Thank You!

We would like to send out a big thank you to our parent reps Maria and Nerida for all the organisation of of school and neighbouhood events this year, especially The Bazaar.

We would also like to thank all the parents who helped out in the neighbourhood in various ways, including with Master Chef, 3/4 camp, the No Dig Garden and coming in to support during our learning showcases.

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday.

The 3/4 Neighbourhood Team (Mary, Janette, Jessica, Emma & Delia)

3/4 N2 End of Year Picnic

Date: Thursday 22nd December, 2011
Time: 2pm (straight after school finishes)
Where: Princes Park, near the adventure playground (Crn Princes Park Drive & Macpherson Street)

Some families may like to bring a small plate of food to share. Please bring your own drinks.

If it is raining at 2.30pm, please assume the picnic is cancelled as there is no shelter.

Some other Neighbourhoods will be having their picnics at the same venue at the same time.

Your parent reps,

Maria & Nerida

Transition

Transition: We all experience it!

The whole school community including children, parents and staff are experiencing the transition of children from one year level to another.

To familiarise themselves with new home groups and neighbourhoods the children will partake in 4 transition sessions. Three will take place on 5^th, 6^th, 7^th December from 10am to 11:15. The children will spend time in their 2012 neighbourhoods with their team of teachers and groups. They will familiarise themselves with the new learning spaces, discuss learning possibilities and partake in learning agreement activities with all of their 2012 teachers.  Older children will be mentoring and offering advice to the younger ones. The children will have lunch in their new spaces as part of each session. The aim is to make all children feel comfortable, confident and excited about their next year level. Consistency in learning across the school aims to make this a seamless process.

On Tuesday 20^th December there will be a fourth transition session where the children will be introduced to their 2012 home teacher as well as working in their new neighbourhoods for 1 hour. This will take place from 2.30 to 3.30. The children will be dismissed from their new neighbourhoods on this day.

This period of change is both challenging and exciting in which children and families adjust to expectations, interactions and relationships.

Rita Jokubaitis

Student Pathways and Transitions.

Arrays: What can we use them for?

During the math workshops on Thursday and Friday our neighbourhood began using square tiles to find the area of a variety of regular and irregular shapes. We began by exploring areas by covering them with the 2 centimetre squared tiles. The children realised that they would have insufficient tiles to cover the areas, and then faced with the problem of how to measure the area without covering the whole space with tiles. Muna, Viarne, Lilli, Sascha and Payam were the first to realise that they could use their knowledge of arrays to find the area of a rectangle. This discussion began when Viarne asked the question, “Why do we need all the squares?’  The group shared their new found knowledge with the neighbourhood. A small group then found the area of the tables in the performance area. The group revealed to the class that it would take 2,542 tiles to cover the table. Harvey then quickly worked out that the area of the table is 5,084 centimetres squared.   

 Many strategies were discussed,  then trialled and generalisations were beginning formulated.

                                                 Viarne, Payam, Lilli, Sascha and Muna's Array

Measuring the Area of the Performance Table

No Dig Garden

In week 2 the No Dig Garden, Junior School Council (JSC) group was able to pick some of the vegetables that had been planted in term 3. The children picked a heap of silver beet and six beetroots. When the No Dig Garden group meet in week 3 a small group cooked Silver Beet and Ricotta Pinwheels with Jessica. All the children had the opportunity to try the delicious snack that was made with the vegetables grown in the school’s garden. The beetroots were used by 3/4 neighbourhood 2 to make a beetroot dip. The dip was very popular, and some children who had said ‘I don’t like beetroot’ came looking for seconds. More vegetables have been picked again this week, these vegetables will be used by the students taking part in 3/4 neighbourhood 2’s Master Chef Competition in the coming weeks.

Some of the children expressed an interest in cooking the recipes at home.

Beetroot Dip

Whet your appetite with this beautiful and versatile Turkish-inspired dip.

Preparation Time

15 minutes

Cooking Time

90 minutes

Ingredients (serves 6)

·         650g (about 3) beetroots, trimmed

·         80ml (1/3 cup) extra virgin olive oil

·         2 cloves garlic, crushed

·         280g (1 cup) Greek-style yoghurt

Method

1.      Preheat oven to 180C. Place beetroots with 2 tbs oil in a large bowl and toss well to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Wrap each beetroot loosely in foil, then place in a shallow ovenproof dish. Roast for 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Unwrap beetroots and cool to room temperature.

