Primary School

Classroom News

Last week students enjoyed celebrating NAIDOC Week through a variety of engaging learning-experiences and activities. Students in Years Three to Six were treated to a whole-school assembly featuring the talented Moorditj Nop Noongar Dancers, helping us celebrate this year's theme, ‘50 Years of Deadly’. Throughout the week, students participated in classroom and lunchtime activities, culminating in a fun and challenging NAIDOC-themed Mathematics House Relay. You can read more about the relay below. We hope you enjoy reading what our classes have been up to this week.

Djinda

Watching all our Djinda friends return on Thursday and Friday with rock star smiles, stories to share and excitement to play made for a terrific start to Term Three; we really do have the best job in the world. The beautiful winter weather has seen us dip our gum boots into the harbour, listen to nature, explore with our eyes and hands, carefully turn over rocks looking for little crabs. Upon return to the classroom, we were delighted to learn many stars of Djinda can now put their shoes on independently, for which we all jumped for joy, and sang and did our happy dance.

Kindergarten

This week in Kindergarten we loved learning about the letter ‘Rr’. We made ‘racing robots’ which was lots of fun. We began our Talk for Writing, focusing on the story Commotion in the Ocean. Creating the actions for different ocean animals was great fun. We really enjoyed getting out to the Wild Space this week. The tide was high and had a 'funny slick’ that sparked curiosity amongst the children.

Pre-Primary

This week Pre-Primary celebrated their first 100 Days of School! On Monday the children dressed as 100-year-olds, with grey hair, walking sticks and glasses galore. We wondered and theorised about the future: What will we do when we are 100? We might eat cake or chocolate; we might go to the bakery or jewellery store or even meet up with our grandchildren. We tested how long 100 seconds is and completed lots of learning about 100. It was such a fun celebration of our hard work so far in Pre-Primary.

Year One

Year One has been busy with lots of exciting learning this term! In Geography, we have begun creating our information booklets as part of our inquiry into Where We Are in the World, exploring our place in the local community and beyond. In Mathematics, we have been building confidence in counting by 10s, using a variety of hands-on activities to strengthen our number skills. During Digital Technologies, we have been designing online safety posters, learning how to stay safe, kind, and responsible when using technology. We have loved spending time learning with Mrs Hitsert and Mrs Sandison and are so grateful for all they have done. We are also very much looking forward to welcoming Mrs Gouldthorp back to the classroom!

Year Two

Last week saw the Year Two classes investigating and collecting data to graph. We played lots of games that helped us collect data on different topics, worked on different ways to display our collected data and even had a go at interpreting it and answering some tricky questions! We have also begun our Term Three inquiry, focusing on Our Place in Space as we investigate where we are in the world, asking inquisitive questions about Planet Earth and Space and wondering about all the exciting things we might see from a spaceship window! We are super excited to see where all our questions take us.

Year Three

This week we completed an ice cube investigation as part of our Science inquiry unit. Students were required to make a scientific prediction about what would happen to an ice cube when it was placed in their hands. They then used their understanding of heat energy and energy transfer to explain the changes they observed during the investigation. In Writing we are continuing to learn our model text, No Elephants on Buses, and have begun scaffolding the structure of an information report. Students are developing their understanding of how information reports are organised and the language features used to present factual information clearly and effectively.

Year Four

All our students are finally back from their fact-finding missions across the globe and ready to share their insights about diverse communities with the Year Four classes. Conversations about how to design products, services and environments that meet community needs are further fuelled by Madame Krier’s investigations into global schoolbags, Zayne’s international investigation into water use practices and Pippa’s investigation of the varying needs of animal-control officers across Australia. On a more rhetorical level, we have been able to imagine how communities are/should be run within the context of our mythical class novel, Rowan of Rin. So, if you notice Albany subtly becoming a better place to live in, that is probably us Year Four students putting our knowledge into practice.

Year Five

If you could invite six people from Australia’s past to your dinner party, who would they be? How would you choose the categories? Perhaps two from the world of politics, a couple of agrarian or engineering pioneers, a First Nations leader maybe or perhaps just to spice things up ... a bush ranger. Well, we have been postulating such challenging scenarios in our Year Five History and inquiry lessons. Students considered how we group historical figures. Do we do it by date of birth, field of employment, emphatic moustache or lack thereof? The results ultimately lead us to look at histories bad boys, the embodiment of the Australian spirit ... the bush ranger.

Year Six

This week in Year Six we explored the wonderful grounds we are so lucky to have at our learning disposal. We spent some time on the grassy knoll trying to ignite our creative sides in writing. In Science, we have begun looking at our whole-class investigation using bread and different environments which will enhance the growth of mould.

Learning Enrichment

This term, our Stretch and Challenge Mathematics focus is multiplication. Students sat the placement test last week and began their rotations with their assigned groups and teachers this week. We thank Mrs Linda O’Keeffe and Ms Meg Ritchie who always spend the start of the term placement testing students for MiniLit and MacqLIT reading groups.

Congratulations to our seven-strong team entering Tournament of Minds this term. They will spend the next six weeks preparing for the judging of the long-term challenge and prepping for the spontaneous challenge. Judges from Perth will come down in Week Six to see their masterpiece, performance and challenge solution. Grace Henry, Lilly Taylor, Brodie Pyle, Loki Henderson, Taylah Gent, Maggie Skeet and Zyana Prasad have chosen the STEM challenge and will be spending the next six weeks channelling their creative, enterprise, teamwork and problem-solving skills with this project under the guidance of Ms Gracie Laneaux-Neale.

ECC Briefing

The following superstars have worked exceptionally well and received a Star Award for their outstanding efforts.

Kindergarten A: Wesley Pyle

Kindergarten B: Kiana Jensen

Pre-Primary A: Maisey Nairn

Pre-Primary B: Pearl Hobbs

Year One: Sylvia Lines

Year Two A: Freya Standish

Year Two B: Joey Sapstead

Primary School Briefing

Students have been focusing on the value of Integrity this past week. Well done to the following students who stood out within their classrooms:

Year Three: Emily Hicks

Year Four: Harry Vesey and Imogen Yap

Year Five: Katrien Lambrechts and Stephanie Forgus

Year Six: Edward Yeboah and Lilly Taylor

Brag Award – Classroom Cleanliness!

Congratulations to Year Three who took out the Brag Award this week.

House Mathematics Relay Results

On Friday our annual Mathematics Relay took place, testing each House on their Mathematics skills with a NAIDOC Week theme. The lead changed hands many times! In Year One, Camfield was given the early lead by Alfie and Charlie, closely followed by Eric for Baudin. Year Two had a tricky challenge and Wilson burst out first to take the baton to Year Three. Lucie and Athena got Baudin to a head start taking the baton to Year Four in record time. The head start served them well and Baudin was in Year Five before the last baton made it to Year Four. Wilson came out first from Year Five and although Blake solved the riddle in record time for Mokare, it was Wilson who were first to hoist their flag.

1st Wilson

2nd Mokare

3rd Camfield

4th Baudin