Specialists Updates and Celebrations

Music

In the first 3 weeks of Term 3 our Prep Music Program theme is “Tempo”. Our Prep students are learning that tempo is, “the speed of the beat”. We have been engaging in activities centred around building our understanding and skills in tempo. This involves singing and playing instruments with various songs and games. We are using the correct music language of “Largo” for slow, “moderato” for moderate and “presto” for fast.

We are also learning a new independently student played feature song on the marimbas. We are learning that playing slowly is the best tempo to learn something new with, then we increase the tempo gradually as it becomes easier.

Physical Education

The Years 1 and 2 students have had a fabulous start to Term 3. We have kicked off this term with dancing to foster creativity and expression. Dance allows students to practice their Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS), such as, balance, coordination, and rhythm. These all play a crucial role in your child’s physical development. I am incredibly proud of the efforts displayed across the year levels. We will be continuing Dance this term as well as starting Basketball in Week 3. Keep up the fantastic work and let’s dance our way to success! 

Visual Arts

The Years 3 and 4 students enjoyed completing the landscape mosaics that they began last week. First, we focused on each word. We discussed how Landscape Art is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers and forests. Mosaic Art is the creation of patterns or pictures using small pieces of materials such as paper, clay, marble, glass, tiles or stones. Our focus was paper mosaics. The students had so much fun developing their landscape mosaics and were sharpening their skills so that, later in the term, we can create our own tile mosaics! Fantastic work everyone!

Digital Technologies

In Years 5 and 6 we have continued the important topic of Cyber Safety by understanding device expectations through our SMPS E-Learning Policy. Students engaged in deep discussions and sought clarification around new and exsisting rules. They used the web-based app Canva to create informative and eye-catching posters based an expectation of choice. I look forward to showcasing these poster around the school to help support our community to be responsible digital citizens.

Library

Term 2 Library Highlights

During Term 2 we added a total of 786 new books to SMPS! 250 for the school library, 489 for the classroom libraries and 47 teacher resources. 

In Term 2, Years 1 to 6 visited the library every week. During these sessions 2,035 library books were circulated. Classes with the most books borrowed were: 

The top borrowers for Years 2 – 6 were:

The most popular books were:

 A HUGE thank you to the parent volunteers who have helped in the library during Term 2. Together they covered 461 books in contact to protect the new books for use in the library and classroom libraries.