Performing Arts

It's been a wonderfully busy time in the Performing Arts these couple of weeks. Students have been putting in a lot of effort, both in class and outside during recess and lunch breaks, practicing for their Harmony Day performances. The energy and enthusiasm they've brought to their practice sessions are truly inspiring, and I can't wait for everyone to see the results of their hard work!

In addition to performance preparations, the focus in class has been on rhythm. We've been exploring different rhythmic patterns and learning how to play them in fun and interactive ways.

Prep students have been introduced to music notes in the form of 'ta', 'titi', 'tika tika', and 'za'. They have been practicing their rhythm skills using call and response with the djembe drums, which has been a hit with everyone! Preps have also continued exploring different music instruments and their sounds through play, and have loved singing along to different nursery rhymes as a class.

For Grade 1-6 students, rhythm has also been a key area of focus. They've been revisiting their rhythm knowledge through call and response exercises and engaging in hands-on activities at rotation stations. These activities allow students to explore rhythm in different ways, while reinforcing important concepts and fostering teamwork.

If your child would like to practice the Harmony Day songs at home, here are the links:

WHOLE SCHOOL DANCE - Colours

https://youtu.be/yUgu-NsuqyA

WHOLE SCHOOL DANCE – Permission to Dance

https://youtu.be/yYCBElrBbi0

GRADE PREP-3 SONG – Get Back Up Again

https://youtu.be/HXhydpu8Cvs?si=mCMkdyyzEmAgOAvi

GRADE 4-6 SONG – On Top of the World

https://youtu.be/Xzl416fjUSY?si=7eXW9ghNJL5B2zCn

Physical Education

Interschool Sport has started for the 5/6 students and we had a successful first week with all teams giving their all. Basketball boys and girls team both had big wins. Soccer had a loss with the other team scoring in the last minute to snatch the game. Tennis unfortunately had also had a loss, with cricket not having enough time to finish their match.

There will be a bye on the 28th of February and then an away match on March 7th at St.Theresa's PS. Parents of students that are in a team are welcome to watch at away games too as long as they sign in at the office.

Cross Country trials are coming up for the 4-6 students and I hope all students are keeping up on their fitness. There will be a whole school beep test coming up in the next few weeks at lunch time, so be prepared!

STEM

This term, our STEM focus is Biological Sciences—the study of living things! Students across all year levels have been exploring the fascinating world of plants and animals. Check out some highlights from the past fortnight!

Prep

Our youngest scientists have been discovering the features of plants! We took a nature walk around our school, looking closely at stems, leaves, and flowers. Using our senses, we felt different textures and even smelled some leaves to compare their differences. Great work, Preps!

Grade 1-2

Students have been identifying and documenting plant features by capturing photos and recording their observations. They've also begun classifying animals based on their observable features—an important step in learning how scientists study living things!

Grade 3-4

Students have been investigating how scientists classify vertebrates (animals with backbones) into five distinct groups based on their observable features. After successfully categorising a range of animals, we’re now moving on to explore invertebrates—the creatures without backbones!

Grade 5-6

Students have been diving into animal adaptations! We kicked things off with a hands-on experiment (pun intended) to test whether opposable thumbs are truly a useful human adaptation (spoiler: they are!). Now, students are researching and documenting the unique adaptations of Australian animals.

Visual Arts

WOW! What an amazing start to the year it has been. I have been extremely impressed by all the amazing students at Sunny Heights Primary school and all their amazing work in art so far.

A huge shout out to all the students for their commitment and courage they have shown towards their new art program, trying their personal best and having a go at new skills. Very PROUD!

Preps

Preps have settled well into their new routines within the art space. They have been working on experimenting with a wide variety of tools and materials to build foundation skills as an artist and have also been focusing on caring for tools and materials used for their work and how these habits form part of being an artist. They have already created two wonderful pieces of artwork. “The Dot” which helped them to understand the importance of bringing their growth mindset into the space, what that looks like and developing their cutting skills. The second piece was a group collaboration poster with the focus on line, colour and shape.

So impressive!

Grades 1-6

Students from 1 to 6 have also been working on choosing and caring for tools and materials used for their work and how these habits form part of being an artist, deepening their understanding of the artistic conventions and beginning to experiment with different ways to use these to convey their ideas. Each year level have already developed two amazing pieces of art works that have helped to develop their understanding of different processes and elements of art.

Ask your children what they have been working on in art!...all students have been very proud and shown success in their work over the past 4 weeks which has been so wonderful to see!

PARENTS & CARERS are you an artist in anyway?

I know many parents in our community are amazing artists and I would love the opportunity for you to get involved in art classes within the school and collaborate to develop some amazing authentic, inspiring art with the students.

You could be an artist and or have a specific skill in an area of art for example, a florist, a builder, a painter, a sewer...the list goes on and on.

Please contact me if you have time and would love to collaborate on an art project with myself and the students.

Thank you

Lauren

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