Around the Junior School
Pre-Kinder | Year 4 History | Freya Blackwood | Book Week | Term 3 Technology Showcase | K-6 Parent Numeracy Workshop | Merit Awards | Haiku Poem
Around the Junior School
Pre-Kinder | Year 4 History | Freya Blackwood | Book Week | Term 3 Technology Showcase | K-6 Parent Numeracy Workshop | Merit Awards | Haiku Poem
Excitement, colour, characters and fun. Our Book week celebrations were amazing. Super heroes, witches, a unicorn and a cat in a hat. Well done Pre-Kinder.
Year 4 are studying First Fleet and its arrival in History this term. This week 4A have been empathising with the experiences of the convicts aboard the ships of the First Fleet, in particular what it would have been like to be stuck below deck with hundreds of other people. We ruled out the approximate size of the beds of the convicts and tried to make ourselves fit- they were so cramped! Anna and Josh played the role of Generals and bossed the convicts around. It was a great way to get in the shoes of a convict but we were glad to return to our clean and warm classroom!
As part of our Book Week Celebrations, children in the Junior School were so fortunate to have award-winning illustrator and storyteller Freya Blackwood for a session on Wednesday 24th of August. Freya has illustrated around 30 children’s picture books and has been a winner of the CBCA categories in the past. This year, her wordless picture book, “The Boy and the Elephant” was shortlisted for the CBCA Children’s Picture Book of the Year. The students viewed Freya’s clever illustrations whilst listening to Zoe Barry play the cello. Some classes even put their own words to her drawings. The book reminds us of the world we live in and our ability to change it. The boy lives in a city, where everything is fast and loud. But amidst the bustle and the noise, the boy has a secret ...In the overgrown lot next to his apartment building, deep within the green, he has a friend.But one day progress arrives, bringing with it plans for something new, and the boy must find a way to save his friend before it's too late...
The children were mesmerised by Freya’s stories and her ability to draw on the whiteboard and asked plenty of questions. Many students ran out of her session to find one of her books to borrow for the week.
The library was a hive of activity on Friday 26th August as the children in the Junior School paraded their costumes for Book Week and then participated in a team quiz Kahoot. The theme for Book Week this year was Dreaming with Eyes Open and students were asked to come dressed as a character who encapsulates the theme, holding the book or a photocopy of the cover that their character is from. Some children didn’t know the characters that students had chosen to dress up as which stimulated many conversations and interest in reading the selected books. As Sam Adetifa in Year 5 said, “It is the whole point of Book Week, it is part of fun.” It is such a great opportunity for children to share what they are reading and to find out about other great books to read.
The Junior School staff and the Senior School English teachers chose to come as a character from Harry Potter to celebrate 25 years since JK Rowling the first Harry Potter book was published. Did you know that it is 21 years since the first film was made? The children were so fortunate to have such a large group of parents as their audience as they braved the catwalk to music. They then joined a group within their House to contribute to a quiz about books they had recently studied during their library lessons. This meant that everyone in the group had a chance to answer a question. Each year group has studied specific short-listed CBCA books. In other words, only the Kindergarten children could answer the questions on the books they had studied. The noise level rose and the organised chaos continued as the 24 teams battled it out for the top position on the podium. Congratulations to Brown House 1 who gained the top prize of 100 house points. I’m guessing they only got the Kindergarten questions wrong as unfortunately their Kindergarten team player was away on the day. The question that only 9% of students knew the answer to was the colour of the library’s circulation desk. To be fair, it was a trick question as the children had to read the colour name rather than select the colour!
It was a lovely finish to Book Week and the children were all engaged.
Keep Reading!
From the Library Team
Results from the Book Week Kahoot/Quiz
1st place – 100 House Points Brown 1
Captain - Georgie Simpson
Members:
Aari Poole (Year 5)
Crispin Downs (Year 4)
James Robson (Year 3)
Edith Triggs (year 2)
Aedan Hunnam (Year 2)
Amelia Canning (Year 1)
2nd place – 50 House Points – Gordon 2
Captain – Jude Jansen
Members:
Harriet King (Year 5)
Lachie Turnbull (Year 5)
Harriet Johnston (Year 4)
Digby McGee (Year 3)
Joshua Westcott (year 3)
Sophie Kerdic (Year 2)
Henry Devjak (Year 1)
Darby Mullins (K)
Louis Zhang (K)
3rd place – 25 House Points – Douglas 6
Captains – Aurora Everett and Will Stratton
Jimmy Jones (Year 5)
Prayan Dulal (Year 4)
Nicos Cassimaty (Year 3)
Eddie Chapman (Year 2)
Henry Devjak (Year 1)
Poppy Fardell (K)
Sam Akerstrom (K)
Save the date for our Term 3 Technology Showcase on Wednesday 21 September. Year 1 students will share their Stop Motion Animation films, as part of the Storybook component of their InitiaLit program. Join Year 2 for a tour around the Pacific when they reveal their final project for their Geography unit this term ‘Where In The World’. In groups they are working on designing an Oceania Cruise visiting our pacific neighbours, involving the Ozobots, Canva and moviemaking skills. Year 6 have been game designers this term, bringing together their computational thinking ability and coding skills to create an arcade game. Bring along your phones so that you can access their theme song developed in GarageBand during Music, and play their game by scanning the QR codes on their posters.
Mrs Muriel Fatai
JS Leader of Technology and Innovation
Presenter: Fiona Walker from the AIS
Hosted by: Mrs Hayward and Mrs Milliken
Last night a number of Junior School parents joined us in The Glasshouse to learn how they can further support their child in number skills at home. We also spoke about the exciting professional learning that our Junior School teachers have been participating in this year to strengthen student engagement in mathematics.
K Paddington
K Caterpillar
1 Elmer
2 Alcott
2 Barty
3 Curious Creatures
3 Volcanics
4 Attenborough
4 Phillip Parker King
5 Irwin
5 Watson
6 Goodes
6 Mabo
Dawn on the Kinross oval
Kinross has green roots
Each day is a brand-new day
Old tree history
Green are the new shoots
Dawn frost climbs the naked trees
Grass is always green
By Zach Stacpoole