As always, it has been a very busy end to the year. In the past two weeks, we’ve had our Grandparents and Special Carer’s Day, as well as the school’s Learning Expo. We all needed to come together as one community to achieve our goals and feel prepared for these two big events.
To get ready for the grandparents’ visit, we decided on some provocations that we could set up and share with our special visitors. The children were very excited to show what they have been learning and did a wonderful job of explaining the ‘how and why’ of the provocations they’d selected. They talked about paying close attention with observational drawing, creative writing and the steps involved, being careful and patient with collaborative construction, as well as the rules for playing a maths game called, ‘Get Out of My House’. After the provocations, we enjoyed a picnic together and sang our (now famous) Pirate Song for the last time. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it, the children were very proud of their learning and really enjoyed showcasing it for an important audience.
To express our gratitude to our visitors, we wrote cards that could be taken home to say, ‘thank you’. Everyone’s message was different and unique, and the children put in extra effort to consider what sorts of drawings they could include on the front that would appeal to the recipients. We got to apply our writing skills, made sure to reread what we’d written, and made edits and changes to ensure our message was clear.
To prepare for the expo, we all put in an extra big effort to showcase our learning spaces by putting in the finishing touches on the work we’ve been preparing to include. Some children completed maps of our neighbourhood, created published copies of short narratives they’d written, or made artistic maths drawings by using and counting familiar shapes. There was a lot of fantastic work to put on display!
As a group, we decided on a message that we could share to those coming into our space and settled on ‘Wominjeka! Prep Neighbourhood’. This was a huge accomplishment and everyone collaborated to create the individual letters, cut them out, illustrate and colour them, and then create a background to piece the letters into a sign for our families to read.
To help us focus on how far we’ve come, the children reflected on some of the things they’ve learned through their first year at school and their growth over the past four terms. There has been a lot to be proud of and everyone who was part of this group discussion had something personally meaningful to share.
- Daniel – “I didn’t know that the PH makes a F sound, and I also didn’t know how to write my name in lowercase.”
- Henrietta – “When I came to school, I thought I’d never learn to read, but now I know a lot of letter sounds I am starting to read.”
- Angus – “When I didn’t go to school I didn’t know how to write my name, I didn’t even know what maths was!”
- Leon – “What I learned is about space, and I’ve gotten better at kicking skills in P.E.”
- Ruby N – “I’ve learned a lot more about maths and reading. Before I went to school I didn’t even know what 100+100 was.”
- Bao – “I’ve learned lots about big numbers, reading, writing, and speaking English now.”
- Marcus – “I can sound out words, and I can try to write any word I can say.”
- Patrick – “I got better at drawing because at kinder I could only scribble.”
- Ava – “Sounding out words, and HFW I just know now.”
- Teo – “Well I learned about writing, I didn’t know ‘er’ makes an ‘rrr’ sound, and other HFW I didn’t know but I do now.”
- Jade – “So, I’ve learned how to write more and read more. At the start of the year I basically only knew how to write my name in Upper case, now I can do both.”
- Mary – “I learned how to write! I know vowels are A, U, E, I, and O.”
- Alexa – “I didn’t know maths, I can add numbers together now.”
- Elena – “I used to do silly faces, but now I add more detail to my drawing.”
- Tigerlily – “I now use finger spaces in between my words when I write.”
- Evie – “I’m getting more good at maths ‘cause I didn’t even know 2+2=4.”
- Ted – “Before this year, I didn’t even know what school was going to be like, or how to write my name.”
- Poppy – “I’ve learned to read this year, I could only read my name.”
- June – “When I started school I didn’t know how to do full stops or finger spaces.”
- Edmund – “Being able to practise my writing and my fine motor.”
- Freddie – “Before I came to this school I couldn’t even read anything – now I sound things out.”
- Ruby P – “When I wasn’t at school I didn’t know what 10+10 is, but now I can count by 10’s.”
- Dexter – “So, I didn’t know what maths was, or how to spell my name in lower case. I can even read my own work when I’m writing.”
- Quinn – “Making a plan and being able to read my writing is important.”
- Bell – “I know 5+5, 6+4, 9+1, 8+2, 3+7 – they’re all to 10.”
- Sachi – “I have learned lots about writing – I can write all the letters of the alphabet in upper and lowercase letters.”
- Theo – “When I was at kinder I wrote my name backwards, but now I am learning upper and lower case letters.”
- Ottis – “So, when I first came to school, I didn’t know writing or maths! Now, I can write some words, read some words, and I can count my numbers.”
- Wren – “ I learned how to write!”
So, from all of us at PHPS, and the intrepid pirates somewhere circling the globe far off in space, thank you for making 2024 a special year. There were a lot of firsts and so many incredible experiences. We couldn’t have done it without you. Have a lovely holiday and we look forward to seeing you again in 2025.