Learning and Teaching

Green Team News

On Friday, 24th May, the Green Team enjoyed the lovely autumn weather in Brendan’s Garden. As the Year 5/6 team members were involved in a sports afternoon and couldn’t join us in the garden, some of the Year 4 students stepped up to assist the younger students in the garden. A big thank you to Maddi Scott and Hudson Kohn for displaying excellent leadership skills and being so enthusiastic.

The tasks the team completed on Friday were planting bulbs and also planting some seedlings for our winter crops. The students learnt about bulbs and their life cycle. Each student planted 2 daffodil bulbs, focusing on placing the bulb in the ground correctly and covering it with soil and mulch. The students were fascinated to learn that a dried bulb could come back to life in the ground and produce leaves and even a flower in winter and spring. We are hoping to be able to pick a bunch of daffodils to be placed in the office in spring.

With only a week left until winter, we agreed that it was time to pull out the tomatoes and plant some winter producing seedlings. The students planted broad beans, broccoli and cauliflower. We watered the seedlings in as the ground was quite dry and no rain was forecast for the weekend. Mrs Coggin placed some ‘Blood and Bone’ around all the new seedlings in the hope that the bunnies wouldn't snack on them. We felt pleased with our hard work in Brendan’s Garden and can’t wait to see our winter crops grow.

Isea icare Workshop 2

On Thursday, 23rd May, the isea icare Marine Ambassadors participated in their second workshop titled ‘Peer Teaching’.

Marine Ambassadors from Penbank, Balcombe Primary School, Somers Primary School and Mornington Park Primary School joined us at St Brendan’s. It was great to meet all the Ambassadors from the other schools and to have the opportunity to learn how to educate others in our school.

The focus of the morning session was informing the Ambassadors about what they would be teaching. They learnt about some of the interesting sea creatures found in our bays, the adaptations they have developed to help them survive and also what they eat. These were some of the creatures we learnt about; Australian Fur Seal, Decorated Crab, Eagle Ray, Eleven Armed Sea Star and Moon Snail eggs. They also looked at things we might find on the beach and these included sea glass, a fan sponge, a shell with a hole in it and a plastic bottle. The following activity was focusing on pollution in oceans and how this can be very harmful for dolphins, as well as other sea creatures. They discussed how rubbish ends up in the ocean and ways they can prevent this from happening. The final activity was about straws and balloons and they talked about alternative things they can use so they don’t end up in our oceans.

After recess, it was the Ambassadors’ turn to teach the Year 1/2 students about all the things they had learnt. Most of the Ambassadors felt nervous about speaking in front of an audience, but they were well prepared and all of them spoke clearly and confidently. I was extremely proud of each Ambassador, they all did an amazing job! At the end of the presentation, the Year 1/2 students did not want to leave. They had loved it so much.