Message from The Library

 

 

Hi All,

Library Accessible from 8.50 am

Encourage your child to return items on time and to enjoy reading. Loan periods are for 14 days only.

Children may renew a loan. Drop by the Library Monday-Thursday from 8.50am before classes begin!

The Premiers’ Reading Challenge is on again for 2013...

Parent Helpers Needed for the main PHPS Library and the Junior School Library (old red brick building)

Can you spare 15 minutes once a week? We need helpers to organise, order and sort our library shelves to

keep them in good order for students to locate materials. 15 minutes a week makes all the difference!

Contact Mark Tuesdays and Wednesdays or let a Home Group Teacher know you are

 

 

Thankyou,

Mark

Photos from The Sustainability Group's excursion to The Arts Centre and The Children's Garden

Happy Monday everyone,

I have finally found a moment to upload the photos that were taken by the children in the Sustainability Inquiry Group using the ipads while we were on our excursion in week one of this term. We went to see the puppet show "The Man who Planted Trees" at The Arts Centre and we went for a walk along The Tan to get to the Botanical Gardens where we explored the Children's Garden.

We all had a wonderful day, the sun was out and we learnt a lot about how we can make a postive impact on our culture through our own sustainable actions.

Thank you to Maria and Anna who came with us for the day.

Cheers,
Simone

PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!

Hi again,

I hope that your child has come home this afternoon telling you how excited they are to commence THE PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE. I would love as many Year Twos as possible to embark on the challenge to inspire their younger (and older) peers. We have a very inspiring student who has decided to challenge herself to complete her 30 books in just one term as she is returning overseas after that. If she can accept the challenge - everyone can!

Children in prep- Year Two will sign up on the sheet posted on the pin board outside the Year Two Neighbourhood drama space (the large middle room) and they will then receive a consent form to fill out and bring back to be registered. Start reading now! The challenge is 30 books, 20 of which must come from the reading list provided on the website. September 12th is the cutoff date which is heaps of time plus you have the school holidays to laze about and read read read. 

Have a look on the website for frequently asked questions and I will be posting more specific information on this blog very soon.

I am the go-to person for the junior school so if you have any queries about this don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
Simone 

Fair Trade and Composting Awareness Weeks to talk to your children about

Hi all,

The Fair Trade Fortnight is on from May 4-19. Your children may recall a very spontaneous but captivating conversation in the Neighbourhood about Fair Trade as we were reading 'Mirror' by Jeannie Baker last term. 

We were comparing the daily routines of a family in Morocco and a family in Australia and noticed that rugs that were being made and sold in a market in Morocco were also being sold in stores in Australia. We spoke about how far it would have had to travel and why we purchase things from overseas. This lead into a discussion on the wonderful diversity of products we have at our fingertips but also that it is important to support our local producers and that it is important to be aware of who makes the things we buy and whether those people are being treated fairly.

Click here to visit the Fair Trade Website
Australian website on Fair Trade:

While there doesn't appear to be a huge range of Melbourne activities related to this, it is an AWARENESS campaign so perhaps you could chat to your children about what you think Fair Trade is and maybe try and purchase one thing that is certified 'fair trade' over the fortnight. 

Products like coffee and chocolate are often imported from developing countries overseas so these are a good place to start. Have a look at Oxfam stores.


The other campaign that is coming up is the COMPOSTING AWARENESS WEEK from May 6-11. Our soil is such a valuable organic resource and we can look after it better.
Check out their website and watch this cool little animation: 

Happy Awareness!

Simone and The Year Two Neighbourhood Team

Artist in Residence - Lulu Quintanilla Term 2, 2013

Sculptors are involved in many processes depending on the medium he or she uses. The grade 2 students will have the opportunity to work with Lulu Quintanilla, our artist in residence this term. Lulu will engage with the students in her chosen field, Clay. She will make links with her cultural heritage and help students to create clay creatures based on South American sculptures of imagined and spiritual creatures. Lulu will be exploring new territories with the students; an exploration of her own heritage and the animals and creatures of her childhood that she has wanted to re-create for a long time. She will work with them, explaining techniques and skills that are important to understand when using clay as a material for sculpture.

Lulu is a multidisciplinary artist working within painting, installation, and ceramics. She has exhibited both interstate and overseas and is currently undertaking her Master in Fine Arts degree at Monash University. She has worked at the studios of Arts Project Australia and is currently also conducting workshops at Signal, a creative studio for young people aged 13-20.