2.      Coarsely grate beetroots and place in a colander to drain off excess liquid. Combine beetroots, remaining 2 tbs oil, garlic and yoghurt in a large bowl, then season. Makes 2 cups.

Notes

·         Tips: Dip will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Serve dip with Turkish bread.

Found on taste.com.au

Extract from Turkey: Recipes and tales from the road by Leanne Kitchen (Murdoch Books, $70).

Silver Beet and Ricotta Pinwheels

Ingredients

250g frozen spinach

100g fetta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

2 sheets puff pastry

1 egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220C/ 200C fan forced. Grease oven trays, line with baking paper

2. Squeeze excess moisture form silver beet. Chop sliver beet coarsely, pat dry between sheets of absorbent paper

3. Sprinkle silver beet and combined cheeses over pastry sheets. Roll pastry tightly to enclose filling. Cut each roll into 12 slices. Place pinwheels, cut-side up, on trays and brush with a little egg

4. Bake pinwheels for about 15mins or until browned lightly

Makes 24

Found in the Women’s Weekly Cooked Book

  

Welcome back to Term 4!

We hope you have a had a fantastic holiday and are excited about the new school term. 
A BIG WELCOME to Jessica, who has joined us, replacing Emma who is now enjoying being able to put her nursery furniture together and mull over baby names. 
Jessica brings all sorts of exciting skills and interests to our neighbourhood, not the least of which is keeping fit.  She took part in a half-marathon on the last day of the holidays, which was her first, and the goal she had been working towards all year!  You should ask her what her time was...pretty impressive! 
Now; what news for the term ahead...

• Life Education occurred last week.  THe children have been usingn thier Life Ed. booklets this week in Learning Agrement time.. 
• Ask your children about their new  postings onto  the Ultranet. Some children have been experiencing technical difficulties which are being addressed .
• Inventions continue to be the focus of inquiry this term. We will advise parents when an exhibition of world changing inventions will e ready public perusing.
• An enterprising group of children are working on organising a second round of Masterchef.Ask your child whether they are involved with this round; they may be asking you for assistance!

Challenges for this term:

•  keep lockers tidy at all times
• learning agreements in clipboards; signed by students, parents and teachers; and handed in by the end of the week.

Please check the writing, reading and maths spaces for further information.

3/4 No Dig Garden Blog

Just to let you know the children within the JSC No Dig Garden Group have developed a blog to keep the community informed about what is happening in our garden. The blog address is:

http://princeshillnodiggarden.blogspot.com/
We hope you enjoy reading the blog often as it will contain information regarding how the project is developing and also requests for help when needed.

Life Education Visit 2011

Life Education Parent Information Session:
Tuesday 11th October 2011
9:30 – 10:30am

Dear Parents

As part of our drug and health education this term we are having the Life Education mobile
classroom visit our school from 11/10/11 – 19/10/11. Prep – Year 2 will have a one hour lesson and Year 3 – 6 will have a 1.5 hour lesson during this time.

Life Education has been visiting our school biennially for many years and helps to facilitate the development of life skills in students to prevent and minimise the harm of drug misuse.

Lessons are always age appropriate and the children will be covering a wide range of drug and health related topics, ranging from the human body and how it works, healthy eating and nutrition, medicines and drugs, bullying, resilience and social skills.

Healthy Harold, the much loved Life Education giraffe mascot is always a much anticipated element of the Life Education visit. The sessions are always fun, interactive and really extend and develop the children’s understanding of the topics covered. We will be further broadening these topics in class both prior to and after the Life Education visit with the student workbook which is included in the cost of the visit.

As part of our drug and health education this term we are offering you the opportunity to visit our Life Education mobile classroom, while it’s here at our school to learn about the following:
What is my child learning in Life Education?
Have you seen inside the Life Education mobile classroom, or know of Harold?
What drug education is appropriate for primary school students?
Why do we have health and drug education?
How is health and drug education integrated into your school’s curriculum?

School Cookbook

A reminder that the parents from 1EB are compiling a cookbook as part of the Bazaar fundraising efforts. If you could please send in one of your favourite recipes you could become a published author!

