Year 5 Camp Reflections

Year 4 Museum Excursion

On Monday, the Year 4s visited The First Peoples exhibition, at Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum. The students were able to explore artefacts and expand on their learning of Aboriginal Australians.

This week our students are writing a descriptive piece based off their chosen artefact from the museum. We have already made a start in our Writer’s Notebook.

A big thank you to our amazing ES staff and all our wonderful parent helpers: Ross, Sarah, Mayling, Stacey and Jodi.

STEM

World Bee Day was this week on May 20th!

Our Year 1 & 2 students celebrated in STEM by learning the bee ‘waggle dance’ and making buzzing bees to simulate the power of pollination!

The Year 1s and 2s have been working their way through the Writing Process on a narrative text type. This has included pre-writing, writing, rewriting, editing and publishing. To wrap up our unit, some students have started sharing their work with the class through the Author's Chair. It's been wonderful to see students who are comfortable to share their creativity and receive feedback from their peers.

This week in Prep, we have learnt the sounds /b/ and /l/, read a story about friendship, explored our home community and how we/others can help at home, and started making number bonds within 10. Our Discovery prompts were

English: Can you paint the b-b-butterflies and use the l-l-leaves to decorate?

Maths: Can you find numbers that add to 10 to solve the puzzle?

Collage: Can you make some paper-chain friends?

Construction: Can you build a b-b-boat?

Dramatic Play: How can you help at home in the l-l-laundry?

Fine Motor: Can you make a friendship bracelet for someone?

This week's Inspectors were Alayah & Oliver K (PNT), Levi & Bonnie (PMB), Ellen & Angad (PBF). All photos were what our inspectors captured in our Discovery sessions.

As part of our recent unit on civics and citizenship, Year 4 students have been learning about the role of local government and the importance of active community participation. This exploration has sparked great interest among the students, who have taken the time to observe their local environment and reflect on ways they believe our community could be improved. As a result, the students have written letters addressed to local councillors, sharing some of their thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. One of our students was very happy to receive a reply to her letter!

Essie, thank you so much for your letter that your teacher, Ms. Reading forwarded on to me.

You will be pleased to know that Council has recently undertaken a review of our playgrounds, and I can report to you that there will be upgrades to a number of them over the next 12 months or so. I can specifically mention that the one at Lipscombe Park (behind the McAdam Square shops) is about to undergo a complete rebuild.

As you know Maroondah has a lot of playgrounds and what we try to do is not make them all the same. That way, children of all ages and abilities and indeed those with disabilities all have access to playgrounds.

I am not sure where in Croydon Hills you live, but you might also ask your parents to take you to the playground at McAlpin Reserve off Wonga Road that has recently been upgraded. I am told everyone loves that one, and it is not that far away from your home. I think the playground at Yarrunga Reserve sounds like the type of playground that you seem to be after as it has features that seem a bit more challenging.

I absolutely love the idea of children getting out and about and enjoying our playgrounds rather than sitting at home, so I do hope you get to see some of our many playgrounds that are throughout Maroondah.

Can I thank you and Ms. Reading for emailing me to tell me about your experiences at our playgrounds and I hope you get to enjoy the new one at Lipscombe Park when it opens.

I will ask our maintenance team to have a look at Candle Bark Reserve to make sure it is safe.

Kind regards,

Cr. Rob Steane OAM
Emeritus Mayor (2011-12, 2018-19, 2022-23)
Councillor for the Yarrunga Ward
Chair – Maroondah Liveability, Safety, & Amenity Committee
Maroondah Business Advisory Committee

The Harvest

2025/15 · 22 May 2025

In this issue