Plastic Bottles & Cabbage Moths

We still haven't collected sufficient number of clear, 2 Litre plastic bottles for Play & Inquiry experiments. If you have them in your recyling bin, can you drop them in to Elke please?

We are also trying to capture cabbage moths to observe their life cycle in action. If you have any in your vege patch, can you bring some in please? 

Walkathon Wednesday 1st June

Luisa is very short of helpers to assist with preparing, cooking and serving sausages for the Walkathon this Wednesday. If you are able to assist, please see Sia, Sheryal or myself or alternatively, contact Luisa directly.

Please remember the Green Sponsorship forms are due in on Wednesday so that teachers can tally the number of laps children complete. The forms will be sent home on Wednesday afternoon.

Many thanks!

Walkathon: Wednesday 1st June

This is the last weekend students have to collect sponsorship for this year's annual PHPS Walkathon. Please make sure that forms are returned to your child/ren's homegroup teacher so that the forms can be tallied at the end of the day and returned home. Students have selected their preferences for sausage and fruit which they will have once completing the walk. Please read the green sheets for information from Luisa and assistance/parent help required on the day.

Additional sponsorship forms are available on the information trolley at the entrance to the Grade 1 Neighbourhood if somehow you missed out on getting them last week.

Thank you in advance!

Melbourne Museum Excursion

Yesterday the Grade 1 teachers booked our Year 1 Neighbourhood into the Melbourne Museum. We are booked in on Wednesday 22nd June and will be leaving at approximately 10 am and returning to school at 2:15 pm. Further details of the learning experiences we'll be viewing there will be confirmed shortly.

Readers' and Writers' Notebooks

Whilst students are still on occasions, working on Mathletics during class times can parents remind students to have their Notebooks in their school bags everyday? This includes the plastic document communication wallet where home reading material and notices are transported between school and home.

Teachers will be aiming to review students' reading and writing reflections on Tuesday morning in homegroups and with their peers.

Please continue to list the books and reading students complete in their home reading.

The Year 1 Neighbourhood blog address will be pasted in the inside cover of these books in the next week or so.

Play Inquiry Update

This week, students selected their Play Inquiry focus areas that they will be investigating for the remainder of the term.

Sia will be scaffolding students' learning of change in groups comprising of: Cartooning; ICT; 3-D Box Panels and Natural Collections.

Sheryal will be exploring change and means of communicating change through Music, Movement and Drama

Elke will be exploring scientific ideas of change through experiments involving Materials & Decomposition; Life Cycles; Planting and Weather patterns.

Please view the Play Inquiry Board in the Hall area to see which area of interest you child/ren have selected.

Currently, I am collecting 2 Litre clear bottles to conduct experiments (with lids). If you are recycling these at home, could you instead pass them on to Elke?

Parent helpers are welcome to assist in the morning sessions of Play Inquiry (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) and for reading every afternoon from 12:10 pm Mondays-Thursdays. Please let your Home group teacher know which day/s you are willing to assist and remember to sign in and sign out at the completion of your time in the classroom.

Bikes parked near Neighbourhood 1 entrance area

Could parents please make sure that bikes are parked away from the Grade 1 Neighbourhood entry point? On Monday, students in their rush to get indoors, managed to get themselves caught on handlebars and often the area can get congested with the management of Play Inquiry equipment and people waiting to get indoors.

Many thanks,

Elke

Carlton Football Club/Visy Environmaniacs Clinic

This Wednesday, 50 Grade 1 students will have the opportunity to attend a Carlton Football Clinic and environmental themed visit at Visy Park between 9:15 -11 am. At this stage, approximately 15 students have indicated they do not wish to attend so the limited number of students able to attend and those indicated not to, should avoid any disappointment. Please remember to return notices directly to Elke, not homegroup teachers, so that notices can be numbered.

Students should remember to dress warmly on Wednesday the day for the walk there and back.

Elke, Sia & Sheryal

Ride to School Breakfast

PHPS has been awarded a breakfast this Friday from 8:30 for the school's ongoing commitment to active transport. The breakfast menu includes: apples, yoghurt, orange juice and fruit buns.

I will be setting up some tables (weather pending) outside the Grade 1 neighbourhood area from 8 am. If you are able to assist with serving - would really welcome the help!

The breakfast will be followed by a short assembly at 9 am with Bronwyn Pike in attendance. Active transport, whether by wheel or legs, is encouraged!

