Junior School

Year 1

Over the last few weeks, we've been celebrating the special role mums play in our lives! The classroom has been filled with love as the students shared stories, made thoughtful cards, and baked delicious biscuits as a gift for their mums. We also had fun using our maths skills to count all the different ways our mums help us each day and the many ways they show us their love. It has been a beautiful opportunity to reflect on gratitude and family.

In other exciting news, we’re seeing wonderful progress in our reading! The students are growing in confidence and fluency, and it's a joy to see them engaging more deeply with books, sounding out words, and discussing stories with their classmates. We’re so proud of how far they’ve come!  A big thank you to all our parents for your continued support at home - it truly makes a difference!

Kerry Snook

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

We have had so many fun things happening in Year 2 recently! 

On Monday we put our Addition knowledge and skills into action as students engaged in a hands-on, inquiry based Cinema Maths Investigation! The cinema investigation provides real-life scenarios and contexts for students to problem solve and apply mathematical skills. Students rotated through three different stations/tasks, dressed in costumes for each station, and even got to enjoy some real cinema popcorn at the end!

Gideon Kabenge joined us on an excursion to the Warrnambool Community Garden as we learned more about Sustainability. Students toured the garden, learned about composting, different native plants, and fed some chickens!

We've played lots of maths games, investigated how sound travels to our ears (through feeling the vibrations when we speak into a balloon, and created obstacle courses as we practise putting different 'Openers' into sentences!

Alissa Griffin

Year 2 Teacher

Year 3

Year 3's had a very proud moment last week, performing our assembly item What Does the Fox Say? We rehearsed a lot and our hard work paid off, because we were absolutely amazing! We are sure that all of our parents were really proud of us, particularly as this is a really big deal for some of us - getting up on stage and performing in front of an auditorium! This was a great display of the Growth Mindset that we are working hard on building.

In our Literacy sessions, we have been practising our reading skills by doing some “Reader’s Theatre”. This is helping us to improve our reading fluency and practice using expression when we read.

In Numeracy, we have undertaken a maths investigation, practicing our measuring skills and then transferring our data into column graphs. It has been a lot of fun comparing the lengths of different parts of our bodies and finding out weird little things like our nose length is really similar to our ear length and our wrist circumference is similar to our hand span!

Ang Hales

Year 3 Teacher

Year 4

In Year 4 Christian Studies, students have been learning about the early judges and kings of Israel. In particular we have been focusing on Solomon and how he fulfilled the promise made to David, that one of David's sons would be the person to build God a temple.

This week we were blessed to have our very own resident Old Testament expert, Mr Tucker, come and speak about the tabernacle, Herrod's temple, and what historians think Solomon's temple may have looked like. Thank you Mr Tucker for all the amazing photos as well as the way you can make Old Testament history come alive! A special thank you for answering all the curly questions too! 

Here are some reflections from students:

Theo - I learned that only the high priest and the family line could enter and pack up the Holy of Holies. If anyone else entered they would die.

 

Mollie - I really enjoyed learning about what the Tabernacle and the Temple looked like and looking at the photos of the Tabernacle. It was interesting learning how they built it.

 

Maeve - I learnt that it wasn't David that built the temple. David asked though, but God said it would be his son. When Solomon was born God chose him so he made the temple. Once the temple was built, God's cloud entered it.

 

Rebecca P - I found it interesting that they built two houses for the Lord. One was the Tabernacle, the other was the Temple. There were also certain rules around packing up the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle had three layers of covering.

 

Alina - I learnt that if you go into the Holy of Holies and you were not the high priest you would die. Only the Levites could pack up the Tabernacle.

 

Alyra - I learnt David wanted to build a temple for the Lord but God said no. God said that his son Solomon would build it instead. Solomon was the third king of Israel.

Emily Hunter

Year 4 Teacher

Year 4/5

Year 4/5 have had a great few weeks. We have had fun in maths learning about transition of shapes such as translate, rotate and reflect. We have enjoyed creating our own versions of Pac Man and observing then recording the transitions made.

We also have been studying the book of Samuel in Christian Studies and made connections to God's forgiveness and faithfulness. We learned that David made some poor choices that lead to a domino effect of bad things happening in his life but he sought forgiveness and God was faithful and forgave David and restored his life. This is a beautiful connection to God's promise that he will never leave us or forsake us.

Naomi O'Brien

Year 4/5 Teacher

Year 6

Year 6 have a lot going on in their schedule at the moment. We've been preparing for our upcoming item, completing a Maths investigation, had visiting teachers and we are finalising our current Art project.

We have just completed a Maths Investigation. This is where we put the Maths lesson we have been learning to practical use. For this investigation we divided into small groups to design a Safari Park. We have used the lessons we've done on Multiplication and Division and Perimeter and Area to help us work out the enclosure sizes we need to have for 5 specific animals based on the requirements supplied from the Global Wildlife Foundation. 

The park size was in feet and we had to work out the scale of our grid paper based on the perimeter we decided on for the park. Our park had to be 50,000 squared meters. We had to decide how many of each animal we would have and the other facilities that we would include in our Safari Park like souvenier shops, animal hospitals etc. We have really enjoyed doing this investigation.

This week we enjoyed having two guests visit our classroom. The first one was Gideon Kabenge. We asked him questions about his school in Uganda and then he observed while we did a Language class. We also had a visiting teacher from Canada observe how we do our Maths and Language classes. We really enjoyed having both these visitors come to observe our class and we hope they felt welcome.

Our item for Assembly will be on May 30th. We don't want to give away what we are doing as we like it to be a surprise but we have been practising hard and we've even had a guest teacher coming in to help us with it. Here are some clues about it. We need rhythm, we have to work together although we have three distinct groups within the whole, and we have a "banging" good time doing it. We hope it's going to be really good and we'd love for you all to come and watch and listen to us if you're able to.

Year 6 is always lots of fun and very busy.

Coral Robertson

Year 6 Teacher

Gideon Program

What a blessing it has been to have Gideon Kabenge, Director of Ararat Christian School, sharing and teaching in the Junior Gideon class! He shared with us about his life in Uganda growing up as a child and then explained the stark difference in where God has placed him now. It was inspirational listening to how he looks after 76 orphaned children and also how they run their school day. 

Students in Gideon's school wake up very early in the morning to attend classes by 6:30am - the Junior Gideon students were shocked! Our Principal, Mr Rouse, asked the class if they knew why our class was named the Gideon class and if we knew the story of Gideon from the Bible. Gideon Kabenge explained to us the story of Gideon.

Gideon then went on to teach us a lesson in Luganda - the language that he speaks. 

We learned greetings, words of thank you, how to say 'how are you?' and even the names of some pets. Much to Gideon's surprise when a student asked about the word for an axolotl, described to Gideon as a fish with legs. 

It was most amusing for all when the students were asked to join in the 'Duck Song' led by Gideon. Students waddled across the class singing and 'crying out' like tiny ducklings. A memorable experience, most definitely.

Webale Gideon for joining our class for the morning!

A Word for Today Devotion:

‘Go in the strength you have ...’ (Judges 6:14 NIV)

 

The Bible says: ‘When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us?” … The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive”’ (Judges 6:12-16 NIV).

 

Do you feel fearful and inadequate? Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress (see Judges 6:11), afraid of the Midianites. Yet God called him a ‘mighty warrior’. God sees things in you that others don’t, that even you yourself don’t! Read these words carefully: ‘I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure”’ (Isaiah 46:9-10 NKJV).

 

God sees things in their completed state – including your ultimate victory. And today He is saying to you, ‘Go in the strength you have … Am I not sending you?’ (Judges 6:14) When God sends you, your success is guaranteed in spite of all the obstacles, the enemies, and all the limitations you are so aware of. If you’re unwilling to move until things ‘look better’, you won’t win. Start where you are and use what you have, then God will give you more.

Steph Kosh

Junior Gideon Teacher

LOTE

In LOTE Chinese classes, the Year 1 and Year 2 students have been reading the children's storybook Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in both English and Chinese. The students have been learning how to say some of the animals in Chinese and how to write the Chinese characters for animals such as Cat and Dog.

Anna Chen

LOTE Teacher

Food Tech

This week in Food Tech, our students put their cooking skills to the test by whipping up some delicious pancakes! From measuring and mixing to flipping and plating, they did a fantastic job - and the results were definitely mouth-watering.

With Mother’s Day just past, we’re hoping some lucky mums and carers were treated to breakfast in bed over the weekend, complete with homemade pancakes and lots of love.

It’s been wonderful to see students growing in confidence in the kitchen and learning skills they can take home to share with their families.

Ally Robinson

Teacher