Class News

Happy holidays from Italia

We just had to share a few photos of Ella K 's (Yr 1QF) travels. Ella kept us up to date with her European adventures by sending emails. The Korber family said the gelato, pasta and pizza were amazing!

Ella returned to school yesterday and is happy to be united with her friends, who she missed very much.

Ella travelled to:

Hong Kong

Milan

Cinque Terra

Pisa

Tuscany

Verona

Venice

Slovenia

Croatia on a boat

The Amalfi Coast

Sicily

Rome

Welcome back Korbers, we missed you very much too!

SRC Reps Semester 2

Congratulations to all the newly appointed SRC Representatives for this semester.

Foundation Student Representatives

Last week children in Foundation had the daunting task of electing two new SRC representatives.

Foundation children heard from the previous Foundation SRC reps, Mila and Holly, about all the duties a student rep has to do.

After many votes, the Foundation children elected Poppy and Tilly.

Both children received their SRC badge at the special St James Feast day mass on Friday.

Well done Foundation!

Foundation, Year 1 & Year 2

Night Walk

On Friday 2nd August the children of St James Foundation, Year One and Year Two will meet at Elsternwick park for a night walk.

The walk is part of this term’s unit on space ‘To Infinity and Beyond’

Parents have been asked to download the free app ‘Sky View Lite’

This app highlights the night sky and shows the position of the moon, stars and planets.

If you are unable to attend the walk or find yourself out on a night walk, you might like to use this app to discuss the night sky with your family.

Looking forward to seeing you all on our ‘Starry, Starry Night Walk’.

The Junior Team

Foundation is Learning About

the Weather

This term the Foundation children are looking at the weather as part of the Connected Learning unit on Space-’To Infinity and Beyond’.

Each child has received their own ‘Meteorology’ bag of goodies with the books-’Clouds’, Changing Seasons’ and ‘How Is The Weather Today?’

Also in the bag is a weather journal, activities on the seasons, a diary and many more interesting things. Please come into the new Foundation classroom and one of our resident meteorologists will show all the work they have done on the weather.

Children are so excited about the planned night walk on Friday and are looking forward to using their torches on the walk.

This is what the children said about the weather unit.

Madison- I like the meteorology bag.

Mikayla- I liked making the clouds picture with cotton wool.

Lucia- I like learning about the seasons.

Peyton- I liked making the umbrellas

Anita- I liked making pictures with the cotton wool.

Audrey- I liked making the umbrellas.

Poppy- I liked match the clothes to the weather

Eve- I like doing the snow book.

Ethan- I liked learning about the earth and how it moves.

Arran- I liked drawing the seasons cycle

Tilly- I liked making the umbrellas

Alice- I like when we make cloud pictures using cotton wool.

Holly- I like learning all the facts about the clouds and the rain.

Matilda- I like the Clouds book.

Emma-Learning about the seasons

Mila- I liked making the picture with cotton wool.

Nicholas- I liked the leaves in autumn

Sienna- I like the clouds experiment with shaving cream

Iris- I liked the umbrellas when we learnt about rain.

Beau - I like the cloud pictures.

Madelyn- I liked making the kites when we read the story “Whoosh!’

Foundation Celebrates

St James Feast Day

On Friday the Foundation children attended mass in the ‘pop up’ church to celebrate our school saint, St James.

Over the week, the children have been learning about the important person St James.

Children learnt he was a close friend of Jesus.

James had a brother John who was also a friend of Jesus

James and John were fishermen.

Our school crest has a scallop shell on it because James used the shell to baptise people in Spain.

The Foundation children made boats with St James in them for the mass and they were placed in the church.

Well done Foundation they look amazing!!

We Are In-Foundation Moves Into The Main Building!

Last week the Foundation children moved into the main building and a new classroom.

The Foundation children have been working in the art room for the last six months and with the amazing help of the parents we moved into our new bright sunny classroom on Monday!

A BIG thank you to all the Foundation parents who helped move books, pencils, resources and shelves into our beautiful new space.

The children are so excited to be in the ‘big’ school.

This is what the children said about the new classroom.

Madison- I like the pop-out windows

Mikayla- There are spaces to put our bags in.

Lucia- We have so much space

Peyton-I like being close to the main playground

Anita- I like sitting with my friends.

Audrey- I like the windows.

Poppy- I love all the sun we get in the morning.

Eve- I like the cushions in the windows

Ethan-It is so sunny.

Arran- I like the windows. You can see people outside.

Tilly- I like the comfy beds.

