Student Learning
Technology Hub News
It’s been an incredibly exciting and action-packed time in the Technologies Hub lately! This semester, our focus has been on the Design and Technologies strand of the curriculum — where students think like designers and creators.
When designing a product, students first consider who they’re designing for, brainstorm lots of ideas, then refine their best one. Of course, the most fun part is making a prototype and testing it out! Afterwards, students reflect and make improvements based on what they learned.
Year 6 – Mr Men & Little Miss Characters
Our Year 6 students have been busy writing and illustrating their own Mr Men or Little Miss books, a much looked forward to, Year 6 only task! Using Makers Empire and our 3D printer, students brought their characters to life by creating 3D models of them. We can’t wait to share these special creations with their Foundation buddies very soon!
Year 5 – Bubble Wand Designers
Our Year 5 students have been hard at work using the Design Thinking Process to create custom bubble wands for their Year 1/2O buddies. They began by testing a range of bubble wands, rating how easy they were to use and how big the bubbles were. Using that data, they designed their own bubble wands in Makers Empire, which were then 3D printed! We haven’t tested them with all our buddies just yet, but a few lucky students have already had an early preview.
Years 3/4 – Indonesian Marketplaces in VR
Last term, our Year 3/4 students combined technology, creativity, and Indonesian, in a cross-curricular project. Using Generative AI to develop marketplace backgrounds and CoSpaces, they designed authentic Indonesian marketplaces, complete with bartering scenes and food descriptions in Indonesian. Students even got to share their virtual markets with families during Learning Journeys using the VR goggles — such an amazing experience!
Years 1/2 – Materials in Motion
Our Year 1/2 students have been exploring how different materials are suited to different purposes. We’ve already tested which materials float, roll, slide, or fly, and next, we’ll be designing and creating our very own kites using lightweight materials. The best part? We’ll be heading outside to fly our creations soon — stay tuned on Seesaw for updates!
The Technologies Hub is always buzzing with creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. It’s wonderful to see our students thinking critically, designing imaginatively, and having so much fun while they learn!
Libby Spencer
Specialist Technologies Teacher
What's been happening in Year 5/6M
It’s hard to believe we are at Term 4 already! We have a jam-packed term ahead of us, and have already been busy getting stuck into some of our final assignments. Please take a look at what the students have been getting up to.
English
This term we are focusing on narrative writing! We have begun by looking at planning our narratives using a story graph organiser. To familiarise the students with the structure of a narrative, we watched a couple of pixar short stories, and had a go at identifying the sizzling start, the growing problems (pebble, stone, boulder), and the exciting ending in them. We then put these into the same story graph that we will soon use to plan our own narratives.
Maths
The Year 5s have especially enjoyed our most recent unit - Chance! We conducted our own chance experiments that involved rolling dice, flipping coins, and pulling counters out of a bag. We are moving onto Data next, where we will conduct surveys to gather our own data and explore the ways that we can represent this in graphs.
HASS
In HASS we have been looking at two separate topics: Managing Emotions and Healthy Eating. On Mondays, the students have been identifying different kinds of emotions and strategies for how to manage them. They are currently making a resource that can be used to help us get into the green zone. On Thursdays, we have been learning about the benefits of different food groups and how we can plan a balanced diet.
Art
This term the students are learning sculpting and modelling techniques. Their main project is linked to one of their HASS topics, where they will create a 3D plate of healthy food. Last week, the students began by making the “plate” out of paper mache.
Abbey McKennall
Year 5/6 Class Teacher
Kangaroo Island Trip
In Week 1 of this term our Year 6 students enjoyed one of the most anticipated events of the year - the KI camp! We were treated with clear skies and sunny days as we explored the island. Some of our experiences included: Seal Bay, Remarkable Rocks, KI Living Honey Farm, Raptor Domain, Little Sahara, and more! We felt very blessed for the opportunity to learn, explore, and make precious memories together.
Abbey McKennall
Year 5/6 Class Teacher
Students 'head over heels' about Zoo Snooze
On Thursday and Friday of Week 9, the combined Year 3s took part in one of the highlights of their Pilgrim journey - The Zoo Snooze! This overnight camp is an opportunity for students to come face to face with many of the animals they research in their HASS unit on South-East Asian rainforests.
With happy hugs and brave smiles (for many this was the first time being away from home without family) we set off, arriving at the Zoo to animal calls and birds swooping through the enclosure by Gate 3. Once we had secured our luggage, the next few hours were spent sharing lunch together, making the most of every bit of the adventure playground, and then breaking into small groups to explore the Zoo. We met together again for some activities run by the Zoo guide before dinner, then a warm night walk to get up close with the Maned Wolf, Binturong and Fennec Foxes to name a few.
After setting a new record for being fully packed up and ready to leave before breakfast, we headed back out for a guided tour while we still had the Zoo to ourselves and said farewell to the animals waking up from the night and the nocturnal animals going off to sleep.
Next, the bus took us to Bounce where we had nearly 2 hours to try trampolining, dodge ball (Mrs Baker showed the students, she's got a pretty good aim!) and time to show our skills at jumping, flipping upside down and getting airborne. After lunch we arrived back at school very tired and happy, with special memories to share and the pride of achieving one of the big milestones in our Pilgrim journey from Foundation to Year 6.
Many thanks to the volunteer parents Angela and Clint, and Inclusive Education Coordinator, Yiota Chesterfield for making this milestone a huge success.
Here are some comments from Year 3s who attended.
The blind echidna licking my nose!
from Mabel
Seeing my favourite animal of all time - the Capybara.
from Jackson
The best thing about the Zoo Snooze was probably the night walk.
from Sofia
I loved also going to Bounce and playing dodgeball with all my friends!
from Jacob P
Andrew Harris
Year 3/4 Class Teacher
Mary Anning Art Prize
Students from across the year levels recently completed their entries into the Mary Anning Art Prize. This is the first time Pilgrim School has entered the competition, so we’re very excited to see the results when they are announced. Each entry was an artwork of a chosen animal from the South Australian Fossil Record, and students presented how they saw the animals when they were alive. Each artwork told a story about the animal, so as well as being beautiful to look at, they helped to promote scientific understanding of the world-famous assemblage of fossils that we have here in our State.
Congratulations to everyone who entered!
Andrew Harris
Year 3/4 Class Teacher, Visual Arts Coordinator
Trent Hill Visit
On Friday the 24th of October our school community enjoyed a visit from Trent Hill. Trent is a Noongar man from Western Australia and grew up here in South Australia on Kaurna land. He is an educator and guide who has worked at the Botanic Gardens for more than 10 years leading programs for kindergartens and schools.
Behind our Year 3/4 classrooms some of our Year 1 students worked with Mrs Cooke and Mr Bawden this term to plant some new foliage in our ‘bush tucker garden.’ This collection has plants that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use for food and other purposes. Trent spent time in this new garden talking about these plants and their use.
Trent also shared Aboriginal artefacts with the children, and discussed cultural knowledge about seasonal movements, roles of men, women and children, and the diversity of Aboriginal people. We learnt about traditional hunting techniques and how the tools varied in their uses.
Students were highly engaged throughout the sessions and had many questions and wonderings to share with Trent and one another.
Andrew Edmondson
Principal
Year 1/2 Excursion
Our Year 1/2 classes had an amazing excursion to Glenthorne National Park. We spent the day exploring and building creative cubbies using mostly natural resources. We also had a fantastic time at the adventure playground, climbing, sliding, and discovering all the fun equipment. It was a day full of teamwork, imagination and outdoor fun in one of Adelaide’s beautiful natural spaces.
Tricia Fuente
Year 1/2 Class Teacher
