog this year. Special thanks to our friends A3, Miss Mac, Miss Lepou and A4 at Papatoetoe East Primary in New Zealand for sharing with us this year. Also to our Quadblogging buddies Stoke Bishop Primary, Mrs England's Kindergarten and Kids with a View and Mrs Laburn for wonderful learning and sharing.
We wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year. See you in 2012!
Here is a special Christmas song sung by the Preps and the Junior students at St. Luke's. We hope you enjoy it!

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Good bye Andy

We were sad today as we said good bye to one of our Prep K friends, Andy. Andy is moving to another school and we would like to wish him lots of happiness and fun. We wanted to thank Andy and his wonderful family for being an important part of the St. Luke's community. Good luck Andy - we will miss you!

We made Andy a special 'memories' book

Prep K and Prep S with Andy

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Community Helpers - Paramedics

Yesterday we had a very special Community Helper visit us. Mrs Coffa's friend Jane told us all about being a Paramedic.

Jane the Paramedic

Paramedics use many different vehicles to help people

Here is some of the equipment Jane uses as a Paramedic

Thanks for sharing Jane - Paramedics are very important Community Helpers!

We discovered:
I didn't know that Paramedics could fly in a helicopter. Georgia

I learnt that Paramedics went in ambulances. Andy

I discovered that Paramedics ride a bike at the football to move through the crowds. Eva

I learnt that Paramedics are very important because they help everybody when they are hurt. Will H

I learnt that Paramedics help people when they are sick. Vivienne

I didn't know that Paramedics have to drive an ambulance before they can drive MICA car. Oscar

I learnt what a Paramedic because I didn't know what a Paramedic was. Kirra

I discovered that ambulances can cross the road when the lights are red because they might have someone really sick that they need to take to hospital. Molly

I learnt that the Paramedics take the hurt people to the hospital. Caoimhe

I learnt that Paramedics have badges that glow in the dark when a light shines on it. Matthew

Ring 000 if you need the Police Fire or Ambulance - but only if you really need them! If it's an emergency. Aerodyne

I learnt that Paramedics have lots of vehicles like bikes, ambulances, planes and helicopters. Will P

Glitter Graphics, Christmas Glitter Graphics

Community Helpers!

In our community we have:

POLICE
Jack's dad came to school to tell us about being a Policeman.

This is what we learnt:
I learnt that Police can ride horses. Andy
I learnt that the Police ride in helicopters. Eva
I didn't know that Police have handcuffs. Matthew
I didn't know that you are not allowed to talk on your phone when you are driving. Kirra
Steve told us that we have to wear our helmets when we are riding our bikes. Caoimhe
When you ring 000 you will find the Police but you only ring if there is an emergency. Aerodyne
I learnt that the Police go to the footy to make sure people stay safe. Georgia

DOCTORS
Noah's dad came to school to tell us about being a doctor.

We discovered:
Doctors help people who are sick or hurt. Molly
They give people check ups to make sure they are healthy. Will H
A doctor takes a blood test, listens to your heart and takes your temperature. Jake
Noah's Dad hit Noah's knee and his leg went straight up (reflex). Will P
Doctors need x-rays to see if your bones are healthy. Vivienne

Are you a Community helper?

Do you know any other Community Helpers that you could share with us?

Speed Stacking!

Yesterday Prep K were very lucky to participate in Speed Stacking. Mrs Bellesini made this photopeach to show everyone the fun and excitement.

 

 

The Preps had a fantastic time! Thanks Mrs Bellesini.

Have you ever had a go at speed stacking?

What do you do to train your brain?

On Monday Prep K and Prep S said the prayer at our weekly school assembly. We have been learning about families in Religion so we wrote a prayer about why we love our families. After assembly, we made a voicethread sharing our prayer.

Our Community.

Our Inquiry topic this term is 'Our Community'. We went for a walk around our neighbourhood to see what is in our community. We took our cameras with us and took photos of what we discovered. Then we made a voicethread using our photos and sharing what we saw in our community.