Alice-I like the big new windows.

Holly- I like relaxing on the window cushions.

Matilda- I like the pin boards anf whiteboards,they are nice and big.

Emma- We have lots of sun.

Mila- I liked making the kites for wind.

Nicholas- I like drawing in the new classroom.

Sienna- I like the class artwork.

Iris-I like everything.

Beau- I like sitting in the new windows.

Madelyn- I like the new lockers.

Lost Tooth Club!

These are the children in Foundation who have lost a tooth this year.

As you can see there is quite a few of them.

Audrey lost her front tooth just this week.

Foundation Celebrates

100 Days of School

Friday 9th August

On Friday 9th August the Foundation children will be celebrating 100 days of school.

This is a special milestone in the children’s and parents lives.

Well done Foundation you made it!

On Friday the Foundation children can wear casual clothes and we will have a day full of fun.

Children will be completing lots of activities around the number 100.

We can’t wait for the BIG day! 100 days of learning at St James.!

Cathy Busch

Foundation Teacher

STEM in Year 1

In Year 1 we have been having so much fun in STEM. We have been working with Strawbees, Spheros, Planks and Makedo to explore our Connected Learning unit, Sky High. We have made space stations, the Lunar Module, rockets and stars as well as racing the Spheros through space. We love working with our friends to problem solve, be creative and produce amazing designs.

Bridie Slater and Antoinette Ferrari

Yeare 1 Teachers

Year 5

This Term in Year 5 we have begun our Connected Learning unit based on Earth and Space Science. This unit has allowed students to investigate, discover and make connections using their prior and new knowledge of Space and Earth.

The past three weeks, the students main focus has been on the Sun, Moon and planets within our Solar System. As part of this, the students have been working in groups to design an Information Report on a specific planet explaining its characteristics and features. This has allowed the students to explore, investigate and share their findings as they discover fascinating facts about our Solar System.

In 5C, each group has created their own Paper Mache that represents the planet their group is focusing on for their project. Some groups have chosen to go beyond and create 3D diorama displays that shows the students creative, collaborative and imaginative talents.

It has been fantastic to see how engaged and excited the students are towards learning in this topic. The students are filled with many wondering questions and are eager to share their new discoveries. It is wonderful to see them collaborating and cooperating strategically with each other as they lean, investigate and develop new skills together.

New Learning Spaces

The Year 5s are enjoying spilling into a shared learning space adjacent to our rooms. Not a day goes by where the ‘Year 5 Hub’ isn’t being utilised. This also includes the new ‘classroom in the sky’ which the children absolutely love being in. Our students are proving to be respectful of these spaces and their teachers commend them for this.

Kindergarten Visit (Follow Up)

As mentioned in our last newsletter Year 5 hosted students from North Brighton Kindergarten in some of our new learning spaces. A great time was had by all. Here’s a couple of snaps of our students enjoying the session.

Pot Plant Project

with Brendan Anderson

(Georgia’s Cool Dad!)

Last term our two Semester One SRC representatives, Georgia and Sophie set out on a quest to try and make 5Mac feel a little more organic. They visualised the classroom ‘coming to life’ if we were to bring some plant life into the room.

The girls enlisted the support of Georgia’s dad, Brendan to help them get the design and creativity side of things underway and set about ‘getting things done!’ They researched a variety of indoor plant solutions including hanging plants, vertical and horizontal options and others.

After settling on a design, the girls realised they needed to fund the project so cleverly decided to raise money by selling a variety of hand made cards in Martin St. They were extremely successful. Trips to Bunnings ensued as well as drilling, cutting, planting, gluing etc. until finally a pot plant garden was born!

Brendan spent a morning in the classroom installing the plants on an ingenious pulley system. He also taught the students how to use the pulley when watering is required.

Brendan and the girls shared their design and planning process with 5Mac and have challenged the rest of the class to come up with their own projects during Term 3. With support from Georgia and Sophie (and potentially a little background support from mum, Donna ;) ), Brendan walked 5Mac through aspects of the inquiry process, inspiring us to think big and bring our ideas to life.

What is Inquiry?

Click here for an awesome video that explains inquiry in a simple way. (Thanks for finding, Georgia!)

Ideas so far include a fish tank (Tom), a pond with Banjo sharks in it that has a glass over it so you can walk on it (Minty), a corner for pets, including a horse (Sotaro and Seb) and maybe even some rainforest or jungle scents (Tom).

Who knows what will happen? Perhaps 5Mac will end up like a scene out of the movie, Jumanji!