Classroom News
Harmony Day
We celebrated Harmony Day on Monday with an afternoon of cross age activities. Our four activities were chosen to provide variety and a taste of some cultures which have contributed to our multicultural society.
Emily, Anna and Nicole led a South East Asian bamboo dance called Tinikling (the national dance of the Philippines).
Kathryn led an activity based on the book 'In My Garden' by Kate Mayes and Tamsyn Ainslie. Students explored the origin of different spices and herbs from around the world.
Dave led a running game called Edor from the Aurukun community in Far North Queensland. Students had a lot of fun while getting their heart rates up. It's a game everyone in the school knows now so you can expect to see people racing around shouting 'Edor' in the playground sometime soon.
Ellen and Kim read students the book 'Collecting Colour' by Kylie Dunstan and then taught how to plait Harmony bracelets using raffia.
Year 4-6 Inquiry
Identity – Understanding & Managing Emotions
Students have been exploring the emotions they might feel and the choices they may face when they encounter challenging situations. Students have been practising saying no, making safe choices, and managing strong emotions through role-play and games. They have designed their own board games to help others understand and manage different emotions through drawing, acting and problem solving.
Wellbeing
Year 2/3 Friendship and Belonging - conflict and emotional regulation strategies
This afternoon, Kim's 2/3 Wellbeing group worked through the natural consequences of 'kind and mean' actions. This is part of their Grow Your Mind unit on friendship and belonging.
These year levels are often when teachers notice an increase in friendship conflicts, tensions and upsets. I'm sure parents and carers notice them at home as well. This unit uses the Golden Rules of Friendship as a foundation to build the skills students need to maintain friendships, manage conflict constructively, and understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy arguments. Students also learn to distinguish between bullying, defined as repeated and deliberate unkind behaviour, and everyday disagreements or one-off incidents.
A key focus of the unit is emotional regulation. Students develop emotional literacy, practise mindful breathing, and explore how different situations may affect their own feelings and the feelings of others. They learn to recognise emotional triggers and early warning signs, predict their responses, and reflect on more helpful choices. Each lesson includes hands-on practice with practical self-regulation strategies.
This week's resources are shown here. They can be a helpful basis for discussions at home as well as at school in negotiating difficult behaviours (as well as recognising positive behaviours), as children learn the effect that their actions can have on others.
Class 3/4 with Kathryn
Students have been working on place value and problem solving in maths. The Year 4s have looked into decimal tenths, hundredths and thousandths.
The Potato Olympics
Anna's 4/5 class hosted a very special event over the last week, The Potato Olympics! Students put their potatoes through their paces across multiple events: pole vault, shot put, diving, luge and ice-skating. By the end of our event, some potatoes had morphed into lemons.
Bob The Great II and Peeling Potato came equal first overall.
Students had a fantastic time measuring volume, weight, length and time.
Electives
Kitchen Garden
Our second rotation of students have been busy preparing a garden bed for seedlings. Students have planted beetroot, broccoli, leek and wombok. They have survive their first cold snap overnight which is promising for a great harvest.
Dice and Board Games
This week, groups of students discovered and began to master the games of Pictionary and Blokus.
