Around the Junior School

Pre-Kinder | Tim Harris | Technology | 4A Mushrooms | Merit Awards

Pre-Kinder

PJ day is a favourite at Pre-Kinder. The children enjoy being warm and snuggly in their PJ’s and bringing their bedtime toy to school. PJ activities and stories make up our day and we finish with a movie, hot chocolate and popcorn.

Tim Harris Student Workshops

Exciting learning opportunities have continued to be celebrated in the Junior School, with our Writer in Residence and famous children’s author, Mr Tim Harris spending time with students in the classroom.

During Term 2 and Week 2 of Term 3, Tim spent a whole day with each grade from 2-6 focusing on a love of reading and writing with students.

Tim has a unique ability to engage students and teach writing skills through storytelling. Tim shares personal stories from his childhood and previous life as a primary school teacher which is often the inspiration for many of his storylines and characters.

At the start of this year, each student provided work samples of their writing for Tim to read, providing a snapshot of writing strengths and identifying potential learning opportunities for students to enhance their writing.

Tim has focused on three key areas with staff and students: characterization, dialogue and narrative time frames.

Having an experienced writer share their craft provides an inspiring learning opportunity for students. Teachers have marveled in the blossoming writers that are emerging in their classrooms, lending to great professional discussion in staff meetings on approaches to teaching writing.

In addition to a full day workshop with year groups, Tim ran half day enrichment workshops with small groups of passionate writing students.

“I’m scared of clowns!’ Tom said very loudly. Tom was as scared as a mouse who was corned by a cat and his heart beat as fast as a plane’s propeller.

– Sophie Kerdic, Year 2

‘Jamie should be here by now,’ complained Ellie. ‘But on second thought, she is late a lot’.

‘Agghh!’ moaned someone inside the Big Top. The girls snapped to attention. ‘Girl group?’ asked Zeda.

‘Go!’ They all yelled

– Claire Gordon, Year 3

‘Mason, concentrate!’ the teacher snaps. I look at the board. There are random letters and numbers and a confused look arrives on my face. ‘Maybe you should explain….’ Ring! Ring!

The bell saves me and a feeling of relief fills my body as we walk out to lunch.

– Mason O’Toole, Year 4

Suddenly, commotion occurred. There was screaming, cries of help and endless, deafening squealing.

‘What in the world is happening?’ Musky spat while hyperventilating.

– Zaro Jalal, Year 5

Mrs Waters was holding a tissue on my nose, covered in blood. ‘Good mornin’, hun. I think we’ve got a case of a broken nose. This tissue aint’ gonna hold much more blood. Darlin’ why don’t we send you to the office, maybe they can fix that tap of yours.’

– Alexandra Karrasch, Year 6

Ms Amanda Dodson

Deputy of Academics (PreK – 6)

Term 2 Technology Showcase

In Week 1 families of Years 3, 4 and 5 were invited into the Junior School for students to share their projects from Term 2. It was a great opportunity for students to talk about their learning and demonstrate their developing skills using technology.

Year 3 launched their Orange History Channel, showing movies they made of the history of the Dalton Bros. building in Summer Street, which is now the Orange City Centre. They also made movies about other historical buildings in our local area, such as Duntryleague, Wolaroi Mansion and the Orange Courthouse.

Year 4 families were invited into the middle of the design process, when Year 4 were working on their robotic challenge. Last term the students built their base model robot and practiced programming instructions using block coding. Before the families arrived, the students were offered the choice of a Sumo challenge or an obstacle course challenge. They then had the opportunity to redesign their robots and re-program them to suit the challenge they had chosen. Key elements of the robotics unit are perseverance and problem-solving. Students need to persist, re-think and try different ways to solve the challenges they face. All important skills for any type of learning!

Year 5 presented their Space Colony project for families. The task was to work in small groups to design a colony on the moon or another planet and prepare a display to convince consumers that they should move to their colony. Students had to create a 3D representation of their colony using Minecraft Education, a 30 second advertisement promoting their colony using iMovie, a website with important information about their colony using PowerPoint and a poster to display using Canva. The students were very proud to share their work and talk about the different aspects of the project.

Muriel Fatai

Junior School Leader of Technology and Innovation

4A grow mushrooms

4 Attenborough have been lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the Mushrooms in Schools program this term. We have been given two growing kits from the Australian Mushroom Growers Association to keep in our classroom. Last week we set up the mushroom kits and learned a little more about the fungus family and how they grow. Our hope is to harvest enough mushrooms for us to eat on pizzas towards the end of term! Along the way we will also learn more about the different types of mushrooms grown in Australia and why they are such fascinating organisms that are crucial to our ecosystem.

Merit Awards - Term 3 week 1, 2022

K Paddington

Fergus Sinclair – Fluent reading
Henry Hinton – Quick thinking in Maths

K Caterpillar

Anui Bohra – Beautiful handwriting in her sounds and words book
Darcy Price – Outstanding problem solving in Mathematics

1 Elmer

Ivy Chapman – Fluent reading
Amelia Canning – Effort in class work

2 Alcott

Eddie Chapman – For showing commitment to learning
Phoebe Westcott – Positive attitude to her learning

2 Barty

Morgan Zinga – Making a wonderful start to Term 3
Addie Delbridge – Being a devoted and caring member of 2 Barty

4 Attenborough

Nixie Widauer – Being inclusive of others in class
Henry Sawtell – Asking interesting questions in history

4 Phillip Parker King

Ben Howe – Enthusiastic work in mathematics
Lachie Healey – A positive attitude towards learning

5 Irwin

Dylan Thomas - Making a wonderful transition to KWS
Zach Stacpoole – Extending kindness to his peers

5 Watson

Nicole Caro – Mature approach to learning
Harry Kensit – Being organised and ready to learn

6 Goodes

Alexandra Karrasch – For outstanding effort in Mathematics
Harrison Chapman – For his consistent effort and dedication to his work

6 Mabo

Jude Jansen – Starting Term 3 with a positive attitude
Alexandra Whitehead – Demonstrating great initiative in 6M this week

Merit Awards

Term 3 week 1, 2022