Specialists Programs
Specialist Programs Term 3
The Arts - Visual and Performing Arts
This term our combined focus in the Arts is everything Production! We will be covering the key areas of Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts and students will learn how they can be both the artist and the audience in the Arts. All students will participate in experiences that will allow them to contribute to our production throughout the term, by creating costumes and props, as well as rehearsing their performances.
In Visual Art lessons, students will be working together and independently to create many props and special effects for the production.
The Junior school will focus on continuing to refine and develop their fine motor skills, such as, cutting, pasting and painting. They will develop their understanding of famous artists and their particular styles.
The middle school students will also be inspired by the school production and produce various props for their individual performance as well as general stage props. Students will complete a unit investigating the skills and processes needed to create three dimensional works. Students will use their knowledge of colour and shape when creating art pieces especially evident in a class piece produced for the Trivia Night.
The senior students focus this term will be on making and responding to various art pieces, both two and three dimensional, that will enhance the viewers experience at the school production. This will involve developing practical and critical understandings of how the audience will interpret and evaluate the artworks.
Our focus in Performing Arts lessons will be for all students to learn to sing and dance as part of their class performances. Students will develop their ability to use safe dance practices and choreography when rehearsing and performing.
The Junior school will learn movements, focusing on rhythm and expression, while the Middle school will incorporate their own ideas, to adapt various movements and improvise new movements.
In the Senior school, students will be working on creating their own choreography, using movements and expression to communicate their ideas to an audience. The senior students will also work independently and in groups to rehearse and perform their lines and dramatic performances. They will use scripts and develop their skills and techniques of voice and movement, to create character, mood and atmosphere.
We are very excited to work collaboratively this term, so that students are immersed in the Arts throughout these experiences and we look forward to seeing all of their efforts come together in our school production.
Amanda Hill and Deirdre Cosgrave
ahill@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
dcosgrave@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Chinese
Prep Overview:
In Term Three, students will be exploring the concepts of weather and seasons. This includes the Chinese name of the four seasons and simple phrases to express different feelings in different weather. Students will also keep learning frequently used words and phrases to use in everyday conversations, such as classroom instructions and greetings. In terms of handwriting, students will be practising simple Chinese characters relating to the topic, focusing on sequences of the strokes.
Year 1/2 Overview:
In Chinese this term, students will be exploring the concepts of weather and seasons. This includes the Chinese name of the four seasons and simple phrases to express different feelings in different weather. Students will also discover the differences of weather conditions in Chinese cities and Australian cities. They will be learning to use simple sentence structures to report weather, focusing on ‘subject-verb-object’ sentence structures.
Year 3/4 Overview:
In Chinese this term, students will be focusing on the concept of geography, exploring Chinese cities. They will be learning the names of major Chinese cities and comparing dialects and customs in different cities. The learning experience will provide students opportunities to enrich their knowledge in Chinese geography and history. In terms of language learning, students will be primarily communicating their ideas through speaking and listening. Students will also learn to read and write in Chinese, knowing that characters represent the real form of writing in Chinese.
Year 5/6 Overview:
In Chinese this term, students will be focusing on the concept of geography, exploring Chinese cities. They will be learning the names of major Chinese cities, comparing dialects and customs in different cities, and exploring how human activities were affected by geography. The learning experience will provide students opportunities to enrich their knowledge in Chinese geography and history. The inquiry-based learning will support students to develop their inquiry skills including raising questions, designing investigations, collecting and analysing information, and reporting their findings. In terms of language learning, our major focus will be following simple sentence structures to form sentences to express details to sequence ideas.
Elina Li
LOTE Teacher
Email: eli@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Physical Education
Prep
This term students will begin learning about the sport of basketball and continue to develop their throwing, catching and shooting skills. Students will then move into the sport of netball through our sporting schools program, where they will have the opportunity to work with a basketball coach. Teamwork will once again be a major focus, where students will learn to communicate, win and lose with respect. They will learn through modeled language, to use effectively with their team mates during games.
Year 1/2
Our Year 1/2 students will be learning about the sport of basketball and will develop their throwing, catching, dribbling, decision making and shooting skills. Students will then move into the sport of netball where they will continue to develop their game sense skills and make connections with the game of basketball. Teamwork will once again be a major focus, where students will learn to communicate, win and lose with respect and will be modeled effective and appropriate language to use with their team mates during games.
Year 3/4
The Year 3/4 students will begin the term learning about basketball and the skills and strategies that they will use to be successful in the game. Students will then transition into the sport of netball and carry over some of the skills into a very similar sport. Students will have the opportunity to participate in the District Basketball Gala Day. The term will finish with the students working through teamwork games focusing on positive sportsmanship, game play and explicit teaching on how to communicate effectively in game play situations.
Year 5/6
The Year 5/6 students will begin the term learning about basketball and the skills and strategies that they will use to be successful in the game. They will then learn about the sport of netball and play in the various positions to understand the different roles and skills required to contribute positively to a team. The senior students will then have the opportunity to participate in the District Basketball Gala Day, early in the term. The term will finish with the students working through teamwork games focusing on positive sportsmanship, game play and explicit teaching on how to communicate effectively in game play situations.
Rhett Masters