Curriculum Matters
Foundation - Fine Motor Fridays
In Foundation we LOVE ‘Fine Motor Fridays!’ Every Friday morning all of the Foundation students take part in a variety of fine motor rotations. Each station has a different activity for the students to develop and strengthen their finger muscles to help with pencil grip, letter formation, cutting and gluing. Fine motor skills also help to improve stamina, so that students can concentrate on tasks for a longer period of time.
Level 3 Animal Adaptations
This week in inquiry we have been learning about animal adaptations.
For an experiment, Mr Meredith taped our hands not letting us use our thumbs. While we had our tape on our hands we had to try to write our names on scrap paper, eat our snack, tie our shoe laces and do our top button up on our uniform. It was very tricky. We had to try new and different things.
We also coloured in a penguin with wax crayon. Then we sprayed it with icy cold water and it turned into little drops of blue water. We mixed it up with our fingers to turn the little drops into big drops. This was to show how penguins survive in the freezing water.
Next we traced a chameleon template and cut it out. This was to show how animals camouflage in their habitats. When people were finished they were sticking the chameleon on objects to see if it would change its body colour. When we all finished our chameleons, most of the grade 3 students put there chameleons on Mr Meredith. Mr Meredith was confused when we put the chameleons on him.
We talked about how animals adapt to survive and hide from predators.
The grade 3s had so much fun making crafts and we can’t wait to explore more facts about adaptations.
By: Zahra and Amelia
Level 4 Literacy Corner
In Level 4 Literacy this Term we have been focussing on setting up and building on the foundations of our reading, writing and spelling.
In reading, we have been looking at choosing good fit books and building on our comprehension skills by retelling the story. We were also given a 25 day reading challenge to be more voracious readers. One of our challenges was to read in our pyjamas so we got to wear them to school! It has been tricky to tick off all of the challenges!
In writing, we have been looking at Recounts and are about to start Narrative writing.
We have an upcoming Big Write. Soon home talk will go out where we get the chance to talk to our families about some ideas for our writing. This part is really important as the reasoning behind the Big Write is if we can’t say it we can’t write it!
We have also become collectors of Wow words to help improve our vocabulary. We came up with ‘Said is Dead’ and Nice No More’ to help remind us to use more interesting words in our writing.
ICT
During ICT this week students in Levels 1, 2 and 3 began their Typing Tournament Challenge. The challenge runs between grades over a 2 week block during ICT specialist times. Each class vies for the bragging rights of being the fastest grade in their year level for the term.
Foundation students began investigating basic coding and were introduced to the BeeBot robots. They discovered how to create simple programs using algorithms or steps. Over the next few weeks the Foundation students will further establish the organisation of these steps as formal programs that will enable their robot to move to a particular target.
Level 5 Discovery Dome Incursion
On Wednesday 4th of March all of the Grade 5 students got to go to the General Purpose room (G.P) where there was a large blue dome blown up like a planetarium. A man came dressed up as an astronaut to teach us about space. We entered through a thin door way to the centre of the dome. He used a projector to put a screen up around the inside of the dome for us sitting inside the dome to see.
He showed us the night sky and pointed out the planets and that they were in near a line that showed the Milky Way Universe was flat. He also showed us how stars formed and how they involved into black holes. He showed us that all the planets where trying to escape the solar system and that they were evenly matched by the Suns gravitational force. So they keep orbiting the Sun in ovals and not perfect circles. He showed us some examples of the planets with a foam ball and used videos and photos to explain and teach us. It was very easy to understand and also really interesting. At the end he let us ask him anything we particularly wanted to know. It was a very exciting incursion and we all hope that it will happen again next year.
Luke Evans 5WK
Level 6 Interschool Sport
Week 1
Our first week of Level 6 Interschool Sports was played at Mt Waverley Nth PS(2).
The scores for all the sports were:
Tee-ball = 9-7
Basketball = 38-12
Cricket = 107-42
Kickball = 47-6
Hot Shots (did not play)
Volley stars = 45-13
It was an all win for Jells Park and a terrific effort from all students in their first match for Inter School
Week 2
On Friday the 21st of Feb Jells Park competed in their second week of inter school sports. We competed against Mt Waverley Nth (1) and had a great time.
Tee-ball = 22-14
Basketball = 11-41
Cricket = 100-152
Kickball = 17-1
Hot shots = 47-13
Volley stars = 35-37
Although we had some loses we still tried our best and are looking forward to the next games.
Week 3
On the third round of Inter School Sports Jells Park competed against Camelot Rise. The scores were tight but we ended up with...
Tee-ball = 17-18
Basketball = 20-22
Cricket = 104-93
Kickball = 37-13
Hot Shots = 57-32
Volley stars 19-59
Not all teams will progress through to the finals, but we are still keen to do our best and make our school proud.
Sam King and Pia Sharma
Level 6 House Captains