Primary Specialists
Prep Art
In alignment with the Prep's final inquiry, students have spent the past two weeks practicing each of the eight 3D paper techniques. Building on this foundation, they selected a journey that sparked their imagination and used only 3D paper techniques to bring it to life. It has been incredible to watch them apply their new skills in crafting their sculptures. The creativity they displayed was truly impressive. I couldn’t be prouder of their efforts. Well done, Preps!
Grade 1 & 2 Art
🎨 Grades 1 & 2 Art Adventures -
Weeks 3 & 4
Week 3: Blooming with Yayoi Kusama 🌸Our little artists joined forces to create a colourful, collaborative blossom masterpiece inspired by Yayoi Kusama! Dots, patterns, and teamwork made our classroom walls come alive.
Week 4: Spooky Swirls & Halloween Scenes 👻✨In the lead-up to Halloween, students explored Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Van Gogh’s Starry Night. They drew, cut out, or coloured spooky haunted house images for collage,
and used pastel crayons, markers, or pencils to create swirling skies and eerie Halloween scenes full of bold colours and movement.
It was fantastic to see their creativity, confidence, and teamwork shine through in every piece!
Grade 3 & 4 Art
Over the past two weeks in Art, students have been exploring Diwali – the Celebration of Lights. We discussed the significance of this vibrant festival and the many traditions that accompany it. Students were particularly inspired by the beautifully decorated sweets that are shared during Diwali, using these as inspiration to create detailed drawings that celebrate colour, pattern, and cultural expression.
In Week 4, students continued developing their work from earlier in the term, turning their attention to colour and how it can communicate emotion and influence mood. Through guided discussions and creative exercises, students experimented with colour choices to express different feelings and ideas within their artworks, deepening their understanding of how artists use colour symbolically to connect with viewers.
Media Art with Mr Howarth
In Media, students take skills learned in prior lessons and apply them to new tasks. In particular, we have been focusing on:
Prep: The Prep students have been exploring their feelings and what they look like, sound like, and feel like, and taking photos to demonstrate them.
Year One: In Year One, we explore how stories have been told over time through the lens of Dreamtime Stories. We have explored how stories have survived for thousands of years through oral retelling, music, dance, cave paintings, etc.
Year Two: We continue exploring different shot types in the yard and working with partners. Currently, we are exploring medium and long shots.
Year Three: In Year Three, we use our photography skills to represent different areas of our school and present them using programs like PowerPoint.
Year Four: We continue analysing Thalu to explore Aboriginal history. This has included the history of stockmen in Australia and Aboriginal sporting icons.
Year Five: In Year Five, we are exploring the evolution of media over time. To begin, we have examined animation and video games.
Year Six: Students are making connections between Media and Music in areas like film.
Mandarin with Miss Xiong and Miss Qiao
For Mandarin this term, students have continued developing their skills and confidence in learning the Chinese language through engaging songs, gestures, writing practice, and interactive activities. Our learning continues to follow the Accelerative Integrated Methodology (AIM) approach, which combines actions, visuals, and repetition to support students in both understanding and communicating in Mandarin. This method helps students connect meaning, pronunciation, and writing in a fun and memorable way while exploring elements of Chinese culture.
Prep
Prep students have been learning about family members in Mandarin. They used lively hand gestures to help remember the key words such as “māma” (mum), “bàba” (dad), and “jiějie” (older sister). Through the Family Members Song and online matching activities, students practised recognising, saying, and connecting Chinese words with pictures. They enjoyed acting out family roles in class, which encouraged them to use Mandarin naturally while playing and singing.
Year 1–2
Year 1 and 2 students explored colours and revised numbers in Mandarin. They worked on a numbers and colours worksheet, combining both concepts to strengthen their vocabulary and sentence-building skills. Students also practised basic Pinyin writing, focusing on tone marks and correct spelling. Through songs, classroom games, and short conversations, they learned to ask and answer simple questions such as “What colour is this?” and “I like red.” Many students have shown great improvement in pronunciation and confidence when speaking Mandarin aloud.
Year 3–4
Year 3 and 4 students have been learning about family members in greater depth. They focused on recognising and writing key vocabulary such as māma (mum), bàba (dad), gēge (older brother), and mèimei (younger sister). Students completed Chinese character tracing sheets to practise correct stroke order and improve their handwriting. They also created their own Little Book of My Family, illustrating and labelling each family member in Chinese. This activity encouraged both creativity and visual learning, helping students build stronger recognition of Chinese characters and connect words to their meanings in context.
