Music – Mrs Lisa Scott

Wow I cannot believe that it is term 3 already! It has been wonderful over the last few weeks getting to meet my new classes and to see so many smiling and enthusiastic students. In Music this term we will be covering the following topics:

Prep students will explore familiar songs and nursery rhymes. They will develop their skills in keeping a steady beat through singing, dancing and playing a variety of percussion instruments.

Year 1 and Year 2, students will be developing their knowledge of beat and rhythm through a variety of ‘hands on’ practical music making activities and games. They will continue to develop their singing skills.

Year 3 students will be focussing on how to play a variety of xylophones, glockenspiels, metallophones and marimbas and also about the instruments in the orchestra. They will develop techniques to play music in unison and in parts.

Year 4 students will be learning techniques to play the ukulele and will use these to play and sing along to a variety of music. They will also learn about the elements of music and how these are used in a variety of different pieces of music.

Year 5 will experience playing the keyboard. They will be learning to play melodies and chords to accompany a variety of songs in whole class music making.

Year 6 students will further develop their individual skills in instrumental playing by choosing an instrument that they wish to study (Guitar/Keyboard/Ukulele/Marimba). They will unite as a whole class to perform songs to an audience.

Performing Arts - Mrs Carmen Collins

I am eager to get going on the second semester of Performing Arts classes, building on the successes and experiences gained through the production in semester one. Looking forward to meeting the new faces of Hillsmeade and seeing the familiar faces from last year as well.

Prep students will focus on using puppets and our bodies to perform role plays about animals and fairytales and learning how to control their bodies to keep others safe when performing.

Year 1 students will be developing their knowledge of acting and performing in everyday, familiar situations and emotions we find in books and use puppets to tell a story.

Year 2 students will further develop their understanding of performing, building on last years experiences to focus on character traits and different voices we can use in acting, as well as how to be a good audience member.

Year 3 students will use their acting skills to participate in drama games and skill development activities including improvisation.

Year 4 students will be challenged to refine their acting skills including effective use of their voice, the space and how characters might move and act in different scenarios.

Year 5 students will explore the elements of drama though improvised and planned performances, learning that Performing Arts is a safe place to express their individuality and expand their comfort zone.

Year 6 students will further develop their acting and performance skills using all of the elements of drama (such as voice, space, costumes, movement and character building) to put together a play to perform to their classmates.

Digi Tech-Mr Hardev Singh

Prep, 1 and 2: Students having been learning how to use QR codes to scan different activities and are learning how to use a keyboard and the different functions as well as learning how to type. They will be learning how to research using a kid- friendly search engine called ‘ Kiddle’ and will understand how to take a photo and use the photo for different purposes.

Year 3: Students have been learning about the different aspects of photography and how to use them to take a photo. They used creative techniques to capture unique photos and then use the photos to create collage to display their learning. They will been shown a refresher of how to sign into office 365 and explore the different areas that office 365 has to offer.

Media Arts – Mrs Janelle Struth

Years 4-6 will use Microsoft Teams to access tasks for Media Arts. The goals will be shared along with rubrics so students will know what the teacher focuses on for their task. Students can upload their work to the teacher, who will assess and give feedback. Microsoft Teams will also share work with other students to demonstrate exemplary work. Students will be exposed to tasks involving Canva, Microsoft’s suite of tools for creating posters, portfolios, movies, and animation. Some of these projects will include:

Creating Digital Portfolios
E-books from student writing
Posters for Hillsmeade events
Producing short videos to raise awareness of causes.

STEM – Mrs Carolyn Okamura

It has been lovely to welcome our new students to STEM in Term 3! All students will begin their STEM learning with a Design and Technology focus, following the design process steps to build various objects.

Following on from this, the subject areas for this Term will be as follows:

Prep - students will be learning about the difference between living and non-living things. They will investigate what living things need to survive and grow.

Year 1, 3 and 5 – students will explore Chemical Sciences. They will be learning about the different states of matter (solids, liquids and gases), the effect of heating and cooling on substances, and we will be conducting some experiments in class.

Year 2, 4 and 6 – students will be learning about physical sciences. Year 2 and 4 students will be focusing on push, pull, gravity and friction. We will be testing these forces and others with various object in class. Year 6 students will be investigating different forms of energy, with electrical energy being the main focus.

