What's On in 3/4

Specialist Expo

Our students packed their metaphorical bags, grabbed their passports and headed around the school with their families to explore the wide and wonderful world of our specialist classes at the Whitehorse Primary School Specialist Expo! We put our problem solving, teamwork skills and creativity to the test in the STEM lab, creating towers with unconventional materials… marshmallows and spaghetti! It was interesting to see all the different designs - many brains at work! Our school community could wander the halls of the Whitehorse Primary School Art Gallery, admiring the beautiful works of art, including sculpture, paintings and mixed media pieces. PE afforded opportunities to practise drills, develop skills, shoot and SCORE! The Expo passport took on a slightly different meaning, transporting us all the way to China! Our students discovered the traditional art of Chinese Calligraphy and used brushes to paint Chinese characters the way they were originally created. The night ended by celebrating our incredible musicians with a concert featuring our students. We were so impressed, and are very proud of, all students who showed courage and got up to perform! Many thanks to our wonderful Specialist team, who add so much to our school community with their innovative programs.

Swimming + Non-Swimming Program

Term 4 is such an exciting and busy time, with one of the most popular events of the year - school swimming! Our students headed off to Aqualink Nunawading Pool to learn vital water safety and swimming skills. The Aqualink staff took the time to carefully assess our students swimming skills to ensure they were receiving target instruction to suit their individual swimming needs. It has been lovely to see the development of both skills and confidence in our students as they progressed through the program. Of course, water safety isn’t just taught in the water, and our students who did not elect to participate in the pool program have been exploring important elements of water safety at school.

Here is some reflections from some of our students:

34A

Michael: When we learned dolphin I felt intrigued. The sensation of diving in a zigzag just felt unimaginably amazing. I felt really excited imitating the dolphins.If I ever go snorkelling, I will gracefully be swimming with them!

Maneli: The important insight or discovery I made was about rip currents which is a very dangerous wave. It is when water goes in different directions, usually when the water is meeting the shore. 80% of people don’t know how to spot a rip current and 21 people drown in rip currents every year!

34B

JoJo: My favourite part of Fun Day at swimming was the Tarzan rope because I loved swinging, then dropping into the water. It felt like I was skimming the water and walking on water too. During the swimming program I learnt how to do pin drops off the diving blocks and duck dives. All the teachers were really nice and I loved it.

Ella: During the swimming program, the non-swimmers made a poster about water safety and there were different topics like rip currents, safety around the water and safety with marine animals. We used Google Docs and learnt a lot about water safety. 

34C

Xavier: I like the pools because it is so warm and is super super super super fun. I have done this before and know I am improving all kinds of swimming techniques  like swimming on the back and improving the kicking 

Tomass: I think that rip currents are important because before I didn’t know what to do if I was in a rip current. Or how to escape a rip current or even know this much about rip currents. That’s why I think learning about rip currents was important because of how dangerous they are.

Hoop Time

Our Junior Hoop Time team did us proud as they competed with teams from other schools at their recent competition! Our team of Year 3 and 4 girls and boys worked together to bring their team to victory - making it all the way to the State level of competition! Well done, Junior Hoop Time team, we are all so proud of you!

Annual Inter-School Public Speaking Competition

On Tuesday 12th November, four students from Whitehorse Primary School represented our school at the annual Inter-School Public Speaking Competition. All students in Years 3 and 4 took part in writing a speech on the topic ‘If I Ruled the World…’. Those who were interested in competing first presented their speeches to their own class. Each class then selected one student to represent them, who went on to present to the entire Year 3/4 cohort. All students had the opportunity to vote for the speaker they thought delivered the best speech. The results were very close. Moli Li was the winner, and she represented our school admirably on the day. We are all so thrilled with her achievement. Well done, Moli!