Please email your recipes to:
morbookforcook@gmail.com

Paddington

paddington -

Relay competition

REALAY COMP -

HOPLITE

Hoplite is a company set up by Jarrah & Aleksei. Download to find out more

Hoplite update 1 -

Ramadan

Ramadan is an Islamic event that happens every year. It goes for 1 month, this year it either finishes on the 29th or the 30th. We wake up early at 5a.m and eat breakfast then, brush our teeth and go back to sleep till school time. We then cannot eat or drink till around about 5.40p.m. Every year Ramadan comes 10 day`s ealier,for example last year Ramadan stared on the 11th of august this year it stared at the start of month. To everybody in P.H.P.St that celebrates Ramadan, Ramadan Kareem.
Muna & Payam

Run Melbourne

One month ago Dante and I ran the Run Melbourne. There were around 2,000 people in it. We woke up at 5.00am in the morning. Dante picked me up it was a 30min drive. Terry [Dante’s dad] dropped up of near the run while he got a park. Before the race I and Dante watched the people that were skating at river side Skate Park. There was 5 minutes away. We were waiting until it started they were counting down 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 GO!!! Straight away I was in 5th place and Dante was in 6th after a while we had lot’s space we were going to come 4th together. There was a crowd ahead we heard people cheering there was 50 meters to go and we finish 4th
Spot together. We got the medals in fed square and we got lots of free stuff it was awesome!!!

By George P.

Mount Evelyn’s got talent!!!

It’s now that time of year when everyone is thinking about what they are going to wear to the disco at camp.

But not just what they will wear other stuff like…

The giant swing, the flying fox and all the other activities but that’s not what we’re here to talk about we want to talk about mount Evelyn’s got talent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so at the disco first of all we have mount Evelyn’s got talent show. At mount Evelyn’s talent people enter with a friend or two and show their talents like they could sing a song do a dance or anything that’s entertaining! Then the judges who are the parents that come to camp take their time to judger the group with the most talent. Everyone gets a prize if they enter and there are also 1st 2nd and 3rd prizes! Then we have the disco which everybody enjoys at the end of the day. We hope that everyone has an awesome time this year at mount Evelyn camp!!!



By Alice, Lilli and Viarne!

Camp!

In a few weeks both 3/4 neighbourhoods are going to Camp. Camp is at Mt Evelyn. At camp there are lots of different activities such as: the giant swing, the flying fox, archery, bush walks, wildlife enclosure, damper bred, scavenger hunt, Mt Evelyn’s got talent show and the disco. We stay at camp for 2 nights and 3 days. We sleep in cabins. In most cabins there are 2 bunk beds and a mattress. In 1 if the cabins there are 6 bunk beds and 2 mattresses. Every morning at 7.00 we have breakfast and every night we have dinner at 7.00. There are different groups we get put into at the start of camp. Every time we eat 1 of the groups have to clean up the eating room. 1 or 2 people from the group that gets chosen to clean up, has to sit at one of the tables to clean up after the other people.

From Viarne, Lilli and Alice

STATE CROSS COUNTRY

On the 19 /7/2011 I went to the State cross country. It was a 20 minute drive to get there. There were three races before me. First we had to register and get a tag to put on my left wrist. We watched the first two races and then after the third race started I got changed and went to stand in my starting box (northern metro region) and since the top five people in the region got to go in the front row and I came fourth I got the front. Then the official talked about the rules of the race. After that the starter shot the gun and the race started. Everybody sprinted at the start it was only near the middle that people slowed down. I got a stich half way through the race. Most of the race I was coming around 20th then I sprinted at the end. There was a longer sprint to the end than Zone. I passed lots of people at the end and came 12th. After the race my mum bought me a muffin and I went back to school. I had lots of fun racing.
Posted by Hamish

Calendar

Welcome Back

It was great to see everyone's smiling faces this morning. I hope you all had a restful holiday and are ready for a jam packed Term 3.

This morning we have posted new maths home learning tasks in the home learning section. It would be great to see children doing these tasks at home and bringing in their soloutions to share.

We are still looking for interested parents to come in and help judge the students community constructions. We hope this event can happen in the next two weeks. Please read the 4 cube houses post to understand the task more throughly. Please see Emma if you are able to help out.

Also a reminder that our neighbourhood is presenting at assembly tommorow (19th July).

4 Cubes Houses Project

This term you might be aware the children have been working on a major project around designing and building cube houses. The project has been a fabulous focus linked to both the mathematics curriculum and our technology inquiry unit where we have looked at the process of design.

The children were originally asked to build houses made from 4 cubes. These cubes needed to link face to face. They were then asked to transfer their designs into a 2D plan which they learnt to draw onto isometric paper (3D drawing).

We then focused on the skill of multiplication to cost the price of each house students had designed. The houses were priced at budget, eco and luxury costing, which supported your child with their skills development using multiplication.

