'Mad About Science' Workshop Incursion

On Tuesday 27th February, the Year 3/4 students became curious scientists. They participated in a ‘Mad About Science’ workshop. As the students entered the hall, they were buzzing with excitement. The students have been learning about energy in their classrooms and the facilitator from ‘Mad About Science’ was extremely impressed with the student’s understanding of what energy is and the different types of energy. Throughout the workshop, we had the opportunity to create electrical circuits with motors and spinning propellers. We then moved on to another experiment where we observed the rate food colour moves through hot and cold water. The students also had the chance to learn the effects of heat energy, through thermochromic putty. The workshop finished off with a captivating fire experiment. We cannot wait to continue learning about heat and energy for the rest of the term.

Mrs Corinne Robinson

Year 3/4 Teacher

MAD ABOUT SCIENCE INCURSION IN YEAR 1/2

Today we met our presenter Sharyn who taught us all about chemicals. The chemicals were vinegar and baking soda. We used cabbage water which was purple in colour to add 3 pipette drops to the vinegar, baking soda and water. Here we observed changes in the colour of the chemicals when we added the cabbage water. Acid revealed a reddish pink colour and the base revealed a teal blue colour. We also learned about adding sugar to yeast while a balloon was wrapped on top of the beaker. Yeast is dormant and by adding sugar with the water, the yeast activated. Then as it woke up, the balloon on top of the beaker started growing bigger.

We then learned about types of reactions - fast, and slow, and inhibitors. Finally, we made sherbet to take home. The ingredients were icing sugar, baking soda and citric acid. We cannot wait to try our sherbet at home! We all had lots of fun and enjoyed learning about kitchen chemistry.

Ms Anita Buccieri

Year 1/2 Teacher

Dear Parents,

We have been lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to have two assistant language teachers from Meiji Gakuin University in Japan visit Chatham Primary School this year. They will be completing this internship as part of their undergraduate degree. One of the assistant teachers will visit us in Term 2 (arriving the second week of the school holidays) and the other in Term 3. I have been involved with programs like this in the past and have often observed how important it is for students to interact culturally with assistant language teachers in Japanese class to give them the opportunity to use the Japanese they have learnt in a more authentic context as well as make students feel connected to the wider world as global citizens.

Tomomi will be arriving from the 8th of April (the second week of the holidays) and while I have been able to find a host family to take her from the 1st of May to the end of term, I am still looking for a family to host her for those three weeks at the beginning of her time at Chatham. If you are interested in hosting, or know someone around the area who might be interested, please let me know. To assist with hosting, you will be provided $200 a week for expenses.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at james.rampant@education.vic.gov.au or find me in the Japanese room Wednesday, Thursday or Friday after school.

James Rampant

Japanese and Performing Arts Teacher

Hello, I’m Tomomi, a university student from Japan. I’m 20 years old. I like animals. I have a bird in my hometown house. I always watch funny animal videos on my smartphone, and I sometimes go to an animal café with my friends to see pretty animals and soothe. When I go to Melbourne, I want to see the Australian animals if possible. Also, I love to travel around the world and sightseeing the country. Therefore, I want to visit many places such as historical places, nature, and popular places in Melbourne. As well, I also like eating food and sweets, especially I like coffee so much that I drink it every day. I heard Melbourne is famous for good coffee and there are a lot of cafés so I’m looking forward to going to a café to drink good coffee with delicious sweets. The purpose of this program is that I wanted to go to study abroad and have many experiences which will be my confidence. This program is hard for me, but I’m sure that I could grow through this internship. I want to experience Australian culture and I want to tell students about Japanese culture and want them to enjoy learning Japanese. So, I'm looking forward to starting this program. My expectations of the homestay experience are communicating and knowing each other and having a great time which will be my memory of Melbourne life. On weekends, I would like to go somewhere or eat dinner together.

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CHATHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL