Specialist Programs 

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2020, and welcome your input:

Justin Scicluna (Health & Physical Education) Justin.Scicluna@education.vic.gov.au

Sensei Masae Uekusa (Japanese) uekusa.masae.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

Penelope Lang (Performing Arts) penelope.lang@education.vic.gov.au 

Samantha White (Visual Arts)  samantha.white@education.vic.gov.au

An Overview of our Learning

Upwey South's Got Talent

Just a reminder that Upwey South's Got Talent  entries are now open and can be accessed via google classroom. All video entries must be handed in no later than Monday 30th November. This is not a compulsory activity. There will be a junior (Foundation to Year 2) and a senior (Year 3 to Year 6) category and you can only enter ONCE. Our Performing Arts Captains are busily creating some posters to remind you.

As mentioned previously, the school Christmas concert will be sent home as a video link with students being filmed during their Performing Arts time. One of our items this year is going to feature our pets....all creatures great and small. It would be great if you could send me a photograph (no video please just a still shot) of your family (or just students) with one of your pets. It might be in front of the Christmas tree or with a silly Santa hat on. The crazier the better. I have created an assignment on google classroom which will assist us with the editing. Please send in your photos no later than 1st of December.

Our Learning

Foundation

Last week the students' came home with the lyric sheet for their Christmas song, 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. It would be fantastic if you could rehearse this with them at home, maybe as part of their nightly reading. We have started to incorporate movement to our song and the students have risen to the challenge of using a hand held prop whilst they sing. They made such great progress that I decided to give them yet another song to sing! Something to do with Sharks! (do do do do do doo). I apologise in advance!  We have been working very hard on the 'Macarena' dance. Perhaps they can show you their 12 marches, 3 wiggles and their jumping turns. 

Level 1 and 2

We have continued to learn the tricky class song, 'Pig the Pug Rap'. We have been discussing beat and rhythm, and musical phrasing. Echo singing (my turn/your turn) has certainly helped us to remember all of the lyrics and we have had lots of fun singing to the Karaoke version. This song can be found online if you want to have some fun at home together. We have started to add some dance moves and facial expressions in preparation for our performance. It has been great to talk about dance as a form of story telling.

The level 2 students began to learn the lyrics and choreography for their Christmas song, 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'. We looked at how songs, including this one from the 1950s, can be re-released over time and take on new sounds and sometimes even new lyrics. We had a fun chat about mistletoe!  We rehearsed the class' contribution to the 'Macarena' and the students had an opportunity to perform this in small groups for an audience. These performing opportunities (in safe and supportive environments) can help to encourage self-confidence and creative expression. Our students certainly excel at improvised movement.

Level 3 and 4

The students in levels 3 and 4 have concluded their performances of their short 'Word Dance' using the choreography alphabet table. It was great to see some of their own choreography that they had devised for the 'Christmas YMCA' and watch them confidently share it with the rest of their class. You will might be able to spot some of this in our end of year Christmas video. Level 3 and 4 have the longest song and we have been trying to work on one verse each week and then build up our dance slowly. The students also learnt their unique choreography for the 'Macarena' and will continue to improve their technical precision moving forward.

Level 5 and 6

The students in levels 5 and 6 finished performing their small group unison dances and have now started to learn their part of our whole school Macarena. I have been very proud of most student's willingness to be brave and have a go, even when they feel that 'Dance' is not really 'their thing'. Sometimes stepping out of our comfort zones can be character building and rewarding. We might even discover a new talent or passion! Our most recent lesson involved a song-writing task where the students worked in small groups to re-write the lyrics to a well known tune. You will be able to listen to their masterpiece at the end of the year.

Keep smiling,

Penelope Lang

Foundation: Students in the Foundation cohort have completed their unit in throwing and catching which had a small element of hitting. This will now lead into our next sessions which will involve the fundamental motor skills of striking and hitting. Last week students began their four week tennis program through Sporting Schools. Both classes focused on dropping and catching the ball with different hands, balancing the ball on their racquet and practising the movement involved with tennis. This week there will be more of an emphasis on the forehand strike.

