Specialist Subjects

 Physical Education

Welcome back for Term 2. This term will be as busy as ever. We have cross country, athletics, soccer, netball, swimming lessons and lots more. 

EPS Cross Country - we held our X Country on the 19th of April. It was a fantastic day for the school which saw lots of kids putting in their very best efforts. It was also great to have so many parents around and we really appreciate those who helped out. The top 4 students from each age group (8+) competed at the Division X Country on May 1st. 

Fit For Life/Mother's Day Classic - this term Fit For Life is on again and our event for the term is the Mother's Day Classic on May 12th. This event helps raise much needed money for women with breast and ovarian cancer. We will be creating an Epsom PS team, check Compass for details. 

In PE lessons at the moment we have been doing lots of athletics practise in preparation for our upcoming school Athletics Days. Senior 3-6 Aths Day is on May 7th at the Flora Hill Athletics track and the Junior Prep-2 Aths Day is on May 13th and will be on the oval at school. If any parents are free to help, please send me an email at  Keegan.Smyth@education.vic.gov.au 

Important dates coming up:

• Div X Country - May 1st
• 3-6 Athletics Day - May 7th @ Flora Hill Aths Track
• P-2 Athletics Day - May 13th @ school
• Mother's Day Classic - May 12th
• Cluster Athletics - May 29th
• Div Soccer - June 12th 

-Mr. Smyth

Music

Grade 3-6 students have commenced our Independent Instrument program. Each student has selected two instruments from the five we explored last term (Bass, Guitar, Keyboard, Drums and Ukulele). They will now spend approximately four sessions on one of those instruments, learning songs and skills from our very own music website. These songs range from quite simple, to exceptionally hard (I never thought I'd see the day where Primary School students wanted to learn Metallica's "Master of Puppets"!).

After half a term, students will swap to their second instrument. 

Grade 1-2 students are learning about all 12 musical notes, including sharps (#) and flats (b). They are exploring how to find these notes on keyboards and boomwhackers, so we can start playing a wider range of songs later in the term. 

They are also consolidating their knowledge and skills when playing the C and Am chord on ukulele and will soon be learning the F chord. 

Grade Prep  

Students have been expanding their knowledge of basic rhythmic notes, their various names and using common words and their own names to identify beat patterns (using syllables). They have been exploring the idea of pitch, comparing every day sounds, as well as using their voice and body to demonstrate when a sound is "low" or "high". 

-Mr. Mayes

Visual Arts

Term two will see a shift in visual arts learning as we dive into cultural art, in particular the work of local Indigenous artists. Along with art techniques, our amazing creative minds will be hard at work exploring the concept of story telling and messaging in works of art. We love creating vibrant works of art and our seniors will be keeping that trend going while some of our middle year students explore earth tones and natural colour pallets to create their master pieces. Have a look at some of the planning and samples so far.

HOLY COW!

Remember Primrose May our cow who, unfortunately was vandalised? She has a quite life with out on Mrs Puntons farm these days. Well you may have heard that we have some exciting community art news around the corner. Mr.Pocock has been successful in gaining a brand new cow for our school, but it's looking a bit bland, so we need to hand it over to our students to get creative. Next week, an art based House competition will be announced and we want you to design the artwork for our cow sculpture. Think sustainability, think native flora and fauna, vegetables, fruits, bees and the natural environment. Get brain storming and drafting.

-Mr.Pocock

Auslan 

Students have been learning signs for their families.

We are very confident in signing Mum, Dad, Sister, Brother and other family members. Students have drawn their family and then cut and paste the Auslan sign to match.

Check out our posters! 

These are coming home so you can practicing signing together.   

Prep / Ones have also been signing colours, a topic they seem to pick up really quickly. 

                                                                                                                                                                           Senior Students are so thrilled to receive our Auslan playing cards. These have been a long time coming and there's nothing like it in Australia! 

Introducing Auslan playing card deck where every card is illustrated with Auslan signs following the numbers and letters. We have been playing 'Go Fish' using the cards and signing all parts of the game. 

Happy Signing :) 

-Miss E