Pirate Day

Year 3 Cultural Incursion

International Mud Day

Wonder and joy abounded as young people rolled up their sleeves to play with glee in the gooey, soft, and squelchy mud at Prescott Primary Northern. Students participated in unstructured nature play to celebrate International Mud Day.

International Mud Day was a concept that came to fruition in 2009 when Gillian McAuliffe of Australia and Bishnu Bhatta from Nepal collaborated to celebrate mud. This celebration of mud is a great opportunity for our young people to connect with the basic elements of the earth in a fun and joyful way. The benefits of playing with mud are that it helps to develop fine and gross motor skills, provides a multisensory experience, encourages problem solving and creativity and encourages unstructured fun play with friends.

Teachers read the story ‘Wombat Stew’, which is a story about some clever Australian animals that outsmarted a dingo who was intent on eating wombat. They cleverly guided him to add ingredients to his stew pot that made a “Gooey, brewy, yummy, chewy [Mud] Stew” instead of Wombat Stew. (Wombat Stew) Students then played in the mud kitchen making their own mud stew and other muddy creations. Other students made mud slides for ping pong balls to cascade down. Some students delighted in jumping in muddy puddles while other students built water ways and muddy dam walls to stop the flow of the water. Students happily emersed in the sensory experience giggled with glee and played happily on a blissful sunny winter’s day.

“Happy hearts and happy faces, Happy play in grassy places-

That was how, in ancient ages, Children grew to kings and sages.” Robert Louis Stevenson

Harvesting and Sharing of Our Vegetables

Some students from our junior school shared in our composting workshop this week and learnt about our worm farm and worm juice. Students learnt how to make compost and how to use the compost in the garden to enrich soil and how to collect seed from food scraps to plant into the garden. Students then harvested some of the silver beet, basil and parsley that they had planted earlier in the year. Students had fun chopping the leaves into little pieces to make a green dressing to add to our bowl of hot roasted potatoes. The green leaves were stirred through the potatoes and each child sat and ate their steaming hot tasty potatoes with healthy green leaves from our garden. It was a nice way to celebrate the growing and harvesting of our healthy and nutritious vegetables.

We have come to the end of a very busy term and have enjoyed many great learning opportunities. Yesterday, I spent some time with our local Federal Member of Parliament, Tony Zappia, as Mrs Harder and some students shared with him about our developing composting, worm farm and veggie garden projects. It was interesting listen to him share with the students about how he had enjoyed gardening and the outdoors as a youngster. He told them of the importance of spending time in the garden and outdoors. It was also good to hear that he has seen quite a few school and community projects like our Nature Play, veggie garden and composting program, and that he saw the Prescott Primary Northern area and program as good as any. Following on from Tony’s suggestion to the children about engaging with nature, I want to encourage you to get your children outside and exploring as much as possible during the break. As a teacher, I have experienced having some kids come back from holidays after a two week game-a-thon, and then having to get them to focus on study again. That was challenging for them and me. While we may be tempted to allow our children have a good lot of holiday freedom, it is also important to allow them to get good rest, fresh air, and time outside. I read an article recently about how we can provide some structure for our children around technology. I hope you find it helpful and enjoy a good balanced mid-year break.

“It’s well established that sleep is vital for children and adolescents’ learning, physical health, mental wellbeing and emotional regulation. Yet, a concerning number of Australian children and adolescents aren’t meeting the national sleep guidelines according to a recent study*.

There are many reasons for young people’s poor sleep habits including school demands, co-curricular and/or work commitments, perceived pressure from parents and educators and consumption of energy drinks. Young people’s digital device habits can have a significant, negative impact on their sleep.

Handheld devices emit blue light which hampers melatonin production. This can result in the delayed onset of sleep and potentially shorten critical phases of the sleep cycle. Research confirms that children who have not yet gone through puberty are particularly vulnerable to blue light exposure in the evening as they have larger pupils, compared to post-puberty adolescents.

Strategies to stop screens from sabotaging your child’s sleep

Parents can have a positive influence on their child and teens’ digital habits and doing so will yield positive results for their child’s sleep and subsequent learning and wellbeing.