Year 5–6
Year 5 and 6 students focused on the topic of pets. They learned to name and describe a range of animals and practised expressing their preferences using full sentences — for example, “I have a cat” or “I like dogs.” Students participated in listening, matching, and writing activities to reinforce new vocabulary and sentence structures. Through these tasks, they strengthened all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Many students demonstrated curiosity and growing independence in using Mandarin to describe their own experiences.
Overall, students have shown wonderful engagement, creativity, and progress in their learning. We are very proud of their achievements and look forward to continuing our Mandarin journey together.
Spanish
¡Hola familias!
Our Spanish learners have been busy this term continuing to explore the language and culture of Spanish-speaking countries. In the lower levels, students are revising familiar Spanish phrases and greetings while learning to describe the weather and the seasons of the year. They are also discovering how different Spanish-speaking countries celebrate important cultural events, making wonderful connections between language and culture.
Students in Grades 3 and 4 have been working collaboratively in group activities and using ICT tools to research Spanish-speaking countries and their unique traditions. Their curiosity and teamwork have helped them gain a deeper understanding of how language reflects culture and identity.
In Grades 5 and 6, students are practising conversations in Spanish and learning to apply basic grammar in both written and spoken tasks. They are also developing their reading and writing skills through short texts and interactive class activities designed to build confidence and fluency.
We are so proud of our students’ enthusiasm and ongoing progress in learning Spanish. ¡Excelente trabajo a todos nuestros aprendices de español!
All the best,The Spanish Team
P.E. News
It’s been an exciting start to the term in P.E.!
Grades Prep–2: Students have been working on refining their throwing and catching techniques through a range of fun games and activities.
Grades 3–6: Students have been developing their cricket skills, focusing on their two-handed strike. It’s been great to see everyone enjoying the sunshine and fresh air down at Brookdale Reserve!
Regional Athletics: Last week, 15 amazing students represented Saltwater at the Regional Athletics held at Keilor Athletics Track. All students gave their best efforts, and we are incredibly proud of their achievements. A special congratulations to our medal winners — Jasmine C (Grade 4), Zoey (Grade 3), and Fernando R (Grade 6)!
Even more exciting — Zoey and Fernando have qualified for the State Championships! What an incredible achievement — we wish them both the best of luck as they represent Saltwater at the next level.
Grade 6 Sport:
Well done to the Grade 6 boys’ basketball team for making it to the divisional stage. The boys fought hard and came so close to progressing even further!
A big congratulations also to our softball team for their fantastic effort at the regional stage, and best of luck to our volleyball team who will be competing at regionals this Friday. We know you’ll make us proud no matter the result!
DANCE.
Wakakirri…..(Dance)
Our Wakakirri dancers have once again represented Saltwater College at a high standard, with another high energy performance at last weeks Secondary Campus Ted Talk presentation. Our students were asked to close last weeks seminar and perform their national award winning Wakakirri showcase titled “Full Circle”. Due to the huge cast we have in Wakakirri, we had to make a few changes within the routine to accommodate for the new school stage and sizing. Everyone did an amazing job working around this while only 30mins tech rehearsals to make it all happen.
Throughout this year our Wakakirri dancers have learnt the importance of teamwork, goal setting, and being patient yet professional in our approach to achieving our goals, which helped immensely in such a short, yet jam packed day. The reviews from their performance have been amazing and so positive, and have been a great reflection on all they have achieved. This week we have also recorded our Christmas Carol for this year which is “We Need A Little Christmas” by Johnny Mathis, and have begun our rehearsals to start putting their routine together. This will be another fun performance we look forward to sharing with you all soon!
VSSS…..(Dance)
Our Victorian State School Spectacular dancers have also been back in the studio this week as they recorded their Christmas carol titled “Underneath The Tree” by Kelly Clarkson. The students have also had a little head start with their carol rehearsals and are doing an amazing job with the routine they have created so far! This year for the first time our VSSS dancers will be performing seperate to our Wakakirri cast at carols, giving us two great performances by our representative groups.
We also say a huge Thank You and farewell as we say good bye to Hunter Kusters who has been an important part of our VSSS cast and journey for the last 3 years. Hunter began his VSSS journey in Year 6 in 2023, and has gone on to be a senior member in our Saltwater College team over the last few years. We will miss his great positive energy, team work, enthusiasm, sense of humour, and care for his fellow cast members, and we wish him every bit of happiness and success on his new journey ahead! Thank you for being a part of Saltwater College and our VSSS cast Hunter, and we hope to see you shining up on stage again soon!
