Strong Hearts Strong Minds

MP Camp

School camps are an amazing opportunity for our students to build resilience, social skills and independence. As well as providing the perfect opportunity for students to develop deeper connections with one another and their teachers outside the school and classroom setting, they also encourage students to try new things and make tricky decisions for themselves in a safe and nurturing environment. Camp Adanac was this and so much more for our Middle Primary students this year! Here are some camp highlights written by our students.

MP Team

It was the second day of camp and it was time for the second activity - the flying fox. I saw other people do it. The centre was really fast and that’s the part I was scared of. Finally, it was almost my turn. I had butterflies in my tummy, I was shaking. There was only one more person before me. I could see kids with the frisbees. Then the instructor called me up. He tightened the harness. I heard everyone cheering for me. Zoom! I went down the flying fox.

Joanna Yr 4

As I restlessly roll around in bed, my cabin group and I chat away. I love how we always support each other in everything. Even though it is really hard to sleep, we still support each other. I can trust EVERYONE in my cabin group no matter what. Each night I hear us all chattering away, some lying down, some sitting up, with the smell of everyone’s toothpaste still hanging in the air. Camp is WONDERFUL!

Kayla Yr 3 

The fake green grass feels soft on my body as I play soccer in the hexagon. Mr M is watching us from the bench above the game. Suddenly I miskick the ball but luckily it rebounds miraculously off the wall of the arena sending it flying under Cooper’s legs and into the goal!! What a day! I am having the best time at… wait for it…CAMP!

Joey Yr 3

Swoosh! The air was blowing in my face and my hair was flying back, I suddenly realized something: Camp rocks! I loved the cool blowing wind on my face. This is amazing! I shouted as I soared through the air. CLANK! My ride was done. Can I do it again?

Seth Yr 4 

 It is my turn. I pick up my bow and arrow and I already smell victory. I pull back my arrow as far as I could until I felt my muscles stretch and my head spins. I let go of the string. I see and hear the arrow whiz to the target. I just miss and my arrow goes through the wood like a bullet. My second shot skims the noodle and I feel like I could have done better. My last shot, I pull back with all my might and let go of the string, but it hits the ground firmly. I sit down, and I can taste the desire to win with my next turn.

Gideon Yr 4

Prep and their Year 12 Buddies

The Preps absolutely love playing with their Year 12 buddies and it was lovely to have them join us recently. 

We did races and played cricket, and went down the firemans pole. We had so much fun. Lennox

Buddies was really fun making a shop. 

Jo Jo

I liked doing the treasure hunt and finding all of the things. 

Aubree

Fiona Holliday

Prep Team Leader & Froggies Teacher

Prep PJ Day

We had perfect weather to wear our pyjamas to school! Our spelling word of the week was ‘bed’ so what better way to celebrate than to wear our pyjamas. The Preps enjoyed being warm and cosy in their pyjamas and doing activities around our word of the week. I think they would be happy to have Pyjama Day every Friday.

I liked playing with my friends in my pyjamas, and I liked listening to the Silly Stories. 

Jo Jo

I liked playing in my pyjamas and watching movies. 

April

I loved sleeping on the bed and watching the movie in my pyjamas. 

Joseph

I liked playing outside and making a fairy garden in my pyjamas. 

Aubree

Fiona Holliday

Prep Team Leader & Froggies Teacher

Year 6 Hoodie Party

Each year the Year 6 hoodies are much anticipated! What colour will the writing be in 2024? This year, students were convinced it was going to be blue, because of the writing on the boxes! Nope! It is tangerine this year!

To continue this hallowed tradition, the Year 6 students are presented with their hoodie, followed by a special ‘catwalk’, where they parade their prized piece of school uniform with various dance moves. Teachers join in and Mr Reading completed the show with his amazing hand walking skills! Just in time for some colder weather, we hope our Senior Primary students love their cozy hoodies, and we certainly love seeing another ‘Class Of’ cohort wearing them.

Here is a fun video of the event: Hoodie Party 2024 1

SP Team

SP Mad About Science

In Term 2, Senior Primary students have been learning how God has given humans the ability to be curious, to explore, and to potentially solve problems. Using POE (Predict, Observe, Explain) whilst conducting experiments, students asked questions and sought answers to the properties and behaviours of solids, liquids and gases. The highlight of this unit was the Mad About Science incursion, where they experimented with sublimation, evaporation, and condensation, which are fancy words for things that bubbled, exploded, and vaporised!

