Year 3-6 Art Club

Marvel in the captivating creations of the Year 3 to 6 Art Club students. Inspired by Vincent Van Goh's iconic "Sunflowers," our young artists have explored a fascinating twist on the Impasto technique. Using tissue and watercolours, they've ingeniously crafted textured sunflower artworks that are both visually stunning and touchably immersive. Let's celebrate their imaginative journey into the realm of art, where every stroke tells a story and every masterpiece reflects their boundless creativity.

Yr 6C Prescott College Visits

Year 6C had their last Science lesson at Prescott College this week. They used microscopes to explore and identify tiny cells, and then trialled different recipes to attempt to make the bounciest slime ball!

Keep Australia Beautiful Week

This week is national Keep Australia Beautiful week, which is a great initiative to encourage us to be responsible for keeping our land clean and beautiful. 

Just like last year, Prescott Primary Northern participated in keeping our Nature Play-space and school yard beautiful. The students were armed with tongs and a bucket and were encouraged to find any waste all over the Nature Play-space and School. We then had labelled bins that helped us to not place all the waste into the bin, but sort recyclables, compostables and waste, and placed it into the appropriate bins. 

The students were so excited about helping to clean up our yard, with a few asking if we could have the buckets for them to use every day. 

We also used this opportunity to make a Don’t Litter poster, and to decorate the nature play rules that we have for our space, to help remind us of what we need to do to keep our own nature play space safe and beautiful. The posters will be put into our nature play space, so see if you can spot them next week.  

kesab.asn.au have some family-friendly ideas and resources that every family can easily become involved in. Simply sorting our rubbish into waste, compost and recycling can have a really big impact on the waste we produce.

Have you started a waste system in your house yet? Consider this your friendly reminder to start sorting out your rubbish correctly, always remember to put your rubbish in the bin, and to help keep Australia beautiful.  

Week 3 is well underway, and we have had the first round of school photos for the year. Our sibling and catch-up photos will take place on Friday, August 18. I really love to watch the care and pride our children take in their photos and their uniform at this time of year. It warms my heart to see them stand and sit tall. One of the challenges we face, as we encourage our young ones to grow and mature is striking a balance between care, encouragement and assistance, and preparing them to stand, explore and flourish independently. I am a big advocate for building kids up, and helping and encouraging them to grow in confidence. The article I have to share with you today discusses some of the dangers of either being too critical when children make mistakes, or overly generous in our praise. I found it really challenged my thinking.

I distinctly remember a discussion I had with my daughters on several occasions when they begged, “Just tell me what to do here, Dad.” This exclamation came at the end of a long chat about what the best answer was to a friendship situation. I had been fighting the desire to tell them what to do to sort it out and instead had been asking them questions to help them think through the situation from various perspectives. There were many other times I just caved and gave them what I saw as the “right” answer. I don’t think I did them any favours. Today’s article really made me think about how we help and guide our kids, and avoid preparing the path for the child rather than the child for the path.

“For close to 200 years, children have sung in the schoolyard:

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, But words shall never hurt me.”

We all know that’s not true.

However, it’s not just cruel words that have the capacity to hurt. Sometimes as parents, we surprisingly hurt our children in the way we offer praise or correction. Here’s what I mean:

A few months ago, I read The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori. While I didn’t agree with all of it, and there were some ideas that wouldn’t fly today, there were plenty of enlightening moments. One thing that stood out was the idea of not correcting children. Yes, you read that right: not correcting children.

Montessori recognises that this makes no sense.

“How can we improve the children’s work if we do not correct the errors?” she imagines us asking. She goes on to explain that when teachers remove themselves from the role of hovering over children to point out their errors, the child is empowered to grow by correcting their own errors. For example, when a child is learning to walk, they don’t need us to point out every time that they fall. They are already inclined to move towards progressive improvement, without us pointing out everything they are doing wrong.

It is easy to step back and ignore errors at an early age. It is much harder to hold back from offering correction as our children grow. However, our corrections, no matter how gentle, can have unintended consequences.

We might think that we need to correct our kids when they write their name all in capital letters, hold up 3 fingers instead of 4 when telling us their age, or when they colour a tree blue.

