Around the Primary Classes

Science Week

Kinder

We are scientists every day in Kinder!

Kindergarten students celebrated Science Week by learning about magnets and how some things stick, but other things don’t stick. We learnt that plants need water, soil, air, light and space. When we went on our Bush Kinder adventures, we went looking for fungi and bones.

Mavis’ dad is an Exercise Physiologist and taught us about our bones and muscles. We learnt that all living things are made of tiny cells and inside these cells are smaller cells called mitochondria. These cells use sugar, fat and oxygen to give us energy. The more we move, the more mitochondria we can make therefore creating more energy.

On our excursion to Macq01 Louise talked about a collection of fossils including the skeleton of a 1000 year old cave bear found in Russia.

Outside School Hours Care

To mark the Science Week, we have been doing lots of science inspired experiments  in OSHC. We created and enjoyed the rainbow volcano from vinegar, baking soda and food colouring. We also excitingly observed the water bottle rocket that went up in the sky from the built in of pressure from safe chemical reactions. We love fireworks in jar where we were curiously mixing different colours with water and oil solutions. It was a very fancy testing when we mix M&M’s and milk to see that solution turning into a rainbow. As little scientists, we explore, learn and understand different elements as well as process of science.

Book Week

Learning for Life

Our Birth to 5 years program, Learning for Life, got into the spirit of Book Week with the children coming along in their favourite dress-up.

Prep

As part of our Book Week celebrations the Primary classes decorate their doors in accordance with the year's Book Week theme. 

This year the theme was ‘Read, Grow, Inspire’. Preps had a think about the theme and what we could do for our door and we came up with The Lorax. Preps chose their favourite book from the library, we took a picture, placed it in their own decorated seed pod, they then used scrunched tissue paper to create their own truffula tree which are the trees in the Lorax. The theme centred around the quote:

“Maybe it's just one tiny seed, but it’s all we really need. It’s time to change the life we lead, it's time to 'Let it Grow”.  

Reading inspires students and helps their imaginations grow, Preps may be small but we can all make a difference. Preps had a great time creating their pieces of work for the door. 

Year 1

As a part of our Book Week cerebrations, Year 1 participated in Storytime online session with author/illustrator Jess Racklyeft. Jess spoke to us via Zoom from her home in Melbourne. She spoke about the journey of making her book Big Cat. She read us her book and walked us step by step through how she draws her cat characters. We all had a turn at drawing our own 'Big Cat.' We can't wait to use the tips Jess gave us in our free drawings.

Our Book Week door in Year 1 features a beanstalk weaving its way through the clouds representing growth and reaching for new heights. Each student drew their favourite book, which they are pictured with, sitting on a bean stalk leaf. The books are what inspire us to think, dream and grow. Reading takes you to new worlds.

Year 2

The Year 2 students, using the character strength of teamwork, worked together in pairs to create a design they would like to see on our classroom door for the Book Week “Decorate your Door” competition. 

Mrs Burrill decided whose design should be used.  We then incorporated elements from everybody’s design and created our final door design.

Students created and made the different elements  highlighting their interpretation of the theme read, grow, and inspire. These elements were then incorporated on the door display.

Year 3

We got into small groups and each group came up with an idea for the Book Week door display. The group that was chosen by Ms Green got to make the pot for the plant to represent 'Grow'. Everyone else contributed by making flowers, grass, clouds or designing bubble letters on the iPad. Then Mrs Burrill helped cut out a girl reading a book to represent 'Read'. Lastly for 'Inspire', we each made some leaves and wrote a sentence about books that inspire us or how reading inspires us. Some of us also made book butterflies and small books that we enjoyed reading.

Shanaya Prajit and Doris Jiang

Year 4

With every book we read we are growing and being inspired. This is some examples:

• Wolf Girl inspires me because it is about a girl not giving up and having hope. (Madeleine)
• Ollie’s Odyssey inspires me because it is about a long adventure and about being brave. (Mahi)
• My book is called The Princess in Black.  She is a princess who dresses up in black and saves goats. This might sound a bit silly but yes! It encourages me to help people. (April)
• Drama by Raina Telmeger is my book. Drama inspires me because it is how I decided to do acting and I just love the storyline. (Mila)
• All the Dr Suess books are inspiring because of their interesting way of using words and their messages within the story. (Sophie)
• A book called Sloths inspired me to like sloths and learn about them. (Ellie)
• A story that inspires me is a book about little red riding hood because she is thoughtful, kind and brave. (Aagya)
• The 65-Story Treehouse inspired me because it was funny.  It has made up words. (Ivy)
• The book Tilda Teaches inspires me because when I am older I want to be a teacher. (Violet)

Thank you to the authors and illustrators for their books.  Thank you to the libraries and librarians. Thank you to our parents and teachers for teaching us to read and listen. We love reading books.  We love to read independently and also love being read to.

Year 5 Navy

The 5 Navy Book Week door represents the way books inspireour imaginations to take flight when we are immersed in story.  They help our worlds grow in breadth as they carry us to different times and places.

The students also wrote book reviews, read prize winning literature and looked at the literary devices that were used to tell stories. As a follow-up, 5 Navy will deliver a talk on "The Book You Mustn't Miss".

Year 5 White

Read, Grow, Inspire

The students in 5 White took some time to think about the theme of Book Week. They all felt that we can all be inspired by the books we read and through this inspiration from books we can grow up to be whoever we want to be.

Year 6 Navy

Dr Seuss is a favourite of all the students in 6 Navy, so it was a no-brainer when coming up with a theme for our Book Week door. The students chose the Truffula trees to represent growth, Dr Seuss's creativity to represent 'inspire' and all Dr Seuss books make reading fun and enjoyable.

The tactile and sensory design of our creation was to make sure that everyone in the College is included in the fun of Book Week.

The students really loved the process in this project, each contributing wonderful ideas and supporting one another's creativity.

Year 6 White

6 White had a lot of creative ideas but in the end we chose a beanstalk as the theme for our Book Week door. We then we decided to add flowers, clouds, leaves and bugs, which we were all responsible for creating. We also had to choose a character that inspires us, so you will find all sorts of characters - from the Cat in the Hat to oompa-loompas to The Simpsons.

Sophie Haremza - 6 White