Teaching and Learning

Call for Host Families

BRING HOME A BIG BROTHER OR SISTER AND BRING FRENCH, ITALIAN OR SPANISH CULTURE TO LIFE!

Why not volunteer to host an international student from France, Italy or Spain next year? We have a small group of delightful students coming to Australia for 11 weeks to immerse in local Australian culture, experience our High schools, sports, environment and lifestyle. All these international students are around 15 or 16 years old, speak excellent English, have their own spending money, cover all school expenses, and we arrange all aspects of their program. They are looking forward to joining an Australian family for a short term cultural immersion stay. It’s fun and interesting to help these young people achieve their Australian dream. If you would like to know more, please email your interest to ICM on info@icm-education.com.au or call Georgie or Anja on 1800 500 501, or visit our website www.icm-education.com.

SA Space Mission Project.

Science News

Throughout the last two terms, three Year 6/7 students (James Ostrognay, Sebastian Hartas and Frank Pliszko) elected to be on a committee for the SA Space Mission Project. This project is a competition for SA schools exclusively to enter in an experiment that could go into space in 2019. Three successful applicants will be chosen to have their experiment go into space.

The students have worked very hard over the past six months with industry experts to research, design and create a prototype of a space debris collection device that can catch space debris of up to 2mm squared. They were required to complete an 8 page portfolio and a 5 minute multimedia presentation based on their experimental design. Students used the Engineering Design Model process to create their final prototype.

On Tuesday 26th September, James Ostrognay attended the International Astronautical Congress, a world-wide event with over 4500 industry experts attending from many countries. James presented our experiment to a number of industry experts at the conference who were very impressed with his knowledge and understanding. He was also interviewed by a news reporter from the ABC and answered questions about the intricacies of the experiment.

This has been a fantastic learning experience for the boys involved. We will find out if our experiment has been successful by the beginning of Term 4. If it is chosen, the students will have an opportunity to make their device with the aid of industry experts and a budget will be allocated to make their prototype. It will then be sent into space and monitored in 2019. Fingers crossed!

Nihongo News

こんにちは,

Konnichiwa

Did you know that during the holidays I took origami paper cranes folded by our WBPS students all the way to Japan? This is the 2nd time I have made this journey to dedicate senbazuru (1000 paper cranes) to the Children’s Peace Memorial and pray for PEACE in the world.

Congratulations to all our students, staff and family members who showed great patience in mastering this tricky origami - along with students from Mawson Lakes School and Kidman Park Primary School. We have shown the world that Australian students are globally aware and concerned for the future health and safety of children everywhere.

Again, I found this experience very emotional. So many other schools from countries around the world had sent their cranes in memory of Sadako Sasaki and the other victims of the Hiroshima bombing – it’s a story that must never fade away.

ありがとう (arigatō) to my fellow teachers Belinda Brenen and Lucas Brenen for collaborating in this achievement. We look forward to receiving a letter from Hiroshima acknowledging our contribution and thoughts for PEACE.

さようなら、

Sayonara

せんせい

Sensei

Partial Algorithm for Addition

The partial algorithm or front-end method of addition, in conjunction with the mental computation strategies that your child may know can be empowering for students who begin to shorten the number of steps they need to take.

In the first example:

58 + = 110 + 11 = 121

The tens are added first, giving 110 as the first line under the addition. The 3 and the 8 are then added together and 11 are written under the 110. A front end addition with no regrouping then completes the process.

With experience many children begin to shorten the process. They will look at the leading digits, notice that the ones add to more than 10 so write 1 for the hundreds, pause and then write the 21 after it. This process happens quite quickly and shows that fluency with mental computation is underway.

Maritime Museum

Excursion

On Monday 23rd October room 7 and 9 went on an excursion to the Maritime Museum. We went because we are learning about explorers and navigators in our history unit.

There were three groups and we were in group A. First our group went on a boat called Archie Badenoch. The boat was named after the first police official to die in WWII. It was fun because we could see all the other bigger boats that were used in World War Two. They were really big.

After that we had fruit for a few minutes, then we climbed up the lighthouse. There were a lot of steps, many more than 50. When we were up the top we were really scared because it was really high and we’re scared of heights but we’re so glad we did it because the view was amazing.

Next, we ate recess because we were really hungry from the big climb. After recess we went into the Maritime Museum. We had a talk about explorers and navigators. We already learnt a lot of the information in our history lesson so we could all answer many questions.

Finally, we ate lunch and we went back into the museum to go on an old cargo boat called The Ketch. We had to try and find the toilet but there was no toilet, you had to go over the edge back then. After that we got to explore the museum. We saw many types of boats and small figurines. We found out so many great facts like, Mathew Flinders was the first person to go around the whole of Australia to prove that there wasn’t a long straight connecting the east and west sides of Australia.

Overall, our favorite part was climbing up the lighthouse because we liked being up high. It was a great excursion and we learnt so much.

Sienna Thomson and Marissa McKenzie (year 2)

2017 Festival Choir

In September, 14 of our students performed on stage at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre as part of the Public Primary Schools Festival of Music.

This year, for the first time in many years, the choir was composed of over a 1000 students returning to the past, when the choral festival was known as 'The Thousand Voice Choir'.

Our school was also represented by Jacob K. and Connor G. who were part of the Percussion Ensemble.

The Primary Schools Festival of Music, an official state icon, is a public school-based music education program which is a collaboration between DECD and the SAPPS Music Society, which gives all SA public primary students the opportunity to perform at a prestigious venue.

This year the Festival started with a big bang, as an “Arena Percussion Group” opened the concert while all 1000 students filed onto stage. The commissioned work was entitled “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” which was a series of five songs based around the popular classical composition “The Nutcracker Suite”, and the concert ended with the pop song “Live Louder”.

In between there were a number of Assisting Artists from public primary and secondary schools, other choir items that presented different musical genre, and two pieces that specifically showcased the talents of the orchestra.

It was a spectacular event that our students enjoyed being a part of .

A high resolution copy of this photo and a DVD of the concert will be available for purchase from the website http://www.festivalofmusic.org.au/dvdphotos.html

Leonie Orum (Choir Trainer)

Parking Reminder

Pick up times can be incredibly hectic and busy! Can we please ask that parents and caregivers not park in the staff car park in the mornings and afternoons. Recently, we had all of our Disabled car spaces taken by people with no sticker to indicate their use for that space, which is quite disappointing. Please park in the streets adjacent to West Beach Primary School. Thanks!

West Beach Primary Obstacle Course

The students at West Beach Primary are very excited to be planning and designing a fun and challenging obstacle course for the upper primary students.

West Beach Primary School opens its grounds to the public outside of school hours and we need the whole community to get behind this idea to help us turn their dream into a reality. Here’s what our students say…

“I think these obstacles will be perfect for everyone”

“Fantastic idea”

“I can't wait for the obstacle course”

“It sounds very fun and interesting! Can't wait”

“I want this to be like Ninja Warrior course of our own”

Help us make our children’s dream a reality. There is an opportunity to vote for our site to receive funding to make this exciting opportunity happen.

Visit the website below and vote before 5pm, 20 November 2017

https://fundmyneighbourhood.yoursay.sa.gov.au/rounds/fund-my-neighbourhood-2017/ideas/community-obstacle-course