We would like our quadblogging friends to share what your communities are like - so we can learn more about you and where you live. We also want to see where we are the same and different.

Tell us about your community - does it look the same as ours? Do you have the same things we do?

Please add your ideas to our voicethread.

Italian Day is the Best!

From the Preps ......
On Thursday we had Italian Day. We had lots of activities about Italy.
We dressed up in togas just like the Romans did. Some of us were dressed as slaves.
We watched a very funny play about two slaves who got a chance to be strong and brave gladiators.
Then we ran a marathon around the school. We were tired!
After the marathon we made laurel wreaths and Mrs Kennedy took photos of us.
Next we had a soccer clinic with Daniel and Steve. We learnt some soccer skills like kicking the ball with the inside of our foot and using your head to hit the ball, but not your hands.
Then we had margarita pizza and gelati for lunch! Yum! Yum!
After lunch we made busts of ourselves with salt clay. A bust is like a sculpture of your head and shoulders. We took them home to paint when they are dry.

I liked Italian Day because we got to have pizza. Oscar
We liked Italian Day because we had a marathon and I have never run in a marathon. Georgia
On Italian Day I had fun because we had a soccer clinic and I haven't played soccer before. Andy
Italian Day was my favourite special time of the year because we got to have gelati and pizza. Molly
On Italian day we watched a very funny show and it was about Italy. Will P
On Italian Day we made busts of our heads. A bust is a sculpture of your head. Kirra
Italian Day was the best day ever because we got to do lots of things like run a marathon and play soccer. Caoimhe
I learnt that in the middle of Italy is the city of Rome. Senora Senzo told us. Matthew
In the play Mario had to fight his friend because that was his challenge to prove that he was strong. Sienna
At school I liked the funny play because one of the actors put funny glasses on Riley. Will H
I liked Italian Day because I liked the funny show and they did funny acting. Eva
I loved the pizza because it was delicious! Vivienne
I liked Italian Day because we did running and soccer. Aerodyne

Italian Day on PhotoPeach

Italian Day is the best! on PhotoPeach

Thank you Signora Senzo for a fantastic day!

Do you celebrate Italian Day?

That's Entertainment!

Last night we had our school concert - That's Entertainment! We were very excited about performing in front of our families and friends. The Preps danced to, and sang songs from Toy Story. We dressed up as toys and did a fantastic job dancing and singing.

Welcome back!

We wanted to send a welcome back to school message to our friends in New Zealand - Room 3!
We would also like to wish the All Blacks good luck on Sunday!

Our Buddies teaching us about photography!

Our buddies have learnt from a professional photographer how to take a 'considered image'. There is a lot to think about when taking a photo. Our buddies shared what they have learnt about photography with us today.

Worms eye view

Check your shot!

Hold the camera steady!

Here are some of the things we learnt:

Will P
My buddy told me what a good background is. A good background is plants like trees and bushes.

Caoimhe
My buddy taught me about birds eye view and I took a picture doing it. Birds eye view is when you look down at the camera.

Matthew
I learnt how to keep the camera still. You put your left foot forward and your right foot back. Then you push the button down hard and take the photo.

Jake
My buddies taught me how to take a photo by worms eye view and worms eye view means you get down on the ground and take a photo.

Georgia
I learnt from my buddy that when you take a photo you put your camera close up for a small object and when you take a big object you take steps back.

Kirra
I learnt what a snapshot is from my buddies. A snapshot is when you take a picture really quickly.

Molly
My buddies taught me not to have too much sunlight in the background because sometimes you can't see what the picture is.

Andy
I learnt that when you have a dark place and you are close it makes a fuzzy photo.

Sienna
I learnt that if you want to take a photo of something tall you can turn the camera around. (from Andy - landscape to portrait)

The All Blacks vs The Wallabies!

Our Quadblogging friends in New Zealand Kids with a View have made an amazing video of the haka. They are very excited about their country hosting the Rugby World Cup. So to set the mood for tonight's game - here are Kids with a View performing the BEST haka ever! Good luck to both teams!