But what would happen if we didn’t? Wouldn’t it be possible that they would learn for themselves given time? Mightn’t they learn to identify errors on their own?

Is it possible that they would also be able to retain their creativity, and find joy in pushing boundaries and experimenting with new things? I am certain that we can answer yes to all of the above. And decades of psychological research tells us that the answer is yes. My new book, The Parenting Revolution, explores all of that research and helps us understand why this matters.

Nevertheless, it is not only words of correction that can hamper a child’s creative process. Words of praise can have a similar effect. When we praise our children’s accomplishments, we may stifle their desires to work towards improvement. After all, if we’re already happy with the tree they drew, why would they keep trying? They may become less likely to take risks and extend themselves, for fear of losing our approbation. Similarly, if the praise we offer is superficial, such as by simply saying “good job”, or “well done”, or even “what a clever kid you are!”, our children don’t feel seen. Their efforts go unnoticed, and we lose out on helping them appreciate the growth that happened in the learning and creating process.

We sometimes create praise junkies, unwilling to try anything without our approval. In some cases, they infer that they must not be good at something. If they were, we wouldn’t feel a ‘need’ to praise them!

So what are we to do? No correction, no praise? What on earth are we meant to say next time our children show us their drawings?

Try this:

• Narration. Talk through what you see, without judgement, noticing the little details. “I see that you drew a big happy face on the sun in this picture.”

• Ask for their opinion. Intrinsic motivation is far more powerful than extrinsic motivation, and we help them get to their intrinsic motivation by prioritising their opinion over ours. “There’s a lot of different colours in this painting, can you tell me why you chose all those colours?”

• Express gratitude. A sincere thank you never fails. “You drew this for me? Thank you!”

• Say what you see. Describe the emotions you see in your child as a result of what they have done. “You look really happy with the drawing you did.”

Much like sticks and stones, words can be powerful. Through them, we can help our children develop a love of learning, a willingness to experiment, and foster their creativity.

Our words matter.” (Coulson, 2022)

Have a great week with our kids,

Mark B

I've been reading Joshua recently, and been thinking about what happened with the walls of Jericho.

Don't you think God's instructions were a bit strange? You'd think after the 4th day you might question what you're doing, and if just walking would really help you capture an entire city.

There have been many times where I've felt God was testing my faith. Or, when I knew He was calling me to do something that I thought just would not work, which really was my problem, I was relying on my own power or ideas. Not that that's a bad thing, we sometimes forget to rely on Him.

"And the Lord said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor."

As we march along (pun intended) in our own lives we find a few walls that are in our way. But God already has a plan. As He has show us time and time agan, all we need to do is trust that His plan will work, no matter how strange it might sound.

Many blessings,

Pr Andy.

Navigating Your Child's Emotions using The Zones of Regulation

At home or at school – or anywhere really - our children's emotions can feel like an unsolvable puzzle. Are they happy, sad, angery or scared? Sometimes, who know!

The reality is, it often feels exactly the same way to them.

Teaching our kids how to identify and manage their feelings is a crucial life-skill that lays the foundation for their emotional well-being. One powerful tool that can aid in this journey is "The Zones of Regulation."

What are The Zones of Regulation?

Imagine a world where emotions are divided into four colour-coded zones, each representing a different emotional state:

1. Blue Zone (Sad or Tired): Just like a rainy day, the Blue Zone reflects feelings of sadness, tiredness, or even being under the weather. It's important for children to recognize these emotions and feel comfortable sharing them.

2. Green Zone (Happy or Calm): The Green Zone is the sunny side of emotions, encompassing feelings of happiness, calmness, and focus. This zone is ideal for learning, connecting, and embracing positive experiences.

3. Yellow Zone (Excited or Worried): Imagine a yellow caution sign – this is where your child is feeling excited, anxious, or slightly frustrated. This zone provides an opportunity to teach them about emotional awareness and coping strategies.

4. Red Zone (Angry or Scared): When emotions reach a boiling point, your child enters the Red Zone. It's a place of intense anger, fear, or frustration. The key here is to help them understand these

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