Parent Information Evening - Reading with your child

PARENT INFORMATION EVENING – Reading with your child
When: 28 July, 6:30-7:30pm
Where: PHPS Gymnasium
Presenter: David Hornsby

 David Hornsby was with the Victorian Ministry of Education for 28 years and taught at every year level from Prep to Year 6. During that time, he also lectured at La Trobe University, the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. For 4 years he was an education department curriculum consultant in primary and secondary schools. He was the principal of Ringwood Heights Primary School for 5 years. He is now a full-time education consultant working with teachers and presenting at conferences both nationally and overseas. He has completed many lecture tours of the United States and the United Kingdom, and has also worked with teachers in Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Milan, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. He has written or co-authored many books and two CD-ROM series. Parents from the Community Relations sub-committee of school council will be present in the gym from 6pm to help answer questions around subscribing to the blogs, access to Compass, and general school communications.

PARENT INFORMATION EVENING – Reading with your child

When: 28 July, 6:30-7:30 pm

Where: PHPS Gymnasium

Presenter: David Hornsby

David Hornsby was with the Victorian Ministry of Education for 28 years and taught at every year level from Prep to Year 6. During that time, he also lectured at La Trobe University, the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. For 4 years he was an education department curriculum consultant in primary and secondary schools. He was the principal of Ringwood Heights Primary School for 5 years. He is now a full-time education consultant working with teachers and presenting at conferences both nationally and overseas. He has completed many lecture tours of the United States and the United Kingdom, and has also worked with teachers in Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Milan, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. He has written or co-authored many books and two CD-ROM series.

Parents from the Community Relations sub-committee of school council will be present in the gym from 6 pm to help answer questions around subscribing to the blogs, access to Compass, and general school communications.

Term 2 Week 9 and 10

Inquiry Focus 
Students are well into the process of designing their exhibit spaces. We are asking them to consider the content that should have in the museum exhibits, the visual and spatial design of the exhibit and the kinds of experiences that we would like visitors to have in our museum. Building on the area and scale learning we have been doing in our mathematics workshops, students are exploring designing using scale and with an awareness of the limited space that we have in the neighbourhoods. Through working with a parent expert some students have been exploring scale model creation to produce exhibit designs. While other students are creating draft exhibits within the neighbourhood to test out their ideas and seek feedback from others.

Literacy Focus

Students have been exploring the features of the scientific report genre to assist them in the presentation of factual information about their chosen exhibit topic. Students are in the process of publishing their Haiku poems and the focus on syllabic structure continues. Preparation for student led conferences has also been a feature. 

Numeracy Focus

Angles have been introduced and explored over the last two weeks. Students have explored the language of angles and how they represent a measure of rotation around a fixed point or vertex. Students have been learning how to measure the size of angles with a protractor. Links have been made with our inquiry through the creation of a possible museum entrance. Students have used geometric shapes to form a creative entrance design and they have measured and labeled some of the angles that they could identify in their design. Preparation for student led conferences has also been a feature.

Wellbeing Focus

As we draw to the end of a long term, we are focusing on being aware that we may be feeling tired and possibly a little unwell. Understanding that others may be feeling this way is an important understanding. As we prepare for student led conferences we are also focusing on feeling a sense of pride in the achievements of the first semester as well as thinking about goals that we have for the next two terms.

34 N1 Parent Rep Message

Dear Families of 3/4 LN1,

We are filling the parent rep role for 3/4 LN1. Part of that role is to collate and distribute a parent contact list. We have received some contact details from last year's parent reps but there still some families whose details we do not have. A consent form will be sent home with the children (only to families whose contact details we don't have) and if you wish to be included on the list please complete and return the form to Laura or your child's home group teacher. 

Please note email addresses will not be included in the information distributed to families but as parent reps we shall send out emails to the neighbourhood (bcc) from time to time with messages from the teachers and information about community / social events like the school disco and bazaar. 

We also plan to organise some social events so we can catch up as a group. Please pop Tuesday 28th July in your diary for a parent gathering - 7.30 pm. Venue TBC.

