Prep projects are up and running.
This week, a special delivery arrived in our Prep Neighbourhood. This delivery highlighted the energy around our prep projects. These projects are student-driven responses to our year’s inquiries into ‘creativity’. Each of the projects are now gaining momentum and will be a wonderful way to reflect and celebrate our year’s learning together. Our projects will also serve as an inspiring provocation for future prep communities.
Racing Derby!
The Prep Racing Derby is in full swing. Some children are actively engaged in creating posters for this event whilst others are busy exploring possibilities for track designs. As these tracks become more complex we notice the increasing collaboration between the children.
The children have recognised the need for supporting buildings to service the race, including mechanics,a pitlane, a doughnut van, offices and toilets. The addition of writing to communicate different needs of a racetrack have been popping up in all areas of the neighbourhood. In the Learning Commons, the children have added ‘start’, ‘this way’ and ‘stop’ and in The Studio they have created street signs.
We look forward to incorporating this exciting event into our upcoming grandparents day.
100 Birds
This project is a combination of two ongoing provocations from the studio. At the beginning of the year, two children brought in bird’s nests to share with the class. This ignited an interest in nests and birds. We very quickly identified the connection between nest making and creativity.
Throughout term 1 and into term 2 we explored art with text in the studio. The children were particularly engaged by the use of speech and thought bubbles. Once the decision to create a mobile of 100 birds was made, it quickly followed that the birds should have speech or thought bubbles to communicate our understanding of creativity.
We have almost reached our target of 100 birds for the mobile and will begin its construction over the coming weeks.
A Community Library Box
At the beginning of the year, a small group of students discovered a plaque in our playground, which led to discussions about the purpose and audience of writing. This event, connected with the students growing love of creating storybooks; and drawing graphic stories with speech and thinking bubbles led to a year-long exploration of literature, storytelling, books and writing. Our project will culminate in the presentation of our shared community library which will house copies of a collection of our stories to share with the local neighbourhood. Children are currently designing front covers, creating end pages, drafting stories with a beginning, problem, solution and ending; and publishing their stories to share with our audience…students’ attention to detail demonstrates careful consideration of their audience!
These projects are a very significant part of the collective inquiry cycle at Princes Hill Primary School and a wonderful way to start school life. The children are excited to share their learning through these projects.