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
We had a very exciting Wednesday afternoon this week. Sixteen students visiting from Japan and their teachers, joined us for Beeswax modelling.
The students were very unsure as to what to do with the beeswax, however the Kindergarten and pre-school children showed the way, shaping and modelling their wax alongside the Japanese students, until they got the feel and understanding of what they needed to do. You can see their combined efforts of all the students in the photograph provided.
On Friday during our Bush Kindy time, Kamilaroi Man Paul Glass will be bringing an Aboriginal cultural experience to the children down on the mini oval. The same group of Japanese students will join us around the campfire, and we will share some hot food together.
We are looking forward to sharing in this experience with Paul and the visiting students from Japan.
Cheers for now,
Francine, Zenith, and Alannah
Class 1/2
Spring is in the air! As we pass the halfway mark of winter, we are reminded that the warmth shall come again, and we will soon arise from our sleepy cocoons to grow and play in vibrant sunshiney days.
Class 1/2 have slowly integrated back into the school rhythm this term, as we gently move through our new Morning Circle routine and Maths Main Lesson. Being aware that the transition from three weeks of school holidays back to school can be challenging for many children, we’ve intentionally allowed for flexibility in our daily rhythm. The children have enjoyed learning a Dharug song “Warami”, and a new Scottish dance. Both fun and light ways of bringing the children into the classroom each day.
Both Class 1 and 2 have enjoyed learning about the qualities of the word and sign “equals” (=) and sharing equally amongst each other with the help of General Divide. Amy especially enjoyed role playing the character of General Divide for a whole Main Lesson with soldiers who equally shared 28 “fried eggs” between 14 hungry soldiers. Class 1 were also eager to experience balance and equilibrium by weighing different objects in the wooden scales.
Last Friday we were excited to welcome Stuart back for circus lessons. It’s always amazing to see what our bodies and minds can do with all the circus equipment.
On Tuesday we started our first Totem Dance lesson with Jo Clancy. It was an honour to be a part of the dance and create a new tradition within our school. Thank you, Jo.
We have also celebrated many birthdays this past week as quite a few children had their Birthday during the holidays. With this in mind, we ask that parents and carers please let us know which day your child will be bringing in their fruit platter so that we are prepared and ready to celebrate their special day.
We are missing quite a few hats from our hat basket this term. Could we ask that parents please make sure your child has their own hat with their name on it and preferably kept in the hat basket for easy access at each play time.
We hope you all enjoy the beautiful weather over the weekend.
Many thanks,
Amy and Soumya.
Class 3/4
Class 3/4 have been happily rolling along. We have been looking at the Blue Mountains from the perspective of the topography and how we are part of the Great Dividing Range that stretches along the eastern part of Australia. We have talked about the fact that the mountains are mostly made of sandstone, and we heard stories of how the European settlers couldn’t figure out how to climb up the rocky escarpments and get through the dense rugged bush in order to cross the Blue Mountains. With the knowledge of the Indigenous people who had traversed the Ngurrambang (A Wiradjuri word meaning Country/land/shrub/bush; taught to us by Jo Clancy), the Europeans were able to make their way across. Jo also taught us ‘Warradhaa’ dance and song (in Wiradjuri).
In other news, the class have been working on multiplication. Class 4 have been doing long multiplication. Everyone is trying to remember that when you multiply by zero, you get nothing!
If you haven’t returned the pink excursion note, please do.
Thank you for bringing in the instruments on Thursday.
We have been dabbling in some poetry, here is one written by Zenevieva in Class 4:
Every day I wake up, and I am bathed in glorious sunlight.
Every night, I feel empty in the darkness.
But then, in the sunrise I feel so…. quiet
Just so quiet, and the colour beyond is so calm…..
Enjoy your weekend,
Julie and Meredith
Class 5/6
The 5/6 students are having so much fun playing games with the visiting Japanese students and learning about cultural difference and communicating clearly through language challenges. We look forward to a few class sessions with this beautiful group over the next few days! Playtimes are so fun that we will postpone our first Flavoursome Friday to Week 5, where we will serve vegetarian nachos as part of our fundraising for camp.
This week we have created origami star pots in which to grow seedlings to sell for Spring – thanks, Nat for coming in to help! The class also very much enjoyed the first workshop with Jo Clancy to begin learning our school’s Waratah Aboriginal dance and song, exploring the lyrics in Wiradjuri and Darug. We can’t wait for next week!
Following on from the story of Aeneas who, as a survivor from the Fall of Troy sailed to the land of King Latinus, we have heard stories on the bloody founding of Rome and the contrast of ancient Roman culture to the previous gentle and artistic Grecian influence. We have been creating mind maps and drafting and editing story summaries, drawing a map of the Roman Empire at its peak, and using our class library to create info-posters on topic areas of individual student interests. We are also working on fluency using Roman numerals which is a lot of fun!
My apologies, within the previous newssheet message I gave two dates for the Class 6 Farewell, the correct one is of course Saturday 9th December (from 4.30pm).
Below are some dates for your diary:
Thursday 24th August: Book Week Parade 9am
Wednesday 30th August: Father’s Day Stall
Wednesday 20th September: Spring Festival 11.30am all welcome!
Term 4 important dates to be aware of:
Canberra camp: Monday 6th to Thursday 9th November (Week 5)
Class 6 Farewell will be on Saturday December 9th from 4.30pm
Have a lovely weekend!
Steph and Lee