Our Reduce, Reuse and Recycle message goes global!

Our video is on an educational website called BrainPOP UK. Check it out! Now the whole world will hear our message about using less paper.

Congratulations Prep S and Prep K!

BrainPOP UK

Mrs Splishy-sploshy!

This week we have been reading all about 'Mrs Wishy-washy' written by one of our favourite authors Joy Cowley.
Together we have created a text innovation called Mrs Splishy-sploshy! We drew our pictures in Tux paint and then wrote our story. Everyone practised their part of the story and then we recorded it on Voicethread.
We tried very hard to use expression and speak smoothly (no bumps).
We hope you enjoy our story!

Do you think we have spoken smoothly and with expression?

Have you ever innovated a text? Tell us about it. 

Wonderful Wicked Witches!

Can you imagine Mrs Kennedy's surprise when she came to school and saw these wonderful, wild, witty, wacky witches whizzing wildly around the Prep room! Watch out!

Just look at this!

Our Quadblogging friends from Point View School in New Zealand made a video of their school - all by themselves! They explain below how they did it.

Room 3 decided to make a video for our Quadblogging friends.
It is a wonderful tour around our school.
We used the ipods to video each other.

We had to make sure we didn't put our finger over the view finder and
we had to make sure we kept the ipod as still as we could and
we had to make sure when we filmed moving around that we didn't
move the ipod too fast.
We also had to think carefully about what we would say to make it interesting
for others to listen to.

What do you think about our first video made by us?

Amazing! Fantastic work Room 3.

Our Action - Reuse and Reduce!

This term our Inquiry Learning has been about reusing products and recycling to reduce landfill. Prep S and Prep K discovered a problem at our school - we use too much paper. So we worked through a Problem Solving Strategy to decide what we could do to change the way we use paper at St. Luke's. After much discussion and considering the pros and cons of all ideas, the Preps decided to make a video about how we can stop using too much paper. Together we wrote a script - practised our lines and made props to make our video.
We want all our classes to put this video on their blogs to share this very important message.

Taking Action that Matters!

What will you do today to stop using so much paper?

Crazy Hair Day! Taking Action that Matters.

Last Thursday we had a 'Crazy Hair' Day to raise money for drought stricken Africa.

Here are the Preps explaining our action led by our Student Social Justice team.

This free digital scrapbook customized with Smilebox

Welcome to Prep!

This week Prep S and Prep K are the focus blogs in our Quadblogging adventure. We welcome all our friends from Stoke Bishop Primary School Bristol UK, Mrs England's Kindergarten, Kentucky USA and Point View School, Auckland New Zealand. We are so excited to have visitors from around the world. We have already shared and learnt so much from each other.
We have made this slideshow to show you our school and just some of the activities we do in Prep.

It's Holidays!

Here in Melbourne, Australia we have just begun a two week holiday. Last night I started my holiday break by going to the footy. In Australia we follow the AFL (Australian Football League) and the finals have begun. My team Collingwood played at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) against Hawthorn. It was a very exciting game and Collingwood won! (by 3 points). Next Saturday they will play in the Grandfinal against either Geelong or West Coast Eagles (depending on who wins today). The crowd was amazing! What a great way to start the holidays!

My nieces after the game - the whole family barracks for Collingwood.

What are you doing in the holidays?

Share with us here!

Keep visiting our blog during the holidays because we are continuing our Quadblogging adventure and will be adding posts over the week.

Skyping our blogging friends in New Zealand

We were so lucky to meet our Quadblogging buddies from Point View School in  New Zealand on Wednesday. Listen to our audiboo to hear what we learnt.

 

Room 3 Point View School

Go Wallabies!

Go All Blacks!

Room 3 doing the haka!



Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Our mat made from plastic bags is now finished! Read about how and why we made this mat here

Letterland Day!

Today we dressed up as our favourite Letterland characters. We also skyped our friends at Point View school in New Zealand and told them all about Letterland Day!

What is a blog?

Our friends at Point View school in New Zealand asked 'What is a blog?'

