Hi everyone,

The Sustainable Living Festival has been running for the past couple of weeks and The Festival's Big Weekend is this weekend. Head down to Federation Square in the city on Saturday or Sunday and along the yarra you will find many stalls, workshops, food, information about how we can protect our environment and live more sustainable lives.

sus·tain·a·bil·i·ty

/səˌsteɪnəˈbɪlɪti/ Show Spelled [suh-stey-nuh-bil-i-tee] Show IPA

noun

1.

the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld, or confirmed.

2.

Environmental Science. the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance: The committee is developing sustainability standards for products that use energy.

 

Sustainability is so important for us to learn about and we will be Inquiring into this more during the term because it is a fantastic way that we can positively impact our local, and more global culture.

 

I may see you there!

Simone

Book Covering – Parent Helpers Needed

Book Covering – Parent Helpers Needed            

A trial is being undertaken to help boost our book covering. Boxes of new books requiring covering are available for Parents/Carers to take home and cover. Boxes can be collected from the Meeting Room opposite Julie’s office. A roll of covering material is provided. You’ll need your own scissors.

Please sign out in the register provided, and sign in again when you return the covered books.

Covering tips? See Mark or a Library Parent Helper.

Any suggestions or queries, please contact Mark (available Tues. & Wed.)   e)riley.mark.g@edumail.vic.gov.au

Exploring our new iPads

We have iPads!

Hi everyone,

This week we have been exploring the capabilities of our new ipads and how we could use them for our learning.

The first session was exploratory and the children played around with the apps and the functions.

Here are some photos by Louis Woods:

X-Ray photo of our Succulent Plant.

Thermo camera photo of our Succulents.

We learnt from Kit in our neighbourhood that when the thermo camera function is on, it is using infra-red to pick up the warmest parts of the image (bright colours like white and red) and the cooler parts (darker colours like blue). That looks about right seeing as the window is bright red and our plants are blue. Thanks Kit for teaching us something new!

We also used the ipads to do some research on Succulents (to learn some more about them, how to plant them and care for them before we start planting). Take a look at the brilliant research going on in our neighbourhood:

I wrote on the board the two search terms for two websites that I selected and the children searched them up, found the correct search result and once on the website they read in pairs and chose important bits of information to write notes on. We talked about not copying down every word from start to finish but choosing the best ideas and changing the sentences when needed - this is note-taking and summarising. We shared some of our new knowledge at the end of the session.

It is great to hear of all the amazing educational apps that our students are using at home. There are many forms of Learning and one of them is through the use of technology and learning through play so keep it up!

We will have ipad monitors (we already have Oli who showed great initiative in keeping the ipads orderly and safe) who will ensure the ipads are charged, stored neatly, and transfer photos from the ipad into folders on the shared drive using the laptops.

I'll keep you posted on other great work we do on the ipads and laptops.

Enjoy your weekend,

Simone

Specialist Programs

The children in the year 2 neighbourhood work with the specialists in A B C groups. Please ask your child which group they are in.

Our specialists work with the children on

• Tuesday 10-11.00. 12.10-2.00
• Friday 2.30-3.30

http://www.phpsspecialists.blogspot.com.au/

Gardens, Veggie gardens and sustainability at PHPS

Gardens, Veggie gardens and sustainability at PHPS

There is a small team of parents and teachers currently working towards; creating a garden committee, supporting the school to get the vegetable gardens up and running and developing the newly formed student sustainability action team (the green team). We would love you to join us in a major or minor way. To be informed about veggie garden working bees, garden meetings, Yarra Sustainability Education Network meetings or if you would like to support the Green Team please email us or come and say hello. From Alexandra and Mark.

Alexandra hilvert.alexandra.a@edumail.vic.gov.au (3/4 neighbourhood 2 - on Mondays and Wednesdays) and Mark Riley Riley.Mark.g@edumail.vic.gov.au (Library Tuesdays and Wednesdays).

WELCOME PICNIC

PRINCES HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL

FAMILY WELCOME PICNIC

Tuesday 12th FEBRUARY

6:00-8:00PM

at

PRINCES PARK

Near the BBQs and playground (top of MacPherson St, near the corner of Princes Park Drive)

All Princes Hill Primary School families and staff are invited to our annual Welcome Picnic. This is an opportunity to meet other families in your child’s neighborhood and the broader school community.

