Year Level & Specialist Curriculum

Foundation:

Year One:

Year Two:

Year Three:

Year Four:

Year Five:

Year Six:

Term 3, 2022 Specialist Curriculum Overviews

Our Specialist programs will cover the following during Term Three:

Physical Education

A huge term in PE and sport ahead for us and I can’t wait to see what we will accomplish this term! 

Prep:  We continue to focus on our fundamental skills this term.  We will kick off by focusing on our underarm throwing technique, and participate in lots of circuit activities to rehearse this skill.  We will then try some skipping with the rope.  For some, this is the first time so we will start slowly, learning the basics, how we should hold the rope, then learning how to jump with it, using different methods.  We will work on some new basic tricks to share at home and then learn to skip with others.  We will finish the term off with some pilates classes.  This will involve low impact exercises that focus on strengthening the students core and posture.  Finally, we will kick off our athletics unit, in preparation for the Twilight Sports in Term 4.

Year  1 / 2: We will continue to focus on our fundamental skills this term and strengthen our core and upper body strength that we started working on in our gymnastics program last term.  We will begin with a different style of gymnastics and dance - aerobics.  We also hope to try some self defence exercises (tbc with provider), some pilates - which will involve low impact exercises that focus on strengthening the students core and posture.  Finally, we will kick off our athletics unit, in preparation for the Twilight Sports in Term 4.

Year  3: This term the focus will be on target games. which players send an object toward a target while avoiding any obstacles. By playing these games, participants will learn the key skills and strategies for games such as Golf, Boccia and Bowling.  We will finish the term off with our athletics unit, in preparation for the Twilight Sports in Term 4.

Year 4:  We have many sport days locked in for this term which tends to dictate the focus we have during our term curriculum.  We kick off the term with some basketball skills in preparation for hoop time on Monday 18th July.  

We hope to put some of the funding we have received from Sporting Schools towards some Gymnastics freestyle classes (TBC).  We will also run some athletics sessions to prepare for the Year 4-6 House Athletics Day scheduled for 18th of August.  Those that are successful in their races/field events will also be eligible to participate in the District Athletics Carnival on the 7th of September. 

Year 5 / 6:  We have many sport days locked in for this term which tends to dictate the focus we have during our term curriculum.  We will kick off the term with some basketball skills to start finalising teams for the Hoop Time competition Day scheduled for 31st of August.  We hope to put some of the funding we have received from Sporting Schools towards some Gymnastics freestyle classes (TBC). Our year 5’s will have an external break dance company on August 2nd, come out and show them some moves.  We have been offered this opportunity for free, which is fantastic. 

We hope to put some of the funding we have received from Sporting Schools towards some Gymnastics freestyle classes (TBC).  The students have been very vocal at wanting to participate in such a program - everyone has caught Ninja Warrior fever perhaps!  We will also run some athletics sessions to prepare for the Year 4-6 House Athletics Day scheduled for 18th of August.  Those that are successful in their races/field events will also be eligible to participate in the District Athletics Carnival on the 7th of September.  In amongst all of this, some of our year 6 students will be competing in the AFL Division Finals (August 1t) and the Netball Girls/Mixed Division Finals (August 5th).

Finally the plan is to finish off the term with some fitness boxing.  The year 5 students enjoyed the challenge last year so I look forward to introducing them to a different way of exercising.

Visual Arts

Welcome to Term 3 and what an exciting term it will be! The Art Show is only just around the corner. This year’s theme is ‘The story begins here..’ Every art piece has been inspired by a book. 

Prep:

The Prep students will begin the term looking at four different books. The first book the students will read is the book titled ‘I Am Me’ and will create a self portrait with a watercolour background. The next book the students will read is ‘The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be’ afterwards students will create a hot air balloon. ‘What Makes A Rainbow?’ is the third book the students will read and they will create their own rainbow. The final book the students will work with is ‘Sloth Slept On’, students will then draw their own sloths. For the remainder of the term students will be working with Primary Colours to create their artworks.

Year 1: 

The Year One students will create their own artworks around the book ‘The Jungle Book’. They will create Zentangle Zebras. Zentangle is an American method for drawing, which not only promotes concentration and creativity but at the same time increases personal well-being. Zentangles are different patterns the students create to use their own imagination. The students will also create their own safari person with a background using oil pastels. Students will be making a colour wheel lion to introduce them to the colour wheel. They will use this knowledge for the remainder of the term when they work with a variety of art activities using secondary colours.

