Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal

It’s been quite a busy term, and I am realising the further we get into the term, the more tired I get, the more I let my good routines and habits slide. Food choices become more convenient, exercise regimes are excused with a lack of time and bedtime not adhered too. Before too long everyone is tired and feeling unhealthy. Over the past few weeks, I have been heading down this pathway.

I decided to pinpoint one area to improve on and that is sleep, creating a bedtime ritual was going to be important. It starts at around 7:30pm for me, where all devices are stored away for the night, I then work through the family routines, reading or talking to the kids. Once they are in bed I start my routine, brushing my teeth, getting a bottle of water ready and then my favourite part, reading or doing a puzzle.

This predictable routine has really trained my body to know the signals of bedtime. If my brain is completely overloaded or stressed for some reason, I switch my brain to think of 10 things I am grateful for… this often switches my brain to less stressful things to think about.

I have used this strategy to prepare my kids as they are about to go to sleep by asking them…

What was your favourite part of the day?

Who filled your bucket? How did they fill it?

Whose bucket did you fill? How did you do it?

Sometimes it’s hard to find an answer to the questions, but we have a good think about the answers and can always find someone.

The sleep routine is predictable for my body and generally means I get to sleep pretty quickly.

My next step is to stop making excuses not to exercise!!!

Book Fair

This Tuesday and Wednesday (22^nd-23^rd, 5:30-7:00pm) is our Book Fair at the marvellous Verso Books. While we don’t have a library the team at Verso have offered to share their space for the fair. Please read the information that was sent home via Compass for more details.

Badger Babies

We are so excited to announce that the lovely Brogan is going to become a mum in May! I am sure you will join me in congratulating Brogan and Jack on their wonderful news. We can’t wait to meet baby next year!

A little update on Mrs Saffin’s baby. Rayna is doing very well, and I believe Vanessa is hoping to come and visit us very soon.

Assembly this Friday

Just a reminder that we have an assembly this Friday. It will start at 2:45, if the weather is nice, we will be under the new shade sail, and if it is raining, we will jump onto Webex and parents who can make it can sit in their child’s classroom. We will keep you posted with this.

This week we will be announcing the names of our school houses, in preparation for our Swimming Carnival. We will be donating money to the Animal Aid after our Dog Show the other week, as well as celebrate learning.

That’s about it for today… Have a great week.

Nerae Preece

Principal

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Important school dates to remember:

22/11 – Verso Book Fair – 5.30-7pm

24/11 – ‘The Final Word’ G6 Cyber safety

25/11 – School assembly 2.30-3.30pm

1/12 – Elephant Ed – 5/6

7/12 – Grade 6 Graduation

8/12 – Elephant Ed – 5/6

8/12 – School Concert

12-14/12 – 5/6 Camp

14/12 – Gr 6 Big Day Out

16/12 – Christmas themed bake sale

16/12 – Grade 6 leavers assembly 2.30-3.30pm

20/12 – Last day of Term 4

PFA…

This week in Prep…

We are ending this week feeling like wildlife warriors!

After heading to the Sanctuary on Thursday, it was obvious to see just how much of an impact our project can make. We were given the VIP treatment during this visit. We had Julia from Zoos Victoria Head Office come and welcome us upon arrival by awarding us with a special certificate. She was so grateful to be given a copy of the book to take back to her office and show her collegues. We had another staff member Bec come and seek us out, after hearing about the amazing best selling authors making a special appearance. Bec was so excited to recieive her own copy of the book too, which she planned to showcase to her education team. Tammika really looked after us by taking us on a special tour through the bird aviary to spot the Helmeted Honey Eaters and Orange Bellied Parrots. Not before testing our knowledge with a pop quiz of course! I think the Preps blew Tammika’s socks off with how quickly they could respond to the questions, and even offer bonus information about these bird and other endangered friends. From here, Tammika took us to visit the Tasmanian Devil enclosure. We loved meeting Herb and helping him drag his body out of bed. It wasn’t for long though. He came out for a quick morning poo & snack and headed straight back to his snuggly bed. (The Preps found this pretty hilarious)

What a magical place the Sanctuary is! It was an absolute pleasure to show our support to our friends over the road. We feel so connected to the work they do and are feeling inspired to keep fighting the same fight alongside them and be a voice for our earth and it’s wonderful wildlife.

(A BIG BIG THANK YOU TO OUR AMAZING HELPERS, MICHELLE AND BARNEY FOR HELPING US ON OUR EXCURSION!!)

So, what did the rest of our week look like?

We were learning to infer in Reading. Mrs. C loves it whenever she gets a chance to read a book about a cat. We read A Home For Luna. Our job was to think about the clues in the text and to see what they were telling us about Luna the Cat and her inner thoughts and feelings. We agreed that the author had a really interesting way of showing us about how Luna was feeling at different points in the book, rather then telling us. For example, “Her wet, black fur stood up in spikes.”

In Writing, we explored Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. We couldn’t believe how quickly the Preps were able to identify these different words within sentences. They are well and truly ready to bring this knowledge into our poetry learning next week.

In Maths, we slowed down a little to focus on our number formation. Looking at the orientation of our numbers, making sure we start at the top with our pencils and checking that the one comes before the second number in our teen numbers. Ask your child which one they found the most tricky to write, and how they feel about writing that number now… We did such a good job at setting ourselves goals and targeting those numbers during learning.

Some Kind Reminders:

-Please remember to bring your wrapped up books for our classroom christmas tree next week. 😊

We look forward to seeing you all after the weekend! Thank you for another beautiful week of Prep!