Prep News

Return To On-Site Learning

The Prep teachers were just as excited as the Preps to return to on-site learning! We have had such a brilliant first few weeks back, with many games, lots of fun and many smiles as the children reconnected with each other.

 SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium Incursion

The Preps were so excited to be able to experience the aquarium from the comfort of their classroom. We were treated to an interactive session which included having a personalised guided tour around the Melbourne Aquarium! The Preppies were so excited to see the clown fish, Tony the Giant Southern Crab, seahorses and the penguins!

We asked lots of interesting questions like, “Why don’t the sharks eat the fish and scuba divers in the tank?” and “Do all stingrays have stingers?”. We learnt a lot about marine life and what we can do to make sure their ocean home stays safe.

We learnt that turtles’ shells grow on their bodies, can grow to 2m long and they need sunshine to make their shells grow.

Clown fish live in the skinny tentacles of a sea anemone. Clown fish bring the sea anemone food. Octopus and sea jellies also have tentacles.

We thought Tony the crab was amazing! He is a Giant Southern Crab, and he is HUGE - he is 50cm across his body. Giant Southern Crabs are one of the biggest species to live in Australian waters.

There are lots of different types of sharks which come in all different shapes and sizes. There are Banjo sharks, Port Jackson sharks, Brown Banded Bamboo sharks and Swell sharks. Some sharks, like Sandbar Whaler sharks, must keep swimming the whole time to make sure they can breathe! 

We saw lots of bright coloured fish. The reason they are so brightly coloured is so that they can hide among the coral!

Pinjara the crocodile is 5m long! Saltwater crocodiles live in the rivers and the oceans of Queensland. Saltwater crocodiles are reptiles and need to lie in the sun to keep warm. Crocodiles can go without food for up to 6 months!! They were almost extinct in the 1950s and 1960s, because they’re delicious to eat and their skin used to be used for shoes, belts and handbags. They are now a protected species, and they are no longer endangered.

We learnt that our discarded plastic items can end up in the mangroves and hurt the baby fish, and turtles can mistake plastic bags for sea jellies and eat them! We must be very careful where we leave our rubbish, so it doesn’t end up in the ocean.

We saw the beautiful King penguins, which are the second biggest species in the world. We also saw some Gentoo penguins. Penguins sleep, eat and do everything in the water except for when they moult or lay their eggs. Penguins touch flippers while they sleep in the ocean, so they don’t float away, and they only sleep for around 20 minutes at a time! The Gentoo penguins were lying on their eggs to keep them warm in their pebble nests.

The Great Outdoors

We have been making the most of the great outdoors to make sure we are getting lots of fresh air and to enjoy our school’s beautiful outdoor spaces.

We have been practicing our SMART Spelling words by using chalk and writing the words on the concrete outside. We have now learnt so many new words, we need to keep practicing so we remember all the tricky digraphs.

During fruit break, we have been making the most of having the school all to ourselves by using areas which are usually used by the older year levels. The Preppies have been so excited to explore the spider web down near the Year 3 classrooms!

The Preps were even treated to a beautiful Music lesson outdoors as the weather has been so lovely. It was a lot of fun singing outside. We even had a neighbour stop as she walked by to listen to the Preppies sweet voices!