Mandarin – Miss Wei Wang

Welcome to Semester 2 and welcome back to Mandarin. I am super proud to see our second half of the school make a positive start in Mandarin, and it is such a great joy in seeing our students ready themselves for a small conversation in Mandarin when seeing me from a distance! This semester, junior students will continue to explore a selection of bilingual children’s rhymes and learn some basic nouns through the songs. Year 3-6 students will start to learn some common verbs and build up their conversational skills through scripted mini dialogues.

Prep students will focus on basic greetings, thanks and goodbyes in Mandarin. They will also learn to count up to 10 and name some common colours.

Year 1 students will extend their knowledge of numbers and colours and learn to name some basic body parts.

Year 2 students will learn to name some common pets and Australian animals. They will explore basic family words and learn to express preferences using simple sentences.

Year 3 students will revise a few of topics covered in previous years with the use of the Language Passport. They will learn to name some fruit and start to apply simple sentences in mini dialogues.

Year 4 students will explore the topic of immigration and participate in a field study experience on the excursion to the Chinese Museum. They will also learn about the Chinese Pinyin alphabet which helps strengthen their pronunciation skills.

Year 5 students will be focusing on their speaking skills as they engage in more practise of scripted mini dialogues. They will be learning about countries, nationalities, and sports through songs, and learn to apply these words in sentences and then dialogues.

Year 6 students will be revisiting contents covered in previous years and learning to locate key information when reading some celebrities’ mini autobiographies. They will use their reading materials as examples to write a small paragraph about themselves including their name, age, gender, birthday, nationality or cultural background, family and sports they like.

Physical Education – Mr Ahmad Chazbek & Mr Jeff McGann

Term 3 is another busy term with a number of sporting and athletic events for our students to experience. In the last week of term 2, students from years 4 to 6 participated in the Hillsmeade Athletics event at Casey Fields. From the results gathered from the day, Mr Chazbek has put together the Hillsmeade Athletics squad that will compete in the District Athletics on the 16th of August. The Divisional and Regional Athletics events will also be held this term.

The school’s interschool basketball, AFL, touch rugby, kickball and volleyball teams will be participating in several interschool games this term against other primary schools in our district. These teams will also be participating in the Lightning Premiership event in the first week of term 4.

Students in years 3 and 4 will be able to participate in Hoop Time, a basketball event catering to all skill levels. The students that sign up for hoop time will be training with a team based on their individual skill level in preparation for the Hoop Time event where they will compete against students from other schools in the area.

During their physical education lessons this term our senior students will develop their skills in the games of volleyball, badminton and tennis. Our junior students will be exploring their gymnastics and fundamental motor skills. Students across all year levels will also be practising AFL football in preparation for the school’s Footy Day.

Visual Arts - Mrs Andrea Garwood & Mrs Lainie Owen

Prep students have been focusing on their cutting and pasting skills while completing collage pictures. They will be introduced to warm and cool watercolours and will complete an underwater scene with oil pastels and food dye demonstrating the resist technique. Students will make their own patterned and textured paper which they will then use to create sun pictures after listening to Eric Carle’s book – Where Is The Sun?

Year 1 and 2’s have been introduced to the artist Henri Matisse and completed collage pictures and used food dye and oil pastels for an underwater scene. They will look at primary and secondary colours and will use paint, stamps, paint scrapers and other objects to create their own patterned paper. Using this paper they will create sun pictures after listening to Eric Carle’s book – Where Is The Sun?

Year 3 & 4 started term using their graffiti art skills to design their names and were introduced to the artist Henri Matisse and produced collage pictures. They are also learning about the artist Friedrich Hundertwasser and producing a mixed media artwork from painted paper, textured tissue paper and Magiclay. They will use watercolour paint for their line and pattern drawings of tea cups.

Year 5 & 6 have been looking at the artist Henri Matisse and producing paper collages. They also designed their names in graffiti art. They have been introduced to the artist Fredrich Hundertwasser, and will produce a mixed media artwork from painted paper, tissue paper and Magiclay. Over the rest of the term they will use lines and patterns to create cactus drawings and will be producing some 3D art using clay.

All students will be part of a whole school Art display.

Book Week!

Come and join us to celebrate book week on Monday 21st Aug