School News

FINAL THURSDAY MARKET FOR 2016 - TODAY!!

We hope everyone has been enjoying the recent busy Thursday market.

We have 1 more market to enjoy before we break up for those lovely long holidays

Come along to our Christmas themed market and catch up with our lovely community.

If anyone would like to have a stall just come along and setup.

Don't forget to give Kathy or Helen your 10% contribution

Thank you

Kathy Miller

KITCHEN GARDEN WRAP-UP 2016

As we near the end of the 2016 school year and prepare our productive gardens for another hot summer, our students in the kitchen garden have been working with Ben to complete many gardening activities. Clearing the old crops, seed saving, composting and re-planting the vegetables beds with our summer crops are some essential tasks. We have also been very fortunate to receive some fruit box crate gardens from the Federation Square Pop-up Patch, including all the soil and established trees for a discounted price. 

It was a mammoth task for Ben and Trevor to get them to Collingwood. They will be a great addition in garden classes for individual classes to plant, observe, measure, document and experiment with by varying the growing conditions in 2017.

During the semester, students have been digging into the science of gardening. The students have planned for rotating crops in the classic “leaf, fruit, root, legume” pattern. The students have been measuring soil temperature to make decisions about when to plant certain plants, and the temperature of the compost to decide when to turn it. Just for fun, we have been having some lovely tea parties and experimenting with different herb flavour combinations.

The chicken shade “Cob Palace” is looking near completion. The saying “many hands make light work,” certainly holds true for this garden activity Ben, Class teachers and students have committed many months to.

In the kitchen classes, we have had jumbo crops as garden beds are cleared for summer planting. Potatoes of many hues, spring onions, lettuces, radishes, fennel, silver beet, rainbow chard, eggs, broccoli, cauliflowers, broad-beans and herbs have been main ingredients for delicious dishes such as; gnocchi, risottos, braises, tortes, vegetable salads, dips, breads and frittatas. 

Occasional ingredients, such as; Tomatillos, 2 asparagus spears, snow-pea’s, sugar-snaps, are a highlight in our lighter menus. Wonderful student "Salad of Imagination" creations have included many varieties of lettuces, nasturtium/calendula/broad-bean leaves, Mache, variegated sorrel and edible flowers. Students are showing independence and leadership skills with their group learning, with many grade 3 and 4 students able to produce their "edible learning" with minimal supervision. Knives have been mastered, kitchen terminology is becoming familiar and enjoyment of the ownership of their learning in this KG classroom is evident in every class.

Metric measurements, estimation and fractions are embedded in all kitchen recipe tasks and are experienced regularly within the cooking and serving of delicious food. Measurement is an on-going activity for all. We do not use digital scales or clocks and so practising at school and home is an essential activity to assist all students.

Using Our Senses

Intensive kitchen sensory focus has finished our semester, with students exploring each week 1 of our 5 main sensory organs. Understanding has been gained with group discussions, blindfold activities, focused cooking and of course documenting our descriptive words and phrases, so all can gain new sensory language.

Thank You Volunteers

An important acknowledgement for our students is the support their receive weekly from the wonderful Kitchen garden volunteers in the kitchen and garden classes. Caring and fun relationships have been formed over learning tasks and delicious memories for all have been created. 

BIG THANKS to: Merran, Jenny, CC, Beth, Julian, Sally, Katie, Julie, Yuki, Sheerian, Jilly, Susan, Emily, Alex, Margaret, Annie

Each year I take students from Deakin University Dietetics courses for 100 hours of placement, it is always a pleasure to see them grow in confidence and understanding while working alongside our students. Well done Amber and Caity.

Here are two students carefully carrying an egg to the kitchen:

This year, our volunteer family has said a heartfelt goodbye to Peter Arnott (14 years) and Dianne Park (14-13 years), as well as to Emily Webb (3 years) and Karma Blinco-Parr (2 years). Emily and Karma are now Graduate teachers and we wish them all the best

Ben and I are PASSIONATE about what we teach and we thank all our Kitchen Garden students for their efforts and enthusiasm. Keep cooking and gardening over the Xmas break and we will see you all in 2017.

Desley and Ben

Kitchen and Garden Teachers

PATHS

PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) is an extensive and holistic program for encouraging social skills and emotional literacy in Primary and Secondary students. PATHS is designed to be used by educators and psychologists and effectively addresses behavioural problems.

PATHS was implemented in the Primary School at Collingwood College in 2014 and later adopted by the Lower Secondary School.

Lessons in the PATHS program are adapted to the disparate pedagogies within Collingwood College and include guidance in identifying and articulating emotions; appropriate emotional expression; interpreting social cues; controlling impulses; using strategies for problem solving; developing a positive sense of self and learning to value the perspective of others.

PATHS lessons often form the basis for rich class discussion and assist students of all ages to develop emotional intelligence.

Please speak to your child's teacher about the current PATHS focus in their classroom.

Kate Schmeiszl

Year 3-6 Leading Teacher

SECOND HAND STRINGED INSTRUMENTS (NEW INSTRUMENTS ADDED 11 DECEMBER!)

There have been some more additions to the musical instrument list. If you are wanting to buy an instrument for next year, or move on from an out grown one then have a look at this list. There is no point in buying a brand new one if you can get one second hand! And if you have one you want to sell, contact me at n_durston@yahoo.com.au and I will add it to the list.

Naomi

Please click on the link to see full list of instruments for sale: