Primary Specialists
Visual Arts
In week 5 Foundation students have focused on Primary and secondary colours together with their learning of Pointillism. Using primary and secondary-coloured markers they applied this technique to their choice of fruit to produce some fantastic pieces.
Year 1 students have started to apply their learning of Impressionist techniques to create their very own version of Monet’s garden.
Students have been stepped through a tutorial to create their scene on A4 watercolour paper.
Year 2 students continued to explore the Cubism style of Pablo Picasso and worked on sketching a self-portrait is the Cubist style.
In Grade 3, students began to sketch their landscape drawings in their Art journals. In coming weeks students will demonstrate their learning of watercolour painting skills and techniques, showcasing their very own watercolour landscapes.
Year 4 students have been learning about the life and work of Vincent van Gogh and followed a tutorial to create a still Life of ‘Sunflowers’. At this stage students completed their preliminary sketches within their Art journals.
Grade 5 students have looked closely at the work of Vincent van Gogh and his style of painting. In week 5 they started with the first process undertaken by artists, before completing their final pieces. Inspired by Vincents Café painting, they began to sketch their own Cafe' version onto A3 watercolour paper. Students also learned of the location of the Café in Arles, France and were shown images of what the café looks like today.
Year 6 students have continued to consolidate their learning on shading techniques, applying this learning to produce preliminary sketches of a ‘Fruit’ still life. This work is based on Henri Matisse’s works, particularly on his ‘still life’ fruits.
Over the course of week 6 all year levels worked on a class collaborative piece to acknowledge our Indigenous community. This art was completed for ‘National Sorry Week’ which is celebrated across Australia between the 27th of May and 3rd June. The week is to commemorate a significant milestone in the reconciliation journey.
Media Art with Mr Howarth
In Media, students have continued exploring their introductory units, focusing on specific skill sets and topics, including:
Preps: Using photography to visually represent our emotions
Year One: Recording voice and sound on our devices
Year Two: Introduction to basic shot types, such as long, medium and close-up shots.
Year Three: Refresher course on our shot types, such as high and low angle.
Year Four: Creation of montages based on our daily school life
Year Five: Introduction to sound and video editing
Year Six: Using Encanto as a mentor text for examining the challenges of migration
Music with Mr Saxton
In music, as a new cohort, we have established our agreements about how we will work together setting ourselves and our classmates up for success. Grades Prep to Six have talked through their current knowledge and understandings in music, playing games and taking part in activities like 'Pass The Beat A Round The Room' to help us get connected and know each other as a new musical community.
We have begun exploring the elements of music this week with tuned and untuned percussion instruments like those in the image of Grade 4D below.
Physical Education
Across our upper primary levels in physical education, students in years three to six have been continuing to practise and apply movement concepts and strategies within our invasion games unit. Students have been thinkers in P.E through the exploration of attacking and defensive tactics whilst playing modified games of netball and basketball.
Our junior levels, from years prep to two have enjoyed a variety of tabloid sports where they are refining the fundamental movement skills (FMS) of throwing, catching, and dribbling. Tabloid sports involve small-sided activity stations where the students are exposed to an array of varying equipment and FMS challenges. Our prep students have also been further refining the FMS skills of running, dodging and leaping whilst participating in their favourite minor games such as, ‘scarecrow tiggy’, ‘sharky-sharky’ and ‘foxes & rabbits.’
In the next fortnight, our senior primary students who have successfully qualified for the district cross country competition, will be representing Saltwater College, to compete against all schools in the Hobson’s Bay and Wyndham area. We wish them the best of luck and can’t wait to share the results with the rest of the school community.
Spanish
In Spanish we never stop having fun while learning. Our preps have been learning more songs and playing games to learn the days of the week in Spanish while making sure we do not forget our colours, numbers and greetings.
Years 1 and 2 have been learning more about emotions in Spanish and dancing to head, shoulders, knees and toes in Spanish, playing games and doing colouring and labelling sheets to learn these new words. One very special and moving moment was our walk for "National Sorry Day", in which our 2C students on their own initiative decided to chant "Lo siento" (I am sorry) for their whole walk. Gracias 2C for being caring, reflective and communicators.
Our grades 3 and 4 students have been playing games on their devices and drawing maps while learning history and geography of Spanish Speaking countries. Here we can see some 4D students showing pride for their amazing work.
Last but not least, our senior students on year 5 and 6 have been exploring their new virtual classroom environment in which they will learn food related vocabulary. During this rotation they will work on a project, presented to them as a mission, in which they need to create a video ordering food in Spanish. Here we can see 5E engaged on their first quest (planning their video in groups) trying their best for not to trigger the noise-meter in order to get some extra experience for their virtual avatars.
DANCE
In Dance we have continued to work on team building exercises, where students are placed into groups with fellow classmates they don't always associate with outside in the playground. This is to help connect students to others they don't normally work with and work together to achieve a common goal.
Through this we have set tasks where each group works together to create a routine within a 25 minute deadline. This creates awareness of various elements such as communication, compromise, listening skills, problem solving, and time management. It also opens up students creative aspects while encouraging everyone to be a risk taker, and help gain confidence not only individually, but as a group also as they begin to build trust between them.
Upon reflection afterwards, students realised the importance of the exercise and the purpose behind it, acknowledging how it crosses over to many other areas throughout life.
We also worked on expanding the body's range of movement, and the difference it makes from one extreme to another. Students Identified the cause and effect of these actions, and how by cutting them short or by not approaching the set out tasks with full commitment, can have a reverse effect of what they were hoping to achieve. They acknowledged how this can cross over to their sports and impact their commitment to their teams, as well as the final results also. Through a series of questions and examples given, students realise the difference and automatically make changes to seek and attain the desired goals and results. I have seen a great improvement in many classes throughout, and can't wait to see where they go from here!