SP Team

Last Wednesday, Mad About Science came to MECS, and it was really fun! We did some fun experiments with things like dry ice, one of my favourites was one that made a cloud. You put dry ice in hot water and it would all wisp and make clouds! It looked like a special effect that had been put in a photo! And we put in detergent in the hot water and it turned all the wispy air into bubbles! When you popped the bubbles, they would release a tiny wisp!

Another thing we did was talk about the states of matter: solids, liquids, gases and plasma! Plasma is a state of matter that happens when you heat up gas and electricity to make it! Plasma is lightning/electricity and she (the tutor person) had a special globe that, when turned on, and when you touched it lightning touched your hands! It made a quiet buzzing noise and tingled when you touched it. And don't worry, there was glass in between you and the lightning!

Emily

Mad About Science came to MECS. She has been working in the field of medical science for 30 years. We did experiments with dry ice and hot water. With smoke that billowed from a beaker and crawled down the table. 

We also made smoke bubbles that when you popped the bubbles CO2 gas came out and looked like smoke. We learnt about states of matter. There were 12 different tubes and balloons filled with other solids, liquids and gases. There was even some non-Newtonian fluid. Melissa was very kind and we at MECS enjoyed having her.

Elijah 

Mad About Science came to MECS to conduct experiments. The topic we learnt was about matter and the states of matter. We did different activities to learn about the changes of matter.

My favourite activity was the one where we grabbed dry ice with tongs and put it in a tube of hot water. It made lots of carbon dioxide come out of the tube. The dry ice skips a state of matter and produces carbon dioxide gas. I liked this activity because the smoke effect was like the mystery forests in those sci-fi films. I hope you will enjoy science lessons as much as I do. 

Isaiah 

Melissa, the person in charge, taught us about matter, and how matter makes up everything. When Melissa put dry ice in boiling water, smoke covered the table and fell off the table. It was so cool. We even learnt about how the states of matter change from state to state.

My favourite experiment was when we put dry ice into a tube that had boiling water and detergent. Bubbles came shooting out. When you popped the bubbles, smoke would come out. At the end Melissa got a volunteer and with a tube tried to make dry ice bubbles in their cupped hands. It was so cool! I can’t wait for more fun science experiments.

Chloe A

A collective gasp echoes off the Pump Room walls followed by silence, as Melissa lowers the dry ice with a pair of silver, metal tongs into the green liquid made from dishwashing detergent and boiling water. Bubbles and thick, white foam rise from the beaker, and in an instant, the tall cylinder is overpowered by the chemical reaction that got all those lucky enough to see it, hyped up and fizzing with excitement. 

Students rush to their tables, eager to start the experiment, their eyes wide with apprehension. One by one, bit by bit, explosions erupt from six tables, forming a large circle around the centre of the spacious room!

Amelie

My eyes flare with excitement! The dry ice blew my mind, I was not expecting this! We grouped around a table and started learning new experiments. My brain was amazed with how this chemical reaction worked. We put detergent and hot water into a beaker, as Melissa placed the dry ice into the cup. It exploded like a volcano and went all over us! We made a mess as the bubbles went everywhere. We learned about matter – solids, liquids, and gases by sorting test tubes. At the end, we got to touch a plasma ball – that was pretty cool. I had so much fun.

Mack

As one person from our group dropped some detergent in our test-tube filled with boiling water, Melissa came with dry ice which would burn your hand if you touched it. She placed it into our tube and suddenly there were small bubbles rising up! We put some on our hands, being curious. I looked at the bubbles and popped some. A smoke-like gas came from the bubble, and as soon as we realised this, we rapidly started to grab and pop the bubbles!