As a child growing up in El Salvador, Central America her imagination was captivated by traditional as well as Pre-Columbian ceramics which commonly depicted interesting and humorous animals both real and invented. Lulu considers her time as artist in residence at Princes Hill as an opportunity to finally explore her interest in this form of ceramic and to be sharing her inspiration with the children at Princes Hill.

Please go to the specialist blog on the PHPS website and view our weekly updates.

Hannah Rother-Gelder

Visual Art teacher

Hi all,

On Wednesday May 1st, Kevin's home group, 'Family Stories', will walk up Sydney Rd to explore how 'multiculturalism' is seen along one of Melbourne's most varied streets. We are leaving school at 10:00am and having a light lunch at one of our parent's restaurants before commencing our walk and interviewing people about their cultural heritage.

Could you please send $5.00 to Kevin A.S.A.P to cover the cost of the food. Students will need to bring a snack for the afternoon.

Thank you,
Kevin

Hi Everyone,

Today the Year 2 students in Rita's homegroup learnt about compasses as part of our study of maps and measurement. We started the lesson by looking at the four different directions found on a compass (North, East, South and West). The children learnt that a compass is a reliable and accurate way of telling directions. They also learnt that on a compass the needle always points the same way. North always points to the North Pole, South always points to the South Pole, East is the direction the sun always rises and West is where it sets.

The children then split into groups for an outdoor activity. In this activity we followed directions to navigate around the playround.

Please feel free to talk to your children about compasses and how we can use them for giving directions. If you have a spare compass at home that you would be willing to lend to the Year 2 Neighbourhood we would love for you to send them in so we can continue our inquiry.

Thank you,
Year 2 Neighbourhood

New time for Year Two has Talent Time plus videos of today's performances

Hi all,

We have changed Year Two has Talent Time to Fridays at 1:30pm in order to capitalise on students having their instruments at school for the Instrumental Music Program. Unfortunately we cannot have it in the last hour due to specialists. The time may make it difficult for parents to join us but you are more than welcome to be part of our audience if you are able.

Here are some videos of students performing at today's Year Two has Talent Time.

Week One and Two Learning Agreement

Hi Everyone,

Here are some photographs of today's Learning Agreement session. We have planned an array of activities that accomodate children's varying learning languages and that utilise our purposeful learning spaces whilst relating the activities to our Inquiry where possible.

  Learning Agreement:
Learning Agreement Term 2 week 1 and 2 -


Thanks,
The Year Two Neighbourhood Team.

Does anyone have a copy of The Lorax we might borrow?

 

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I am sure you have all read The Lorax at some point and if not, it is a wonderful Dr Seuss book with huge opportunities for discussions about sustainable development, wants versus needs, community, endangered animals, the environment and so on.

 

The Sustainability Inquiry Group would love to have a read of this book in class to get a grounding in these concepts and relate this to The Man Who Planted Trees which we will be seeing at The Arts Centre tomorrow... problem is there is currently no copy in our school library.

 

Does anyone have a copy they would be willing to share with us for a few weeks? We promise to treat it with love, learn lots from it  and return it to you when we have been sufficiently inspired :)

 

Thank you in advance if you can help us out.

 

Thank you,

Simone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Excursions

The children who are part of the 'Sustainability' and 'Creating a Country' groups have bought home a blue excursion form.
Please return these forms on Tuesday or on Wednesday morning at the latest.
Without permission the children will not be able to partake in the planned events on Wednesday 17th April.
Thank you Simone and Rita.

Parent Helpers needed for This Wednesday's Sustainability Group Excursion to The Arts Centre and The Children's Garden

Hi all,

I hope everyone enjoyed their school holidays and are ready to get back into the swing of things for Term Two.

The Sustaiability Inquiry Group are going to The Arts Centre to see "The Man Who Planted Trees" this Wednesday (17th April) and we have one parent helper but desperately need one more.

If you can make yourself available from 9.45am (bus picks us up) until 2pm (bus picks us up from the Children's Garden at 2pm) please let Simone know asap. The performance starts at 10:30am until 11:50am from where we will walk through the Botanical Gardens to the Ian Potter Children's Garden and have lunch and check out the gardens.

Thank you,
The Year Two Neighbourhood Team