Class News: Week 5, Term 4
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
Parents of children going into Class 1 next year came together with teachers, Julie Humphreys, Isabelle Bruderlin and Amy Brownlee on Tuesday evening, to share and discuss the transition into Primary school. Thank you to all those parents who were able to attend, it was a great gathering of families and a very informative and fulfilling evening.
The warm weather this week has been celebrated with lots of water play, digging and building in the sand pit. The children have grown so strong, with many new physical skills coming together in tree climbing, chasing, jumping and balancing. Next week I plan to bring out the skipping ropes to challenge the children and extend their physical skills.
In Morning Circle the children have been working with copper rods and accompanying small verses. This work has captured the interest and engagement of all the children. It is active, challenging and dynamic. We will continue with this work for another week.
Warm wishes for a great weekend.
Francine and Maya
Class 1/2
After a week away, refreshing my senses, I feel great being back in the classroom. I would like to thank Amy and Meredith for taking the class last week. The children were very happy and settled. They did lots of good maths work during the last Main Lesson and they are working with confidence and efficiency!
We have now begun our ‘Living Kingdoms’ Main Lesson. This is a Natural Science/English unit. Class 1 have been writing their own sentences based on their weekly spelling list and Class 2 have been learning about adjectives and singular and plural words.
We have also begun learning the lines for our Class play (performance is in Week 7). Please check the calendar.
I have brought the play and the new Main Lesson together, in terms of the daily stories: our main character, Gentle Feet, is now on a journey with Swashbuckle West and his offsiders, as they venture around the world seeking out seeds for Mr SW’s Seed collection. Gentle Feet is bumping into all sorts of unusual living things. We’ve met Carpenter Bees, Walking Bat Fish, Veiled Lady Mushrooms … who knows where his gentle footsteps will take him…
Class 2/3 sleepover and Class 1 dinner is on next Thursday 17th November. Please send in permission notes if you haven’t already. It is best if your child packs their own bags, so that they know what they’ve brought. Please label all items if possible.
It’s going to be lots of fun! Can’t wait!
Have a lovely weekend,
Julie, Meredith and Amy
Class 3/4
At the end of this week, we are already halfway through Term 4.
We finished our Northern Legends Main Lesson and started with our next one which is slightly different from all the Main Lessons we have done throughout the year. This Main Lesson is putting on a class play. Our play will be performed on Thursday, 1st December at 6pm (Week 8). The children are very enthusiastic about it.
I read the entire script to them on Monday and most children had an idea about who they wanted to play. Interestingly their ideas matched up very well with my ideas about who would suit which role. Surprisingly there was no doubling up and everyone got the role they wanted.
Whilst reading the script in character we have been talking about voice projection, speed of reading and articulation. Smaller groups practiced their parts to be able to say their lines together and in sync.
We also started on designing flyers and posters for our production.
It’s been such a different week to our usual weeks, but it’s been fun to see the children get into character, choose their props and costumes and learn their lines.
Have a great weekend,
Isabelle and Holly
PS: Class 3 parents – If you haven’t already, please send back the filled in sheet for next Thursday’s overnight camp (17/11/22). Thank you!
Class 5/6
A huge congratulations is in order to our Class 5/6 students for their amazing work and performance of their Julius Caesar Class Plays!
As a Main Lesson we have developed skills (following our debating unit) on public speaking and audience awareness. The process of this work in Steiner education is always more important than the product, and our senior students have taken up with great enthusiasm their roles as directors of each scene following group work to create story boards of each scene with details such as props, sound effects and the use of the different parts of the stage.
From there, they selected various tasks that suited their interests and skills to create the production from character roles, stage crew and costume/set design, and supported each other admirably. The short Class 6 comedic version was a great way to finish both the evening, and also as a feather in their cap as one of their final big projects together before their high school journeys begin. A great effort everyone, and a huge thank you to Lee and Martin for your support as well as Paul for tidying up the area around the ‘Ancient Roman’ space under our classroom!
Our next big event is camp next Monday. We have talked as a class about the packing list, and now that they are older about ways in which they can assist in preparing for their camp in this way. Camps are an integral part of the PDHPE curriculum as well as individual development and resilience-building. Should be great!
The Class 6 Farewell invitations will go home to Class 6 families shortly. If you have particular dietary requirements, please email me soon.
Important dates for your diary:
14-16th November: Class 5/6 Camp to Milson Island.
24th November (Thursday): Class 5/6 Fun Day
25th November (Friday): Athletics Carnival (includes Class 5/6 Greek Olympics events) Pitt Park, Wentworth Falls.
2nd December (Friday): Class 6 Excursion to Raging Waters
10th December (Saturday): 5pm Class 6 Farewell (all Class 5 parents/ carers and students needed to help on the day and through the evening please!).
12th December (Monday) whole-school bushwalk/ picnic.
14th December (Wednesday) Summer Assembly (and final day of term).
Have a great weekend!
Steph and Lee