Prep S and Prep K made a Tagxedo with all the words we could think of to describe what a blog is.

 

Do you notice anything about the shape of our Tagxedo?

A voicethread from our friends at Stoke Bishop in the UK.

The children at Stoke Bishop Primary school have made a voicethread to tell us about themselves and answer some questions asked by Point View school. These children have only been at school for a couple of weeks! We love their voicethread.

Testa, Spalle, Ginocchi, Pedi! Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!

We have been inspired by our quadblogging buddies in New Zealand. They sent us a video of their Maori body parts song (see below).

At St. Luke's we learn Italian, so today our Italian teacher, Signora Senzo, helped Prep S and Prep K sing 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' in italian!

Here are the words:

Testa, spalle, ginocchi piedi, ginocchi piedi.

Testa, spalle, ginocchi piedi, ginocchi piedi.

Ho due occhi, un naso, la bocca, e due orecchi.

Testa, spalle, ginocchi piedi, ginocchi piedi.

Testa, spalle, ginocchi piedi, ginocchi piedi.

Testa, spalle, ginocchi piedi, ginocchi piedi.

Ho due occhi, un naso, la bocca, e due orecchi.

Testa, spalle, ginocchi piedi, ginocchi piedi.

Can you work out what the words mean by following the actions of the song?

From our friends in New Zealand!

Our friends from New Zealand have sent us this wonderful video about body parts.

Maori Body Parts Song

Mahunga, pakihiwi, puku, hope, waewae

Mahunga, pakihiwi, puku, hope, waewae

Mahunga, pakihiwi, puku, hope, waewae

Taringa, whetu, ihu, waha

Head, shoulders, tummy, hips, legs/feet

Ears, eyes, nose, mouth

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Our Inquiry this term has been Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. After watching a youtube video titled 'The Journey of the Plastic Bag' we were wondering how we could reduce the amount of bags going to landfill. We decided to make a mat out of plastic bags. We haven't finished our mat yet - so stayed tuned!
Here is how we did it.


Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! on PhotoPeach

What do you do to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill?

Do you reuse or recycle old products to make new products?

Sooo exciting! Father's Day Breakfast, Footy Day and .....

Today we had a lovely breakfast for our Dads and we came dressed in our footy team colours (AFL - Australian Football League). We also had a visit from the 2010 Prepmiership Cup won by Mrs Kennedy's and Mrs Swann's favourite team - Collingwood!
We had photos with the cup - here they are:

The AFL Premiership Cup - Collingwood

Go Collingwood!

Here are some more photos of a great day!

Happy Father's Day!

The Preps drew pictures of their Dads in Tux paint and then we put them into a voicethread. We hope all our Dads have a wonderful Father's Day on Sunday.

I love my Dad because ........

It's Book Week! One World Many Stories.

Today we had a dress up day for Book Week. We came dressed as our favourite book characters. Here we are.....

Our Wonderful World

We are talking about how to look after the environment by recycling, reusing and reducing the amount of rubbish we make. Today the Preps were thinking about our wonderful world that God has created for us. We took photos of some of the gifts of creation around our school.
We were also practising our photography skills - remembering to hold the camera still, squeezing the button slowly, zooming in and out and taking a birdseye view.
We hope you enjoy our voicethread.

Quilting - a great way to reuse material.

We were very lucky to have a very special guest speaker come into the classroom last Wednesday to share with Prep S and Prep K. Will and Molly's mum came to show us a skill she learnt from her Grandmother. Genevieve showed us how to quilt and how quilting is a fantastic way to reuse old material to make a beautiful piece of family history.

It's PJ Day!

Today was PJ Day. We wore our pyjamas to school and brought a gold coin donation to help the homeless people in Melbourne.
We had toast with butter, honey, jam and vegemite. The toast was yummy, delicious and scrumptious! We also brought our favourite bedtime buddies. We introduced our buddies to our Prep friends.  
Here is our first Wallwisher telling you about PJ Day.
We are taking action that matters!



Here we are enjoying PJ Day.