A couple of weeks ago our preps made pizzas. Every pizza was different – some liked pizza without tomato sauce, some liked a little bit of cheese, and some liked a LOT, and some even liked pineapple! Every pizza was unique, and so are the children who made them.

From physical attributes to personality types, emotions, aptitudes and learning styles, every child brings to school a range of challenges and talents. At BBPS, we celebrate these differences, and work with each child to help them overcome their challenges and nurture their talents. We take a holistic approach to every child, looking at the whole person and working with them to realise their potential.

But we also use a range of tools at our disposal to ensure that each child’s unique attributes have a place in the school community, including social and emotional learning, and the development of social skills to build confidence. And where possible, we look at opportunities and experiences (such as the prep pizza making day, and buddy program with the grade 5 students, grade 1 and 2 readers’ theatre, and the grade 5 and 6 camp, seed planting, tennis workshops and more) to appeal to the different ways our children see the world.

Harmony Week traditionally focuses on cultural heritage, celebrating the range of cultural backgrounds and traditions of every family at BBPS. So, along with a celebration of our different cultures, let’s also celebrate those quirky and wonderful differences that each child possesses, and which enrich our classrooms (and homes!) on a daily basis.

Prep

Pizza was on the menu for our preps. To start with, they created pizzas in their maths books and counted the ingredients, a task which taught them sequencing and ordinal numbers. Then they visited the staffroom to create real pizzas – which caused much excitement. Pizzas were then a popular topic for recount writing, rounding off the 3 course experience for everyone.

The word of the week is ‘sun’, and we are lucky enough to have had some fine weather to enjoy while we practise our spelling.

Developmental Play this week has included a focus on Gratitude, Mindfulness and Empathy (GEM) – for example, being grateful for the activities and co-operating with others.

Flipper and Brain is still a favourite card game (what is the next number, or the number before?).

Grades 1 and 2

Grade 1 students had a blast at tennis this fortnight (see the photos below) and the other highlights have been:

Maths: reading, writing and ordering 2 digit numbers and using different and using different materials to show understanding.
Inquiry : exploring different places in Australia, looking at First Nations culture and learning more about our multicultural society.
SEL: working on emotional regulation and problem solving issues that come into the classroom from the yard.

Grade 2 highlights include:

Narrative writing : looking at structure and features of narratives, and writing our own class narrative
Understanding Inference when reading and writing
Readers' Theatre
Maths, Buzz (counting in 2s, 5s and 10s) and expanding numbers (exploring place value)

Grades 3 and 4

We asked some grade 3 students what they most enjoyed learning over the last two weeks

and what they are most looking forward to. Here are their answers:

Gigi (3S) “We had to summarise Little Red Riding Hood into shorter sentences and then re-write the story using these sentences”

Tilly (3C) “We made up our own stories. I loved coming up with my own ideas. We wrote different paragraphs for each section of the narrative”

Daisy (3C) “I loved performing arts – we played ‘show bomb’, and I liked narrative writing – it was a bit stressful for parts but when I got into it I found it a lot of fun”

Henry (3C) “I enjoyed sport. We did Tennis and we had special coaches come in and teach us. I also liked maths with location and direction”

Logan (3C) “we played French cricket, which is 8 base cricket. It was fun but we had to keep watching all the time. I also enjoyed maths”

Lia (4B) “I’m excited about going to camp later this year. I’m looking forward to it because I haven’t been away from my parents for a while and this will be our first camp”

Tavneet (4B) “I’m also excited about camp because we will be going with all our friends and we will make the best of it”

Grades 5 and 6

5S students had a lot of fun presenting their “class share” at assembly - sharing their preferences and personal learning styles.

Our Grade 6 students are using their learning in class to craft narratives for the Laura Literary Awards.

Grade 5 and 6 students also broadened their knowledge of First Nations people and culture through a visit to Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at the Melbourne Museum. In maths, Place and value continue to be a focus.

Grade 5 students have begun the process to select the 2021 Upstanders Team - a team of students who work with our network schools to communicate key messages about being an upstander - bullying prevention.

Grade 6 have begun their formal leadership program with involves a three tier format - currently they are designing their blog; planning for action (one action in our school next term); refining an understanding of themselves as effective leaders (reflecting on their character traits and how these influence their leadership styles).

Our senior grades will also be off to Philip Island at the end of the month for camp, which everyone is anticipating with great excitement.

Curriculum

Games Day