The Year 1 Treasure Hunt

Excitement was in the air before school had even begun. All the children and parents were talking about the big treasure hunt. In the first hour of the day each group checked and rechecked that everything was ready and practiced what they would say about their special treasures. After lunch the treasure boxes were hidden by one member of each group all ready for the parents arrival at 12:30.

Behind the gym was a popular place to hide the treasure box.



The children collected their maps and headed out to the mini oval to the meet all the family and friends. Mums, Dads, Grandmas, Grandpas, brothers and sisters were gathered around the stage. Janette gave a small introduction to explain the inquiry project and how the treasure hunt would unfold.

The children then explained their treasure maps to the guests before beginning the treasure hunt around the school.

It was delightful to see all the smiling faces as the groups raced around the school grounds. Once the treasure was found each child explained what their treasure was and why it was special to them.



The yellow group on the hunt





The Green group made their treasure box out of natural materials, can you see it?





Around 1pm all the groups started making their way back to the mini oval for the final part of the treasure hunt, explaining how the treasure box was created and how the treasure box group worked together.   

Thank you to all the family and friends who have helped out with this special project. The year 1 teaching team is delighted with how the project came together. It has been a fantastic term of learning and discovery and we look forward to the rest of the year.



Don't forget the big Treasure Hunt is on Tomorrow (Thursday, 29th March) at 12:30. We will be meeting on the mini oval. If it is raining, the treasure hunt will be postponed until next term.  

Come and join us for the Mother’s Day Classic fun run on Sunday 12^th May to help raise funds for Breast Cancer Research. Follow the link below and register for the 4km walk or run or if really keen there is the 8km run. Please remember to enter PHPS as the team. This is a fantastic event and is lots of fun for the whole family. Everyone gets a medal and most importantly, the run raises vital funds for breast cancer research. Michelle and Sophie will be holding some training runs around Princes Park on Sunday 14/4, 22/4, 29/4 and 6/5 at 9am. Look forward to seeing you there.

Sophie 0414 834 855                          Michelle 0413 215 472

http://mothersdayclassic.com.au/register-online

Last Week of Term 1

Term one has certainly flown by. We have had a wonderful time getting to know the children of the year neighbourhood and their families. This week will be action packed.
On Tuesday a number of children in the neighbourhood will be performing in the Specialist's Assembly, starts at 9am. 
Thursday is the big Treasure Hunt. We are asking parents to join us from 12:30 on the mini oval. The treasure boxes are all finihsed, thank you to all the parents who came in and helped us with these. We are finishing up our treasure maps today, the maths project with David had been a fantastic success and the work produced is amazing. 
On Friday school will finish at 2:30.

End of Term Picnic for Year 1 Neighbourhood

We are having an end of term picnic for students and parents/carers of the Year 1 Neighbourhood.

Date: Friday, 30th March 2012

Time: 3pm - 4:30pm

Where: Princes Park near the adventure playground. Cnr Princes Park Drive & Macpherson Street, North Carlton

Some families might like to bring a small plate of healthy food to share, but only if it is convenient. Please bring your own drinks. Come and meet other families and enjoy the afternoon.

If it is raining at 3pm, you can assume the picnic is cancelled, as there is no shelter. 

Ultranet

For the last two weeks a small group of children from 5/6 neighbourhood 2 have been teaching some of the children from our neighbourhood a few skills on the Ultranet. The children have learnt how to add an iframe and a voki to their homepages. This peer tutoring will continue next term, so all the children of the neighbourhood can recieve one on one tutoring in using the Ultranet. We would like to say a big thank you Meredith and the children of 5/6 neighbourhood for their time and patience.

FOR THE KIDS

Book Worm
The second annual Children's Book Festival family fun day at the State Library features writers, illustrators, illustrators, storytelling, singers, clowns and workshops. At the library forecourt on Sunday, March 25 from 10am-4pm. Free. Details: slv.vic.gov.au

Musical Journey
Find out where musical traditions come from and how instruments work. For kids aged 3-13 at ArtPlay, Birrarung Marr. Sunday, March 25. Details: melbourne.vic.gov.au/artplay

Flying High
Using recycled materials and connector system, kids can make flying objects in this workshop at Spiegeltent, Southbank. Sunday, March 25. Details: artscentremelbourne.com.au

Parent Helpers Needed – Just 10 min. per week or perhaps 10 min. a day in the Library!