Level 1 & 2: Students in the Level 1 & 2 cohort continued on with their unit of Hitting/Striking. In previous weeks the focus was on practising strikes which are involved with the team games of T-ball and Cricket. Last and this week students have been introduced via their tennis program run by Sporting Schools to the Forehand Strike. They practised and learned the correct technique first by visual demonstrations and then by hitting over Tennis Hot Shot nets with a partner. Going forward students will be extended with their learning of the forehand and will progress to the backhand strike.

Level 3 & 4: Our students in Level 3 & 4 have continued to focus on hitting and striking with the small introduction to invasion/target games such as Field and Thunder hockey and T-ball. During hockey they learnt the importance of the push pass and the safety in relation to using a hockey stick. When we progressed to game play the students worked extremely well in their teams. In the coming weeks, we will continue to build on their hitting/striking skills.

Level 5 & 6: Student in the Level 5 & 6 cohort have focused on the skills involved with kicking. Last week, we practised the basic skills involved with football (kicking a drop punt) which also included handballing. We then progressed to a small game of Footy Tennis which asked the students to kick the ball over an imaginary net and try to avoid the opposition team marking the ball. This week we will move on to soccer which will focus on teaching the students to utilise the inside of their foot to kick the ball. We will also progress to a small game to incorporate the learnt skills.

Justin Scicluna

Physical Education & Health Teacher

Konnichiwa, minas an! (Hello, everyone!) 

In the last newsletter, we had a look at Foundation Japanese classes. This time we visit all the other Japanese classes.

Grade 1 and 2 students have been exploring 3 different Japanese scripts – Hirgana, Katakana and Kanji. They have focused on Hiragana and Katakana so far for the past few weeks. Look at the photos and see how well the students can distinguish each letter and each script!

Grade 3 and 4 students have been working very hard to pass the Hiragana Belt challenges in Term 4. I love hearing their “Yes!!!” and “I did it!” when they pass a belt test. Those students are definitely feeling a sense of achievement. You can see a variety of challenging activities such as Hiragana word search and dot-to-dot.

Grade 5 and 6 students have been looking at all the things they have learnt in the past years through the unit ‘Time Capsule’. It is amazing how fluently they introduce themselves (name, age, country of origin, likes and dislikes and first-time greeting phrases) in the Japanese class. Their writing is improving, too! Please have a look at their beautiful writing of Japanese numbers and sentences!

Foundation

Over the last two weeks the Foundation students have been creating collages of the beach. In the first session they used watercolour paint blocks to create a colourful background. They focused on getting the right balance between too much and too water, and enough paint. In the second session the Foundation students developed their fine motor skills by creating a collage of sand castles. 

Level 1 and 2

The Level 1 and 2 students examined the painting ‘Water lilies’ by Claude Monet, and learnt about his early life and how he became an artist. They painted paper which they used to create a collage of a water lily. They used water colour paints and salt to create an interesting texture on their paper which they used as the 'water' background. These are currently 'works in progress'- look out for the photos in the next newsletter. 

Level 3 and 4

Level 3 and 4 students used their experience from the previous session, to create a cat with different shades of grey. Students used black oil pastels to draw an outline of the cat, and then created internal sections, which they painted. These are currently 'works in progress'- look out for the photos in the next newsletter. 

Level 5 and 6

This week the Level 5 and 6 students continued their observational drawings of eyes. Students had to select one animal's eye  which they had to observe the important details of. Students were encouraged to observe significant details such as the shape of the whole eye, the shape of the pupil and  the texture of the surrounding skin or fur. They then had to include these in their drawings. They used oil pastels to create their drawings and were encouraged to blend two or more colours together to create new colours. 

Last week we selected fifteen talented students to have their Upwey bollard posters laminated and displayed on bollards in the Upwey Village. Congratulations to Rachael, Eve, Charlie, Hannah, Elizabeth, Hayden, Alina, Charlee-Belle, Teagen, Alice, Ayse, Holly, Sam, Lachlan and Zane for having their posters selected.