Positive Climate for Learning
Grade 3-4 Learning Community
In Inquiry our 3/4 students have been exploring the question ‘What’s out there?’ where students have been learning about space, seasons and the world around us. In Math we have been extending our knowledge of informal and formal units of measurement.
On a bright sunny day, we completed a STEM task where we traced our shadows, used different ways to measure our shadows and made predictions about possible changes during the day as the sun moved across the sky. Our students found that the Sun’s position in the sky affects the length of the shadow. When the Sun is low on the horizon, the shadows are long. When the Sun is high in the sky, the shadows are much shorter.
Our 3/4’s made some powerful observations and links to space through this task, identifying that it is actually the Earth is spinning (rotating on its axis) so it is our view of the Sun in the sky that changes during each 24-hour cycle of light and dark, thus changing the size of our shadows. We challenge you to head outside on a sunny day and see if your shadow changes!
Visual Art
The Art room has been a hive of activity with students at work creating an assortment of masterpieces.
The secondary students have been exploring blending techniques creating an outta this world solar system piece. They have experimented with finger and baby oil blending with oil pastels and used a variety of tools to crate the splatter effect for the galaxy background.
In the 5/6 space students have been working on developing their own individual portfolios, developing choice base pieces. Skateboards and canvases have been hot ticket items but balsa wood sculpture making has really sparked some creative interest this term.
The 3/4s have been exploring the work of Pete Cromer a local artist and creating painted papers to collage their own animal portraits to reflect his unique Australiana style.
The 1/2s have been preparing for this year’s art show creating a wide range of artworks from 3D portraits that pop out of the frame to paper plate weaving and collaborate pieces to share with you all at the event.
The Paris and Erin’s Prep groups have also been creating collaborative works for the art show, theirs however have been under pinned by learning around both Monet and the water lilies and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These pieces are a bit of fun as they have explored mixed media and relief art making.
Physical Education
Prep
This term, the preps have been working on Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS): throwing, catching and bouncing. This week in class, the preps really enjoyed playing ‘Traffic Light Basketball’ and challenging themselves with various bounce skills in a bounce challenge. There were four levels in the challenge;
Level 1: bounce and catch
Level 2: bounce, clap and catch
Level 3: two handed continuous bouncing
Level 4: one handed continuous bouncing.
Some of the preps have been working really hard at improving their one handed bouncing at home and we can notice the change in skill. Apologies to the parents if the non-stop bouncing is beginning to drive you mad!
Year 1/2
The 1/2 students are working on bounce, kick and punt this term. This week in PE, the 1/2s played a basketball bounce game called ‘The floor is lava’. In this game, the students had to run and stand on a line when the whistle was blown (and the teacher yelled “the floor is lava”) to get away from the lava, while maintaining control of their basketball. They all really loved this game. It is great to see how many of our 1/2 students can successfully walk and bounce a ball confidently using only one hand.
We have also placed a strong focus on FMS skills this term. Using a large rope the students were challenged to jump over it in various ways (back and forth, criss cross, scissor jump etc). This simple activity addressed body awareness, weight shifting, left right discrimination and midline crossing skills. See if you can get your child to teach you some of the tricky jumps we had them complete!
Year 3/4
The 3/4 students have been preparing for the House School Athletics on June 4th by participating in athletics events. Students were challenged this week with the Triple Jump. Students used three hoola hoops in a row and worked on the hop, step, jump technique. We all agreed that the first hop can really trick an athlete when they are running up to the pit! At the end of the session the 3/4 s were able to articulate and reflect on how they had improved.
They also had a go at handling a baton correctly and completing jump relays. It was great to see so many of the students focus on using the correct grip and passing technique. No one wants to hear the sound of a baton fall during a relay!
Year 5/6
The 5/6 students have spent the start of the term preparing for their Lightning Premiership competition against other schools. The sports this term are netball, soccer and volley catch. We have placed a strong focus on getting on court/field and providing game time over activities so the 5/6 students can get as much practise in as possible. We are lucky this term to have Archie, a CEDA student, coming in on Mondays to work with the kids. Archie has a strong soccer background and he impressed us all last week with his incredible footwork.
It has been awesome to see the 5/6 students really embrace the three sports and get in there and have a crack when playing a game. If you have been thinking about enrolling your child into mid-week or weekend sport, do it! Our local clubs are Armstrong Creek Sharks Football and Netball club and Armstrong United Football Club (soccer).
Auslan
