Photo Shoot

Guess who was caught by the camera just a few weeks ago? Why, the WPIPS Community of course! It was definitely time for some new photos since our previous photoshoot dated back to November 2010, just after we were formed... To fill you in, here are some "before" shots, taken by our fabulous Caroline Telfer of Anita Jean Photography, from what seems like yonks ago...


We wanted to catch the fun, vibrant spirit of the school and the passion kids there have for learning, so here are a few that we think perfectly captured just that...

Then we also wanted some shots to show the classrooms, so here is an example of that... 

 

It looked great at the time, but now since the school has changed so much and all, these pictures could not longer do justice, so after many months of trying to get a date when everyone could get together for a big photo bash, the opportunity arose... Tuesday 24th April. This time we still wanted similar photos, especially with so many new spaces and faces since late 2010. But we also wanted so individual portrait type pics and of course a whole school photo.

So our amazing Caro, armed with her camera got snapping, and the WPIPS Community got posing...

First we started off in the Early Childhood Classroom, and got several like this one, which is simply showing the classroom:

Then we got several snaps of storytime. Don't you love the expression on Miss T's face, and also how interested the kids look? Just what we were searching for...

Miss Gooding's classroom was next on the agenda. The classroom is so tricky to work with because of the dark walls and very small size. We managed to make it look a lot better by putting up a whole lot of colourful posters and garlands though.


Here is Miss Gooding explaining a task to Jesse...

 

And a shot of the whiteboard (see the horrible wall colour?)

Following that, was Miss Alligator's classroom, where some painting was going on:

And of course no one can resist a teacher in very high heels wiping the blackboard...

We stopped at the library and had lots of great snaps taken, such as this one of Georgia reading (to her dolls):

And of Miss Kelly and Miss Gooding trying to solve a puzzle:

We are glad to have these photos to represent what the library is used for and how much fun we all have in there.
 After that, we all headed into the Admin, which is a fun, happy entry place to our school and a hang-out for staff as there is no operating staffroom at the moment.


Miss P and Miss T checked out some maths resources:

 

And Miss Kelly showed off her new desk for her role as deputy principal:

Outside we went (thankfully it was a really beautiful day), and had a whole lot of fun blowing bubbles, popping bubbles, jumping for the sake of it and playing with our sports equipment.


This photos has to be a favourite, maybe because it is isn't posed, but it's just having fun naturally, and also there are 7 of the 10 WPIPS people in there (missing Bonnie, Eli and Jesse, because Sophie and Georgia are in the photo, they're just very good at hiding)..

 

This shot of Amelia blowing bubbles is so great, it's just so simple and as Guillaume would say - amazing!

 

There's tough competition though, because this one of Jesse and Georgia is too very adorable.

 

Meanwhile, Miss Putland and Miss Kelly were having a ball ...

  

Individual shots were on our checklist and it was a perfect opportunity. We were thinking of the Admin, but ended up getting the shots done outside, Each person sat on the ledge and posed doing something they loved or just something significant to them.


Miss Kelly was marking work, Miss Alligator (being our Admin guru) was talking on the phone, Miss Putland was searching through the reading box, Miss Gooding wanted to have a pic with Pompon, but being a dog, he didn't like the idea, so we got great one of her by herself, Miss Jean wanted to have a pic giving Georgia a sticker, but this one was equally as beautiful, Georgia is close up in this pic, but she was playing with her dolls and reading a book, Hugh was being impatient so was just being himself, Jesse was posing with a letter "J" for Jesse and Miss T was holding up a heart, to show how much love she has in her.

The boys had gone off at this point, but we still went ahead and took some pictures without our giant WPIPS lettering. It might have been perfect because there was just enough for each person to have one letter. The lettering is now displaying in the Admin.

When the boys got back, we took our whole school picture. Well as whole as it could be without Eli and Georgia. This was the more serious one, and yet it is hardly very serious at all.

Then for an even more fun take on things - what's more fun than jumping down steps whilst still trying to keep a smile and not land on anyone else? Nothing of course! So we had a good time jumping as high as possible while Caro snapped away.

 

On our way out, Miss Gooding and Miss Kelly (principal and deputy), got a picture with the school sign at the front of the school yard. 

 

It was just after that when we realised Miss Jean was away when we were taking photos in the classrooms so we didn't get any pictures in her classroom. That, of course, wasn't good enough so we went back in and got some really great pictures in there.

Here's Miss Jean doing what she does best, helping people:

 

And one of Jesse and Hugh hard at work...

It was all over after that, but not without many memories of the really fun day it was.

Oh, and there are so many more pics that we couldn't put in this post, but you can get a DVD filled to the brim with photos and photos from WPIPS if you would like.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!
For the past week WPIPS has been alive with Easter preparations in all forms! We learnt a bit about what Easter is all about and why we celebrate it, and what Easter means to the students.
We also did a lot of crafts, in particular our pinatas that we made filled with Easter eggs and that we plan to smash this afternoon (a full tutorial coming soon).

Virginie showing off her pinata (finished product coming soon...)

Then we made made our Easter baskets that were adorably cute, with a little chick on the side.

Virginie with her finished basket!

The cute little chick on Guillaume's basket

Guillaume posing with his basket

Virginie's Easter Basket: very impressive!

