Junior School

Grandparents Day

Last Friday was a wonderful day of fun, activities and food as we celebrated Grandparents Day. Over 140 Grandparents and special friends visited Junior School classes and engaged with their Grandchildren in their learning and play. It was a very special day to be a part of. The children lit up when they saw their special person enter the room. It was fun to see Grandparents doing the Hokey Pokey, playing chess and enjoying songs and games with the children.

 

Thank you to our King’s College families as they supplied a tremendous morning tea for the Grandparents. A huge thank you to our PTFA and other volunteers, led by the amazing Amy Newton, who organised a beautiful space and served the food. Thank you also to our wonderful librarian, Kirriliee Nield, who worked with our friends at Campion books so that Grandparents could purchase a book for the school to dedicate to their Grandchild. The books sold out!

 

Thank you also to our team of Year 10 and 11 students who volunteered to greet Grandparents, led them to the right classrooms, served food, helped pack up and most importantly, spent time with students who did not have a special person to visit on the day. Their work ethic, leadership and kindness to all ages was outstanding. And last but not least, thanks to our amazing Junior School teacher and admin staff who planned well in advance to ensure the children and their families had a wonderful morning.

 

Alex Burgess

Head of Junior School


Year 1

The air has been filled with much excitement for our students. Thank you to the many Grandparents who travelled to spend time at school with their Grandchildren. We hope you were as blessed, and enjoyed the morning as much as our little Year 1 friends. Our room was full to overflowing with our much loved Grandparents and special friends. Each person had someone to share the morning with and enjoy the array of activities. This day was such a highlight for our class. Not only was it Grandparent’s Day but the Year 1 class won the FOGO award in Assembly. This award goes to the class who has carefully placed all of their food scraps into the FOGO bin and ensured they are not wasting their food.

 

Here are a few thoughts on Grandparents Day from some of the Year 1's:

 

We made necklaces for our grandparents. I liked putting the patches or the little things on the necklace. I liked doing singing Heads and Shoulders and also the funny one...neck and elbows! My favourite thing to do was decorate Elmer - Jeremy

 

We did an Elmer the Elephant and made a necklace and did flashcards - Cassius

 

I love my grandparents. All my grandparents live in India. On Grandparents Day my grandparents could not come. Instead my mum and my sister came - Ruhaan

 

I had so, so, so much fun with my Grandparents. I did the Hokey Pokey with my GG. I hope we all had a great time. I like to make chocolate chip cookies with my GG - Isla

 

Kerry Snook

Year 1 Teacher


Year 2

It has been another great few weeks in Year 2! The class has been doing an amazing job at learning and memorising their times tables facts and are quickly on their way to becoming mathematician geniuses! The Year 2's had a blast on Grandparents Day as they completed an interview and crafts with their grandparents or other special guests. Finally, the Year 2's were able to celebrate their 100th day of school on Monday with various 100-themed activities and games.

 

Alissa Griffin

Year 2 Teacher


Year 3

The Year 3 students continue to show responsibility and independence as they carry out their weekly classroom jobs. Each week they are assigned a new job which can be things like leading prayer, keeping the books tidy, writing the date on the board, putting up the timetable for the day, turning on the air purifier, etc. When everyone is pitching in, it helps the classroom run smoothly and efficiently. The students continue to do a wonderful job of caring for their classroom and each other.

 

Carolyn McDonald

Year 3 Teacher


Year 4

It was so good to see so many Grandparents and friends here last Friday, our class had a wonderful day making stress balls and playing games with everyone. We have also been working through our inquiry unit, which is centred around change. The students have enjoyed researching different things that have changed over time. These include games, fashion, education, transport and cities, to name a few. It has been like a trip down memory lane talking about big hair, synth sounds and hanging out the back of the stationwagon on the way to the beach! One thing that hasn't changed and is certain is the Good News message of Jesus Christ.

 

Steve Griffin & Christie Stephen

Assistant Head of Junior School / Junior School Teacher 

 


Year 5

This week in Year 5 we have been learning about division in Maths. Here is a picture of group one practicing their inverse operations of division and multiplication. They had to match up the division sum with the corresponding multiplication sum.

We have also been enjoying our Science unit on light and learning about reflection and refraction. Here are some of the comments from our students who were asked about STEM:

 

I love the fun activities we do together - Scarlett

 

I love working in teams and hearing everyone's ideas - Laylah

 

We both enjoy all the exciting and really challenging things we do in STEM and the excitement we get once we achieve a challenge - Rosie & Mickayla

 

STEM is really fun. We enjoy this subject because it's always fun to have a challenge and learn new things about science - Sienna, Eliza P & Amelie A

 

What we like about STEM is the amazing ideas the session has in store for us. We like STEM because we get to make really cool and interesting stuff - Levi & Tyler

 

Stem is a really fun subject because you learn to be more imaginative and creative; as we work to make so many different craft projects, it fills me with joy - Eliza R

 

I like STEM because you get to be creative and learn new things all the time - Isla

 

For science and STEM we do fun stuff. Yesterday, on a delicate popsicle stick suspended between two towers of books, we had to work out how to balance different size blocks of LEGO. Our STEM and classroom teachers are great. We love it because we do experiments like this one - Jewelle, Max &  Zoe

 

My success strategy was to find pieces that were around the same weight but different sizes to meet the challenge criteria - Eli

 

It's a bit of fun and we like science - Xavier, MJ & Lachlan

 

STEM is so fun, it's one of my favourite subjects. It's all about being creative - Grace

 

Naomi O'Brien & Julie James

Year 5 Teacher / Learning Enhancement Coordinator


Year 6

On Grandparents Day, we had lots of visitors come and share our morning in Year 6. We had a number of activities we could choose to do together. The first one was creating leaves for our family tree. We traced each other's hands and then wrote on the fingers the ways we are different, and on the palm of the hands the ways we are similar. We then cut the hands out, joined them together and attached them to the family tree in the hallway outside the Year 6 room.

 

Another activity included doing a page from our iMaths book where we had to build frames out of straws and blu-tack and explore the faces, corners and vertices the constructions had. We could also choose to colour stained glass windows and create frames for them, or do a word search online of this week’s spelling words. The last activity was a S.T.E.M. one involving a competition to see which pair could create the tallest tower out of jubes and toothpicks in 20 minutes. Will and Jacob won this competition.

 

For the last period, our grandparents and visitors were with us while we had our music lesson with Mr Philpot. We went to the auditorium and Mr Philpot gave us our music lesson up on stage while our visitors watched. We all had a very special time sharing our morning with our Grandparents and Special Friends.

 

Coral Robertson

Year 6 Teacher