Our Lady's Assumption School Newsletter

What's Happening at OLA!

Pre-Primary

On Tuesday in Pre-Primary, we had our Faith Day. Parent helpers worked with us to complete Advent activities in preparation for Christmas. We made a manger with Jesus, designed an Advent wreath, listened to the story Wombat Divine, made white Christmas, created a Christmas tree decoration and made a very special prayer jar. It was a wonderful day and we had many opportunities to talk about the importance of Christmas. Only 25 days to go!

Mrs Noonan, Miss Smith and Mrs Durkin

Year 2

This week in Year 2, we have been busy practising our dance for the Christmas concert on Friday. We have also been busy coming up with our very own actions for the Christmas song we will be singing and we can’t wait to perform in front of the school community.

 

In Art, we have been creating many wonderful Christmas art pieces to celebrate our favourite time of the year. We used paint and oil pastels to create our very own Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and crepe paper to create a winter wonderland, we have enjoyed creating our Christmas artworks. 

 

For Maths we have been learning about chance. We came up with many different scenarios and determined the outcomes of these scenarios as likely, unlikely, certain and impossible. It has been really fun learning about different outcomes and relating them to our daily lives. 

Miss Rotondo and Miss Croft

Year 4

This fortnight, we have been very lucky to attend two excursions that were fun and enhanced our learning.

 

Scitech was amazing with STEM quizzes that challenged our knowledge, mazes that utilised our strategic thinking, a chair that used pulleys and counterweights, photo-phosphorescent booth, beads that reacted to sound and vibrations. The list was endless. We could spend days in there and still find more to do. We loved the Maths and Explosions session, who knew Mathematics could be so much fun.

 

The Perth Zoo allowed us to visit the animals of the world in one place. Each of us had an opportunity to visit our favourite animals and learn more about these unique creatures. We would like to thank all of the wonderful parents who came along to the excursions and helped us to make new discoveries and memories.

 

It is with sadness we say goodbye to our time in Year 4. We have made new friends and cemented our friendships with others who have been on the journey since Kindy. We would like to thank all of the teachers who taught us during 2018. Au revoir! We look forward to 2019.

Mrs McCarthy, Ms Dean, Miss Mannas and Mrs Peters

Year 6

Only 2 weeks to go and, as our teachers keep reminding us, we will be big Year 7s.

 

We have all participated in orientation days at our various secondary schools, meeting future friends and teachers. Excitement and nerves were all experienced during the day.

 

The past week has been busy with Christmas Concert practice and joining the Year 5s for our combined carol. It should be a fun night with our family and friends sharing our last carols evening at OLA. Graduation Mass in Week 9 is also on our minds, with rehearsals underway to show our family how much we have accomplished during our time at OLA and that we are ready to move on to our new challenge next year.

 

We remembered how much we missed our time in Kindy, when we spent time with the Kindy students and enjoyed playing in the sand pit, building dinosaurs out of blocks, making mud pies and just being big kids.

 

Finally, thank you to all of our parents for choosing OLA, we have made lifelong friends. Thank you to the teachers and staff who have shared our journey and who have shaped us into the ‘Great Young Women and Men’ ( Mr D and Miss F’s  words) we are today. THANK YOU OLA!!! WE LOVE YOU AND WILL MISS YOU!!!

Miss Figueira and Mr De Pietro

Sensory Program at OLA

The Sensory Integration Program has been occurring each Monday and Wednesday this term. The program has been very successful so far and the children involved are engaged and enjoying the varying activities. Thirty four children from Kindy to Year 4 have participated in the program this term and a number of staff help facilitate it. The P&F were very generous and provided us with funding for some of the equipment and materials to run the program.

 

Sensory integration is an emerging area, some schools have the space and have recently created a Sensory Room which is an area for those children that require a sensory break throughout the day. Another school (which we went and visited) has implemented a Sensory Program before school. At OLA, we aim to be a Sensory Aware school by providing a before school program and also sensory boxes, equipment and tools that can be used in classrooms.

 

We have done extensive research about the benefits of a Sensory Program - Sensory Integration is the foundation layer for the Pyramid of Learning.  The program is designed for the child to meet their sensory seeking preferences prior to class and preparing themselves for the day ahead by helping them to process sensory information which will;

  • improve attention and confidence
  • increase calmness
  • body awareness
  • alertness
  • focus better on learning tasks
  • assist with self-regulation
  • assist with perception and making choices

 

In 2019, the program will occur four mornings per week (Monday to Thursday) and we will be continually looking at programs and ways to assist children with sensory requirements.

Stretch Year 2 and Year 3

Our recent STRETCH project was working with Sphero robots. We used the Sphero Edu App to programme the Spheros to make a square. At first, it was tricky but the more we experimented the better we became and the easier it was and we couldn't wait to make new shapes.

 

Next, we looked at paintings by Jackson Pollock and chose one of his paintings for inspiration as we made our own Sphero paintings. We had to code the design of the painting then actually paint it. It was so much fun programming and painting, and the results were amazing artwork.

Reach Year 4 and Year 5

Once we knew how to move the Sphero balls into shapes we had to use our creativity and collaborative skills to code the Sphero through a story plot or code the Sphero through a mega maze! For the maze, we had to work as a large group and created a huge maze using pieces of cardboard in the box to create the successful path with many dead ends.

 

The story, we had to complete a storyboard of events with the Sphero being the main character. We made the props, made costumes for our robot, coded the robot to follow the storyline and were even able to make the Spheros talk.

Reach Year 6

In partners, we created a 3D maze to navigate through and block coded the Sphero through the maze. It was more difficult than we thought it would be and had to constantly reprogram. We successfully completed the task. Following the maze challenge, some of us chose to use the Scratch application to create animated video games and others decided to make an origami Nativity Scene.