YEAR LEVEL GROUPS

Please bring a plate of some kind of finger food to share with other families and teachers in your child’sneighbourhood.

FOOD

Trying to get a balance of food, we suggest that those with surnames A-R bring savoury foods and those with surnames S-Z bring fruit or dessert.

BRING

BYO everything and remember that as there are no recycle bins at the park, please take your platters, uneaten food and rubbish home with you.

FUN FOR ALL

JOIN IN AND WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE

All children must be accompanied and supervised by a parent/carer.

IN THE EVENT OF INCLEMENT WEATHER THE PICNIC WILL BE CANCELLED

Princes Hill Primary School

School Council

BOOK TALK

Parents or Grandparents are invited to join us for "Book Talk" which takes place in the neighbourhood every Wednesday 9.00 to 10.00.
Please come along when you can, to read stories to groups of children and to chat about the stories.
Our first session begins on Wednesday 13th February.
Thank you Kevin.

Parent Information Session

(Construction design by Lucas and Kit)

Good Afternoon to all Parents!


There will be a Parent Information Evening for Prep-Year 2 on Thursday 21st February from 4pm-5pm.

This Session will be held in the gym where teachers will provide a short presentation. Following this we will move into our respective neighbourhoods where any more specific questions will be answered and you may explore our learning environments. If you would like to make a time to talk privately about your child's learning we are happy to arrange this with you. The 21st will be a time to speak more generally and prepare for 2013.

If you have any suggestions as to what you would like to hear about at this session or any specific questions that you would like covered, please let us know by using the comments feature below this post.

Your children are welcome to attend as there will be no After Care available that afternoon.

Warm Regards,
Prep-Two Teams

Week 2 DUST ECHOES: Aboriginal stories from Arnhem Land

Hi again,

Today we watched two short animated films telling stories from Arnhem Land (Northern Territory).
We watched these videos because we have been exploring indigenous culture as part of our Culture Inquiry through the perspective of 'Our Impact on Culture' and how we can positively affect our year two neighbourhood culture (which will then extend to how we can positively affect our broader community culture and global culture). The two stories we watched made some strong connections to discussions we have had about positively impacting our neighbourhood culture through friendship, belonging, helping and respect.

We watched "The Be" and "Brolga". I watched each video the night before to ensure that they were appropriate for our year two children as some of the videos depict concepts and imagery that are quite powerful. While I recommend that you explore this website further with your children, I do advise you to supervise to ensure the stories are appropriate.

 Dust Echoes is a beautiful website that has a collection of twelve Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories. Its interactivity is just wonderful and there are study guides attached with ideas for delving deeper into their meaning.

" Dust Echoes is one way that we are bringing everyone back to the same campfire - black and white. We are telling our stories to you in a way you can understand, to help you see, hear and know. And we are telling these stories to ourselves, so that we will always remember, with pride, who we are. "

Tom Lewis, actor, musician, Indigenous consultant

Here is the link to the Dust Echoes website:
http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm

Reader's and Writer's Notebooks

In order to assist children to further develop their competency and enjoyment of reading we are encouraging a home routine of reading every night. Children will select from a wide range of text genres such as picture story books, fiction chapter books, non-fiction, articles etc. The routine may include; independent reading (your child reads on their own), shared reading (you and your child share the reading) and read aloud (you read to your child).

Each week your child will bring home, in their home reading folder, books borrowed from the junior library.  This is located in the central area of the red brick building. They will also bring home a library book borrowed from the school library, in a separate library bag, which we are asking you to please provide. This bag should be brought to school as soon as possible clearly marked with your child’s name.

The amount of books will vary depending on the complexity and length of the text. The home reading folder will also include a Reading Log and a Reader’s Note Book.

On the Reading Log please record ALL the books your child reads. This may include books borrowed from both the junior and school libraries, as well as books from home or your local library.

The Reader’s Note Book is a place for the children to reflect, respond creatively and record in some way their interaction with the text. The Reader’s Note Books will be looked at by teachers on a regular basis. They will also be used at school and are required to be returned each morning with your child.

More information and helpful hints about reading will be included on your child’s neighbourhood blog, which is currently being set up.

Any further queries please do not hesitate to approach your child’s neighbourhood teachers.