 

Also, it would be great to squeeze in a catch up before end of term. Weather permitting, we thought we would head over to the railway house park next Friday 26th June at 2.30 pm.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions to enhance connections within the learning neighbourhood and our school community, please let us know. 

Many thanks,

Carla Hagan & Ciara Boyle 

Parent reps 3/4 LN1

(carla_hagan@hotmail,com ;  0412 883 808) 

(ciara.boyle@gmail.com ; 0404 883 544)

A visit from an architect.

Over the past few weeks we have been fortunate to have architect Bob Earl visit the neighbourhood to help us think about the important role architecture plays in how people interact with their spaces.  In addition to explaining the design process, his visits have been inspiring us to explore ways of incorporating the architectural principles of aesthetics (materials, texture, light, space) and utility (purpose, user experience) into our plans for a PHPS museum.  Through this we have been able to generate new ideas while considering what elements we wish to include in our designs.  Throughout this process we have been developing mathematical understandings about measurement and scale as well as learning how we can best communicate our ideas effectively through drawings.

Term 2 Week 7

Inquiry Focus
Students have completed presenting the exhibit plans that they have for our Princes Hill Primary School Museum. This week we are continuing to explore who would potentially come to our museum, what kind of experience would they expect and what information would be important to us to share with them through our exhibits. Larger exhibit groups have been identified across the neighbourhoods and we are beginning to plan how our exhibits will work in the neighbourhood spaces. Parents have also been sharing their expertise with us over the last few weeks and helping us with various aspects of our inquiry.

Mathematics Focus
We will be continuing to explore concepts of multiplication, place value, addition and area through our museum map designs which will be completed this week. We will also further explore accurate measuring, estimation, and aspects of scale. Target sessions will also run focusing on specific points of need.

Literacy Focus
Students are completing their book reviews this week and they are continuing to track their reading through making reading log entries in their literacy books. Fluency when reading is an area of focus in reading also. We are exploring aspects of poetry over the next few weeks. Limericks have been an initial focus and students have been creating their own limericks which are up on the walls in the neighbourhoods. These poetry experiences are valuable for students developing awareness of rhyme, syllables and poetic structure.

Wellbeing Focus
We are asking students to consider how they can contribute to the wellbeing of the neighbourhood and students have responded in a variety of ways. Many are eager to contribute to the cleaning and organising the neighbourhood and one group have created a friendship letter box in which students can write letters to each other which are read out or delivered once a week as a way of expressing gratitude to each other.

Author Alice Zaslavsky (a.k.a Alice in Frames) will be talking to students on Friday 29 May 9-10 am
about her debut book Alice’s Food A-Z, life on MasterChef and most importantly food and cooking.

Books for Cooks (Lucy White 5/6’s parents) will have copies of Alice’s Food A-Z
available for purchase by students and signing.  The book is $19.95.  A copy will be at the office for perusal.

Here’s what Books for Cooks had to say in ‘Australian Bookseller & Publisher’

“Too often childrens’ cookbooks, particularly middle primary school age, are just bad collections of cheesy cheap content and recipes for happy faces on pizza; which makes finding a good food book for your 6-11 year old child, relative, god-child or ‘inner-child’ very difficult – until now!   Alice Zaslavsky is a Melbourne based qualified middle school teacher who made it through to the finals of MasterChef Series 5 – the one with the ‘big glasses’!  Alice’s Food A-Z is an engaging, personal, fun and healthy introduction to food that will intrigue kids, adults – even picky eaters!  Alice’s zany sense of humour percolates throughout (think Andy Griffiths meets Heston Blumenthal) and her 40 recipes scattered over 26 A-Z foodie chapters illustrate good cooking techniques in snacks and easy dishes without being preachy.  Liberally seasoned with interesting & engaging ‘facts’, ‘tips’ and ‘whys guys’ breakout sections this is a great balanced introduction to food, food science, cooking and health for young readers.  The ‘What to look for’ sections are perfect primers to make better food shoppers.  Perfect for home, the layout will also suit lesson plans and school activities.”

Books for Cooks | 233 Gertrude St Fitzroy | +61 3 8415 1415 |www.booksforcooks.com.au