In order to help keep the library functioning well, we need more people to re-shelve resources students and teachers use. You can value add to the your child’s learning by helping to keep resources in their place and to improve the time it takes to find resources. For just 10 min. a week you can help make a difference!

For more details or to declare your interest contact Mark at riley.mark.g@edumail.vic.gov.au or phone Fridays 9389 5335.

Premier’s Active Families Challenge       19^th March-30^th April

The Premier’s Active Families Challenge is a key component of the Victorian Government’s commitment to get more people more active more often.

·        The Challenge provides a great opportunity for all Victorian families to spend time together and enjoy the benefits of an active lifestyle.

·        Families participating in the Challenge are asked to do 30 minutes of physical activity a day for 30 days between 19 March and 30 April 2012.

·        Each family that registers will receive 20 free YMCA passes, discounts at Rebel Sport, one free child pass to the Melbourne Aquarium and one free child pass to the National Sports Museum, and opportunities to win prizes including iPads and Rebel Sport vouchers.

·        There will be regular tips and ideas on ways to keep active throughout the Challenge.

Get more active more often, spend quality time together and have fun. It’s free, it’s easy, and there are plenty of chances to win prizes for yourself or your school

Register online at www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/challenge or call 1800 463 684, and remember to include our school’s name when you register.

Sapphire

Our class lizard Sapphire is loving her weekend sleepovers with the families of our neighbourhood. Sapphire spent the Labour Day Long Weekend with Oli and his family. Below is a photo of what Oli shared with the neighbourhood about Sapphire's stay at his house.



National Ride2School Day

Princes Hill Primary School will be celebrating National Ride2School day on Friday 23^rd of March, along with thousands of other schools around the country. We would like to encourage students and their families to leave their car at home on this day and get a taste of the benefits, ease and fun involved in choosing to walk and wheel to school.

Ride2School Team Manager, Kelly Pearson said the success of the Ride2School program and its positive impact on students’ health is evident in the numbers. Over 140,000 students participate in this event.

“Schools that are registered in the Ride2School program more than double the national average riding rate. These students increase the time they devote to physical activity which helps reduce the risk of obesity and associated health problems,” she said.

Montana and Holly, students in Grade5/6FM are organising this event for the school and will be gathering data on the day and taking photos.

Holly & Montana (Ride2School organisers)

Year 1 Treasure Hunt

Our Year 1 Treasure Hunt will be taking place on Thursday 29th March (Week 9). The Treasure Hunt will take place after lunch, and we ask treasure hunters to join us at 12:30pm.

Our Favourite Things

Earlier this term we read three books: "Hunwick's Egg", "Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge", and "My Mum and Dad Make Me Laugh"...you can have a look at them on the blog bookshelf.
Each book explores different aspects of how we place value on things...how we all have things or memories or experiences that we value very highly. 
As we read the funny story of "My Mum and Dad", we all began to think of those things that we value...what makes us different from other people, and possibly the same as some other people?  We talked about how we treat one another... especially others who don't value the same things that we do.  Perhaps they even like things that we think are awful!  Perhaps they like exactly what we like!  How then should we behave?
The children all began to draw some of their favourite things...those things that might be a point of difference or of similarity.  Please enjoy these little mini books!
Our Favourite Things vol 3! on PhotoPeach Our Favourite Things volume 2! on PhotoPeach Our Favourite Things on PhotoPeach

Red Cross Injury Day

Tuesday 13th March

Dress up as an injured person for Red Cross Day. ANZAC cookies will given to children who bring a gold coin donation.

Ingredients:

Eggs

Coconut

Butter

Sugar

Oats

Golden Syrup

No Nuts





Treasure Boxes

Yesterday the children were placed into their treasure box/map groups. These groups were created after our classification team (Sara, Joseph, Will K, Bianca, Zoe & Aidan) decided to classify the treasures according to colour. These colour groups included white, gold, rainbow, orange and yellow. Ask your child what group they are in. The groups have between 4 and 7 members.

Green

Rainbow

Gold

Yesterday the children decided what material they would use to create their treasure box, fabric, paper or natural.

Fabric

Paper

Natural

Today with assistance from two parent helpers the children designed and began making their treasure box. The room was full of excitement and the children work extremely well with each other, listening to each others and compromising on the design.

Class Photos

Don't forget tomorrow we are having our class photos taken. If you have not sent back the photo envelope with money enclosed please do so tomorrow. Individual photos will be taken on Thursday, 8th March.

Making a Hundred, Estimations and Counting

Today the neighbourhood discussed the strategies that can used when estimating. We looked at and discussed the estimations that had been recorded for the jar of marbles. This lead to a conversation about how the marbles could be counted and grouped to assist with the estimation.

The children then worked in the circle, triangle and square groups. The circles made groups of 100. Below are examples of how some of the children showed 100 using a variety of materials. 



Sara and Lila Rose tried to show 100 shapes in a picture, each part of the picture is made up of 7 shape pieces

Louie and Huxley made 10 groups of 10

Mirsu and Charrlotte showed 100 in a long line

Millie and Loula first showed 100 as this shape 

After the circles shared Millie and Loula showed 100 in 10 groups of 10



 

Our Treasures

What do we care about?

We have brought in a special thing that we really value.  Some of us don’t want to leave our special thing at school, so we have a photo of it.

Some of us value things that you can’t bring to school, so we have a photo of our treasure or have written about it.

What can you learn about us by looking at our treasures?

Bring in Those Readers' and Writers' Notebooks!

Please, please, please help your children to bring their notebook and the plastic folder to school every day, even if they are still reading the books that they selected earlier in the week.  We are planning to use the notebooks during class when we are reading together or as a start-up for writing.  This will help broaden the ways that the children respond to books and develop ideas for writing. Plus, it will give you direct access to things that your child has just  been learning about at school that day...always helpful in overcoming the 'nothing' response!
Ask your child to show you what they did today!  Janette read "Poppa McPhee Gets the Eggs" and we made predictions as the story unfolded.  Then all the children wrote or drew their prediction for the end of the story...which we will read tomorrow!

Reading Strategies

Last week we began to think about how people read, and asked this question:
"What do smart readers do?"  This lead to thinking about the strategies readers use as they read to help themselves understand.  We are currently directing our attention to two very effective reading strategies;

1. Prediction
2. Visualising

Prediction occurs at a number of levels; readers think about the topic of a book as they look at the title or illustrations, and  as they read they predict what is likely to occur by drawing on their own experiences and knowledge.  They also predict the words, using their knoweldge of usual grammar and sentence structure.  This helps readers approach unfamiliar words, which they attack using their knowledge of sound and letter patterns. 

Visualising is like 'running a movie in your head' as one student commented on Friday! You pay attention to the details, and construct an image of the action, the setting or the characters as the author reveals them. 

You can really help your children by asking them to predict what might happen when they first look at the front cover,  as well as during the reading.  Stop sometimes, especially if they seem to be having difficulty understanding the story, and re-read a section to them, asking them to close their eyes and make a picture as you read to them.  Then ask them what they think happened... it often really helps them to clarify a complex situation! Then they will return to reading with understanding, rather than continue being confused.  Don't hesitate to draw certain details to their attention in the text if they have missed something important.  Smart readers really use the text! 
Last Friday, Janette ran a workshop that further developed the idea of visualising.  The children selected a story from a big book of Aesop's fables, which Janette then read to them, pausing to give them time to draw 'the action' of the story.  The results were beautiful and reflected the discussion that happened as we read the story...the children really paid attention to the details!  Here is Daniel's little book with a summary of the story to help everyone remember "The Dog and His Bone"...The Dog and His Bone by Daniel on PhotoPeach
The Dog and His Bone by Daniel on PhotoPeach
All the children made little booklets as they listened to the story, and put them in their bags to take home and share with their parents.  Have you seen your child's?  Ask them to re-tell the story to you!

Parent Helpers

Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help with creating the treasure boxes (Constructing/Sewing/Collage). We would like to begin these workshops on Thursday next week (8th March). All workshops will be in the last hour of the day, between 2:30-3:30. I have placed a timetable up in the entrance of the neighbourhood. I have included some names on to the timetable, please feel free to add your name to any of the days on the timetable or cross your name off if you can't make the day I have nominated you for. If you have not handed a note back, but can help out please feel free to add your name along with your child's name (this will help us in learning everyone's name) to the timetable. A maximum of 2 parent helpers for each area.

Jessica