Cars have taken over our Maths lessons lately and have helped us with measuring length and estimating.  This week we have been looking at garages to store our zooped up machines.  Our first lesson had us estimating how many cars would fit into different sized 'garages'.  Yesterday we had to become engineers and construct our own garage that would fit exactly 4 cars in it.  Some of us were spot on, and others have a bit of work still to go.  Read on to find out how we went.

A Day At The Races

The Jazz festival may have wrapped up, but that didn't mean the good times were over for us this week!  With only one day of school before another day of the junior school decided to let their hair down and head to the races!

We've got the Blues!

Wow, what a big weekend of Jazz and blues in Wangaratta this weekend!!  All the students had been busy in the lead up with heaps of art projects that were put up across the town.  We also had some of our grade 1/2 students performing! Great job guys!  Just thought we would share a few pics sent through from one of our local businesses that got some health tips from 1/2L to help them 'Jazz Up' peoples health.
Did you see any of our other masterpieces around town? What did you think?

As everyone by now should know, Mrs Fahey is retiring into the good life at the end of term and Mr Murphy will be our new acting principal for term 4.  But who exactly is this Mr Murphy?  We've seen him around, but the 1/2's wanted to know a little more.  So we sat down and came up with a few questions that would give us an insight into our newest staff member.  The good news is that Mr Murphy has passed the test with flying colours (although we think his jokes might need a bit of work!).  Read on discover a little about Mr Murphy...

Emily Eye Finger

On Tuesday the 3/9 we went to the Performing Arts Centre.  We saw an act called Emily Eye Finger.  My favourite part was when the Mummy came out.  I liked it because it looked funny and scary.  Danny was the character in the act that I like the best.  I think that it was one of the best acts ever!

Written by Hannah

Cyber Safety... it's important!

Late last term we held a fantastic Cyber Safety Presentation along with ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority).  The night highlighted how to manage the risks associated with living in the digital age and broadening our knowledge of websites and apps that are commonly being used socially, including games, and social platforms.

Poetry

This week we have started exploring poetry during our writing lessons.  We have learnt that there are lots of different forms of poetry and are looking forward to exploring them over the next few weeks.  We have only just started, but already are feeling proud of the work we are doing and wanted to share some Onomatopoeic Poems with you, so please read on...

Mamma Mia! It's Fraction Time!

This week we gave the classroom the flick and headed to the Masterchef Kitchen for our maths lessons!  With chefs hats at the ready we were looking the part and set to explore the use of fractions in the pizza world.
First we had to plan our pizza.  What would we put on it? What would we call it? And what fractions would we use? And equally as important, how good do I look in my chefs hat?

Exploring Patterns In Aboriginal Art

This week we will be exploring the use of patterns in aboriginal artwork.  Aboriginal artwork uses symbols and patterns to tell a story. Have a look at the collection below and see what patterns you can find. What story do you think is being told?

Please leave a comment with your discoveries, and the picture number you are talking about.

1/

Whole School Performance

Last week our whole school was lucky enough to have an artist in residence to teach us all about dance, family, culture and much much more! Bernard brought with him many cultural dances and equipment so everyone could learn something new and also challenge themselves.

The grand finale on Friday night was our whole school performance held at the High School which had a fantastic turn out and even got a few parents up on stage to show their moves (encore please!)

Twitter and what we've learnt

With the end of term fast approaching we're taking a step back and reflecting on what we've achieved and all the things we've learnt.  We've been using our blog to share some of the activities for some time now and have really appreciated all the comments, and feedback from everyone.  We really hope that you've been enjoying these glimpses from our classrooms, and would now like to share a little more with you.

After each lesson we spend some time reflecting on what we covered, strategies we used to help us, what we had trouble with and what we may have discovered.  Today we wanted to share some of our thoughts with everyone, and are trying something new to spread the word, so let us introduce you to our Twitter account!

Lets go shopping!

This week we've left school behind, taken a step into the future and entered the work force!  Funnily enough we've all ended up as shop owners, working hard to attract customers and sell our goods. It's been hard work of course, but we all earned some money!

Party time, a welcome to Kobe

The big day finally arrived! Today was our turtley awesome party day to celebrate and officially welcome our pet turtle 'Kobe' to our class!  Now that we have found a name to call him/ her we thought that it was only fitting to let our hair down a little.  It was also a little celebration for all the hard work we have been doing!

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who entered our "Name Our Turtle" competition over the last week! We had a fantastic response with well over 50 entries being received from students across the school and even some parents which was great!

The competition was very close with plenty of great names being put forward.  Some notable entries were Bubbles, Webster, Warby and the very popular Franklin being entered several times.  The creativity shown with all the entries was excellent and being around the general buzz of the competition was great fun.  We've had many visitors in our classroom coming to say hello to our new little buddy and plenty of interest in what the winning name is.

But with all the entries given there can still only be one winner and this winner really stood out.  The winning entry showed some creativity and resourcefulness in his entry, using Google to research foreign languages.  He managed to discover that 'Turtle' translates to 'Kobe' in Swahili!! An unbelievable discovery, that fits perfectly to our male or female turtle.  So a big welcome to Kobe our pet turtle!

And an even bigger congratulations to Thomas in Foundation for coming up with the winning entry!  Thomas has won himself VIP tickets to the Grade 1/2 naming ceremony where he will be the special guest at our class party this Friday!

Mansfield Zoo

Recently we joined the prep students and headed to the Mansfield Zoo for our junior school excursion. we had a great time and saw some amazing animals up close and personal.  We had the opportunity to feed many of the animals by hand (or shovel), there were big mouths, small mouths and some mouths we're glad we didn't get too close too!

Here's a short video to show you what we got up to...

A special thanks to all the parents who came along to help out on the day!

Competition Time!

Today 1/2 L welcomed a new member to their class.  Excitement had been building for some time as all students knew that our latest addition was on the way and due to arrive any day now.  A handful of students even spent their lunch time yesterday preparing and washing to get ready for the arrival.

So when everyone arrived early this morning there was only one place they wanted to look... the fish tank.  What was going to be there? Who was this new class member?  Was it really an alligator like Mr Lorback said?

Capacity, a maths experiment.

Lately we have been investigating capacity as part of our maths lessons and the best way to do this was to get hands on and test things out.  We have learnt that capacity is the space inside an object, in other words, how much we can fit into a container.  Read on to find out how we went about this.

Lava Lamps

Today in Science we learnt how to make an easy lava lamp.  We needed: plastic cup, water, oil, food dye, Alka-Seltzer tablet, salt and bi-carb soda. 

First we half filled the cup with water.  Then we added some oil, followed by drops of green food dye.

The first experiment was to observe what happens when you add part of an Alka-Seltzer tablet.  The second experiment was to observe what happens when you add salt and the third experiment was to observe what happens when you add bi-carb soda.

We found out that everything bubbled.  The Alka-Seltzer tablet made small bubbles, the salt made big bubbles and the bi-carb soda made huge bubbles.

Holidays and Term 2

Welcome back everyone!  Term 2 is here with a bang (I still can't figure out where term 1 disappeared to!).  We hope that everyone had a great break, didn't eat too many Easter eggs and is ready and raring to go.  There are plenty of exciting things coming up so we thought we'd give you a little sneak peak!

Science- Oobleck

Today in Science we made goo. 

Aubyn said "It was sticky and gooey."

Posting comments, tips for students and parents

Today in class we are learning how to post a comment on a blog.  (*Note to parents, we are using this post in class, so things may sound a bit obvious, but please read on and feel free to take on the activity too!  We'll be walking through the steps together, maybe you could try it together at home too.)

Comments are a great way to communicate with authors and the community who use the blog.  By leaving a comment you can ask a question, or share your thoughts on what has been written.  This is great if you'd like a bit more information, or if you are unsure of something.

Lets Go Fly a Kite

As part of Harmony day we held a kite flying extravaganza this morning!  All the houses competed together in a show of solidarity and understanding, with all students helping to build, fly and untangle over 170 kites.

