Specialists Updates and Celebrations

Mandarin Day

Dear SMPS Families,

Mandarin Day is right around the corner. On Friday 14th May, we will celebrate our very first Mandarin Day at SMPS. It will start at 11:45am and finish off with our whole school assembly.

All students from Prep to Grade 6 are encouraged to participate by wearing something RED. There will be lots of fun activities and performances on the day. Please see the 2021 Mandarin Day poster. 

We are grateful for your support.

Lucy Lu

Mandarin Teacher 

P.E.

Grade 3/4 PE: 

We have started Term 2 off with Basketball in Grade 3 and 4. Mr Callum has been very impressed with the progress made already after only 2 lessons! We are practising our dribbling skills to begin with and students are being challenged to see if they can use both hands, not look at the ball and guard the ball. Here is a photo of some students playing the game "Sweep the beach". Students had to dribble the ball whilst collecting 'rubbish' from the 'beach'. Get a ball and practise at home or outside!

Cross Country (Grade 3-6) Term 2:

In Term 2, there will be an opportunity for Grade 3-6 students to take part in the Southport District competition for Cross Country. 

8, 9 and 10 year olds run 2km. 

11, 12 and 13 year olds run 3km. 

We will hopefully be holding try-outs at school but if you think your child(ren) would be interested, why not start practising now! 

If you think you child(ren) would be able to compete at a district level, please email callum.freel@southmelbourneps.vic.edu.au with the name of the student, grade and time for 2km or 3km.

STEAM

In Grade 5 & 6, the students have been learning about the features of the school's brand new weather station. The weather station will measure the rain, wind speed, wind direction, humidity and air temperature. The Grade 5's and 6's will all have a turn to read the data each week and input it into a shared spreadsheet. 

Mandarin

The Prep classes have been learning about the numbers from 1 to 10 in Mandarin. This week we are focusing on saying number 1 to 4 in Mandarin and writing them in Chinese Characters.  We will also learn to sing a number song in Mandarin next week. 

Music

This week in music our focus in Grade 1&2 has been improving our marimba playing skills. 

We have been learning to play two songs. “Ode to Joy” is a song which we are learning to play as a solo piece. “ I Just Love ABBA” is class play and sing along..

We have been discussing melody in music. In particular the two ingredients of melody: pitch and rhythm.