Establish a digital bedtime

Kids should switch off digital devices 60 minutes prior to falling asleep. Reinforce this habit by establishing a ‘landing zone’ such as a kitchen bench, or desk in a study or sideboard where digital devices go for charging and storage. Many students report that they ‘need’ to complete homework or submit assignments late at night. Verify the validity of such statements and work in partnership with your child’s school to limit this type of required screen activity at night. Parents need to also be good role models by switching off before bed too.

Tech-free zones

Bedrooms should be tech-free zones so consider buying an alarm clock if your child uses a mobile phone to wake themselves up. Keeping devices out of bedrooms removes the tech-temptation to use them throughout the night, reduces the likelihood that they’ll reach for them upon waking and lessens the chance of cyberbullying incidents. Ensure any devices left in bedrooms are on airplane mode and that the device is away from their line of sight.

Ensure a daily dose of ‘greentime’

Exposure to natural blue light from sources such as the sun is critical for regulating circadian rhythms and promoting sleepiness at night. Ensure your child/teen is exposed to bright, natural, daytime light preferably before midday each day.

Use blue light filters

Most devices include options for ‘night mode’ or ‘dark mode’ that reduce blue light exposure. Dimming the brightness of the screen in the settings or applying a filter on a desktop or laptop also assists.

Do a screen swap before bed

Encourage passive tech activities before bed such as watching TV, listening to an audiobook, music or podcast, or reading on an e-reader.

It can be a challenge navigating digital boundaries with your child or teen particularly when it involves sleep, which is vital for health, wellbeing and learning. Talk to them regularly about the importance of sleep using science and facts to substantiate your claims.

*The Australian Department of Health recommends between 9-11 hours of sleep for children (aged 5-13 years) and between 8-10 hours of sleep for adolescents (aged 14-17 years). A 2019 study published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies found that a quarter of 12-15 year olds were experiencing a concerning lack of sleep and more than half of the 16-17 year olds in the study were not getting the recommended 8-10 hours/night (Source: https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/lsac-asr-2018-chap4-sleep.pdf )” (Goodwin, 2021)

Have a great break with your kids,

Mark B

"But ask the animals what they think - let them teach you; let the birds tell you what's going on.” Job 12: 7

The battle was on last Saturday night as we looked to crown the winning team of the PPN Connect4 Family Challenge Night.

The teams had to use teamwork to compete against each other in challenges that included: logic, memory, problem solving, agility, thinking, strategy, accuracy & hand-eye coordination! It was great to see young and old laughing and working together.

The team at the end of the night with the best teamwork and the most points, was crowned, PPN Connect4 Family Challenge Night WINNERS!

The food was amazing as always with a spicy Moroccan red lentil soup and a creamy potato and corn chowder being served, with a side of bread rolls and topped off with an ice cream for dessert.

Thank you again to all the helpers who made Saturday night Connect4 such a great night.  We look forward to seeing you all at our next event in Term 3.

Chaplain Phil

Casual Day

Book Week 

Entertainment Membership

Do's & Dont's of Dropping Your Kids to School

Daily Health Check

Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) - many of our students have already completed the PRC by returning the form with evidence of 12 books read so far this year. The Data Entry for the 2021 Premier’s Reading Challenge opens on Friday 2nd July 2021, and closes Friday 17 September 2021. Extensions will not be provided. Please ensure that your student will submit the PRC form before Friday 17 September 2021.

CBCA Book Week 2021

The theme for this year is “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds” and will be held from August 21-27 (Term 3). During this time, our school will spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian Children’s authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers and our Discovery Centre (Library) team will create a colourful display, develop activities, run competitions, Book Fair, and tell stories relating to the theme to highlight the importance of reading. You may see parades with students dressed as their favourite book character. We are so looking forward to this time of the year! More information and details will be provided next term.

Also taking place in Term 3, will be the announcement of the winner of the 2021 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards – this will take place just prior to the Book Week.