Some 1/2 students have written about their morning below and we have captured plenty of the action on camera too!

WANTED... Have you seen these bad guys?

This week we have been invaded by some shady characters in grade 1/2.  These criminals have been lurking a'round' and we really need to get them back into shape!

We're not sure which 'side' you'll be on, but we really hope they turn a 'corner', because these shape characters have just been a little misunderstood.  That's all about to change now that we're onto them and investigating all things shape related.

Some of the students have been on the look out and to help us identify these rogue shapes have created some wanted posters to bring justice to all, fair and 'square'!

Click on 'read more' to see our work.

When we are 100

With Grandparents Day just behind us we have been thinking about what it would be like to be an old person.  Not just a grand parent but what would it be like to be 100?  We thought long and hard about what it would be like and what we would be like too.

First we thought about what we might look like.  Would we have grey hair? Be bald? Glasses?  Hmmm, there was quiet a lot to think about once we got started.

(Click on the 'read more' button below to see the results)

Grand Parents Day

On the 26th of February the prep 1/2 had a grand parents day. It was fun having the grand parents and friends come over to do some activities with us. First we made a frame, then we had our photo taken with our grand parents and we glued it on, then we gave it to them as a present for coming We had quiche and cup cakes for morning tea. Thanks to everyone for coming to grandparents day. 

By Isabel 

Science - Mentos Challenge

Today in Science we did an experiment with Diet Coke and mentos.  We predicted what we thought would happen when the mentos was added to the Diet Coke.  Then we watched the experiment and discussed what we observed. 

Grandparents Day... it's coming up

On the 26th of Feb the prep 1/2 students are inviting our grandparents to school for grandparents day. Prep 1/2s are cooking scones and other things for the parents and will have activities to do with the grandparents such as reading, asking interview questions and art and craft activities. 

 Written by Isabel and Charlotte 

 We have been working hard on invitation writing this week and hope to have as many Grandparents (or aunts, uncles, parents, friends) as possible next Tuesday from 9am till 11. We are investigating what it was like growing up when they were young, compared to what it is like now. We will have some activities organised and a morning tea specially made to celebrate the day. We hope you can make it!

Science

Today we did a science experiment.  We used milk, food colouring and dish washing liquid. 

We put the milk into a tray and then added the different colours of food colouring.  We watched what happened.  Then we added the dish washing liquid and watched what happened.  It was amazing.

Hannah said: "The colours mixed together."

Milk and food colouring.



The dish washing liquid was added.

Colours mixed together.



Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday has come around again, and of course it wouldn't be right to not have a pancake or two!  The foundation, 1 and 2 students cleared out of the classroom and cooked up a storm.  Read on to see and hear a little about the day

Parent Information Night

Welcome to the 2013 Parent Information Night. We're glad you could make it and look forward to a great year at WPS. Our website aims to extend our classroom beyond the school yard and into the community. We will be show casing work and allowing students to compose their own posts to share with our wider community.
All posts are available for comments and this is where the real benefits come from! By leaving named comments on posts about the work we are doing students receive real feedback and become increasingly aware of how the internet goes. So jump online and have a look around, we'd love to share our learning with you!

Are you ready?

Wow, we can't believe that the holidays are over already!  Time flies when you're sitting back enjoying yourself.  But we're well into 2013 and are all geared up and ready for a very exciting year ahead.  We've got plenty of new things tucked up our sleeves such as this new website and we're now even on Twitter!  So keeping up to date with all the activity is now even easier!
As well as some new tricks we've got all your regular events to look forward to as well.  The Bush Dance, Sleepover, School Fair and excursions are all on the cards again so stay tuned for more news as it comes to hand!
We look forward to showing you our work, and we'll be regularly posting work and news here, so please drop by often and even leave a comment, we'd love to hear what you think!  Of course you can also come in and see us at school too, we're always looking for someone to show off our reading skills to!
If you've got any ideas or suggestions of things you'd like to see here, then please leave us a comment (we're learning too!).