We are now moving into the mathematical concepts of scale and ratio. Students are learning the meaning of these concepts, as well as learning how to apply them practically. Students will soon be asked to draw a scaled 2D plan of the interior of one of their houses, similar to that on a Real Estate pamphlet.

Mathematical learning outcomes addressed through this project

• creating models in three dimensions
• representing 3D in 2D (isometric & plan/elevation views)
• scale diagrams
• operations with money
• basic number skills
• Ratio

Students are now also joining their designs together to create a 3D community model. Students will be designing elements of their community on a program called Google SketchUp and then transferring this design into a 3D representation. Students are being asked to consider scale when designing and building their element of the community to ensure that it fits with other groups buildings proportionally.

These community models are being planned and built as home group teams. Once these models have been planned, we are hoping that any parent with a background in architecture, building, construction, real estate or design could volunteer to be on the judging panel to determine which group will win the contract for the architectural design of the community estate. 

If you are able to be involved in this judging panel, please contact me with your availability and we will find a common time early next term to host this event.

Emma

holmes-smith.emma.g@edumail.vic.gov.au

Master Chef!

Well, it has been agreat but someone had to win and that was Lilli's team and in second place was Harvey's team.  Congratulations to all the teams that cooked.
Harry

New Reading Response! Due Friday, 13th May

This week we are continuing our exploration of books, authors and ideas.  If you have not yet completed your reading response task for last week, then you need to get a wriggle on...and if you aren't sure what you should be doing, please ask me (or Emma or Mary) for more information.  We want you to succeed and enjoy the process!

Your task this week is to choose a DIFFERENT type of response from your list on the reading log.  Here is the list;

.1. Draw a character and create an open- minded portrait. (include thoughts and feelings inside)

2.  Write a blurb

3.  Research the author

4.  Read a 2^nd book by the same author and compare: similarities and differences.

5.  Find and prepare an interesting or significant paragraph to read to the class.

6.  Explain what the author was trying to tell you as a reader.

7.  Did you learn something from this book?  How could you share what you learnt?

It is really pleasing to see students trying to improve the level of detail, appearance and thoughtfulness in their work.  Harry, Hamish and Isaiah prepared and read a paragraph aloud to everyone, explaining why they chose their particular paragraph.  Isaiah's was particularly challenging and everyone clapped as he managed some tricky vocabulary smoothly. He had obviously practiced!  Eleanor went to a lot of trouble to create an open-minded portrait that is a collage of her character, and wrote a number of details about her character's thoughts and feelings as she progressed in the book.  Viarne, Will, Stefan, Ben, Marcus,  and Nick  all asked me to give them their work back, after they had handed it in, so that they could add more detail or completely re-do it. 
You're an inspiration 3/4EMJ and I'm looking forward to seeing how much more thoughtful and creative your responses will be this week!
Janette.

Master Chef Grand Final!!

What a fantastic series!
Last Wednesday we saw the final showdown between the two groups who have stayed the distance, out-cooking all the other contestants over the past seven weeks.  Congratulations to ALL the participants; you absolutely amazed us with your cooking skills, your presentation and your planning. 
The final winners were Viarne, Lilli, Payam and Muna.
Runners up were Harvey, Joel, Hugo W, Seb T-C and Maxim.
AND LET'S NOT FORGET OUR GREAT ORGANISING AND JUDGING TEAM.: George P. Theo, Hugo K, Josh and Will.
A big thank you to all the parents who patiently supplied foodstuffs, equipment and time at school. I think the children owe you some special treats, now that they have proved what superb cooks they are!
Finally, a big thank you to Theo's very handy dad, Trevor, for creating two wonderful trophies!

Now, your turn.
What do you think you have learned from our Master Chef adventure?

Reading Homework This Week

Get reading...or you wont be ready by Friday!
Yes, folks!  This Friday (May 6th) is the due date for your first book response!  You have had many weeks with 'Read for 20 minutes' in your Learning Agreement, and we expect that you are reading at home as well. 
 Now you need to look back over your Reading Log and select one book, or book chapter that you particularly liked or thought had some 'guts' to it. 
 Then you decided which of the 7 different activities listed on your Reading Log you would like to prepare to share. 
 I will be collecting your responses on Friday.  If you wish to read aloud to the grade, (which is one of the options) you should practice so that you are confident, clear and read with expression.  Remember, the point of all these responses is to encourage other people to try the book that you have enjoyed.
Next week we will organise a sharing time and display so that everyone can have an opportunity to learn about some great books!
Here is how we will rate them;

