Prep

This term in Inquiry, the children did a Creativity Unit called ‘Topsy Turvy Tales’.

They practised thinking creatively and using their imagination as they explored traditional tales. They learnt words that described the properties of different materials.

We presented the Gospel at Assembly recently. Luke 18:10-14. This was the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. We made models of characters in this parable. The message in this gospel is that no one is perfect. We have all made mistakes and that we should not judge the actions of others.

During one beautiful mild day, we sat outside in our new outdoor learning space to have lunch.

We had Robogals visit us from the Monash University Engineering Department. We had to program the robot to move forwards, backwards, left and right. We had to program it to walk in a square and a circle. We finished our session by playing a game of Sumo Wrestling. If your robot fell over you were out and the last robot standing was the winner. We had a great time.

We had the local Fire Brigade come to visit the Preps twice. They talked about safety in the home and what to do if there was a fire.

During their visit we squirted the fire hose and climbed into the fire engine. They left with lights and sirens blazing!

As part of our Fairy tale unit, we made porridge and created plays, using simple props, to retell the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears. I was very impressed with the children who had never tasted porridge before and were willing to give it a taste test! A little honey added to the porridge makes all the difference!

In Maths, we played games by throwing two or three dice, creating a number and writing the numbers that went before and after.

We read the story of The Gingerbread Man and we decorated some Gingerbread Men with icing pens and made a Gingerbread man out of paper.

In our Maths unit we explored the concept of Volume and Capacity. We explored empty, full, half empty, half full and overflowing by filling up different cups with water and sand.

We also looked at the story of the Little Red Hen! We made bread and performed a play.

As part of our Maths unit on Volume and Capacity we made playdough. We also wrote letters to the Big Bad Wolf from the 3 Little Pigs fairy tale.

Christmas has come around quickly. We decorated our Christmas tree and made very cute Santa heads. We made reindeers from paper bags and filled their bellies with food to help them guide the sleigh on Christmas Day. Sprinkle on the lawn on Christmas Eve.

Reindeer Food Recipe

Ingredients:

1 scoop rolled oats (carbohydrates for energy)

1 scoop bird seed (enables reindeers who usually live on the ground to fly

1 teaspoon of glitter (provides the sparkles around their hooves on take off)

1 teaspoon of stars (helps them to see in the dark if it happens to be a cloudy night)

1 teaspoon of ground Berocca tablet (to help them through a very long night)

Method:

Place all ingredients in a bowl.

Stir with a big wooden spoon.

Scatter on the front lawn or place in a bowl next to Santa’s snack.

We still love to dance.

We said good bye to our pre service teacher Catherine Haddad. However, we just might see Miss Haddad in our Prep Classroom again next year.

The elf on the shelf came to visit the Prep classroom. He hid in a different place each day. The children were very excited each morning looking for where he would be next. We made our own elf on the shelf. They are very impressive.