Thanks,

Elke, Sia ad Sheryal 

Dance Workshops

This week, Grade 1 Dance Workshops will commence with Susan Russo.  These workshops were highly successful in 2010 with students gaining great enjoyment from them.

These will occur in the next four weeks of term 2 (9^th, 16^th, 23^rd & 30^th) on Monday morning on the stage in the gymnasium.

Sheryal’s homegroup will begin at 9:15 am

Elke homegroup at 9:50am

Sia’s homegroup at 10:25am.

Green permission slips were handed out to students last Friday and are covered by the Excursion Levy if parents paid this at the beginning of the year. Please return notices directly to your child/ren's home group teacher. 

Thanks.

Home Learning Opportunities: Readers’/Writers’ Notebooks & Mathletics

Readers’/Writers’ Notebooks

This week, students will be taking home their Readers’ and Writers’ Notebooks. This will replace the Reading Log sheet that currently is stored in the plastic document wallet containing students Home Reading books.

The Readers’ Notebook provides an opportunity for students to respond to the text they read. They can represent this visually or complete a written response using the sentence starters on the first page of their notebooks. Responses could relate to connections to other text they read, their own lives, what the text reminded them of or responding to aspects of the texts such as character, themes or plot. If the task is too laborious, it is important that students continue to log the books that they read inside these journals and to participate in a range of reading practices at home including reading aloud, independently and being read to, while also discussing the meaning and content they take away from each reading experience.  

The Writers’ Notebook begins in the middle or at the back of the exercise book. In this section, students can paste stimuli for writing such as momentums of their weekends away from school (ticket stubs, stamps, cartoons and other “found objects”, etc. that may stimulate their curiosity and desire to write). The format can be in the form of a story or narrative, poem, journal entry or recount, recipe, lists, information they found out – the purpose is to demonstrate the many facets of writing whether purposeful or creative!

On some occasions, teachers will paste an activity for them to complete at home during the week relating to their reading or inquiry topic on Change this term. The first of these will be students having a conversation with their grandparents about changes their grandparents’ have seen or noticed from when they were children to how things are today. Our hope is that these experiences can be brought back to the classroom and shared with others in the neighbourhood.   

Mathletics

This year we are providing PHPS students from Grade 1-6 an opportunity to be a member of the Mathletics website. Mathletics is an interactive e-Learing resource being used by over 2,000 schools. 

Students will be able to use the website at home for additional mathematics practise.

Originating in Australia, Mathletics is now being used in over ten countries.
Over the past two weeks, students have been shown the website and been given an opportunity to log on to the site and complete an initial exploration during their library time. As this is a new experience for some students, children may need assistance with accessing the site and logging on using the “shift” key. Some students may also  need help reading questions to complete their answers.  

Students’ Username and Password has been pasted into the inside front cover of the Readers’ and Writers’ Notebook.

The web address is: http://www.mathletics.com.au/

Inquiry: Nature & Change

Welcome back to Term 2! Sia returned on Monday after her long-service leave and we are looking forward to having her back in the neighbourhood.

This term, the grade one neighbourhood will be investigating "Change". Our big questions are:

What is change?

What things change?

How do things change?

What are the different kinds of change in the world around us? 

Last week, students participated in the first of three workshops that will be continued this week, as part of their "Tuning In" to the unit, before they select a Play/Inquiry focus for the remainder of the term. The three workshops are focusing in on changes in Communications and Technology, Life Cycles and Natural/Earth Sciences (day & night, seasonal shifts in the climate through the calendar year, etc.)

To extend students' learning experiences, please contact your child/ren's homeroom teacher if you are able to run a session with students. We will also be discussing excursions options that best link to the inquiry in the next few weeks.  

Term 2: Important Term Dates (please check Talking Point for any updates and changes)

NAPLAN: Tuesday May 10^th-Thursday 12^th

Dance Workshops: Monday 9^th, 16^th, 23^rd & 30^th May

Ride to School Day Celebration Breakfast: Friday 13th May 8:30 am

Visy/Carlton FootballClub Environmaniacs: Wednesday 18th May 

Walk to School Day: Friday 20th May

Walkathon: Wednesday 1st June

World Environment Day: Sunday 5^th June

Year 5/6 Camp: Tuesday 7^th- Friday 10^th June

Queen’s Birthday: Monday 13^th June

Instrumental Music Concert: TBA

Year 1 Melbourne Museum Excursion: Wednesday 22nd June

Report Home: Monday 27^th June

Reporting Day (student free): Thursday 30^th June

End of Term 2: 1^st July (2:30 pm)