Keep up-to-date with your child’s learning with these short weekly updates from their teachers. Click on the buttons below to go straight to your child’s class, or find out what others are up to!
Kindergarten/Boronia Room
The Kindergarten children have had a very full and interesting week. Tuesday was Eurythmy with Isabella Jaworski and Dharug Dhalang with Amy Brownlee. Wednesday saw the children join Class 1/2 for the day while I worked with the College of Teachers in the library. On Thursday the children started their new craft project for the term. Lots of fun and new challenges this week.
Isabella introduced the children to “Knicke-Knicke-Knack with a sack upon his back”, along with lots of other imaginative and curious images during Eurythmy on Tuesday morning. The children are enjoying their lessons with Isabella which takes place each Tuesday at 9.30am for half an hour.
On Tuesday afternoons, Amy comes to teach us about Dharug culture and language. She told us another story involving the adventures of Dingu (dingo). This time he met up with Gula (Koala) and Dyirrabidy (Red Belly Black Snake). We worked our beeswax into the animals from the story as we laughed and listened.
These are the highlights from this week. We also thank Kath Turner and the Class 1/2 community of Assistants and children for being so welcoming and caring to the Kindergarten children on Wednesday.
Have a cosy weekend. Rest well everyone.
Francine
Class 1/2
We began the week with a sunny visit to the garden with Annie. Children carefully planted kale, watered and weeded, while others volunteered to help me clean out the chicken shed. Thank you to Annie for guiding us while we are working hard to keep our school garden flourishing.
Class 1/2’s Main Lesson “Our Place” has given children the opportunity to experiment with a compass, listen to stories from a snail and hawks’ perspective and climb to the top of the knoll to get a bird’s eye view of our school community. Class 1/2 have been examining street maps of the local area, a map of Australia and the globe.
Eurythmy with Isabella was magical this week. The children’s focus and determination was an absolute delight; I am one proud teacher.
Class 1/2 had a blast exploring our local area on our excursion to Wentworth Falls Lake on Thursday, climbing and swinging to our hearts’ content. Watching the ducks swim by was almost too tempting but we managed to stay dry (mostly). We went for a walk to the far end of the lake and sketched the most interesting leaf we could find. We are so lucky to live in this marvellous place.
Warmly,
Kath and Class 1/2 Assistants
Class 3/4
It was amazing to visit Linden Observatory and King’s Cave Linden last week. The children were awed by the dome and telescope. We heard about its history, sketched the dome and saw it open to the sky. We then went and explored King’s Cave, had some food, got very muddy and heard the story of how the Parrot clan were once all black and they got their colours by asking the flowers and then catching the rainbow. Our local area has some incredible places to visit.
We continued our Main Lesson on “Building and Shelters”. Learning how farming encouraged people to settle in one place and build more solid dwellings. The main lesson books are looking truly beautiful. We painted fields of wheat against a blue sky, and with Sayoko the children crafted a village of traditional Japanese farmhouses from clay.
We also started our building project with Paul Glass. Cleaning out the old cubby, pruning plants from the area, chipping away the old wattle and daub mixture, measuring and sawing timber cladding and adding a window. All very exciting.
This week we have violin on Thursday and Friday to make up for missing it during our excursion, and because children are practising for the Autumn Fair.
We continued our permaculture journal, gardening, Dharug lessons and sessions with Minh. The new intensive literacy program run by Meredith has been a great success with the students involved. They find it fun and love it. Busy, busy times!
Enjoy your weekend.
Jeneva and Meredith
Class 5/6
In our Main Lessons we have ventured into the Valley of the Kings and are following the story of our 14-year-old protagonist, Tariq, who works in a tea house. Tariq will take the class through features of Ancient Egyptian culture.
Our daily maths practice and spelling activities are a great steady start to each day after Morning Circle. The class has a lot of energy at the moment, so vigorous games seem to be very satisfactory! Thank you to Jess who taught the class some new games on Wednesday when I was in a College meeting for the day. It is great to have a ‘bank’ of fun games to draw upon.
Lee and I have noticed that many of the children have increased appetites at the moment, so a bit extra in their lunch boxes to sustain them throughout the day would be great.
Class camp notes: please send in as asap. Warm sleeping bags will be essential!
Please email me if you have any questions or concerns.
Have a fab weekend!
Warmly,
Julie and Lee
