Specialist News

PE & Sport 

Prep:

In Physical Education, Foundation students practice fundamental movement skills and movement sequences using different motor skills in varied settings. During the semester, they will focus on catching, throwing, running and dodging. Foundation students learn how to move and play safely by following rules and using equipment correctly and further develop personal and social skills when working with others in a range of activities. Foundation students will be working on their listening skills and following instructions, both visual and voice commands during lessons. They will identify people and actions that help keep themselves safe and healthy as well as healthy eating in Health.

Grade 1/2:

In Grade 1/2, students continue to develop their fundamental motor skills and begin to apply them to small-sided games where they develop their communication and teamwork skills. During the semester, they will focus on catching, throwing, ball dribbling, striking, running and dodging. Students will be learning the correct way to apply these movement skills in indoor and outdoor situations. The students learn how to move and play safely by following rules and using equipment correctly. They will be working on their listening skills and following instructions during these lessons. Grade 1/2 students will be focusing on being active in different places & Healthy eating. 

Grade 3&4: 

In Grade 3 and 4, students further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to their health, wellbeing, safety and participation in physical activity. They are introduced to the major sports of soccer, basketball, softball, netball and AFL through modified games and begin to participate in skill related activities. Grade 3 and 4 students will focus on kicking, handballing, marking, dribbling by foot, passing and goal shooting in soccer. They will participate in minor and invasion games, which promote physical movement, teamwork, cooperation and leadership through fun activities. Grade 3 and 4 students will be focusing on being active in different places & Healthy eating.

Grade 5&6: 

In Grade 5 and 6, students further develop knowledge, understanding and skills to create opportunities and take action to enhance their own and others’ health, wellbeing, safety and physical activity participation. Students participate in the major sports of netball, basketball, softball, soccer, AFL and learn some tactics to apply to the games. Grade 5 and 6 students will participate in minor and invasion games that promote physical movement, teamwork, cooperation and leadership. These require more detailed tactics and promote the student’s ability to communicate within their group to have a successful outcome in the activity. Grade 5 and 6 students will be focusing on Promoting physical health & Healthy eating. Some students participate in interschool sports of bat tennis, basketball and softball.

STEM at Pascoe Vale North Primary School  

STEM is one of the specialist programs for Pascoe Vale North Primary School.  All students have a 1 hour lesson each week in the STEM Portable, which is the closest portable to Derby St. STEM is taught by me (Mr Stephen Lytton)

I teach at the school from Monday to Thursday. There are two rooms in the STEM portable. One is set up for a crafting/building room and the other for written work and science experiments. 

Our STEM lessons will be focussed around the 4 main areas of Science that we report against in Primary School. A Science progression point (or score) is given once the students starts grade 3. The areas of science are Chemical Science (Term 1), Earth and Space (Term 2), Physics (Term 3) and Biology (Term 4). However this will be the guide for our content, as during STEM lessons, students will be guided to make their own discoveries through an inquiry model of learning. Students will usually work in groups to complete experiments and test theories using the scientific method; or design and construct things using the engineering method.  Lessons will also integrate Maths, Digital Technology, Engineering and Design skills. This style of learning promotes problem solving, critical thinking and group collaboration.

So you can imagine, STEM lessons can be fun, loud, chaotic and sometimes challenging.

If you ever have any questions or would like to contact me - the easiest way is to drop me an email on stephen.lytton@education.vic.gov.au 

There may be situations where I may email you about a student’s work, behaviour or if the student seems to be consistently absent.

In  Prep (or Foundation) for Term 1, we will start off by looking at the concepts of what is a Scientist and what is an Engineer. We will then use fairy tales to look at different materials and their properties (The 3 little pigs/Gingerbread man).  We look at the observable properties, what we know about them and how we can change those properties. During our lessons, we will explore building and crafting with different materials, sinking and floating,  and how we choose materials for a purpose. At the end of the Term we will start our journey of looking at digital technologies (iPads Apps and using the Bluebot Robots). The technology component will be built on throughout the school year.

In Grade 1 and 2 for Term 1, we are looking at the materials that we use in our daily lives and identifying the observable properties.  Our main focus will be around why we choose materials for different purposes (such as building). We will investigate, experiment and research how changing the properties changes the purpose (such as  cooling or freezing) and how it affects the use of the item. This will finish with a sensory bottle experiment (that can be taken home.)  The children will also compete in a lego challenge and will continue their ‘coding’ journey that we started last year by using the bluebot robots and the Scratch junior app.

In Grade 3 and 4,  in the first half of the term, we are looking at the changes in the states of matter and the properties of materials. We will investigate and experiment using the transfer of heat and we will run an experiment to test and prevent the transfer of heat. We will learn about the water cycle and the process of condensation, evaporation and renewal.  For our technology component of STEM, we will continue to learn our block coding (using code.org) and visual block coding to control the Sphero robots. The Sphero robots are introduced when students start grade 3 and continued to be used for the remainder of Primary school.

In Grade 5 and 6 for Term 1,  we will be exploring, researching, investigating and experimenting around chemical change for the states of matter. We will look at liquids, solids, gases and how they behave based on their observable properties - and then experiment with to try and change those properties. We will make slime (or ooblek or  floam - both slime variants that demonstrate different properties) towards the end of the Term. Scattered throughout the term, the students will continue their coding journey through code.org and we will look at the concept of digital footprints and internet safety. The grade 5-6 students will be expected to complete a lesson on using the Sphero robots and learn how to program the Spheros to be capable of more than just direct input movement. 

