Primary School

The end of term is always an exciting time in the Primary School, as inquiry learning moves into its most engaging project phase. Classrooms are filled with impressive displays that showcase a term’s worth of curiosity, creativity and hard work.

As we wrap up the term, we look forward to several special events: the Year Six Transition Meeting and the Year Two Assembly in Week Ten, followed by the much-anticipated House Mathematics Relay in Week Eleven. Also, we wish our Interschool Cross Country team the very best of luck as they compete tomorrow at Centennial Oval against primary schools from across Albany.

Classroom News

Please see the classroom news below. Some fantastic experiences are happening in our classrooms; we hope you enjoy reading about them.

Djinda

We have been busy exploring cardboard boxes, brainstorming what we could create and constructing in small groups. Children needed to listen to their friends' ideas, collaborate and work together as a team. It was fast-paced, messy and a whole lot of fun! This week we will continue to decorate our rocket, car wash, cubby house and box digger.

Kindergarten

We are really enjoying telling the story of Rosie’s Walk for Talk for Writing. The actions are lots of fun, especially the directional language. We have been reviewing our letters: s, a, t, p, i, n. This week we made BINGO boards and played with our peers to see who could get all the letter sounds in a row. As the winter weather is here, we have been playing lots of fun indoor games. Dressing up is certainly a highlight and building marvellous Lego creations is too. 

Pre-Primary 

In Mathematics the focus this week has been on ‘addition’. We have practised joining two groups together to make a total. We have played lots of addition games and learned that the ‘+’ sign means add, plus or more. We also learned that the ‘=’ sign means that the amount on the left side of the sign is exactly the same as the amount on the right side of the sign! Did you know 2+2=4?

Year One

What an exciting week! After writing some amazing excursion recounts (and enjoying the photos Mrs Gouldthorp took), the Year One class started the Technologies design process by creating plans for their 3D-model playgrounds. On Friday the day arrived for them to start the construction process, and how excited they were! The Year One students were joined by Mr Hardey’s Year Four class, who had just completed their learning on safety tools, which was a perfect way for these older students to put their knowledge into action by modelling the safe use of tools (mainly glue guns). What followed was a wonderful celebration of collaborative talk and learning between these two year groups, making for a busy but highly productive classroom. The children are eagerly awaiting the next stage of the building process and photos of the finished models should be available next week!

Year Two

Over the last few weeks, we have been working hard collecting information and using the laptops to research significant people and places in Albany’s history, and we are finally up to the fun part: presenting! Before we could begin poster creations, we had to reword our research into our own words and clump them together to be presented in paragraphs. It was a tricky task, but we are superstars and persevered through. We have now begun the process of creating an informative and engaging poster. We cannot wait for you to see them displayed!

Year Three 

We have been carefully observing what is happening to the carrot tops. As part of our investigation, we are exploring whether they are living, non-living, or once-living, and recording the changes we notice over time. We have also been very busy researching and planning a project in which we compare a chosen location in Australia with a location in a neighbouring country. As part of this work, we have been examining the similarities and differences in climate, people, and natural features. This has helped us to develop a deeper understanding of how different environments influence the way people live. We are looking forward to presenting and displaying our findings and sharing all the knowledge we have gained through our investigations and research.

Year Four

Students have been putting their observation skills to the test by exploring around the school, noticing changes, collecting data and turning their findings into clear graphs. They have been looking closely for patterns and using their results to help them represent information in different ways.

In writing, students are now in the editing and publishing stage of their suspense texts. They are working hard to improve their spelling, punctuation and sentence structure, as well as refining their use of tension and powerful vocabulary to make their stories more engaging and exciting for their readers.

Year Five

As we draw towards the end of our Avatar: The Last Airbender unit of inquiry, the students have been posed a creative question: What bending moves will be representative of their created nation? The answer, of course, had to be seen to be believed. The students were guided through a Tai Chi session by Chief Airbender Miss Laneaux-Neale. They then had to take their newfound composure and elegance to come up with a brace of offensive and defensive moves outside our classroom, using the balance and strength of our Tai Chi session as guidance. The results were incredible, with students showing movements reminiscent of martial arts, coupled with the timing of a synchronised diving pair. Perhaps I am biased, but even the most cynical passerby would at least think we were recreating a scene from a 1960s hippy crowd. It is great to see how engaging this whole unit has been from start to finish. Stay tuned, as next week sees us create stylish costumes to facilitate such extravagant bending moves.

Year Six

We have begun our investigations in chemical science. Thank you to Mrs McAllister for kindly letting us use the Hospitality room and to Mrs Cherry for helping us when needed. In Mathematics we are looking at chance and getting ourselves into a ‘spin’ by reviewing the chance of spinning different numbers and colours. We are also creating games to play in Week Eleven. Mrs Mackenzie is nearing the end of her practicum and put Year Six O through their paces to test our heart rates and put the results on graphs. 

ECC Briefing 

The following superstars have worked exceptionally well and received a Star Award for their outstanding efforts. 

Kindergarten A: Cali Williamson

Kindergarten B: Alaina Chen 

Pre-Primary A: Beatrice Nelson

Pre-Primary B: Isobel Henry

Year One: Noah Derrick

Year Two B: Sebastian Pyle

Primary School Briefing

Students have been focusing on the value of Courage this past week. Well done to the following students who stood out within their classrooms:

Year Three: Lucie McCutcheon

Year Four: Harry Vesey 

Year Five: Kendra Atkins and Poppy John

Year Six: Layla Glendinning and Taylah Gent

Brag Award – Uniform Focus

Congratulations to Year Six Sandy, who took out the Brag Award this week. 

House Quiz Results

On Friday our House Leaders ran a quiz afternoon, testing each House on their teamwork and general knowledge. 

Well done to our winners: Baudin!

Baudin 147

Wilson 137

Mokare 131

Camfield 129

Ten-Minute Tables

Congratulations to the students who achieved a personal best in the June Ten-Minute Tables. 

We have our first Year Three student to join the 120 Club! Well done, Athena! Congratulations to the students already there and our new ones.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood