Prep Report

Wominjeka from the POD COMMUNITY - Katya, Elise, Carmen, Jo, Paula, Maja & Kim

Inquiry - Styles of Learning

As part of our inquiry unit into Geography, our preps have been developing personal and social capabilities through critical and creative thinking. Students spent an afternoon experiencing different styles of learning including visual, auditory and tactile learning by exploring the life cycle of a dinosaur.

In the visual room, students looked at photos, videos and diagrams of the stages of the life cycle and engaged in discussions about what they saw, thought and wondered.

The auditory room was dimmed and students were asked to close their eyes to focus on the different sounds they could hear and try to determine what they were listening to.

The tactile room involved hands-on exploration where students dug and hatched dinosaur eggs buried in kinetic sand.

Students were then tasked with reflecting on their experiences in each room through discussions with their floor friends to decide which was their preferred style of learning. The preps loved visiting each room, sharing their thinking and writing about their favourite style of learning.

Kids' Voice

We have been learning about Geography. As part of our inquiry, we have spent lots of time learning about the four seasons. The prep students have had so much fun learning about summer, autumn, spring and winter. We asked some students what their favourite season was and why. Here's what they had to say:

"Summer, because my name is Samar and in Summer you can go to the beach." - Samar, Prep A

"Winter because it’s snowy and I can play and eat ice cream." - Raysha, Prep A

"Summer because I love to play outside" - Riaan, Prep B

"Summer because I like going to the beach and swimming!" - Sienna, Prep B

"Summer because is so hot! When it is hot I can drink lots of water." - Ayden, Prep C

"Summer because I can go to the beach and go in the ocean." - Reej, Prep C

"Winter because it’s very cold and I like the cold" - Pranav, Prep D

"Summer because we get to go in the swimming pool and I get to learn how to swim, and the pool keeps me nice and cold." - Alexis, Prep D

"Summer because I like to go to the beach and swim." - Yashu, Prep E

"Autumn because it’s super nice and the leaves are yellow and orange." - Harkirat, Prep E

"Winter because I can play in snow, and I can build a snowman." - Keerat, Prep F

"Summer because we can go to the pool!" - Alexander, Prep F

"Winter because I like to play in the snow" - Omran, Prep G

"Summer because we can go to the beach. I like swimming and playing with my mum at the beach." - Athanasia, Prep G

The Four Seasons

To conclude our learning about the four seasons, we made 3 dimensional trees to reflect each season. First, we coloured in four trees to show Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Then we cut them out and folded them in half. The final step was to glue them together to make them 3 dimensional. We think they look great hanging in our classrooms!

Inquiry Essential Questions

This term, the key question we will explore is: What connections can you make to your culture?

The students will identify and describe features of places and changes in these, at a local scale. The emphasis will be on places students are familiar with or that they are curious about. Students will identify and describe places they consider to be ‘special’. For example, their room, a play area, holiday location or a place of family significance, and explain why the place is special to them.

The idea of active citizenship is developed as students start to explore their feelings about special places, and how places can be cared for. Students used different materials to create their favourite place, many including the beach, park, school and home.

Students are collecting and recording geographical data and information and representing it in graphs and tables. Students have already created a class pictograph on their favourite places.

Awards & Acknowledgments

In the POD Learning Community, we share our awards and acknowledgements through our Values Tree. We have done some extra work on our values and are continuing to celebrate students showing BRILLIANCE, CURIOSITY, JOY and KINDNESS. We have some extra flowers added, have a look and see!