Specialists News

Auslan News

Grade Preps have completed their Old MacDonald Had a Farm mini-books and will bring these home next week to sign along with you! Preps are now learning how to describe farm animals, using signs for: furry/fluffy, woolly, smelly, jumpy, poisonous, big, small, fast, slow, rough, smooth, and tall.

Grade Preps will be starting a learning task this week, which will include drawing and signing an animal, its colour and a body description in Auslan.

Grade 1-2s are continuing with their Animal topic this week also, revising Farm and Zoo animals, and now learning to describe and compare animals using signs including: describing, furry/fluffy, woolly, smelly, jumpy, poisonous, and feathered, big & small, fast & slow, rough & smooth, tall & short, bigger/smaller than, faster/slower than, rougher/smoother than, and taller/shorter than. 

Grade 3-4s have completed their posters on an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander sign language. This proved quite the task as there was not a lot of information aimed at children. With some fact sheets provided by Mrs R, the students demonstrated great resilience to complete this task and should feel a great sense of accomplishment having achieved the outcomes of the challenge! 

Grade 3-4s are now learning new signs in the topic of Transport: transport, travel, car, drive, boat, train, helicopter, plane, van, truck, bike, tram, motorbike, bus, caravan, and hot-air balloon.

Grade 5-6s have been revising Number signs to 1000 and beyond. Some basic rules to remember that we have been learning from our Learn Auslan Online videos include:

• Numbers 0-9 stay still.
• 10 is a flick of the hand!
• 11 & 12 are a pinch.
• The teens we shake!
• The tens we swipe.
• Hundreds turn and touch your chin.
• Thousands – the number first stays still and then the hand drops down with a point handshape for ‘thousand.’

If students are feeling confused by any of these little rules, please encourage them to come and check in with me for some more help.

Grade 5-6s have been applying these rules to Number topics, including signing: Ages from 1month old to 100+years old, Percentages, Fractions and Decimals, as well as Times for o’clock/half past/and all times in between. There is no sign for a.m. or p.m., but we use signs for morning, afternoon and night to differentiate times of day within the sentence we are signing.

Grade 5-6s are creating PowerPoints on a chosen Number topic to present to a small group to practise applying the rules and signs we are learning.

Mrs Riordan.

Sports News

Senior Athletics Sports.

Congratulations to all involved in the Senior School Athletics on Monday. We enjoyed perfect weather conditions for this action packed day on at the Flora Hill Complex. It was fantastic to see so many students participating to the best of their ability and enjoying themselves. The students participated in their age groups and completed eight events with an optional 800m at the end of the day. Every student who participated scored points toward their individual ribbon and their House. Our Champion House will be announced at our Assembly tomorrow.

The highlight of the day was the House 4 x 100m relay which was also won by ASHBY House. It was great to see the students cheering on their representatives in a wonderful display of team spirit. 

Congratulations to the following students who were Age Champions for their respective age groups. These students will be announced at our Assembly tomorrow and will receive their medallions later in the term (date TBC).

*Perfect Score (24 Points)

I would like to thank the SGPS staff, BSE and SEDA students for all of their work to ensure this was such a smooth running event.

District Athletics

Some students will now go on to represent the school at the Deborah District Sports on TUESDAY the 25th of June. These students will be informed of their selection as soon as possible and will receive specific information (including a timetable of events), via Compass in the coming weeks.

Loddon Mallee Region Cross Country

Good luck to Max H, Jed H, Taj W and Lottie Mc who will be representing Spring Gully Primary School and the Sandhurst Division at the Regional Cross Country Championships in St Arnaud on Tuesday the 28th May. This event features the best distance runners from North West, North Central and Central Victoria. The top 12 runners from this event will be invited to the State Cross Country Championships later in the year. We wish them all the best.