Junior School News
Crafting culture: STEM students recreate Dreamtime story in Minecraft
As part of the STEM program at SMC, a passionate group of Year 6 Minecraft enthusiasts took part in the Australian Esports League Competition in the lead-up to Reconciliation Week. Over eight weeks, the students, guided by two dedicated Year 7 mentors, worked collaboratively to bring to life their interpretation of a Dreaming story from Lutruwita/Tasmania.
Watch it online here:
The Year 6 team, consisting of Josie Toms, Emily Yan, Sophie Johns and Lottie Zabel, chose The Creation of Trowunna (Lutruwita) as the inspiration for their work.
This year’s competition theme, 'Australia’s Dreaming', invited students to explore and interpret a Dreamtime story using Minecraft: Education Edition. The challenge required participants to create an authentic and respectful representation of their chosen story, including its characters, setting and cultural significance.
In addition to building their immersive Minecraft world, the students documented their learning journey and demonstrated a deep understanding of the story’s themes. Their submission included access to the Minecraft world, a detailed presentation and reflections on the cultural importance of the narrative.
Year 7 students Alexia Lesa and Eva Wakefield mentored the team, offering technical support, coding tips and suggestions to help the team build their world in an efficient and logical way.
The team eagerly awaits the competition results, which will be announced on 16 June.
Catherine Midson
STEM Teacher and First Nations Facilitator
Fresh air frolics with our Preps
There's nothing quite like a big outdoor play after morning tea! From zooming around on bikes to swinging like cheeky monkeys on the bars, our Preps have been loving every minute of the fresh air and fun.
Food for thought | Year 6 and the great debate
On Wednesday 21 May, two teams of Year 6 students demonstrated their public speaking skills at The Friends' School, engaging in a spirited debate on the motion: 'All Tasmanian schools should provide a meal for students at lunchtime.'
The affirmative team, with Lottie, Sophie and Varvara, presented strong arguments in support of schools providing a meal to students. Their powerful rebuttal and well-researched points led them to a victory over The Hutchins School, demonstrating their ability to engage and persuade. Nia, Sophie and Hennie represented the negative team, with support from Luana. The team spoke clearly and argued their points with confidence but were narrowly defeated by St Michael's Collegiate.
Congratulations to our debating teams for working so hard together to learn the elements of debating.
St Mary’s College is set to host the next debate this afternoon (Wednesday 4 June), in the Junior School classrooms. Spectators are welcome to come along and watch the debates in action from 4.00pm! We extend our best wishes to all participating teams.
Learning On Country
As part of our Reconciliation Week activities, our Kinder classes enjoyed an engaging excursion to the Sustainability Learning Centre in Mount Nelson.
Kinder Wallabies student, Zoe Morris shared her thoughts about the experience. A wonderful reflection! Well done, Zoe.
“We caught the bus to the 'estainability' centre [sustainability centre]. We made homes for animals using things from sticks and rocks and pine bark. We played in the mud and water, and we played on hills. We went for a bushwalk looking for holes made by bandicoots. We saw some kind of owls in the tree [tawny frog mouths]. It was a happy day.”
