Dohertys Creek Newsletter

Specialist Term Overview

PE & Cultural Inclusion TBA

 

In Visual Art this term:

Preps and Year 1s will create artworks using construction methods of cutting, sticking and pasting. Students will explore different materials to experiment with printmaking and layering techniques. Students will explore ideas, experiences, observations and imagination to create visual artworks related to self, others and personal environments. 

 

Years 2 and 4 will be considering the driving question, ‘Where can using symbol and pattern in my artworks, lead me in my personal cultural journey as an artist?’ They will:

  • recognise and describe the design principle pattern and the art form of printmaking and show understanding of the difference between admiring cultural artworks and copying cultural artworks
  • create symbols to represent ideas around their own culture and select and use different materials to create printed patterns using these symbols 
  • tell their personal story as artists, and appreciate their own and others’ cultures from an artist's point of view 

Year 3/5/6 will be learning how to explore art through construction methods. They will understand how to select and apply visual conventions, materials, techniques and processes specific to mixed media and construction art. Students will explore different materials to experiment with printmaking, Chine-colle, Collograph and layering techniques. 

 

In STEM this term, students will be investigating the driving question, ‘What can we learn about the power of collaboration as we explore how things work?’

 

Preps will:

  • use the language of location and direction to describe position and movement and follow short sequence of instructions
  • design and test a maze/board game using locational and directional language through coding
  • work with each other as willing collaborators by actively listening and taking turns

Years 3 & 5 will:

  • understand the design process and use joining techniques to design and build reliable models
  • use array, area and region models to design modular components and write simple code using additive and locational language
  • design, construct and test a board game using regional models
  • work with each other as effective collaborators by actively listening and considering others’ point of view

In Mandarin this term, students will compare and relate languages and cultures to their own in their journey of becoming a global citizen. 

  • Prep students are learning about numbers, including counting the numbers in a sequence, reading and writing numbers in Chinese characters/symbols.
  • Year 1 students are learning about fruits. They are learning to describe the fruits with words for colours, such as “hong se de ping guo (red apple). They will keep on practicing the sentences “I like…” and “I don’t like..”.
  • Year 2 students are learning to ask and answer “what is this?”. They are also learning about words for colours and the sentence “I like..”.
  • Year 3 students are learning to describe their feelings, such as “wo hen kuai le (I am happy)”. They will also review and practice the daily conversations that they previously learned as well as investigating different forms of Chinese art and craft.
  • Year 4 students are exploring the four great inventions in the Chinese history. They are also learning about different pronouns, such as “he, she, it”, and how to ask “his” or “her” names in Mandarin.
  • Year 5 and 6 students are learning about Chinese currency and how to ask for prices. They will discover how to go shopping and bargain in China.

In Science and Sustainability this term, students are learning about how Earth’s resources are used in a variety of ways.

 

Prep - Year 2 students are thinking and talking about identifying Earth’s resources, including water and describing how they are used at school and in the home. Students will be identifying actions at school that can conserve resources, for example, turning off dripping taps.

 

Years 3-4 students are thinking and talking about identifying Earth’s resources, including water and describing how they are used at school and in the home. Students will be identifying actions at school that can conserve resources, for example, turning off dripping taps.

 

Years 5-6  students are thinking and talking about identifying Earth’s resources, including water and describing how they are used at school and in the home. Students will investigate Scientific understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to inform personal and community decisions and to solve problems that directly affect people’s lives

 

In Kitchen Garden this term, students will be learning about themselves and others as they investigate and explore kitchen garden.

 

All students in years 1 and 2 will be learning about:

  • parts of plants including seed, leaf, stem, root, bulb, bud, fruit
  • linking seeds with their fruit/vegetable plant
  • explaining what plants need to survive
  • planting, caring for, harvesting, and eating produce
  • varieties of food to grow at school
  • growing climates and seasons
  • pests in the garden and controlling them in an eco-friendly way
  • identifying differences between weeds and required plants
  • explain the health of a plant and its indicators
  • garden tools and their purposes
  • garden maintenance
  • garden safety

In Performing Arts this term:

 

Prep students will consolidate their learning in the areas of feeling the beat, singing with pitch accuracy and exploring the contrasting elements of sound and silence; loud and soft; fast and slow. Our major focus will be exploring the musical element of pitch - high and low. We will also play games and use movement to reinforce these musical concepts. 

 

Year One students will focus on the musical element of pitch - high and low. Students will begin to read music by exploring pitch maps to represent ‘so, mi and la’ and learn beginning songs on an instrument. We will also play games and use movement to reinforce these musical concepts. 

 

Year Two Students will focus on two elements of dance: body and space, and using dance as a language to communicate ideas about their emotions and feelings to others. Students also will be continuing to develop short movement phrases inspired by a variety of activities in their community and incorporating different pathways, directions, and shapes.

 

Year Three and Four students will begin to learn the recorder and develop a repertoire of songs. They will practice to play with a steady beat; and rhythmic and melodic accuracy. They will learn the etiquette of practicing the recorder at home and techniques for effective practice. Students will be working towards an end of year recorder concert. 

 

Year Five and Six

 students will focus on the musical element of pitch (high and low) and will begin to learn how to read music in order to play a musical instrument of their choice (eg. keyboard, guitar, ukulele, xylophone/glockenspiel). They will begin to develop a repertoire of individual performance pieces and ensemble music. For those who already read music/learn an instrument, they will continue to develop their repertoire, with a focus on increasing rhythmic and pitch complexity and the use of expressive elements, such as dynamics and articulation.