National Simultaneous Storytime

PPN students and staff had a great time celebrating National Simultaneous Storytime today! This annual event encourages reading and literacy, highlights the value and fun of books and creates community, while promoting Australian authors and illustrators.

Our students joined over 2 million other children across Australia and New Zealand in a live-streamed reading of the fantastic picture book ‘The Speedy Sloth’ written by Rebecca Young and illustrated by Heath McKenzie.

Learning how to draw Spike from illustrator Health McKenzie himself was a highlight. As was the presence of three of our own ‘speedy sloths’ at school!

STEM Mars Mission

Have you ever wanted to walk on the surface of Mars? The PPN Rocket Crew did! And here is what happened…

As part of their Rocketry focus in STEM, Mr Harris, Mrs Vice, Bus Driver Peter and the Year 5 and 6 Rocket Crews ventured out on an exhilarating excursion to Hamilton Space School. Hamilton offers a fully interactive Mars Mission where students can experience life on another planet.

There was much anticipation as the students of Team 1 donned space suits with breathing apparatus, headset, boots and gloves. Each ‘astronaut’ was assigned a role, given their mission objectives and ushered into the air lock in readiness for Mission 1. Meanwhile, the students of Team 2 were learning the ropes in Mission Control - where each student was assigned to a computer then given a specific role and headset to communicate with their astronaut partner. Tasks included recording and analysing data, giving instructions or monitoring weather and vital signs.

“You may leave the airlock and enter the planet surface,” came a voice from Mission Control. Team 1 emerged slowly from the air lock onto an eerie Martian landscape, complete with rocky terrain and lighting effects. The astronauts went about their duties, constantly in discussion with their peers back in Mission Control. Some collected rock specimens for analysis, some explored with metal detectors and Geiger counters, while others reported changes to the weather on the planet surface. “SAND STORM! Evacuate to the airlock!” came the urgent command. All at once, Team 1 hurriedly rushed to evacuate from the planet surface. Did they make it in time? Sadly not.

Now it was Team 2’s turn! The teams switched places and Mission 2 ensued. All was going well until… “SOLAR STORM APPROACHING! Evacuate!” yelled a Team 1 member. Unfortunately, Team 2 did not heed the warning.

With all students safely back from their adventures on Mars, we were able to discuss the many lessons learned: teamwork, communication, focus.

All in all, this excursion was a very successful mission and a valuable educational experience for the Year 5 and 6 PPN Rocket Crews.

Playdate With Prescott

It was a cold morning on Monday but that didn’t stop 50 excited little ones and their families from enjoying our beautiful nature play space at our Autumn themed Playdate with Prescott. The children enjoyed painting autumn trees with corks, creating leaf necklaces, and discovering amazing colours and patterns using a kaleidoscope. The mud kitchen and sandpit were a hit with the little ones as well as our new lower playground.

The morning finished with an autumn group time song with lots of leaf throwing and laughing. We love to see our community enjoy the great facilities we have here at PPN, and can’t wait to have them back again later this term to celebrate International Mud Day.

Nature Play for National Simultaneous Storytime

Our school is a very busy place, with a lot of exciting things happening every week. National Simultaneous Storytime always occurs on the last Wednesday in May. This year, teachers and students all around Australia will settle down with their books, on the 24^th of May to read a book simultaneously. This year’s book, The Speedy Sloth celebrates all winners even the ones that don’t come first!

Our nature play had a Speedy Sloth theme this week, with students having a chance to make a mask using a sloth template and some natural materials. There were also some animals from the story that appeared, to have a race and play across our sandpit. The students were once again so creative when decorating their mask, using other natural resources to make the correct colourings of the sloth. What did you do on Wednesday at 11:00? Did you read the book The Speedy Sloth?