Specialist News

S.T.E.M 

STEM or 2024 has already started with some major changes. We have a new area for lessons (being called the STEM portable until we vote on better name) which is the double portable closest to Derby St. One room is being used for experiments, written work and planning the science investigations. The second room is being used for building, creating and testing designs. Later in the year - this room will also host our Robot Games. I have attached some photos of the spaces at the bottom of this article.

This term,  the major focus of our units of work will be leaning towards the chemistry side of Science. The Preps will be investigating the properties of different materials. The Grade 1s are building on their knowledge from last year and will run some experiments on transferable changes  and non transferable changes to items. The grade 2 are starting a brand new unit of work all around the wonders of water - this will hopefully be linked into a sustainability unit in Term 2.  The senior grades of the school (Grades 3-4 and Grades 5-6) will be looking at chemical change and Liquids, solids, gases and other states of matter (non newtonian fluids, plasmas etc). They will also begin their units of work on coding earlier this year which approximately 2 weeks a term covering cybersafety and coding allowing us more time in Term 3 to cover robotics and circuits.

Upcoming Terms:-

Term 2 - Sustainability, our Planet and our solar system

Term 3 - Robots, circuits and technology

Term 4 - Living things - plants, animals and the systems of the human body.

I have attached just some photos of work we have completed so far this term. We have our growing water word display from grade 2 and our experiment to make water walk between cups creating a beautiful rainbow design. There are wooden block builds from our preps, and Lego builds from grade 1 and grade 2. In my next newsletter update, I hope to be able to show the photos from the Prep straw investigation,  the grade 3-4s designs of their cooling lunchboxes and  the Hot Air Balloon designs from Grade 5 -6.

Lastly, the STEM room is always taking donations. We are always in the need for the easily donated items such as cardboard cereal boxes or smaller and paper towel rolls. However we also love plastic plates, any type of straws, rubber bands, old material, wooden blocks etc. Any donations can be left in the tubs by the library or just outside the STEM portable.

Thank you.

Stephen Lytton, Dr Stem, STEM Specialist.

ART

Our featured artist for this term is Friedenreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) who was an Austrian artist. Friedensreich Hundertwasser's art is distinguished by dynamic, organic lines and vibrant, unconventional colours. His use of bold, harmonious hues reflects a celebration of individuality and a profound connection to nature, creating visually captivating and emotionally resonant works. He rejected straight lines and embraced irregular and undulating forms creating a sense of vitality and freedom.

In Art, practicing drawing straight lines can improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, enhancing overall handwriting precision. This fundamental exercise helps develop control, steadiness, and muscle memory, The ART lessons this term focuses on Pencil control allowing the students to control their pencil rather than the pencil controlling them.

As we progress further in this term and term two these hand co-ordination skills will enable the students to have control over their paint brushes as we will delve into the wonderful world of painting.

Preps this term are focusing on the colour wheel, learning how primary colours mixed make secondary and tertiary colours. Grade 1’s are learning complementary, warm and cool colours. Grade 2’s Art through the ages starting with ancient Egypt and Ancient Roman Mosaic Art. Grade 3 / 4 will learn pencil control. Ancient Art works starting with Egyptian, followed by Ancient Roman by drawing the Colosseum. Grade 5 / 6’s are also learning pencil control. These exercises in pencil control will help to develop the control that the students will need when we start our “Learn To Paint” sessions. By term 2 the 5 / 6’s will have learnt brush control and will start to paint landscapes by Terms 2 featured Artist "Bob Ross".

“Student Voices”

Harlan 2A          “Art is fantastic, exciting and creative”.

Indara 2A           “Art is the colours of the rainbow”.

Matin 3/4E        “Art can help us learn from our mistakes”.

Radwan 3/4E    “Art is fantastic because of the beautiful things we make”.

Sadhbh 3/4E     “Turn your mistakes into something new”.

Grade 1 B            "We love Art".

Music