End of Year Picnic

The end of year picnic will be held at school this Wednesday at school. At this stage it is scheduled for 11:00 am at lunch-eating time on the main oval. Please bring a plate to share.

The Year 1 Neighbourhood picnic is currently being held on Wednesday afternoon at Rathdowne Park/Curtain Square (corner Rathdowne/Curtain Sts) - please see email below from Ali.

 

Hi all

Sorry we had to cancel yesterday, the jury is out as to whether we made the right call in cancelling but when we checked the radar at 3pm, rain was on the way, so…

Anyway, would be great to get together to celebrate the end of the school year, so if you are free after school on Wednesday and fancy an ice cream in the park, please head down to Curtain Square then! Sia is going to come along too (so if you have given a gift to Julie for her you might like to get it back from her tomorrow – I understand she has quite a few at the office – and give your gift to Sia in person).

Hope to see you there.

Ali

Year 1 Neighbourhood afternoon & iupdate

Thankyou to the parents/grandparents who came along to the Year 1 Neighbourhood yesterday to share in the amazing projects this term investigating families. Congratulations to the students who represented the neighbourhood in both yesterday's and today's assembly presentations. It was wonderful to see so many people there at this time of the year.

Specialist program will run on Wednesday this week due to 2012 planning.

Please remember to return Library books (check bags as notices have been issued today). Please see Mark if there are any issues with books.

Home borrowing program will also cease tomorrow (Wednesday) so please look for any Home Readers and return to book boxes in the Torus.

Please remember to send notes of any absences past or future and hand into Homegroup teachers.

The Farewell Picnic will take place next week - please check talking Points for details and updates.

The Premiers' Readers Challenge Certificates will be handed out in next week's assembly. Please note that students will be represented in Neighbourhoods rather than every student on stage.

Term 4 finishes on Thursday 22nd at 2 pm. A whole school assembly will take place in the Hall to farewell the Year 6 students at 1:30 pm on that day.

Finally, thankyou for a wonderful year with your children this year! It has been lovely working with you and your children throughout the year.

Best wishes to all of you for a safe, happy Christmas and the holidays ahead.

Regards,

Sia, Sheryal, Mark, Shana & Elke

2012 Transition - Update from Rita

Transition: We all experience it!

The whole school community including children, parents and staff are experiencing the transition of children from one year level to another.

To familiarise themselves with new home groups and neighbourhoods the children will partake in 4 transition sessions. Three will take place on 5^th, 6^th, 7^th December from 10am to 11:15. The children will spend time in their 2012 neighbourhoods with their team of teachers and groups. They will familiarise themselves with the new learning spaces, discuss learning possibilities and partake in learning agreement activities with all of their 2012 teachers.  Older children will be mentoring and offering advice to the younger ones. The children will have lunch in their new spaces as part of each session. The aim is to make all children feel comfortable, confident and excited about their next year level. Consistency in learning across the school aims to make this a seamless process.

On Tuesday 20^th December there will be a fourth transition session where the children will be introduced to their 2012 home teacher as well as working in their new neighbourhoods for 1 hour. This will take place from 2.30 to 3.30. The children will be dismissed from their new neighbourhoods on this day.

This period of change is both challenging and exciting in which children and families adjust to expectations, interactions and relationships.

Rita Jokubaitis

Student Pathways and Transitions.

Learning Celebration & Yr 1 Assembly

On Monday 12th December the Year 1s will be presenting their inquiry learning in the Year 1 Neighbourhood. Further details of this will be provided closer to the date. 

On Tuesday 13th December, the Year 1s will be hosted the whole school assembly.

Please put these dates into your calendars!

Elke, Sheryal, Mark & Shana

Play & Inquiry

Over the past few weeks, the Year 1 students have been busy working on their Play & Inquiry projects and the neighbourhood has been extremely busy with amazing creative projects communicating their ideas about families.

Some of the ways in which students are working include: Quilting; Story writing (Room 18); Doll making and performance masks from different parts of the world (Room 18); Claymation and Family portraits (the Torus).

In the Torus area last week we were fortunate to have a professional animator, Maya, come and assist us with the claymation projects and show us some her fantastic animation projects!

