Primary School
Classroom News
We hope you enjoy reading the classroom news from each week of term in our Early Childhood and Primary School classes.
Kindergarten
As part of our inquiry this term, we have been learning about what lives in and around the Wild Space. To help us with our research, the Kindergarten classes took a walk to visit the old Fish Traps this week. These special traps were made a long time ago by the Menang Noongar people to catch fish. They used rocks and sticks to build them and some of the Fish Traps can still be seen today. This was a wonderful way to connect with nature and learn about the history of our local area.
Pre-Primary
Last Friday, the Pre-Primary students were visited by marine biologist Mr Ben Roots. Ben is undertaking a PhD in crab ecology. Naturally, we took Ben on our Wild Space walk so that he could tell us about the crabs we find on the shore of Oyster Harbour. Unfortunately, it was a very high tide, so we had to send Mrs Clifford off to find us a crab. Luckily, a crab was found! Ben told us that it was a smooth shore crab and it was a girl. You can tell by the oval shape on its underside. He told us all about our Wild Space crabs and we now know how to tell if a crab is cranky!
Year One
What a week! Last Friday was the Year One assembly and what a ‘superhero’ effort from everyone. I was so impressed by the way everyone read and performed in front of the big audience, particularly as many students have been away and the class only had a week to put the whole assembly together! This week, the Talk for Writing text Peace at Last has been introduced and the class has explored information reports on a deeper level. The number challenge of the week has been around the number 100 and what an amazing depth of knowledge the class has about this number. A highlight has been the Year One students showing off their fantastic reading skills by reading to their Djinda friends!
Year Two
The Year Two class has begun to work on their narrative writing. They started by looking at a picture prompt of a very scary dragon and some jewels and then wrote a narrative as a Cold Task. This will be used to guide learning and the students really enjoyed sharing their stories with their classmates. We then looked closely at the Story Mountain planner that we will use for writing these text types. We followed on by reading some story books and determining the characters, setting, introduction, problem, solution and ending in each of these. We cannot wait to delve further into this text type and come up with some fantastic creative ideas and plans for our writing.
Year Four
The Year Four class has been sharing their love of reading with their classmates by preparing and presenting, to the class, oral book reviews of books they have really enjoyed. They have practiced their digital literacy skills by creating PowerPoint presentations to complement their book talks and have all proven themselves to be very adept and engaging public speakers. They have expertly described the genre, setting, characters, orientation, complication, resolution and ending of their novels. The audience has enjoyed the presentations so much that there may be a danger of a stampede at the library with the whole class clamouring to borrow some of the books that have been reviewed. Many of our clever Year Four students have demonstrated some natural showmanship and salesmanship by making their books sound so fascinating that everyone is dying to read them − congratulations to these literary legends!
Year Five
The Year Five students have begun constructing their solar system models, and they have certainly used their creativity; some of the models are already taking shape to be excellent replicas of parts of our solar system. These will be on display for Week Ten.
We also welcomed parent Mr Ross Wegner, owner of Marshall Mowers, to talk to us about how he runs his business. This proved to be invaluable as we started work on our business plans for our market stalls. The students were very appreciative of this opportunity, asking many questions, giving them much insight into what they need to consider for their market stalls that are to be run on Monday 22 September.
Year Six
The Year Six students continued their exploration of biological sciences and informational writing by heading to the library and seeking advice from our wonderful Teacher Librarian, Ms Couper. Their mission was to hunt down reliable sources to support their research into animal adaptations in extreme habitats. With curiosity and focus, they sifted through books, databases and digital resources to uncover fascinating facts that will strengthen their reports. This important step helped them develop their skills as critical researchers.
Upcoming events
Week Eight
Friday 12 September, House Activities, House shirts please.
Sunday 14 September, Senior Secondary School Arts Exhibition - creARTe, Annette Knight Centre, 2.00pm.
Week Nine
Thursday 18 September, Kingfisher Concert Rehearsal Day, AEC, 9.00am to 3.00pm.
Thursday 18 September, Kingfisher Concert, AEC, 7.00pm to 9.30pm.
Week Ten
Monday 22 September, Primary School Market Day, Primary School Foyer & Playground 1.15pm to 3.15pm, small change needed for the stall activities.
Friday 26 September, Pre-Primary Assembly, location TBA, 9.00am all welcome to attend. Before and after the assembly, please help yourself to the tea and coffee set up at the back of the Hall.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and
Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood