Around the Primary Classes

Nature Play

One of our community's elders, Uncle Hank, joined the ELC and Kinder students at Nature Play last week and to their delight, he could call their names out while playing the didgeridoo. Some students were painted with ochre while others made nests out of materials they found at Lambert Park.

Prep

On Friday 2 August, our Prep students celebrated their first 100 days of full time schooling.  The students have been learning how special events are celebrated and planned their big day.  Their ideas included 100 minutes of no learning, balloons, cake and a dance party with 100 guests invited.  The students also dressed as 100 year old ladies.  

The girls looked fantastic in their costumes and enjoyed getting into character. The biggest highlight of the day was the dance party with our special cake.  The girls were so excited to share their party with their families, staff  and Grade 4 buddies. 

We thank everyone who helped to make our day so special. 

Year One

On Monday 5th August, Year 1 went on an excursion to the Marine discovery Centre. We spent the entire bus ride to Woodbridge in excited anticipation. It took a long time to get there!  First, we met our teacher Andrew and he gave us an animal hunt worksheet. We then entered the centre and explored the fish tanks and the big pool which was full of fish! We saw seahorse, starfish, crayfish, salmon, a puffer fish, a skate and even a shark! After our animal hunt, we were told that we could pat the animals in the pool! We got to pat a skate and Andrew tried to encourage the shark to come to the surface for us to pat, but he was a bit cheeky, and kept swimming just out of our reach. The skate was very friendly, it looked like he was trying to climb out of the tank. He felt soft and slippery. Skates are different to stingrays because they don’t have a barb on their tail, so they won’t hurt you. 

Next, we got to go into the touch tank room. This room was full of sea creatures that you might find in rock pools. There were starfish, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, crabs, sea urchins and sea anemones. We were allowed to pick up any animal we wanted! The sea cucumbers were slimy and felt weird. The hermit crabs gave us a shock when the snapped back into their shells.

After recess, we spent were split into groups to rotate through four different activities. One activity was to make a diorama of a rocky reef or ocean. The next activity was making animals from the midnight zone who have bioluminescent features. The midnight zone is the deepest darkest part of the ocean. We got to look at our pictures in a dark room and see them glow. The other two activities included looking at plankton through a microscope and examining creatures from the rock pool up close. Did you know that plankton are so small you can’t see they with your eyes, only through the microscope? Also, did you know that starfish don’t have any blood? They pump and flush sea water through their body. Our last activity was feeding the fish in the tank. We each had a stick with a little fish pegged on the end. The salmon were fast feeders and splashed us with water. The skate’s mouth was underneath its body, we had to let the skate sit on top of the stick to feed. And the flounder didn’t have any teeth, so we had to release our fish from the stick so it could suck it to eat it. We learnt so many things at the Marine Discovery Centre and had the best day!

Year Two

PJ Day was a hit on Friday, with Primary students and staff embracing the comfy attire for the day. A total of $450 was raised, all of which will be donated to the Hobart Dogs' Home.

Year 2 students fully embraced the combination of post-lunch meditation and PJs...but after a short rest, they were once again ready to go!

Year Five

On a recent Nature Play session, the Year 1 students were accompanied by their Year 5 Buddies, with great excitement and cooperation. They even found the clay patch and took some time out for some self-care.