This term the kids in POD 1 and 2 are taking part in the swimming program at the YMCA. This program is a great way for our kids to learn water safety and basic swimming strokes. The kids love the opportunity to ‘get in the pool’ even though it’s a little chilly outside. Thanks to Mr. Grills for coming along to swimming with us and helping out the POD 1 staff in making sure we bring all our bits and pieces back to school.
It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of week 3! It was great to see all the happy faces back after the holidays.
This term the children have once again had the opportunity to choose ‘what’ they want to learn about and this is having a wonderful positive impact on the way they go about learning. This term we are invsestigating Oceans, the Olympics, Dinosaurs and Super Heroes. The last few weeks has seen the kids have the opportunity to ‘get their hands on’ in these areas and now are ready to ask the BIG questions … what do they want to LEARN!!!
When you wander around the POD it is really amazing to hear the conversations that are happening between the kids. “I like Brachiosaurus the best”, “I want to be a Palaeontologist when I grow up”, “I wonder how big a T-Rex really was”, “Do you know that whales are mammals”, “Super Heroes come in all shapes and sizes”, “The bad guys in some stories are called villains”, “Babe Ruth was a famous baseball player and I learnt about this from my Dad and from watching movies”.
We invite our parents and families to call in to see the great works and learning happening in POD 1. We are very proud of all the kids and the great learning happening so far in 2012. There is plenty more to come!
What an exciting couple of weeks we have had at school. Last week we were sent a message using ‘speakpipe’ which is a tool that lets you share and hear comments from other people.
Trish sent a ‘speakpipe’ message to Mrs. Kohlberg’s class at Craigburn Primary in South Australia. They have a great class blog and it was fun to read about some of the great things they are doing at their school.
You can listen to the messages we received from Mrs.Kohlberg’s class here:
Mrs. Kohlberg’s message
Grade 1s at Craigburn Primary
This week we are hoping to visit Mrs. Kohlberg’s blog to read some more of what they are doing at their school and leave a ‘speakpipe’ message for them. To visit their blog you can click here or follow the link in our ‘blogs to read’ links on the sidepanel of our blog.
If you could ask them a question what would you want to find out?
It was exciting to read some comments from our Quad Blogging partners, Hamilton East, in New Zealand. It is exciting to know that we have people from across the world reading and viewing our blog. It gives us a great reason to write and to share our learning and to find out what other kids in other schools and countries are doing as well.
We feel very inspired by your blog post of pizza sauce. Last week a group of our students made tomato soup. This group of students had been learning about ‘living things’ and have explored lots of different kinds of living things. When they made soup they took some photos of the end product but reading your post helped us to understand that you can use many pictures to help tell a story.
I wonder what other kinds of stories you might be able to use pictures with to help tell a story. Do you have any suggestions?
Be sure to come back soon to find out what this group does next.
Making tomato soup at school
Today we wrote some sentences about things we like to have for breakfast. We said the sentences and then wrote down what we said. What do you have for breakfast?
I would like some pancakes for my breakfast. Sam and Zoe
I would like some toast with jam. Boyd
I love Mum’s special hot chocolate with marshmallows melted in it. Shantay
I will have a muffin from Maccas for breakfast. Kelly
I would like some hash browns. Ella
I would like some coco pops for breakfast. Janai
I would like a hash brown. Jayden
I would like some cornflakes in the kitchen. Dekota
I had a dream about breakfast. I was outside and I was eating chicken and toast. Lisa
I want some weet-bix with milk and sugar. Thomas
I would like Maccas. Leah
I would like some hot chocolate for breakfast. Cheyne
Over the weekend we had a number of staff and students participate in the Ballarat Begonia Festival parade. Liz, our amazing Art teacher worked with the students from across the school to create an amazing entry for the parade. The weather was beautiful and our entry lead the parade. Did you get to go along and see our school in the parade? If you did, what did you enjoy about the parade? If you were not able to make it I wonder what you think would have been great about the day?
Check out this short movie clip about the parade Begonia festival 2012
This year Mr. Grills along with all the staff at YPCC are encouraging our students to join in the ‘Premier’s Active Families Challenge’.
The Premier’s Active Families Challenge encourages Victorians to do 30 minutes of physical activity for 30 days. It’s part of the Victorian Government’s commitment to promote healthy and active lifestyles.
YMCA Victoria has been an official community partner since 2008. In 2010 more than 67,000 Victorians participated in the Premier’s Active Families Challenge and over 2000 free passes were issued.
This year the Challenge will run from 19 March – 30 April 2012.
Registration is free for the Premier’s Active Families Challenge and all participants will receive:
• 20 free YMCA passes
• 15% off at Rebel Sport
• One free child pass to National Sports Museum
• One free child pass to Melbourne Aquarium
Participants will also get weekly tips on being active and eating healthy food and have a chance to win heaps of great prizes.
Find out more:
Sign up to the Challenge at www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/challenge or by calling 1300 463 684
Check out our Animoto of our sports day!
What was the best thing about your sports day? Write a comment below.
Today was fantastic! We had our sports day and a BIG thank you goes to Mr. Grills for all his efforts in organising all the activities. We would also like to thank all the BIG kids who helped us throughout the day.
Some of the highlights for the day were:
I liked the tug of war. I liked it because my sister and her boyfriend came to watch me. Adrian
I liked running the races. Hunter
I liked the egg and spoon race. Maddi
I liked the running. I ran very fast. Thomas
I liked the tug of war and the racing. Lachlan GC
I liked the tug of war. Leah
I liked the running because I won a ribbon. Maddi
My favourite part was the tug of war and the running race. Jack
It was great because I think red won. Rebecca
I liked the tug of war. Cheyne
I liked the tug of war. Gareth
I liked the tug of war because it was fun. Thomas
Click here to watch the movie trailer for the sports day.
YPCC Sports 2012
This week has started off with a bang! We have been working well in our Discovery Learning teams and have been exploring all kinds of things. We are growing plants and learning about living things, we are learning all about steam trains and today found out about coal and electricity generation, we are making some shops, we have built a house in which we designed and created wallpaper and it looks great.
In clubs we have been working hard and having fun in the gym. We have been exploring ‘Strip Design’ on the iPads. We made Pretzel Butterflies in cooking and have worked with Nurse Heather to learn about health.
What a busy week! Sometimes we wonder what you might be doing when we aer at school. Do you do as much as we do?
