Specialists Updates and Celebrations

P.E.

Grade 1/2 PE:

Grade 1 and 2 have practising their running, dodging and balancing skills in the last few weeks. 

Some of the games we have played this term to practise those skills:

Obstacle courses, Plant the trees, Octopus, Fruit Salad, Relay races and Everybody's it.

What was your child's favourite? 

We even timed some of our runs with our iPads to see if we can get faster by the end of the year.

Ride2School Day:

WOW! What a fantastic morning! We know SMPS students loved their exercise but this was another level. It was so amazing to see so many students and their families join in for a workout at the start of the day. 

And what a fantastic effort from all the families. 

As a school in Term 1, we had an active travel rate (walking/scooting/riding/skating) to school of 56%.On Ride2School Day, we had an average of 79%! 

How awesome would it be if we could do this every day? The kids loved riding in!

Numerous studies have shown that kids starting the day off with a bit of exercise (whether it is walking or riding) are more able to deal with physical, emotional and intellectual activities. 

Grade 5 won the golden boot for Term 1 with an active travel rate of 94% on R2S Day!

Grade 5 also won the Grade 3-6 trophy for the best average throughout the term with 83%.

2B won the Prep - Grade 2 trophy for the best average throughout the term with 68%.

(2B also had 93% on R2S Day!) 

Next term we plan on decorating our bike shed with student designs and getting lots of families to help us. We will hopefully also have some Bike education during PE lessons, and of course will have some sort of fitness activity planned for the end of the term. 

Grade 5/6 Soccer Gala Day at Fawkner Park:

We wish all of our grade 5/6 students good luck at the Soccer Gala Day. They will be competing against schools in the local area to showcase the skills they have learnt this term in their PE lessons. It is sure to be a fun day out! Thank you to the parent helpers in advance. If you would like to volunteer for these sporting events in the future please email callum.freel@southmelbourneps.vic.edu.au 

Basketball uniform and logo competition (Grade 3-6):

We have been so impressed with the quality and amount of entries for this competition. Unfortunately that means it will take some time to figure out which design will win. 

As discussed with students previously, we aim to combine lots of our absolute favourite ideas together to create one final design. 

We aim to announce the winners on the last day of term, but we may have to announce them early in Term 2. 

Mr Callum will be giving house points to all the students who entered a design and had a fantastic go.

Cross Country (Grade 3-6) Term 2:

In Term 2, there will be an opportunity for Grade 3-6 students to take part in the Southport District competition for Cross Country. 

8, 9 and 10 year olds run 2km. 

11, 12 and 13 year olds run 3km. 

We will hopefully be holding try-outs at school but if you think your child(ren) would be interested, why not start practising now! 

If you think you child(ren) would be able to compete at a district level, please email callum.freel@southmelbourneps.vic.edu.au with the name of the student, grade and time for 2km or 3km.

STEAM

Grade 3/4

Over the past few weeks, the focus in STEAM has been Online Safety (or "E-Safety"). The students have about a trusted adult that they could speak do if they ever feel uncomfortable online. The have also experienced several fictional scenarios and used the "TEC" tool (Think, Evaluate, Choose) to make good decisions.

Mandarin

Grade 5/6

We have been learning about the map of China and discovering some of the major cities in China. We have also been discussing the bordering countries of China. This week we are working in groups to create posters about major cities in China. We are focusing on learning about the famous landmarks and fun facts about these cities. 

Music

Prep B  have been working on keeping a steady beat with auxiliary percussion to backing tracks. This term one of our goals has been building our foundational skills in beat and rhythm. We’ve been playing body percussion, rhythm sticks and auxiliary percussion.