Tuesday 31 May 2011

Another Terrific Tuesday

Today we went to the PP1 Assembly and they did a great play about the "Very Ordinary Caterpillar". It was a good story about how a very ordinary caterpillar turned into a very EXTRAORDINARY butterfly.
We kept working on our rainbow paintings, our plaster insects and our camouflaged stick insects. Mrs E took us in small groups and we had to do counting and writing numbers on flowers.

We drew ourselves and Mrs E put our thoughts in a "thinking bubble" next to our heads. We had to say what we wanted to find at the end of the rainbow. Then Mrs E helped us cut out and we glued our body onto the rainbow we painted yesterday. We wanted to find things like: gold,money, fairies, ponies, butterflies, ladybugs and toys at the end of our rainbows.

                                                      We are doing an amazing job making our stick insect environments. What do you think?

                                                                                
Cooper and Harry were excited to find some flowers on our plants today.
Will was very happy that his mum came in for parent help today :)


Another busy day in PP comes to and end and we all feel happy and tired.

Monday 30 May 2011

Magnificent Monday

Today is Monday - the first day of a school week. It was raining last night and on the way to school lots of us saw a lovely rainbow. We were excited to tell Mrs E because we have been reading Noah's Ark and there is a rainbow in that story. She wanted to take a photo but it was behind the buildings. When it gets over the oval we will stand under it and have a photo. We talked about what we would like to find at the end of a rainbow and drew pictures.

We started making special environments for our stick insects. Because stick insects are very good at camouflaging themselves, we made their homes the same sort of colours so they could hide and 'blend in'.

Zak's stick insect is light green and dark green and so is his home. There are also some leaves and twigs. He has done a great job of making sure his insect can camouflage itself.















Ella's stick insect is well camouflaged in its home. Ella says that her insect is a girl one. Its pink and red body is hiding in amongst her pink and red leaves.















Can you see Connor's stick insect hiding here?









At recess time, Mrs D brought her flute in to play for us. We pretended that we were at a restuarant and
Mrs D was the entertainment. It sounded really beautiful.









Mia's snail slid along the fence at the bottom of our garden display. It's a very colourful snail.








Emily B's colourful bug likes living in our garden display.


It stopped raining at lunch time so we could go out and play. The sandpit was REALLY wet and soggy but some of us still went in it. All the sand stuck to our feet!
Mrs W started to help us make imaginary insects. We started by rolling three balls of newspaper and then covered them in alfoil. Then we covered it with plaster bandages. Tomorrow we will be able to glue coloured paper on them and add legs and wings and antennas. We have to put 6 legs on because insects have 6 legs coming from their middle part.

 






Friday 27 May 2011

Fantastic Friday

Today was fun again. We did lots of finishing off of activities. Because we worked so hard, Mrs E put the bikes out at lunch time for us to ride around the track. We nearly all got to make our stick insects and they look funny lined up on the bench. We also talked about animals we would find at the bottom of our garden and looked at lots of drawings and photos. The we had to draw one and paint it with lots of bright colours. When they are dry we will cut them out and put them on our wall display. We finished our ladybugs and all got to tell Mrs E how we could be a nice ladybug instead of an annoying mosquito. Mrs E put them in our garden display.

Mia said "I could be like a Ladybug by caring and being a good friend to everyone."
Eloise said "by helping people when they feel sad."
Josh said " by taking good care of my friends."

It seems we have a class full of ladybugs!





Harry was so proud of his Monet painting and wanted to show people on our blog so here it is :).












Ryan was jumping with excitement when Mrs E said that she would put a photo of his painting on our blog. He is very happy about it.










We worked very hard so we WERE allowed to have the bikes out at lunch time. Sam and Callum seem very happy about that!











On Friday afternoons we have free choice activity stations and Cooper really wanted to show you his building.









At 2.40 on Friday afternoons the parents and nans and pops are allowed  to come into our classroom and look at what we have been doing for the week. We show them our work, let them play with us and sometimes they read with us. At the end we all sit on the mat and sing songs we have learnt.

Here are two of our mums having fun at the little Lego table. Even our little brothers and sisters get to come in.

This mum and Emily and Ella look very special with their beautiful crowns made out of Zoobs.













Well that's it for another week. We hope that you have enjoyed reading about what we do in Pre Primary and are looking forward to hearing from you. Mrs E said that she has (hopefully ) fixed the comment box so it's easier to leave a comment - but please be patient - she is only learning :-).

Just a note - the letter of the week next week is Ll for Lucy Lamplight,
lollypop and lizard. I think we might be finding a lizard or three at the bottom of our garden next week.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the time together.

Thursday 26 May 2011

We are Authors and Illustrators

Yesterday we started making a book about the very busy snails. Today the glitter was dry and we had our photos taken with our pages. Tomorrow Mrs E will laminate the pages and bind the side so that it looks like a real book. After we have finished reading it we are going to take it over to the Kindy and read it to the Kindy Kids.

EMILY made the cover of our book. Her snails are crawling up a pole.

MADDIE made the page for the introduction and Monday.
RUBY made this page about the snails going into a hole.                
DANNIELLA with her snails balancing on a flower.                    
ELLA's snails belong in the circus!                             

CALLUM's snails might be trying to get his lollypop.
JAMEE introduced her snails to a butterfly.    

SAM's snails are very tired.                       


