News from JLC

Over the last few weeks, the children in the Junior Learning Community have been learning about ‘Length’ in the area of Measurement and Geometry.  

The children have the fundamental understanding that ‘Length’ is the term used for identifying the size of an object or distance from one point to another.  The length of an object is its extended dimension, that is, its longest side.  

The children were able to use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which classroom objects were longer or shorter.  They were able to use the language of length when measuring and talking about length such as longer than, longest, shorter than, shortest, exactly the same as, etc.  

The children used informal units to measure length such as hand spans, cubits, feet, cubes and paper clips. They were able to draw or write sentences comparing and ordering shapes and objects based on their length from shortest to longest and longest to shortest.

Recently, the Junior Learning Community together with the rest of the school, have embarked on an inquiry-based unit of work called ‘Building a Change Making Community’.  The aim of this unit is to empower our children in the mission of making changes in the world for the better.

This is a new initiative and there are eleven schools in the pilot program.  St Bridget’s will be one of eleven schools that will be showcased as a change making school who will build one of the first eleven libraries in the developing world through the program.  

The children have looked at influential change makers in the world and what they did to make the world a better place.  They gained perspective of what educational settings look like in various parts of the world and how different it is for those in the developing world. In the photos, you will see the children having a voice in deciding where the library will be built.  

As a class we researched the various projects and countries spanning India, Pakistan and even Nepal to learn more about why these communities are in need of assistance. Finally the children voted which project and country they would like to build their library in.  It is a very exciting project and we will keep you posted. 

This year the children in JLC will continue to do the Bounce Back Program.  This program aims to help young people function well both at school and in life.  It provides practical strategies to help them cope with the complexity of their everyday lives and learn how to ‘bounce back’ when they experience sadness, difficulties, frustrations and challenging times. 

This term’s topic is ‘Looking on the bright side’.  The children have listened to stories where the moral of the story was to stay positive and believe that things will work out and even get better. The children completed an activity where they were asked to look on the bright side of situations e.g It is raining so we can’t play outside. On the bright side the garden is getting much needed rain and I can play on my iPad.

Kind regards

Signora Gina Michieli and Miss Carly Wills

JLC Classroom Teachers