This Week At OOPS

The Preps have kicked off this term by diving head first into their fairytales unit. Over the past couple of weeks they have been working hard to design "just right" beds and chairs for Goldilocks so she wouldn't have to steal the Three Bears'. This week their Grade 6 buddies helped bring their design ideas to life using some upcycled materials. 

Our Year 5 students have been learning about angles, so they had to work as a team to find all the angles on their tables.

Victoria Wei, our Music Captain, was selected through multiple auditions to compete in the Victorian Schools Instrumental Championships (VSIC) which is an intense piano competition. On the 12th of October, Victoria competed in the State Finals. She competed against 20 other grade 5 to 6 students. Victoria played two AMEB Grade 7 repertoires and was awarded 3rd place.   What a fantastic achievement!

This term the Year 5 and 6s will be learning about economics during Inquiry and they will have the opportunity to run a market day at the end of the year! This week they were surveying different year levels as market research. They will use this data to inform what products they sell in their market day stall. The students are buzzing with excitement, and I know the Year 5s loved learning a little bit more about the prep’s interests.

Readers’ Theatre

The Year 3 students have excitedly engaged in Reader's Theatre to start the term. Readers’ Theatre is a strategy that encourages students to read and perform scripts to enhance reading fluency and comprehension skills. The scripts are often performed without props, costumes, or a set.

When working with a script, students do not need to memorize the text. Rather, students read the script multiple times to help them accurately and automatically read the words. Reader's Theatre activities also help students strengthen their volume and pace, fluency, expression as well as their group cooperation and listening skills. We look forward to sharing their final performances on SeeSaw later in the term.

The Aussie Bird Count

The Aussie Bird Count is an activity for all ages that involves observing and counting the birds that live near you – whether that’s in your garden, the local park, a beach, or your local area. This week students in 3CG, inspired by students' keen interest in birds and a strong desire to learn more, took part in the survey.

We spent recess around the back of the school, watching, tallying, and discussing the birds, and other wildlife, we saw. We submitted our findings to Birdlife Australia, and some students will go further and complete another count at home this week. If you are interested in submitting a count this year's count finishes on October 20th.

Not only was this an opportunity to get outside and see the world around us, but it also allowed us to develop some great skills in communication, working together, tallying and recording results, as well as identifying different backyard birds of Melbourne.

From October 21st to November 1st Old Orchard Primary School is participating in the Whitehorse City Council’s Walk/Ride to school fortnight for local schools. Students are encouraged to walk or ride to school as much as possible over these two weeks. Our goals are to stay healthy by keeping our steps up, reduce our carbon footprint, and maybe even win a prize for our school!

To finish up the fortnight, on Friday the 1st of November we will celebrate our annual OOPS walk/ride to school day, where students are welcome to bring their bike/scooter for the bike parade around the oval. The Prep – 2 Bike Parade will run from 1:10-2:00pm, and the 3-6 Bike Parade will run from 2:40-3:30pm. 

Old Orchard Primary School team is once again joining YGAP's Polished Man Campaign to help end violence against women and children. Why? Because 1 in 2 children experience violence yearly, and 1 in 3 women will experience violence in their lifetime. We would love for you to help us by making a donation to our fundraising page or joining us by signing up, polishing up, and fundraising as well! We're hoping to crack the $3000 mark by the end of the month, as we did last year.

If you would like to donate to the Old Orchard fundraising page, please head to https://polishedman.com/t/old-orchard-primary-school

We really appreciate any support our Old Orchard community can provide for this important campaign!

Paralympian Visit

This week the students in Years 4-6 were visited by two Olympic athletes, Maria Strong and Nazim Erdem.  Maria and Nazim are two highly accomplished athletes who have represented Australia at the Paralympic Games.  They taught us the ins and outs of the Olympic Village, the struggles of accessibility and opportunity of a Paralympian and most importantly proved ow hard work, persistence and bravery can lead to something brilliant.

Lions Club Peace Poster Competition

Several students from Years 5 and 6 entered the Lions Peace Poster competition earlier this month. They had to create a poster using any medium they liked and the theme for this year’s poster was ‘Peace without limits’. The posters were judged by independent judges selected by the Blackburn Lions Club. I am delighted to announce that Chloe Wang from 6CD came second and Erica Rinaldi from 5/6MC came third! We are so proud of Chloe and Erica and all the effort they put into their posters in their own time. Both girls will be presented with an Officeworks voucher from the Lions Club Blackburn at assembly in the coming weeks. Their posters are also still eligible for the People’s Choice Awards in early November.