We are VERY Eggcited!!

Today Mrs Kennedy had some exciting news. We are having some visitors to our classroom. We tried to guess who was coming - and we couldn't so Mrs Kennedy gave us a clue. Everyone got a little plastic egg and we had to think about what was inside. Here are some of our ideas:
a snake, a bird, a chick, a dinosaur, an alligator, a platypus and an octopus!
Then we opened our eggs and this is what we saw ......

The chickens will help us to learn about what living things need to grow and survive.

What do you think we will need to do to help our chickens grow?

Fun Maths!

This week in Maths we have been very busy measuring, comparing and discussing longer (and taller), shorter and the same as. Today we decided to use one of our feet to compare objects in the classroom. 

We knew we couldn't use one of our feet to measure everything - so we decided to measure one foot with unifix and use the unifix tower which was the same length as our foot to compare objects around the room. 

We had to find objects that were longer than our foot, shorter than our foot and the same length as our foot. 

Fun Maths from marieck

Can you find something longer, shorter and the same as your foot?

Neighbourhood Walk

Last Wednesday we went for a walk around our neighbourhood to see lots of plants in our local area. We have been learning about what living things need to grow and survive. We ended our walk at the park and noticed big mounds of mulch under the trees. Mulch helps trees to grow and be healthy. 

On the way we looked for treasure - lots of leaves, sticks, gum nuts, bark, seed pods, flowers, snail shells and more to make a collage. We were careful not to pick anything off a plant or tree. We looked for things that had already fallen off. 

Thanks to all our mums who came on our walk!  We loved having a play in the park and we got home just before the rain! A perfect afternoon.

Here are some of the things we discovered:

I noticed that plants grow with rain. Chantelle

Plants need soil to grow. Simon

Plants always like water to grow. James

I learnt that leaves change colour when it's Autumn. Caitlin

I know that plants need water and sun to grow. Olivia

I learnt that flowers do not have to be the same colour. Frances

James taught me that trees that lose their leaves are called deciduous. Gracie

I learnt that leaves change their colour before they fall off. Niamh

Trees that don't lose their leaves are called evergreen. Alexa

 

Our Hairy Harrys have started to GROW!

Our Hairy Harrys have started to grow. Everyday we look to see if anything is happening. This week we noticed some sprouts on our Hairy Harrys. How exciting!

click on the semi circle on the right to see two more photos.

Better Buddies!

Today we had time with our buddies. They gave us a special Buddy Bear to remind us that there is always someone who is looking out for us and cares for us - and of course our bears give lots of hugs!
We will keep our Buddy Bears at school for a while and then we will take them home.

Thank you to the Grade Six buddies who do such a great job watching over their Prep buddies!

Better Buddies! on PhotoPeach

An Exciting Day!

Last year Prep D and Prep K worked very hard to reduce the amount of rubbish going into landfill. Mrs David contacted the RED group and we bought a bin to collect flexible plastic. You can read about RED here.

When we had collected enough plastic we had a special seat made using all our plastic. Today we were able to see our seat for the first time! We are very proud of our efforts and hope that our community will keep bringing their flexible plastic to school to put in the RED bin.

Prep K 2012 try out the new seat

Prep D 2012 also have a turn!

Our seat!
Thanks Mr Perkins for putting it together for us!

Prep 2013 also try out the new seat

Keep bringing your plastic to school!
Help us to reduce landfill.

What an amazing and easy way to reduce the amount of rubbish going into landfill!

Location, Location, Location!

On Friday in Maths we were looking at the everyday language of location and direction such as 'between', 'near', 'next to', 'in front of' etc. 

Mrs Kennedy gave each group a card with a location word on it and then we created scenes using lots of materials to show our ideas.

We had to work with a partner to make our scenes so we had to talk about our ideas and then work together. When we finished we talked about working with a partner and how you need to cooperate and use some of your ideas and some of your partner's ideas. Mrs Kennedy said this is called 'compromising'. 

We recorded our work on the iPad using the app ShowMe. We tried to speak clearly and talk about what we had made. 

Scientists at work!

For our Inquiry this term we are thinking about what living things need to grow and survive.

Today we had to think about what plants need to grow. We drew our ideas and then shared. Everyone agreed that plants need:

sunlight, water and soil to grow. 

Then it was time to make our Hairy Harrys! We all brought a jar and a stocking to school. Mrs Kennedy had some soil and grass seeds. We followed a procedure to make our Hairy Harrys.

Mrs Kennedy asked  'What would happen if one Hairy Harry had no light? How could we find out what would happen to the Hairy Harry if it had no light? 

We decided that we could put a Hairy Harry in a cupboard so that it had no light. 
Olivia thinks that it won't grow. 
James thinks it will be all droopy. 
Cormac thinks the Hairy Harry will be brown.

Then we decided to have a Hairy Harry without water and one without soil. 

What will happen? Will the Hairy Harrys grow? We are very excited to see what will happen!

Hairy Harry with no light

Hairy Harry with no water

Hairy Harry with no soil

Here we are with our Hairy Harrys!

Hairy Harrys from marieck

Preps try ShowMe!

There are many great apps for the iPad and one that we have used in Prep is ShowMe.
ShowMe allows the children to take photos of their learning and then explain what they have done or learnt and reflect on an activity. 

During Developmental Learning the Preps have an opportunity to explore different activities that interest them. During one session two Preps were exploring our learning (patterns in Maths, sounds in Literacy) through play - making connections, practising ideas and concepts.

The third ShowMe is a Lego game that one of our Preps has designed himself at home. He explains how the game works and the rules to follow. He mentions his game is a game of 'chance' as the outcome relies on the number each player rolls on the dice. 

Amazing skills in Prep!

 

Stations of the Cross

Thanks Mrs Yore for this beautiful vimeo of the Stations of the Cross that the whole school prepared for our Easter reflection.


Stations of the Cross from Marg Yore on Vimeo.