Junior Classroom News

F/1 News

The F/1 students have had an amazing two weeks of learning. In the SMART Foundation program, the students have learned about the word beach. To help consolidate their learning and develop concepts around the word “beach”, the students participate in a related craft/writing activity. For the word “beach” the students made rockpool artwork using oil pastels, watercolour paints and sand. The students enjoyed this activity and discussed what could live in their rockpool.

The students have also been participating in morning circle each day. This is a process set out by the Berry Street Model which aims to improve relationships and create a positive start to the day. This process starts with the students greeting each other, discussing events of the day for school and the wider world, and participating in a positive activity(primer). On Thursday August 11th, one of the notable events was “Play in the sand day”. In support of this event, the students had a sandcastle making contest as their positive primer. The students worked in teams to make the biggest sandcastle in 5 minutes. The students had lots of fun and the activity resulted in a lot of laughter.

Learning through play and investigation”

Church play

The students have been enjoying engaging with the new Church dramatic play. They have been using their knowledge of Mass and the Church to inform their learning.

When Taya and Olivia were engaging with the Church, they role played how they read at Mass. Olivia took her place at the lectern and Taya reminded Olivia “Start by saying ‘Let us pray’”. Olivia repeated the phrase and read from the children’s Bible. Taya and Olivia’s play demonstrated a knowledge of language used in Mass, ideas that are discussed and where those ideas come from.

When Sienna, Zeliha and Indi engaged in Church play, they looked at the different things in the area. They identified that they needed a cup (Chalice) and that there were no “circle things” meaning the Eucharist. Sienna started making circles out of paper for the Eucharist and then the three girls played the handing out of the Eucharist. They copied how they had seen the older children and the priest's hands placed during the Eucharist. This shows their knowledge of rituals within the Mass and that they have knowledge of parts of the Mass that they do not yet participate in.

Building construction

Over the past two and a half weeks a group of students have been working on a block construction project. On the first day, the project started with Conor creating a house. Thomas, Archie and Isaac quickly joined in to help. They worked together to build up the house using the wooden blocks. They collaborated to make the building stable and symmetrical. At the end of the session, they placed a “work in progress” sign over their work, so that they could keep working on it the next day. 

Over the next few days, students came and went from the project, but Conor remained constant, keeping the project on track. Liam joined the group and helped make Lego creations to add to the construction. The construction moved from a single house to a city, with roads, other buildings and cars. Since then we have had Brylee, Bryce and other students join the group as well.

Towards the end of last week, the students had continued to add to their construction and were working on adding furniture to their large wooden building. The group has now also commandeered the pin board by their construction to hold a list that keeps track of who is participating and how many bunk beds they need in their house for them all to fit. They have also been adding colouring ins of butterflies to the pinboard to add to the background. It will be awesome to see how the F/1 students continue to develop this construction over the coming days/weeks.

Through participating in this play the students have developed negotiation skills, spatial awareness, creativity, design skills, persistence, and resilience. 

                                                           Grade 2/3

This week in the 2/3 classroom we have been learning about division, and have been doubling and halving some pretty big numbers! We have also started an exciting new writing unit called “Explorers”, and explored the biography of Amelia Earhart. We learnt some new skills in Bluearth with Kade and showed some great perseverance. In Cross Curriculum we have been learning about “The Dreamtime”, and have looked at Indigenous art and Dreamtime stories.