Henry 

I could feel the cold hand of a human on me, as a super tall girl picks me up and tips me over and puts 6 drops of my babies into a cylinder. Then they put me onto the table next to the cylinder and this lady came over with a kettle of hot boiling water. I watched in horror as she tipped the water onto my dish washing liquid babies. “Girls” said the lady “can I please have your dish washing liquid?” One of the girls picked me up and passed me to the lady. But I have to say the view is awesome from up here. I could see lots of kids (around 50) watching their container fizz up. They were all poking and smashing the bubbles. Is that what’s going to happen to my babies? I wiped the thought away. The lady put me down on a table where I could only just see my babies. I looked behind me to see the lady bending over and grabbing a blue esky and carrying it over to my babies. She opened the esky and using tongs she picked out two pieces of dry ice. One named Gemma, and one named Mrs Taylor. She placed them into the cylinder where my babies are. I watched in horror as my babies screamed and the water bubbled like crazy. The kids watched in amazement as the cylinder made a billion bubbles. After that experiment, they all sat on the floor. The lady explained how to do the next experiment. After, the kids had a go at the plasma ball and after that they left. Peace and quiet at last.

Alannah

Bubble bubble! Bubbles come out of the testing tube. Whoosh! Fire lights up and dies down as soon as possible. The dry ice is at -75° celsius and puts the fire out. Zap! The plasma ball lights up with electricity. It feels so satisfying. Welcome to Mad About Science!

A woman with a tag that reads ‘Melissa’ is here. She teaches the class about the change of matter and about where she works and what they do. She tells us about what dry ice is and facts about the ice. She puts the dry ice on a container next to the regular ice to see which one will melt the quickest. 

After we saw that the normal ice melted the quickest, we split into groups of five or six and did experiments in our groups to uncover things we didn’t already know.

Next we were going to see how to make bubbles come out of the testing tube. Drip drop drip. 6 drops of detergent and then hot water then… POOF! Bubbles come dribbling out of the testing tube. Melissa said we can scoop the bubbles up, but not from close to the top. They feel nice and warm and when you squeeze the bubbles, they turn into mist. 

Time for the next activity! After the bubble activity, we saw how dry ice puts a fire out. We put a candle in a wide container with vinegar. Carefully, we placed the candle into the bicarb soda and then poured some vinegar into the container, but not on the candle because otherwise the experiment would not work. We lit the candle and put some dry ice in and sat back to watch the flame go out because of the carbon-dioxide gas from the dry ice. The flames went out immediately when the invisible gas covered it. 

Melissa called us back down and told us about the 3 states of matter, a solid, liquid and a gas. She tells us about the different names for the cycle of matter and that all of our activities were to do with the states of matter. She tells us some more information before she says that the incursion has finally come to an end. 

Everyone lined up in front of her desk and got to have a small play of the plasma ball and said their ‘goodbyes’ and ‘thank yous’. This has been amazing and I have learnt so much more about matter and dry ice.

Grace

First we did an experiment to test what things are solids, liquids or gases. There were three balloons, one had a marble in it, another had water and the last one had been blown up a little bit. The other thing was in containers. The next experiment was where we got a container, hot water, washing detergent and dry ice. We put some hot water and washing detergent, after we put in the dry ice it started to bubble and then the bubbles leaked out of the container and I caught some in my hand and I started to pop them. When I popped them there was some white mist.

I think that it was really fun, I learned lots of new things. Even though I didn’t stay the whole time, the time that I was there, it was awesome. I would love to do it again and see the other things that happened while I wasn’t there. 

Zahara

Mad about science came to MECS. They are a very special company that comes to MECS every two years. Melissa was the person who ran all the incursions and she has been a scientist for more than thirty years and has dedicated her life to science. 

When we entered the pump room I saw all these things on tables but the main one that stuck out the most was that Melissa had set up all the perfect things to make a volcanic eruption. We sat on the floor and Melissa started talking about her scientist experiences and all about the experiments. The first thing that we did was talk about the four states of matter (solid, liquid, gas and plasma), and how all the atoms are connected or not connected at all. Then we went back to our table and we had to organise the 12 things on the table into the three states of matter {solid, liquid and gas}. We went back to the floor after we talked about all the different things that were on our table. Next we talked about dry ice and how it is carbon dioxide (CO2) frozen and it is negative 78 degrees celsius, but normal ice is only five degrees celsius. Another thing is that dry ice is actually a gas not a solid because CO2 is a gas and it is just frozen. Next we talked about how dry ice can go through a process called sublimation which means that it skips the liquid stage and goes straight to the gas stage.The final thing we talked about was how CO2 blows out fire, Argon dies the flame down but not out, nitrogen keeps the flame the same and oxygen makes the flame bigger.

In conclusion the entire experience was amazing and I learnt a lot about how to stay safe, what dry ice actually is and how CO2 extinguishes fire.

Kyrin