Specialist Reports

Visual Art

Our focus in Visual Arts this month has been on colours. Students have explored colour mixing using different mediums - pastels, watercolours and acrylic paint. 

Prep

The Prep students have eagerly been exploring colour, line, space and shape this term using pastels, markers, pencils and string art. Much of our inspiration has come from Australian artists, including Betty Muffler and Howard Arkley, as well as Spanish artist Jean Miro, with many techniques and ideas leading to some fascinating masterpieces!

Junior School

Our Junior School students have been studying artists like Mat Miller, Melanie Hava and Courtney Maddison, whose main subject matter is coral and The Great Barrier Reef. The students have been working on developing their watercolour techniques, and are currently completing a collage coral reef project using.

Middle School

Our Middle School students are currently learning the techniques of blending and layering acrylic paint. They are currently completing a project on African and Australian sunsets using analogous colours.

Senior School

Our Senior School students have recently completed their study on Claude Monet and moved on to Indigenous art. They are currently completing a collaborative project of recreating the school map using some learnt Indigenous art symbols.

Prep STEM

Over the last couple of weeks, the Prep students have been working on using their senses to make observations. They have used their sense of touch to explore water (wet and cold!),  rainbow rice (hard and bumpy!) and cutting and pasting (sticky!).  They have also used their sense of sight to create flowers using chromatography.

Digital Technologies

Junior School

The Junior Learning Community has been investigating the beginnings of algorithms that are pivotal in understanding coding and programming. They have been writing sequences of directions for someone to recreate a coloured set of blocks (pictured below). They have also started exploring 'code.org', a website that steps students through the basics of coding by using Blockly (a block-based program as opposed to the traditional script coding). It is free to use if you want to explore it at home and by all accounts, students have found it to be highly informative and engaging.

Middle School

The Middle Learning Community, have been investigating coding and sequencing by working through 'code.org' and revisiting the basics before beginning our Term 2 investigations and inquiries. They have also been collaborating on an online, moderated forum called 'Padlet' to ask and answer other people's questions. They will use the data to create graphs, linking to their current Maths unit.

Senior School

The Senior Learning Community has been looking at how digital technology has changed through the ages, focusing on the first computers to all the devices we have available today. We have also been investigating binary code and using it to create 'on/off' pictures (black and white pixelated images) and writing the corresponding code using 0's and 1's. Most recently, we have started revisiting and refreshing their coding skills on 'code.org' before we explore more complex programs like 'Scratch' in Term 2.

Physical Education

Prep and Junior Learning Community 

We have been working on catching skills in P.E., learning and practising through fun rotational activities. The students have been focusing on their technique, remembering to make a nest with their hands and track with their eyes.  The students have enjoyed being introduced to lots of new equipment, enabling them to practise their catching in various ways.

Middle Learning Community

The Middle School students have been developing the skills used in Cricket and Basketball. In Cricket, we've practised overarm throws, bowling and catching and in Basketball, we have looked at the techniques required to bounce and shoot the ball correctly, as well as practising chest, bounce, and shoulder passes. The students have enjoyed using these skills in refined mini-games of both Cricket and Basketball.

Senior Learning Community 

We have been learning to play European Handball, one of our sports for Interschool Sport. The students have been working on their chest, overhead, and bounce passes.  They have also been practising how to intercept passes effectively and defend without making contact with an opposition player.  European Handball is a game for all ability levels and heaps of fun for everyone!

Dig2Dine

The Middle and Senior students have settled into the new routines and responsibilities in the Dig2Dine kitchen, it’s been wonderful to see each student taking on their individual responsibilities and working as a team to maintain a productive and clean kitchen. 

They have continued to extend their knowledge of fractions, building on what they have been learning in their classrooms and applying their knowledge in a real-world setting such as the kitchen. 

We’ve also been defining the parts of a recipe and unpacking the structure and language, which has allowed the students to have more confidence in following a recipe independently. 

We've also been building on our cooking skills and techniques, such as cutting, grating, peeling and sifting, as well as developing the student's confidence and understanding of safety precautions required when placing items in the oven, flipping items in a pan and stirring foods cooking on the stove. We believe these skills are essential life skills, and with the correct support and supervision, the students can continue to practise these skills safely.

These skills will continue to play a vital role in the Dig2Dine classroom, and we will continue to build upon our knowledge and develop our confidence in the kitchen as the year continues.

Performing Arts

This Term in Performing Arts, we have become actors and performed in many different ways by changing our facial expressions, voice and gestures to make characters.

Prep 

Our Preps have been learning a range of different nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet, and Row Your Boat. They have been working in pairs or small groups to reenact a nursery rhyme they have chosen using their bodies and facial expressions.

Junior School

Our Junior School have been looking at the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They have been looking at how we can make ourselves look frightened when crossing over the bridge and how to make our trolls have scary faces. We also used costumes to help make our characters come to life!  

Middle School

Our Middle School explored puppetry. They explored how different puppets move and how to change our voices to play those puppets. They were lucky enough to create their own puppets and social stories about the Wollert Way and record them on a green screen!

Senior School

Our Senior School looked at deliberate exaggeration to make something serious be funny. We focused on recreating News Reports with, funny out-of-this-world stories about the school. Students got to act like detectives, upset students and reporters, in, of course, funny costumes.

Playscape

This term in Playscape, students have worked on developing their understanding of their body to better understand themselves and their place within our many and varied 

communities. 

The Preps have enjoyed learning about the body, the brain and our senses, whilst the Junior students have enjoyed learning about self-identity, self-esteem and our emotions, all through play-based learning experiences.