Pre-Prep have begun with a new addition to their program taking part in focus groups further developing and honing in on set specific skills in numeracy, literacy, and fine motor to continue to develop their learning as they prepare for Prep.
What types of maps do we use in our class?
Over the last 2 weeks Lilly Pilly has been exploring different types of maps developing an interest during play. from talking and drawing a treasure map! During their morning group time we wondered what maps we might use in our classroom? Discovering that there was an evacuation map in the class for in case of an emergency.
The class looked at our map and noticed that it had arrows on it to tell us where a safe place to go would be in an emergency. This then led us into a discussion about who we might call or what we would do if we saw smoke or fire?
Karleigh, “We duck down and we don’t grab our toys.”
Eleanor, “We wait on the field if there is a fire.”
Jhye, “We take our evacuation bag.”
Zahlia, “We listen for a whistle.” Everyone has an emergency whistle hanging to the wall.
The children explored the centre's emergency bag, noticing that it had water, a change of clothes and a small first aid kit.
Tamborine Fire Brigade visited to tell us more about how we can stay safe in an emergency! Thank you Fire officers, we can't wait for the fire truck to visit us soon!
This week in Wattle class our friends have loved playing with the new cars, buses, trucks and trailers. We have seen many creations with ramps and roads. Using our new student iPads to scan a QR code to learn more about why and how we can make our cars go faster and further when we make ramps. We discussed what gravity is and how it helps our cars go faster.
‘We use those to order food,’ said Cleo
‘You scan them so you know where you have been’ said Savreen.
Taking turns to scan the QR code to watch a short video on ramps and gravity. This helped us on how we can improve our ramps to make our bus/cars go faster.
Next came making predictions about what car might go the fastest and how an adjustment could be made to their ramps.
Then they worked together to draw our designs and discuss what went well, what didn’t work and what we would change next time.
Through building ramps children were able to observe the concept of gravity. As a group there was a discussion about how to change our ramp angle, surface and texture to increase speed and distance. Incorporating information technology to help extend knowledge in this area and try new ways of finding information to help learn and complete new projects.
If we have any families who would like to support this project, we would love to hear from you? I think we might talk with our friends over at big school. They might have some ideas/skills to contribute? Stay tuned.
Mrs Rachael Fernandez
