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 children are busy practising their Springtime circle work that they will present at the Spring Festival next Wednesday. Each child has a role or specific character they are representing in the circle, so they are feeling very proud and enthusiastic to show their work to their parents and special friends on the last day of term. Everyone is welcome to join us in this special celebration of Spring.
We are looking forward to celebrating the Kindergarten Spring Festival on Wednesday, 20 September at 10am.
Please remember that Kindergarten children come to school at the later time of 10am. Children come dressed in plain pastel colours, in the company of their parents on that day.
The children will present a short Spring Circle of verses and songs and a shared morning tea will follow. Please bring a plate of home baked goods to share.
Flowers for the Festival are most welcome and need to be sent to school on Tuesday before the Festival on Wednesday morning.
The Festival marks the end of our third term together. I wish to thank all our families for their warm support. I trust that everyone will find some time to embrace the joy of Spring and relax with your children over the holidays.
With joy and warmth,
Francine, Zenith, and Alannah
Class 1/2
As we near the end of Week 9, we have come to realise that rest and play is super important after a big term of learning and events. This week the children have been held by one of our lovely casual teachers Victoria, who guided them through some Spring art and craft as well as continuing with our usual rhythms of morning circle and main lesson.
The children and us teachers have enjoyed the Dreaming Story Main Lesson so much that we decided to continue this until the end of term. The children have found profound connections to the stories, especially the stories about children who find courage and bravery within, when on a journey through life or nature. Class 1 have continued learning about sentence construction and Class 2 are learning about inference and noticing the hidden messages in stories.
Spring Festival is next week! We have been practicing our dances and songs, as the anticipation and excitement rises, we ask that parents and carers chat to their children about the fun that can be had when we engage in group performances and overcome our fears of performing in front of an audience.
We have still had children without hats and drink bottles every day this week, as the weather is warming up, we ask that parents and carers please ensure their child has a hat at school and a drink bottle every day.
We look forward to seeing you all at the Spring Festival for some fun and spring games. Wishing you a wonderful Spring holiday.
Many thanks,
Amy and Soumya
Class 3/4
We are reaching the end of an industrious and fun term. The class have experienced a lot of activities and have galloped along in their academic, creative, and social realms.
Working on the Maypole has been a great learning experience for all of us. Watching the class develop the skills to work together, whereby the weaving of the ribbons works and does not end up in a tangled mess, is a really wonderful thing to witness. The children feel satisfied as a collective, and there is an underlying understanding of the group consciousness, rather than the individual being the focal point. There are times when either is important, but to experience creating something with a sense of unity, is something that seems to happen less and less in our society. So, these experiences are important and enriching.
We have really been enjoying singing different scales each morning (Dorian, Ionic and harmonic minor scales such as the Hijaz mode). Some of the children have commented on how singing makes them feel ‘more awake,’ ‘like they can breathe properly’ and ‘happy.’ To find freedom in our voices, without self-judgement or criticism, really does allow a feeling of freedom to flow from the inside, out. I feel grateful to be teaching your children. They are such a mature, funny, wise, silly, loving, and caring group. I truly feel honoured to be with them in this context. They really do care about one another and the world.
Thank you to all the parents and caregivers who support them.
Sending you warm wishes for a happy and safe Spring holiday,
Julie and Meredith
PS, please return and swap readers for the holidays. Keep reading!
Please check lost property – there are lots of clothes, water bottles etc that have lost their owners.
Lastly, (a note for next term): please contact the school via the app, email or by calling if your child is absent or if you are planning to be away for a number of days. Thanks!
Class 5/6
For the final debate in our series, the students have been tasked with creating their own interest topics. Next week, Class 5 will debate ‘That children should walk to school’, and Class 6 ‘That it would be better to live in the country’. The challenge is to produce a team approach, speaking each for 2 minutes, with the inclusion of rebuttal for all speakers except those in the first affirmative role. They are doing so well at channeling their new faculties of critical thought into debate!
As we move toward the conclusion of our Australian State History Main Lesson, we have been looking at the Eureka Stockade and its implications for class structure, explorers, songlines and dual place names, and continuing to read from Bruce Pascoe’s Young Dark Emu – this week’s chapters have been on Food Storage, Fire and Sacred Places. In Term 4, Paul will take us on an excursion to places of Aboriginal significance around Dargan as an extension of this main lesson. Next week we will be planting the seeds for Term 4’s Astronomy Main Lesson.
In our Maths Practice Lessons, we have been looking at the order of operations. For Class 5, BODMAS is a new concept, and for Class 6 this is review. BODMAS is an acronym for the order of operations with which to tackle an equation: brackets, then orders (e.g., a squared number), division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction (working from left to right when the order is unclear of the four operations). We are seeing it as a ‘code’ which the students are enjoying breaking!
The first Class 5 cajons are complete, and the students are very much enjoying their work with Prem in learning to play both these and their pieces for the Spring festival next week. This week we have our final Taiko drumming workshop with Sayoko, where the students will enjoy reflecting on their final compositions. Thank you, Sayoko for your thoughtful and fun way of bringing this amazing Japanese cultural experience!
Below are some dates for your diary:
Wednesday, 20 September: Spring Festival
Term 4 important dates to be aware of:
- Excursion to Dargan Thursday, 19 October.
- Canberra camp: Monday, 6 to Thursday, 9 November (Week 5)
- Class 6 Farewell will be on Saturday, 9 December from 4.30pm
Wishing everyone a safe and restful term break.
Steph and Lee