We learnt about stick insects today. We learnt that  "they are very good at camouflage" (Charlie) "Some don't camouflage as good as others" (Taj)
"They eat leaves" (Abby)   "They drink water" (Ryan)   "You can have them for pets if you have a glass tank and it's warm" (Teia) "They can grow another leg if an animal bites one off" (Maddie)  "When they are babies, lots die" (Zak)

.Mrs M helped us make our own stick insects and they are very cute.
   

Our stick insects.


Mrs MB came in and helped us roll the playdough.


DAKOTA was very good at rolling peas to go inside the pods.         


Then INDEE had a turn and made purple peas!


Today was another busy day at Pre Primary. I wonder if we can have a little rest tomorrow?








Wednesday 25 May 2011

Busy Wednesday

Today was a VERY busy day for all the Tiny Teds! We  finished our Monet paintings, made ladybugs, finished threading our spider webs, made scary spiders and built amazing constructions. Some of us even wrote and illustrated a book about the very busy snails.
We talked a lot about whether we should be nice and friendly like a ladybug or annoying and bity like a mosquito. We all decided it's much better to be a ladybug. :-)





Callum took so much care with his painting. It looks really beautiful and
Mrs E wants to frame it.













Sam was so proud of his beautiful painting. Mrs E said that it was AMAZING.


Emily was very busy building at lunch time. She was so proud of her construction that she asked Mrs W to take a photo for the "blob".




Taj did some great threading and counting. Then he made a scary spider to go in the web.



Jamee decided it was good to be a ladybug instead of a mosquito and she made a gorgeous ladybug from paper plates, google eyes, pipecleaners and split pins. She used corks to print the black dots on the wings.















Our classroom is getting full of scary spiders!















Mrs E thinks that we will all sleep really well tonight because we have worked so hard today. 

Monday 23 May 2011

Monday News

Today we were very busy in the classroom. First we sat in an oval shape on the mat and Mrs N showed us what had happened to our seeds over the weekend. Lots of the peas and beans had sprouted. We could easily see the roots, stem and seed. The seed had splits on it. There were 2 different types of roots - a long one in the middle and some spidery ones on the side.




We could see all the parts of our little plants.





Then we each got a foam cup and wrote our name on the back. We went outside to the sandpit and filled the cup with sand. Then very carefully we drew a face on the front of the cup with waterproof texta. We didn't have to draw the hair because we planted lots of wheat seeds inside the cup and we hope that when the wheat grows it will look like green hair!
Abby took a lot of care drawing her face.


Will drew a funny face with a sticky out tongue.

After recess we looked at some beautiful paintings of gardens painted by a famous artist called
Monet. He isn't alive anymore but his paintings are famous.  He painted special pictures of gardens and flowers. Then some of us got to try to paint a garden picture like Monet. He didn't leave white bits in his paintings. He painted lots of flowers and grass and sky.

Maddie is painting a beautiful Monet garden picture.

Mia's painting is going to be great when she is finished it.

Bo took a lot of time painting his beautiful garden.



















Thursday 19 May 2011

AMAZING PHOTO

Today we had a whole school photo. Everyone in the whole school had to go down to the oval and stand on a HUGE lot of platform steps. The big kids had to climb up on the platform, the Kindy kids had to sit on chairs and we had to sit on a piece of material at the front. We had to sit for a long time and they took more than 15 photos. The photographer said "3,2,1 SMILE" and we all smiled. Maddie and Josh said "We like smiling because it makes us happy".


When we got back to the classroom, Matthew checked on our seeds. He found a pea that had a long root and a little stem growing. The root was stuck in the cotton wool.  Mrs E said that soon we would plant it in some soil and see if we could get some peas to eat.





Bo and Sam made a fort.



Charlie and Josh built a castle.











After lunch some of us built constructions on the mat. We got to use our new foam blocks.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Plant Happenings

Today we looked at our pea and bean seeds. Some of them have started sprouting roots and 1 pea has a tiny stem coming out. We had to put some more water on the cotton wool because it was drying out a bit and we know that plants need water.


Can you see the roots sprouting?


We also checked our seedlings. Mrs E was so happy because they were still alive - all the ones at her home died! We think it was because she forgot to water them.


Our Marigolds are still alive and so are the Pansies. :)

OTHER THINGS TODAY
We have been learning about the Hungry Caterpillar and also about healthy foods. We used colourful handprints and drew a big leaf and made a
Healthy Caterpillar.

 
Emily's caterpillar is VERY healthy



We have also been having fun making flowers and spiders at the Collage table. Danniella has made LOTS of flowers.

 




Tuesday 17 May 2011

More PP News

Today we had a K-2 Assembly. At the Assembly Callum, Dakota, Eloise and Charlie had to get up in front of everyone and show them what we had been doing in the classroom.  Callum and Charlie had their Healthy Caterpillars and Eloise and Dakota showed their "Parts Of A Plant" activity. We were proud to see such lovely work from our class.


When we got to school this morning, Mrs E had a surprise for us. She had made a computer lab in the corner after school yesterday and we had 4 computers in it! We used the flowers we had made at the Collage table to make a cutain to show where the lab was. We aren't allowed to touch the hanging flowers in case they fall down.
We are allowed to use the computers and it's exciting. We like playing Letterland and Yellow Door. When Mrs E gets us onto the Internet, we like playing starfall. You can find starfall at this address  http://www.starfall.com/ .There are lots of activities on there so kids can learn about letters and reading. We like looking at the letter T because there's a big tiger there and it roars.