I will be discussing the students about them setting up a STEM project by the end of the Term which will also be incorporated into our STEM lessons throughout the year. The students will be able to choose their own groups and own projects (some materials may need to be sourced from home).  This is still a new development and whilst I am hoping for it to be 'more' student driven, we will work on establishing a framework for the students to launch their investigation during this Semester.

Visual Arts 

Hi there! My name is Denise Diamantopoulos but our students call me Ms Denise. I am the Visual Arts teacher. I work Tuesday to Friday. My Visual Art room is next to the Music and Performing Arts room. Below is the Visual Arts foci, art elements and principles and activities I will be teaching the students in each year level.   

In Foundation in Term 1, our art foci are drawing, collage and painting. We will look at primary colours and experiment blending them to make secondary colours. We will do marble painting to make our own colour monsters using paper plates and pipe cleaners. We will explore the concept of symmetry and look at things that have their both sides exactly the same. We will make symmetry painting of colourful beetles using acrylic paints in primary colours. We will explore shapes in things around us and draw the house we live in.

Art Foci: drawing, collage and painting

Art Elements and Principles covered: Colours, Shapes and Balance

Picture story books used: 'Little Blue and Little Yellow' by Leo Lionni, 'Monsters Love Colours' by Mike Austin.

In grade 1 and 2 for Term 1, we kicked off the year by exploring positive space and negative spaces. We learned to trace an object to create the positive space and then to decorate the negative space (the area around the object) with patterns and lines. We will explore warm and cool colours and monochromatic colours. We will complete our own colour wheels and paint monochromatic fish using water colour paints and black markers for the scales. We will study the artist Wassily Kadinsky, his art styles and artwork and create Kadinsky inspired print using lines and shapes. 

Art Focus: drawing and painting

Art Elements and Principles covered: Colour, Contrast, Shape and Space

Artist covered: Wassily Kadinsky

In grade 3 and 4 for Term 1, we were first introduced to Japanese Nōtan art, which is about the harmonious balance between dark and light, the positive space and negative space. We drew both geometric and organic shapes that we cut out to create their mirror images. We will learn about Wassily Kadinsky and the way he would use geometric shapes in his paintings. We will create Kadinsky inspired circles using complementary colours. We will learn to use monochromatic colours when creating a selfie with colour pencils and watercolour paints. We will celebrate the end of Term 1 by learning how to create neurographic art with chalk. 

Art Foci: drawing and painting

Art Elements and Principles covered: Balance, Space, Shapes and Value

Artist covered: Wassily Kadinsky

In grade 5 and 6 for Term 1, we learnt about Japanese Nōtan art, which is about the harmonious balance between dark and light, the positive space and negative space. We then drew some designs on square pieces of cardboard and cut them out carefully and flipped them over to create their mirror images. We will explore monochromes and monochromatic colours and investigate well-known artists, such as Caspar David Friedrich and Claude Monet, who used monochromes and monochromatic colours in their artwork. We will create monochromatic landscape paintings using water colour paints or oil pastels. We will learn how to create neurographic art using black markers and colour pencils.  

Art Foci: drawing and painting

Art Elements and Principles covered: Balance, Space, Lines and Value

Artists covered: Caspar David Friedrich and Claude Monet

I am excited to share with you that we will be holding an Art Show in the latter part of Term 3 this year. We will send more information about our Art Show closer to the time. In the meantime, I will be collecting plastic bottle tops, caps and lids for our collaborative mosaic project. I would really appreciate if you could donate clean bottle tops, caps and lids for Visual Arts. These items can be dropped off or sent to Visual Arts with your child or placed in the light blue crate placed outside Visual Arts room. 

Thank you

Denise Diamantopoulos

Visual Arts specialist

Music and Performing Arts

Hello/Assalamu Alaikum/Yama/Hola, Nĩ Hão, Ciao, Annyeong Haseyo, Kon'nichiwa everybody! We got off to a great start in the Music and Performing Arts Department. This year we will be covering Music theory and performing and also have the Talent Show in Term 3.

Band Auditions:

Band auditions will be in next week (Week 3) and (Week 4) at the start of lunch Wednesday, They are open this year to Grades 3-6. If it is a draw in the audition the older student will get the role.  Roles include:

4x Singers (Audition with 1 verse and 1 chorus of a song only)

1-2x Keyboard (Chords to a Pop or Rock song preferred , as that is what we will be playing)

1-2 Guitars (Chords and riffs to a Pop or Rock song preferred , as that is what we will be playing)

1x Bass (1 bass line verse and chorus)

If you play another instrument, feel free to bring it in, to try out. 

This Term, Preps will be looking at how sounds work. They explore playing percussion in time and to the beat through singing and playing simple songs. We will look at crotchets, loud and softs and working together as a class.

Grade 1/2s, are exploring songs with actions. We will look at notating rhythms and playing them to the beat at different speeds (tempos). We will explore the treble clef and writing our own rhythms and melodies.

Grade 3/6 will be introduced to the Ukulele, exploring reading chord charts and TAB. Grade 3/4 will begin with songs such as Smoke on the Water anmd Happy Birthday, while 5-6 will look at MGMT Kids (chords, melody and for the advanced a mix of both at the same time). They will also explore picking techniques and playing their own songs of choice.