Sustainability @ TPPS 

Our amazing Grade 5 students have gone above and beyond in their Pass The Test For A Platypus Challenge to raise money for WWF Australia’s platypus protection program. We are so proud of them! 

The students could challenge themselves to do the plank, push-ups or lap running, recite “Old Man Platypus” by Banjo Patterson, or spell ornithorhynchus anatinus - the scientific name for the platypus. It was great to see how hard the students worked to do their very best. 

Thank you so much to all the generous sponsors, your support means so much to us, and we know that your donations will be greatly appreciated by WWF Australia! We will be accepting donations until the last day of Term 2, and are very excited to reveal our final total next term. 

Our green-fingered Grade 6 have taken on the task of growing lettuce from seeds! They made their own pots out of newspaper, then planted tiny lettuce seeds in them.

To give their seeds an extra boost, the students have made little hothouses out of the top of a plastic bottle or a zip lock bag. This will keep the soil moist and the temperature even.

At the end of term, they will take their seedlings home to take care of them as they grow bigger. 

Did you know, iceberg lettuce can take up to 4 months to grow? We learned about the different stages of growth and made booklets about them. 

It is fantastic to see the responsibility and care our Grade 6s are taking while caring for their seedlings!

We think the Preps are too clever and might need to go straight to Grade 1 because they have been learning all about detritivores and decomposers!

Detritivores and decomposers are nature’s cleaning crew - turning things back into good soil. The little creatures that chew things up into smaller pieces are called detritivores, and the bacteria or fungi that dissolve things with enzymes are called decomposers.

The Preps have been investigating which creatures do this hard work on land and in the sea, and then checking for signs that there are some detritivores in our own school garden.

They have also been learning about the gardener’s friend - ladybugs!   We found out that ladybugs love eating aphids, which helps to protect the flowers in our garden from being eaten.