TREE

Junior School TREE update

Despite the wild and woolly weather we have been experiencing lately, the Junior School remains committed to contextual learning experiences within our school and local community. 

Orange Regional Museum 

This year, the Junior School has made several visits to the museum, which is dedicated to learning programs related to the geography and history of the Central West region. Kindergarten and Year 1 have participated in workshops exploring families past and present. Year 3 and 4 have learned about the diversity of backgrounds and experiences who have made the Central West home in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and next week, Year 5 will be visiting the museum to build a telescope and visit their new astronomy exhibition as part of the Science Week celebrations.

100 days of Kindy

Last week marked a very special time for Kindergarten, celebrating their first 100 days of school. They enjoyed a tea party at school and explored numbers up to 100 in a variety of ways. The TREE team was delighted to add to the celebrations with a trip to Windermere to plant 100 flowers and our Senior School Hospitality students baking 100 cupcakes for students and guests to enjoy. 

Junior School Sensory Garden

Last year, Mrs Bernie Sharpe entered a competition with Woolworths on behalf of KWS Junior School. She received a $1500 grant to build a beautiful sensory garden which will join onto our playground equipment. Last year students in Year 6 worked with Source Architects to come up with a design, and this week we asked a small group of students from Year 6 to take their maths lesson to Bunnings and manage our budget for purchasing plants and decorations. 

They have selected a range of plants and decorations which are colourful, interesting to touch and smell. It will also feature a play shop front area and comfortable café seating! We can’t wait to show the finished garden which will be ready in time for Spring.

OzHarvest

Year 5 are participating in the OzHarvest FEAST program this term. The program promotes healthy eating and aims to encourage a sustainable future and reduce food wastage. Year 5 students followed guided recipes to make delicious meals to share. They finished the program by designing their own meals to make for family and friends.

Wellington Caves

As part of their Science and Technology studies this term, Year 4 participated in a very engaging trip to Wellington Caves to learn about rocks and minerals.

Three new things I learned at Wellington Caves

• That the Altar in the Cathedral Cave is a 15 meter tall stalagmite.
• That Cathedral Cave was once used as a chapel and the bible is still on the Alter, ever so slowly crystalising.
• That geologists found megafauna skeletons in Wellington Caves – Nixie Widauer

Two things that surprised me were:

• That about 5000 years ago, Wellington Caves was actually underwater!
• We saw the skeleton of a Megafauna wombat called a Diprotodon. It was 2 meters tall and 5 meters long! – Charlotte Gurr

One thing I would still like to learn about is how caves manage to hold their shape without collapsing.  – Joshua Leung