1. Hmmm!Not very much effort: Only one or two sentences. Poor handwriting. Spelling mistakes.  No effort at presenting the work clearly.   Doesn't really show what you think about the book ( or the author if you choose that task).  You need to put in more detail.
2. O.K.!!Clear handwriting with no spelling mistakes.  Care shown in how the information is displayed. Perhaps colour is used or it is printed. There may be illustrations.  At least four sentences which show you have thought about the book, the character, or the author (depending on the task you chose).
3. WOW!!! Obvious preparation and time spent on your work.  More than 5 sentences which give detailed responses to the book, character or author.  If I read your blurb, then I really want to find that book and read it!  If I look at your character portrait, I really have an understanding of what your character thinks and feels as the story progresses.  If you learnt something, and write about it, then I understand exactly what you learnt! 

Remember, hand it in late, and you lose 1 mark.  Don't hand it in and it's 0! 
Looking forward to seeing what you can do!

Citzenship Ceremony & Afternoon Tea

On Friady afternoon between 12.30-1.30 we would like to hold a celebration to mark the end of our unit on community. We will be holding a citzenship ceremony where the students will be pledging their commitment to the neighbourhood. They will share their strengths that they bring to the nieghbourhood, as well as what skills they would like to develop throughout the rest of the year. You will also be able to see some of the student's work and thinking which links into our inquiry into community. The ceremony wil be followed by an afternoon tea where students and parents can veiw their learning together. We realise this is late notice, but hope that many of you will be able to come before you pick up your child early on Friady at 2.30pm. If you are able to bring a small bit of food to share together, that would be a wonderful contribution.

Japanade- What a Success!

Hi everyone!  What a great afternoon we had at Princes Park today!  Thanks to all the children, parents and brothers and sisters who came along to help sell our magnificent lemonade in aid of Japan.  So many children did a fantastic job of explaining what we were doing, and encouraging passers-by to try the lemonade and donate money to help the Japanese community. 
The grand total is....da.da.dada...$155.75!  Well done.  You worked together as a small community to achieve something great for a much larger community that is experiencing a very stressful time. 

Mathletics

This year we are providing students from Grade 1-6 an opportunity to be a member of the Mathletics website. Mathletics is an interactive e-Learning resource, being used by over 2,000 schools. In the next few days your child will come home with their login details. Students will be able to use the website at home for additional mathematics practise.
Originating in Australia, Mathletics is now being used in over ten countries. Below is a document that will help you understand how to use the website. Speak to your child's teacher if you have any further questions.

Japan-Ade

Neighbourhood 2 would like to help make a difference to those people who have been affected by the earthquake and Tsnami recently. The student are going to hold a lemonade stall at Princes Park on Friday 1st April between 4-5pm near the playground. For this to be a succsess we require donations of lemons and sugar and cups. We will also require some parental assistance to both help us make the lemonade and serve it up at the park. We will also require a parent to help deliver a trestle table and equipment to the park prior to the stall starting. We are also looking for  large urns/water storage containers that we could pre-mix  up the lemonade into to sell in the park. If you have one of these we would appreciate it if we could borrow them for the afternoon.
Your child will be coming home with a letter with further deatils and an opportunity to volunteer time and supplies. We really hope that many families are able to assist. All funds rasised will be sent through the Red Cross to where it is needed in Japan.

Intesive Swimming Program

Water Safety & Survival Day

On Tuesday 29th March the swimming program will have a particular focus on rules and safety at the pool, beach and all wet environments. The students will practice water survival skills and rescue procedures. To make this a worthwhile learning expereince for your child we ask that all students involved in the swimming program bring shorts & a T-shirt to wear over their bathers. Please bring a plastic bag to put your wet clothes in at the end of the session.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge will be starting very soon at Princes Hill Primary School. All grade 3/4 students are expected to take part this year. Consent forms have been sent home with the students earlier this week but can also be downloaded HERE. The Premier's introduction letter of the event can be downloaded HERE. Please hand in the forms to your home group teachers as soon as possible. Any queries can be directed to Keith, who will be organising the event for the whole of the 3/4 grade this year.

Welcome to our blog!

We would like to welcome the students, parents and friends of grade 3-4 Neighbourhood 2 of Princes Hill Primary School to our new blog. This blog will become the portal of communication for our community and will be updated by teachers throughout the year. We hope that you will return to this blog often to catch up on developments in our neighbourhood.

Please click on this link or on the tab at the top of the page if you want to find out more about the daily workings of our neighbourhood.