Year 2:

The Year Two students will also be using ‘The Jungle Book’ as their inspiration for their artworks. They begin the term with charmeleon zentangles. Zentangles are creative patterns that the students create using their own imagination. The students will also create their own safari person with a background using oil pastels. They will make a crocodile using the technique of weaving. Finally students will have a focus on ‘Colour Theory’ and their art lessons will be based around warm and cool colours.

Auslan

“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to view the world.”      - Chinese Proverb

Welcome to Term 3! Hopefully the Winter holidays have been kind to your family and you’re feeling refreshed and ready to dive into a new semester. In Auslan this term, students will broaden their signed vocabularies through demonstration and repetition, live and simulated material and peer interactions. We will also hone our receptive skills this semester with a variety of signed activities, visual resources and pictorial responses.

Preps will continue growing their understanding of the Deaf community and the role of Auslan. They will continue to consolidate their Semester 1 vocabulary, particularly regarding ‘self’, colours and numbers. Preps will explore new signed vocabulary areas including people and family, especially through the use of children’s literature, guided group activities and games.

Year 1 and 2 will maintain their Semester 1 vocabulary, particularly in the areas of family and people, outdoors and everyday signs. This term they will expand their vocabulary to include ‘school’ related signs and will develop new methods to demonstrate their receptive skills in Auslan.

Years 3 – 6 will primarily focus their vocabulary expansion on the areas of time, calendars and travel. They will exhibit their signing and receptive skills in group interactions and peer communications, and additionally will learn to showcase their knowledge of sign language production in fresh visual ways. As the semester progresses, in the upper levels, this will include analysing and categorising individual signs to determine their handshape, orientation, location and movement.

Performing Arts

Welcome to Term Three! This Semester students in years 3-6 will participate in Performing Arts sessions, with Tracey O’Connor taking the Years 3-5, and Molly Masters taking the Year 6s. Drama will be the focus for all classes this term.

Students in Years 3-5 will begin the term with a focus on building confidence and maintaining focus when performing, as many students can get quite nervous acting in front of an audience! Year levels will then focus on different drama skills. 

Year 3  - The Year Three students will have a strong focus on using voice when performing, and will experiment with loudness/softness, pace and pitch. They will explore empathy and status, and learn the effect these elements of drama have when acting. Students will then rehearse and present a scripted play, bringing together what they have learnt over the term. 

Year 4  - The Year Four students build on their Mime skills, with focus on using facial expressions and body movements to effectively communicate ideas. They will then learn about Improvisation, and will develop their skills through a range of different Improvisation games and activities.

Year 5  - The Year Five students will work on developing their expressive skills, and use these skills to develop a character and show different emotions. They will then further develop their skills with Improvisation, and work on staying in character when presenting a short improvisation. 

Year 6  - The Year Six students will have a strong focus on theatre sports. They will work on their confidence individually and in small groups getting up in front of the class and performing. They will work with a script to perform in front of their prep buddies.

STEMMS

Preps:  This term the students will continue working on their skills using Google Docs and navigating through the St James Student Landing Page.  They will also be working on their coding and problem solving skills using an app - CodeSpark

Year 1 - The students will be building on their Google Suite knowledge by exploring the use of Google Slides.  They will also be working on their coding and problem solving skills using the app - CodeSpark

Year 2 - This term the students will build on their coding and problem solving skills using the app Tynker.  They will also look at design and building concepts using the Makedo construction tools

Year 3 - This term the students will continue building on their coding and problem solving skills using the app Scratch Junior.  They will explore the Code.org platform for different ways to use their coding skills.

Year 4 - The students will use their coding and problem solving skills using the online platform - Scratch.  They will also look at machines and how they work in particular pull and push concepts, whilst building their own machines using Lego.

Year 5 - The students will use their coding and problem solving skills using the online platform - Scratch.  They will then look at the Swift app where coding is no longer in a block format and is written code.  They will look at concepts such as functions, loops and conditional code.

Year 6 - The students this term will be looking at the online platform Tinkercad, whereby they will develop and build their own 3D model.  They will also use this model to do a 3D print.  Following this the students will be involved in a gaming unit, where they will analyse, design and build their own online game.