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 Kindy children are now working with the story of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” during morning circle. This is our second last morning circle for the year.
The children’s seat covers for Class One are progressing well. Many of the students are moving closer to completing their French Knitting and quite a few children have finished the finger knitting required for the straps that connect the cover to the chair. The next step in the process will be sewing a backing to the seat covers, before filling them with a small amount of soft fleece.
The children modelled some really delicate and beautiful beeswax images this week in response to a lovely butterfly story told by Jasmine. I have included some of the children’s work for all to see, as it expresses just how far the children’s hand skills have progressed, developed, and matured during the year.
We would like to say Congratulations to the Harvey family (Calli) on the arrival of their new baby boy, Rome and we wish Mum, Cassie, and Rome all the very best.
Have a great weekend,
Francine, Zenith, and Alannah
Class 1/2
We have been so happy to see most of the class back this week after lots of absences due to sickness. This has meant we have been able to get our teeth into the Class Play – Birdsong Brouhaha. The children created posters with relevant information about the character they will be playing. The characters are native fauna (Class 2) and flora (Class 1). We have been playing drama games, building on skills like gesture, speed, and expression.
A reminder that the Class 1/2 Play is on Thursday, 30th Nov at 5:30pm.
The children are very excited about the Class 1/2 sleepover at school, next Thursday, 16th November (Class 1 stay until dinner only, Class 2 sleepover). Please see the permission note sent home or get in touch with us if you haven’t received one. We are relying on lots of parent helpers for the afternoon tea on Thursday, breakfast, and lunch on Friday. Please let us know either by email or on the note if you are able to help out.
If your child is anxious or you have any concerns, please also email us ASAP, as we can use this next week to prepare them and help them feel comfortable with the idea of sleeping at school.
Apart from this excitement, we have continued our regular rhythms – this week working on skipping in Morning Circle, patterns and 2D shape in Practice Lessons.
You will have received a News Roster for your child, please check it and help them prepare 🙂 Thank you!
Have a lovely weekend,
Soumya and Amy
Class 3/4
Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding if my communication about the play this week was rushed and unclear. We managed to get it together, because the children practiced their lines as well last week while I was injured.
Thank you to Kath, Jess, Amy, and Meredith for supporting the children last week. I was super proud and moved by the way your children rehearsed and worked together for the play. It has been such a great process. They performed brilliantly!
We have also begun our second main lesson: “Australian Maritime History: Pre- and post- Colonisation.” We have begun by looking at how the continent of Australia was, over the past tens of thousands of years; how the history of the First People of Australia holds stories that use language, poetry, and art to express what happened in a time that goes back beyond memory, and how archaeologists use science to measure what happened.
We have started to look at the mapping of the continent and how the Macassans travelled from Sulawesi to collect the sea cucumbers – an early story of trade. We have heard how Lake Mungo was when people lived near it, and it was actually full of water (when inland Australia was lusher and more fertile)
Please hand in class camp notes ASAP and email me if you have any questions or concerns.
Have a great weekend,
Julie and Meredith
Class 5/6
As I write, it is the final morning of camp, and we are packing up before our final session ‘Science of the Spears’ where the wonderful Indigenous groundsmen will show us how spears are made and thrown! Birrigai (meaning ‘laughter’ in Language) is a place of cultural significance for the Ngunnawal peoples and so far, 25,000 years of use has been confirmed. Presiding over the site is Maliyan, a rock formation in the shape of a perched eagle which is the creator spirit of the Jenbinbilla dreaming story, and we were lucky to regularly see wedge-tails in their majestic flights.
What full hearts we have. Class 6 have had a lot of great experiences in Canberra each day with Martin and Lee (thank you so much for coming to camp with us!). At the National Portrait Gallery, they created art and heard about Aboriginal artist activism including the work of Albert Namatjira, after which they relaxed in the National Arboretum and attended the daily Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial. Class 6 went on to enjoy STEM activities and play at Questacon, visit the Royal Australian Mint (and pick up the last coin made with the late Queen’s image as a keepsake!), take a tour of Parliament House and watch a Senate debate on the airline industry. Together we all cycled around Lake Burley Griffin past ducklings and black swans.
I have stayed here in Ancient Greece with Class 5 (on campus at the Birrigai Outdoor School!) for the Greek Olympics along with our pen pals from Aurora School (Bowral), Mumbulla’s Class 5 (Bega) and the organisers with their two Class 5’s from Orana (Canberra). To say it is amazing to have this time with peers sharing the same schooling is an understatement. In preparation, we have learnt authentic sports for the times including javelin, discus, wrestling, and also songs and verses for the Opening Ceremony (which was attended by none other than Zeus and Athena themselves!). We even ‘went to the movies’ together and saw the Olympic greatness of the Jamaican bobsled team! It was not hard to imagine these beautiful hills as Olympia as the students gathered to march behind the banners of their City States (ours were Athens and Thebes). It was an honour to see the students’ achievements grow with each attempt and watch Orana’s confident and encouraging Year 11 students leading the activities and awarding the friendship braids all students made in advance which represented strength (red), grace of movement (yellow) and Olympic spirit (blue). At other times, in mixed groups all students enjoyed outdoor ropes and team challenge activities.
Both classes performed the Cup Song and Thriller! dance (led by the amazing Jesse!) for the schools sharing of Performance Night, and it was so great to see Aurora’s Echo and Narcissus play and hear music and choir items from Orana and Mumbulla. We were fortunate to beat a previously ominous weather forecast for the week, and we return for a busy second half of term refreshed and standing tall after such fantastic experiences and achievements!
Below are some dates for your diary:
- Monday 20 November: Class 5/6 Funday Monday
- Class Play (date to be finalised)
- Friday 1 December: Class 6 to Raging Waters Sydney.
- The Class 6 Farewell will be on Saturday December 9 from 5pm (all hands on-deck from Class 5’s and their families are needed please!).
Steph and Lee