In the Torus, most groups have completed their storyboards for their Claymation projects and have now begun to develop their characters and backdrops.

Today, some have already begun experimenting with recording sound files of their stories before film work begins.

The Family portrait group have completed the good copies of their written explanation of their family portraits and have joined other Play & Inquiry groups to extend their learning throughout this term.

Students in the Claymation area need to remember to bring in props from home for their projects (ie doll house furnishing, cars, etc). 

We hope to have some of the students projects completed and ready to show at the Year 1 Assembly later in the term. At this stage, this has been scheduled for Tuesday 6th December.

Bazaar Talent Quest Update - from Ali & Trudy

 From Ali & Trudy

 

Hello teachers

 

Children in the Talent Quest have been asked

Hello teachers

Children in the Talent Quest have been asked to bring their music this Friday lunchtime so that we can collect it all. Could you please remind them to bring their cds, with their names on, this Friday? Thank you.

 

Also, last Friday Trudy taught a very short flash mob type dance to about half the Talent Quest children. We are hoping to perform it once or twice at the Bazaar and would like to invite you to participate! No dance experience required, just come along to the gym next Monday lunchtime (31^st) and Trudy will teach you the moves. For your information, the music that we will be dancing to is The Jacksons’ “Can you Feel It” – a great dancing song! We’ll be at the gym at 11.10pm, see you there.

Cheers,

Alison

Rippon Lea Excursion

                                                        
We all had a fabulous day out, experiencing the old world wonder of 19th century family life yesterday! The students participated in four activities during the day and I hope they have had the opportunity to share some of these experiences with you already. The activities included: 19th Century Games; a tour of  Rippon Lea's kitchen and the basement servants' area to experience domestic labour before modern technology, a time-machine experience back to 1887 - the time when the Rippon Lea house was extended and Creature Catcher- a treasure hunt locating 'rubbings' of the various animals once found in the vast estate gardens.

                            "The Lake"

The children were wonderfully engaged and behaved throughout the day! Thank-you to the parents and grandparent who accompanied us.

Walk to School Day & JSC Fun Day

Two events happening this week:

Walk to School Day is this Wednesday.

JSC Fun Day is being held this Thursday. Theme is PJ day with gold coin donations going to Somalia.

Things Due: Premiers' Reading Challenge, 40 Hour Famine & Family Presentations

Premier's Reading Challenge is due to finish on the 16th September. Please print off and sign challenge sheets to verify that your child/ren have completed it.

40 Hour Famine money is being collected. If your child/ren participated, can you please return money in an envelope to you classroom teacher so we can pass on to Kerri?

Year 1 Family Presentations: A sheet was sent home last week with information about children presenting information about their families as part of our new inquiry this term and next about families and cultural traditions. We are hoping to have all presentations completed before the end of the term. Students should be asking questions and deciding on a presentation format (poster, powerpoint, family tree, case of family treasures/memorabilia - other ideas are welcome!)

Fathers' Day/Special Carers' Day

Just a little reminder that this Friday the Fathers'/Special Carers' Day stall will be held.

Thanks,

Elke, Sia & Elke

Ultranet Logins

Yesterday students took home information sheets for their Ultranet Usernames and Passwords. Privacy information is available at the link below: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/untranet/privacy.htm

To start exploring the Ultranet: http://www.ultranet.vic.edu.au/

Students need their Usernames and Passwords to login.

Elke, Sia and Sheryal

Ultranet Logins

Two weeks ago, most of the Year 1 students were supported in logging into their Ultranet sites by Wendy - our Ultranet coach. Two or three students from each homegroup have become 'mini-coaches' to support students accessing their accounts.

During the session with Wendy, students learnt how to post a message on their 'blog' and this week we hope to send home students Usernames and Passwords and continue to get students using the Ultranet during their weekly Library/ICT times.

Talent Quest

Ali (Archie's mum) spoke to the year 1 students, who had expressed an interest in being part of the PHPS Annual Bazaar Talent Quest, today about the details of their entry.

There will be an opportunity on Friday 2nd September lunchtime (in the gym) for students to show their entry and get some feedback. Some students are still deciding on their items (songs, dance, jokes, etc) so you may get questions and requests from students about this.

Please remember to bring music, etc to school next Friday.