Art Club has continued to be popular this term with great attendance each session. It is so wonderful to watch interactions with students from different Learning Communities and new friendships being formed. We have had some wonderful activities this term with our strong student leaders creating glitter mindfulness jars. The purpose of these jars is to replicate a busy mind calming down:
“Imagine that the glitter is like your thoughts when you’re stressed, mad or upset. See how they whirl around and make it really hard to see clearly? That’s why it’s so easy to make silly decisions when you’re upset – because you’re not thinking clearly. Don’t worry this is normal and it happens in all of us (yep, grownups too). [Now put the jar down in front of them.] Now watch what happens when you’re still for a couple of moments. Keep watching. See how the glitter starts to settle and the water clears? Your mind works the same way. When you’re calm for a little while, your thoughts start to settle and you start to see things much clearer. Deep breaths during this calming process can help us settle when we feel a lot of emotions” 

Our Art Club has gotten off to a wonderful start. Our amazing Art Captains, Gabrielle and Caelan, have been a great support to both me and all the younger students attending.
We have been decorating mindfulness stones for the students to hold when they are feeling a bit overwhelmed. Construction has also been very popular with the creativity of our wonderful students shining through. 
Art Club offers the opportunity for students to take time out from the playground and mix with students from all year levels.
Art Club runs in the first half of recess on Wednesdays and the first half of lunch on Fridays.

The Junior and Senior Choirs have been spreading holiday cheer all term, rehearsing tirelessly for their magical Christmas performances. Now, the moment has arrived—sit back, relax, and enjoy their festive videos below! 🎄✨

The Junior and Senior Choirs have been working diligently throughout the term, preparing for several exciting performances.

Both choirs will perform one song each at the MPPS Christmas Carols on Wednesday, 11th December, at 5:00 pm. They will also bring festive cheer to Bunnings Mernda with a variety of Christmas songs on Thursday, 12th December, at 12:15 pm.

​Additionally, the Senior Choir will showcase their talent at the Grade 6 Graduation on Wednesday, 18th December. We are incredibly proud of their efforts and look forward to seeing you at these events to support our wonderful choirs!

The theme for Art Club in Term 3 has been Collaboration. We have done lots of Collaborative artwork, beginning with a large Collaborative garden. This was our focus for 2 weeks with students working together to create a vibrant, colourful piece.
We also worked in pairs with 'invisible drawings'. Each student drew with a white oil pastel on white paper. The students could draw whatever they chose.
Everyone then swapped their invisible drawing with another student and used water colour paints to reveal their invisible drawing.

Today the Junior Choir performed for our school community during assembly.

This performance was a special request from Caroline and the Leadership Team as they enjoyed it so much at the Education Week open morning. We are so proud of the Junior Choir and how much hard work they put into every performance. Never stop shining!

If you would like to watch the performances from the Education Week open morning, scroll down the Lunchtime Blog to find some videos.

Our Art Club has been so special this term. It has been amazing to watch our wonderful Year 6 students nuturing and supporting our younger students. These fantastic leaders have also been a great support to me, assisting with with set up and pack up and also suggesting activities for Art Club. It is great to see students of different ages collaborating and making new friends.

The girls' DigiTech Club was established to offer girls the opportunity to flourish in a safe and supportive environment where they can develop their skills in Digital Technologies.
Research shows that there is an inequity in the workplace where females are underrepresented in the field of science, technology and engineering. The MPPS Girl's DigiTech club aims to raise interest from a young age in these areas.
Students at MPPS are welcome to join in the DigiTech Club where they can engage in the concepts of coding and design through the use of Digital Technologies.

The MPPS Junior Choir - It's a Hard Knock Life

The MPPS Senior Choir - Higher Love

Art Club is such a wonderful experience. It has been amazing to watch the older students guide and support our juior students in the many different activities. Popular this term has been weaving, plasticine play and 3D paper sculptures. It is wonderful to now have some PLC students regularly attending.
​A collaborative piece exploring different patterns has also been very popular.

This Term Origami Club is inviting junior students to experience the beauty of Origami Arts. 
Last week we had more than 10 junior students visiting our club.
I am very proud of young students trying their first Origami and our caring senior students welcoming them and teaching the Origami skill very well. 

The Taylor Swift fever hit MPPS this term, with both the Senior and Junior choirs requesting to learn Tay Tay songs.
We sang and danced to Blank Space, Love Story and You Belong With Me.

Here is a snippet of Blank Space from rehearsal this week.

The Senior and Junior Choirs are busily preparing for their upcoming Christmas performances. The MPPS Christmas Concert on Wednesday the 6th of December and a Bunnings performance on Monday the 11th of December. Check Compass in the coming weeks for further dates and details. We are so excited!

Here is a sneak peek of the Junior Choir rehearsing.

​The Green Team have been busy planting some more seeds, watering and looking after our crops. The students are growing radishes, beetroot, snow peas and broccoli. The Green Team can’t wait to watch them grow. 

This term saw the beginning of the Art Club, which has become a calm and relaxing environment for students to take a breath and relax. The students have really enjoyed doing activities such as:

• Creating a Courage Bracelet - some students wore theirs while others decided to join theirs together to make a Courage Bracelet chain
• Colour your Heart - students named their emotions and coloured in their heart to show how they were feeling
• Softness project - we explored textures that made us feel calm and glued them to a piece of cardboard
• What makes you smile - students created artworks to show what their teachers do that makes them smile. These artworks will be displayed in the office to make our MPPS teachers smile.

eThe Junior and Senior Choirs have been working together to learn a new song. They will perform their new song to our school community at assembly on Monday the 28th of August, 2023.
 
Here is a sneak peek of their rehearsal. 

Eariler this year we celebrated Harmony Day at MPPS. The senior choir worked hard to rewrite the lyrics to 'What a Wonderful World' and changed it to 'What an Inclusive World'.