 And here is a photo of the baskets that Max, Emilie and Anne-Priscilla made last April:

 Max, Emilie and Anne-Priscilla's Easter baskets of 2011

We'd love to know which baskets you prefer. The Easter baskets of 2011 or 2012? We love the bows from the 2011 baskets but the little chick on the 2012 baskets is so cute!


We also did some serious work too, but that was just as fun! We wrote some really neat letters to the Easter Bunny! This gave us a great chance to revise the parts of a letter. Guillaume and Virginie really liked knowing about the Easter Bunny because in France bells bring the chocolate instead.

Bonnie writing her letter to the Easter Bunny

We did so much work to make this an Easter never to forget, so we were very pleased (and surprised) when we went to the schools this morning to find a very pleasant sight! Proof of the Easter Bunny in many forms! While we didn't actually see him, we did see...
His footprints,

These footprints didn't belong to any of us...

His reply to our Easter letters,
And of course... chocolate! Virginie and Guillaume were so happy to have some Toblerone to munch on whilst they finished their pinatas.

Very happy chappys!

Guillaume was happy to see his basket filled

Thanks a lot Easter Bunny! What a great Easter at WPIPS! We haven't finished yet though, we have to go smash those pinatas (don't they look impressive?) and get searching for Easter Eggs because we are having an Easter egg hunt!


So tell us, what did you do for Easter? While we are on the topic, we my as well show what we got up to last year. Unfortunately we didn't have time this year (in between all the other awesome stuff we've been up to), but at Easter last year, we dyed eggs... It was messy, but so much fun, and we got to eat the eggs after for breakfast on Easter Sunday. (Hint: if dying your own eggs, hardboil them first, then decorate/dye because we didn't think about that and although we used food colouring, when we hardboiled them, all the dye came out :( Still so much fun and really yummy!)

Maxime and Anne-Priscilla dying eggs

Everybody at WPIPS hopes you had a really great Easter, because we sure did!

Christmas Concert and Prizegiving Ceremony 2011

Last night was the night of our second annual... Christmas Concert and Prizegiving Ceremony 2011! Once again, the concert was held at WPIPS and we had many budding actors and actresses set to impress! We started the evening as normal before the came across a (planned) dilemma! None of the costumes were right! Some had been ruined and no one had any idea why! So instead of our "original performance" we had to watch a bit of TV (at least while we were trying to solve the dilemma). The TV programs were good though, they had a Christmas around the World theme and covered Mexico, France, England, India, Australia and Hollywood! Plus they were in 3D so that made it even better! 

Alivia wearing her 3D glasses

Kerrie looked stunning in her 3D glasses

Georgie loved her 3D glasses

And the Mexican cake!

Yohan found the "Jesus" figurine!
 

The Mexican dancing was great fun!

Then just at the end of the Mexican program, someone must have changed the channel (no idea who, but something tells me it was Brooke, because the remote was found under his chair) seeing as instead of the programmed French channel, an R-rated program turned on! Thankfully we found the remote just in time!

"The following program is classified R-rated, and contains strong violence, sexual scenes and coarse language"

In France, they chopped down and decorated a Christmas Tree (sapin de Noel)

 

And in England, the audience was treated to an interview with the Queen and Kate Middleton

For a while it all went OK, until someone (still no idea who!) unplugged the TV! Luckily, it was just the right time for a break so the audience took the chance to look around the Discovery Room whilst we fixed the TV.

In the Discovery Room during the break

Or for those who had already checked out the Discovery Room, Hugh and Santa (Jesse) gave an amusing show.

And just as we thought nothing else would happen, something went wrong with the 3D and while the 3D characters tried to interact with the audience, it didn't work and the TV screen smashed! I hope no one got too injured in the process. This latest dilemma meant no TV either to it was a good thing that we managed to get at least one part of our original performance ready. So we all sang "It's A Small World" before awarding the Prince & Princess Book Awards. This years recipients, Amelia and Hugh, really deserved the prizes. Then each staff member and student took the audience back to one of their most memorable parts of the year. A BBQ was a well deserved treat at the end!

Three beautiful Indian dancers

Singing "It's A Small World"

Hollywood Chat Session with Abby and Jo

We never found out who was fiddling around and causing all the dilemmas, but we did catch this elf sneaking past!

Judaism - Potato Latkes

In Room 3 lately, we've been learning about different religions around the world and the festivals they celebrate. We learnt all about Hanukkah, celebrated by Jewish people during late November/ early December each year. First we did a lot of learning and then we made dreidels and played a game with some friends! Then we learnt about the foods eaten at Hanukkah. They include oil to symbolise the miracle that the oil kept the lamps lit for 8 days. And then we made potato latkes!!!!
You can get the recipe for potato latkes here (or you can follow our tutorial)

First, you will need all these ingredients: 1.5kg of potatoes,  2 medium onions (we left them out), 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper (we left that out too), 4 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and some vegetable oil for frying.

Start by grating the potatoes and then place them in a strainer and try to get rid of as much moisture as possible

Add all the other ingredients and mix!

This is what the mixture should look like once all the ingredients have been added

Place 2-3 tablespoons of mixture onto the pan for each latke. Flatten them out and let them cook for about 4-5 minutes per side

Yum! Once the latkes have been fried, place them on some paper towel so that the oil can drain...and enjoy!

We didn't have enough time to make some apple sauce but apparently the two go well together (you can find the recipe on the same link as the potato latkes if you're interested). If you have been inspired and do get cooking this holiday, we'd love to know how your potato latkes turned out because ours were delicious!