Years 3 -6 Community News

Hello Everyone

Wow, what an amazing term we have had here at the college! Camps, Athletics days, Remote learning, Chromebook discoveries not to mention the daily classroom work our amazing students have been doing. The 3-6’s are really looking forward to a well earned break!

HASS

This term in HASS our 3/4 students have been focussing on civics and citizenship. Students looked at “changemakers”; people who have made a difference our world in a positive way. Students finished off the topic with a “pay it forward” project. Projects included cleaning up the school, leaving positive notes hidden for classmates, building bird feeders, planting flowers and many more innovative ways they, at their age and in their way, can make a positive difference in our world.

Year 5 have looked at the challenges of the Economics & Business curriculum with a fabulous inquiry learning experience loosely based on the hit television show Shark Tank. They established the differences between needs and wants and that the goal of most businesses (excluding not-for-profit organisations) is to make a profit. With this knowledge up their sleeve, the challenge then became to think of a product or service that would fill a need in the market place. 

As we move towards celebrating all of this hard work, students will seek the support of their audience who will decide which creative and conceivable ideas are worth ‘backing’. 

What has been most encouraging about this learning experience is that students have thought critically about their business model, identified challenges and opportunities and developed clever products that may give them ‘the market edge’.

Year 6’s have been busy working on their Kids Thrive projects. Kids Thrive program gives students a real world opportunity to lead positive change in their community. Our students have been building their skills in communication, resilience, problem solving, community connections and collaboration. Last week the students “pitched” their ideas and were awarded funding to produce their projects. This work will continue into next term when students will perform their community action then finish with an expo where students will have the opportunity to showcase their work and explain how they have impacted their local community.  There is an article in the Northerly Aspects about the Program that we encourage you to look out for

Camps

Our year 4 students were lucky enough to spend an enjoyable day/overnight at Staughton Vale camp situated at the eastern corner of the Brisbane Ranges. Despite the windy weather, students were able to get outdoors and experience a variety of team building activities and group experiences. Everyone pitched in to collect wood so a fire could be built to sit around, chat and cook damper.  We discovered some “expert” toasted marshmallow chiefs who made sure the marshmallows were cooked ‘just right’ while others happily ate slightly overcooked (burnt) marshmallows. At night, students and staff had fun with a team trivia challenge.

Here is a clip of some of the fun.

Year 5 students went to Anglesea for a three day camp. Here is what some of them had to say:

I loved it! We went to good sites on our bike ride. The food was good, especially the schnitzel, wrap and ice-cream!

The camp was good. They had lots of different food. They had a different choice of activities that weren’t like your normal activities. My favourite activity was archery because I knew how to do it so it was easy.

Camp was fun. There were great activities like flying fox. The food was great. I liked rock climbing even though it was hard.

Camp was fun. It was annoying in the cabins when there was snoring all night. The game rooms was fun because it had ping pong. My favourite activity was orienteering.

NOW LETS SEE THE ACTION! These kids rule the world

Writers workshop

Sarah Cole, one of the College's teachers has just become an author having her first book published last month. To inspire students she has been conducting writers workshops -m so far at Goldsworthy and Hendy. Hopefully Sarah will be able to bring her love of writing to other students across 3-8.

Our college Library team bring Authors to the college to showcase their skills.

Chromebooks

Chromebooks continue to be used daily in 3-6 classrooms. This term we have done some exciting work on our Chromebooks including Paygrade, Canva, podcasts, Google slides and much more. This work allowed our students to slip seamlessly into remote learning, then seamlessly back to face to face. Here is what our students think about our Chromebook work:

Paygrade is a really good app because it teaches kids how to save their money and learn about money. My job as banker is a little bit hard when people don’t listen and sometimes it is easy.

My role is to do a weekly class podcast. It’s important because it wraps up what we have done throughout the week. I enjoy the podcast because you can’t really be scared because you don’t have an audience sitting in front of you.

I really enjoy using Paygrade. We earn a lot of money then can buy rewards with it. My job is classroom librarian and I earn $200 a week.

I create a newsletter every week that talks about what is happening in the 3-6 area. I include the main things that are happening and information about it. I use Canva to make the newsletter. I choose the fonts. It’s important to know how to upload pictures that show evidence of what is happening in the community.

Performing Arts

The Hendy and Peacock students have been finalising their Performing Arts working with Miss Perry over the last 6 weeks. 

We look forward to starting Performing Arts with the Wexford and Tallis students after the break.

The Year 3/4's have been exploring emotions using a program on their chrome books called Chrome Music Lab.

The Year 5's have been exploring the musical instrument family. Students then used this knowledge to design and build their own music instruments