Specialist News
Physical Education
Junior School
Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 students finished up their four week striking unit by completing an exit slip that showed their understanding of the skills they have been learning. It was also an opportunity to link in our soccer skills while watching highlights of the Women's World Cup.
For the remainder of term the students will engage in a variety of minor games where they will practise their fundamental movements skills, team play and ability to follow rules of games.
Middle School & Senior School
At the conclusion of a 5 week gymnastics program students reflected on their progress across a variety of skills. The pride they had in their accomplishments was nothing short of amazing. Their goal sheets will be added to their student portfolios for you to view at the next student led conference.
For the remainder of term students will be working on the skill of striking through modified tennis, table tennis, mini golf and cricket activities.
Senior school students will have the added dimension of applying attacking and defensive moves and also identify inclusive play.
Casey Cup Netball
On Tuesday 8th August our school netball team participated in the Casey Cup Netball Gala Day. There was over 40 teams playing on the day. The team played 5 pool games winning 3, drawing 2 and losing 1. It meant the team placed 2nd in their pool and progressed to the Grand Final. Although the team lost the final they showed massive improvements and should be proud of their efforts. Thankyou to the family members who transported the team, helped score and also were the best cheer squad.
Yulunga Traditional Games
As part of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day each sub- school played a variety of Yulunga Traditional Games. The students learnt about the history of the games and made connections to games they play now.
Some of the games played were: Apwerte, Gorri, Kai, Kolap, Weme and Emu.
Social Wellbeing
Junior School
The Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 students have continued looking at being resilient and the strategies we can use when we feel our bodies in the yellow zone. Clues to being in the yellow zone is a tight body, clenched fists and and a faster heart rate and breathing. The students had a practice at some meditation, yoga, dance breaks and positive affirmations to help them feel their bodies release and relax. It's important the students can identify the signs to match their emotions so they can then work on regulating themselves.
Middle School
Years 3 and 4 have continued to look at conflict resolution. Talking about things that are in their circle of control and things that are not and what to do when they don't have control. The main focus has been on helping students to use the Prevention 4 strategy and holding a boundary of respect for themselves. They have also kept practicing yoga and positive affirmations to help them to self regulate.
Senior School
The year 5 and 6 students have also been practicing positive affirmations and yoga. The students are starting to unpack resilience they have shown in their life already and the skills they used to overcome these obstacles. They then turned their thinking to what are their current obstacles. When the students are able to identify the blockers in their life they can create a plan to overcome them by identifying their strengths they have and the areas they need to improve to ensure they are successful.
Artistic Flair
Foundation
Students in Foundation have been learning about sound and silence in music. They listened to the sounds of a rainstorm and used traditional and improvised instruments to re-create the sounds whilst learning to follow the conductorto ensure they all play together as an effective ensemble.
Students have also enjoyed scarf dancing and listening to the music to prompt their next move.
Junior School
Year 1 and 2 students listened to a variety of music and responded through dance. They demonstrated their understanding of dynamics by matching their scarf dancing to the volume of the music (up high for loud, down low for quiet).
They enjoyed playing the wombat game where students had to guess the voice of the person outside the wombat's burrow. The wombat had to use their listening skills and the 'creeper' experimented with changing the pitch or sound of their voice. It was fun when we tricked the wombat!
Middle School
Year 3 and 4 students have listened and responded to different styles and dynamics within music by plotting the volume on a line graph. They discussed the importance of using dynamics in music to grab the attention of the audience and they learnt that dramatic changes in volume can really add to the overall effect of the music.
Students are learning to read music and play a short tune on the xylpohone or glockenspeil. They have used the same tune to to re-construct by matching the beat, rhythm notation and lyrics together together to form a whole piece of music.
When the weather was kind to us we ventured outside to work together on creating an ensemble. Students used drums, claves, (rhythm sticks) maracas and djembes to play rhythms together. They worked as a team, each group working with a different instrument and different rhythm. Having a sentence to match the rhythm helped us to keep the timing even when all the groups played at the same time.
Senior School
Year 5 and 6 students have been working on reading music notation and playing tuned instruments. Their major focus for Week 3-6 was composing their own cup drumming performance. We have worked together to create an assessment rubric and students agreed on the criteria. You may have noticed some practise performances on Seesaw, this is to keep a record of their learning and to help students remember their routine. In the next couple of weeks they will be performing to their class and to the middle school group. If you have some pastic cups at home ask them to show you what they have composed!
Environmental Studies
The lower school have been investigating bees. We have learnt about the bees body parts and life cycles which has been reinforced through song. The Year 1's went over to Sonny's and were very excited to run in to him on his tractor.
The Year 4 students made smoothies this week, they had to design a fruit and a vegetable one, no surprises that the fruit ones were a clear favourite!
The Year 3 students are in the garden this term and I am so proud of how hard they have been working. We have been planting flowers around the front and inside the school and this week we have started planting our seedlings getting ready for spring.