We have concluded our Big Idea - Exploring our family histories can help us to make connections to people and places within our community.

As part of our ACTION we welcomed Grandparents and Special Friends to our classrooms to ask them about what life was like for them when they were a child. The tone was a joyful one and we were honoured and grateful to have so many ‘VIPs’ take the time to share their experiences and stories with us. It stimulated a lot of excitement and promoted a sense of belonging and connectedness.

The students delighted in hearing about life in the past, which supported them with making connections to the present, and sharing their family history. We discussed what was similar and different to life today and some of the reasons for this.

The students gathered in small groups and asked the guests questions which included:

“What games did you play at school?”

“What were your hobbies and interests when you were little?”

“What is your favourite childhood memory?”

Some responses included:

“I lived in a village and we made our own toys - soccer balls with rags.”

“Living in a village, we didn’t really have hobbies or interests. I remember being very naughty, probably because I was bored.”

“We used to sit in front of the fire and listen to my father’s stories.”

“I played sport. I helped around the farm, milking cows. I did horse riding and played board games.”

“I did reading, bush walking, painting, built sandcastles in my sandpit and played Patience (card game).”

“I went on picnics to the Dandenongs and sang around the piano.”

Thank you to all our Grandparents and Special Friends for making the visit a most memorable one.

APS Literary Festival

On Monday, the students participated in the Literary Festival. It was an amazing day where we celebrated literature and a love of books.

Our guest authors and illustrators for the day were:

Mark Carthew, author of The Thing That Goes Ping!

Mark took us through a journey of rhyme, song and dance.

Anne Ryan illustrator of Shadowcat

Anne discussed and demonstrated creating characters with the students, giving them the opportunity to experiment with line, pattern and colour through their fish drawings.

Caz Goodwin author of Little Matilda

Caz read her beautiful story ‘Matilda’ discussing the themes in the story and how the events impacted the character’s feelings.

Matilda even made a special guest appearance, which delighted the students.

Our new Big Idea is All living things need to adapt and evolve to survive

The purpose of the unit is to provide students with opportunities to explore living things through a Science lens.

Our driving questions are:

What do living things need to survive?

How do living things change?

How can we help to promote the survival of living things?

Through this unit of inquiry we will explore:

The needs of living things – food, water, habitat, climate and weather conditions
Life cycles, characteristics of living things, adaptations, defence
Interconnections between living things

Exploring the Grasslands

Today Abby Imhoff (mum of Clemmie 1S) came and spoke to us about the gorgeous mural titled Volcano Dreaming that is currently displayed in the MPC. The mural elicited much curiosity and wonderings about grasslands and living things. This provided a wonderful introduction to our new Big Idea, igniting our curiosity spark.

Angela and Gillian

TERM 2 CALENDER

Term 2 Calendar