Secondary 7/8 Learning
Chat with SRC
SRC update with Wolfie and Cooper SKH
In our last meeting we had a vote to name the robot in the Discovery Centre. There were lots of names to choose from but in the end we voted for the name Astro! We also talked about the new buildings that we are going to get at our school. We talked about the new Café. We are very excited to see what it will look like. Hopefully there will be some yummy food there.
At the end of Term 3 we are organising a Footy Colours Day. Students will bring a gold coin donation. We might donate the money raised to the NSW farmers in drought. This was my idea (Wolfie). We haven’t decided yet.
We like going to those meetings. We like learning about new business and donating to others (Cooper).
Interview with a Year 7 Student
Name: Roger D
Class: SCO
What role are your performing in the Secondary Spectacular Hairspray this year? I heard that you have some lines to say! I am playing the role of the dad, Wilbur. I have 6 lines to say. I know them off by heart.
If you could pick your favourite subject at school, what would it be and why? I would choose Indoor Sports that I do at the Challenge Program. I like playing dodgeball and I get to go with my favourite teacher, Ciara.
What is your favourite thing to do outside of school? I love to go to Coburg Library on the weekends and sometimes after school. I borrow books and go on the computers.
Who do you hang out with at recess and lunchtime? I hang out in a big group with Luke, Noah S and sometimes Harley, Jake and Josh. We chat and play in the Secondary 7/8 courtyard. I like to jump around to get my energy out. Unfortunately my foot is sore at the moment.
Favourite food? Fish and chips.
Favourite sport? Swimming, gaga and dodgeball.
Your footy team? Collingwood.
Anything else you would like to add? Last year I won a special award! I got the Courage Award.
SECONDARY 7/8 LEARNING:
A snapshot of what is happening in some of the Secondary 7/8 specialists classes:
Digital Technologies
Students have been using different iPad apps, such as Halftone. The posters were created using Pages on the iPad. Some posters were generated using the website QR generator using QR Codes.
Outdoor Education
Here are some photos of the Secondary 7/8 students at their swimming program this term. They have been practicing their floating and water safety.
Science
We have been doing a whole bunch of exciting experiments and getting our hands dirty. This has tied in well with the Secondary 7/8 Integrated Unit ‘Heating and Melting’.
Food Technology
This term, students are learning about healthy food choices and how to make their own breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks.
Mathematics
In Maths, SMC students have finished investigating money. Some of the activities we did included organising and stacking coins into order and counting the collections to find out how much money there is. The class have also just finished looking at shapes. Some students used tangram shapes to make and copy pictures. We are now learning about measurement (length) and multiplication. We have done some fun activities such as measuring our hands, arms and bodies. We look forward to making and flying paper planes and measuring how far they can fly. We will also be measuring and constructing houses to practice measuring accurately using formal and informal units.
To assist your child with learning about arrays in our multiplication sessions, ask your child to see if they can find any arrays that are in their house or out on the street (eg. traffic light, egg carton, block of chocolate or windows on a high rise building). You may also have conversations around commutative law (eg. 3 x 4 is the same as 4 x 3).
Interview with Sam from SAS
What are you learning in maths?
How to do multiplication sums.
What new strategies have you learned?
How to share a group of objects evenly between two or more people.
What activity did you enjoy the most this week?
Working on multiplication in Mathletics. It was lots of fun.
What are you looking forward to learning?
How to multiply bigger numbers.
English
In reading, some of the SSO groups have been focusing on inferencing. Students have done a wonderful job on making inferences based on characters feelings and the main idea of the text. Some students are also looking at supporting details and learning to identify literal and implied meaning. Other students have been working on making predictions using prior knowledge, text title, front cover and/or pictures prior to reading a non – fiction text.
Reading with your child at home will assist with their learning at school and life beyond school. It helps make connections between what they learn and how it can relate to the real world. We encourage students to borrow the take home reading books that we have in our section. If you have any books at home that interest your child, reading those books can spark their interest in reading and promote conversation. Libraries are also a fantastic resource for families to utilise. Children can explore all sorts of books, audio books and interactive activities – the best part is access/borrowing is free! Libraries also run some fantastic school holiday programs which might be worth looking in to in a few weeks time.
Integrated Studies
SKH enjoy becoming scientists during our ‘Heating and Melting’ experiments for our integrated unit this semester.
We have done heaps of fun experiments; some successful and one failure! Let’s share our failure – we were testing to see if heat as an energy force makes things rise. We put hot water in one bottle and cold water in the other. The balloon with hot water in the bottle blew up a little bit. The one with cold water did nothing until we squeezed it so that air went into the balloon. We learnt that hot, boiling water has more energy force than cold water.
Other experiments have involved; melting ice blocks and M & M’s using body heat, cooking 2 minute noodles, making slime, sliding friction with wood and sandpaper, burning energy with candles and marshmallows and using electricity as a heat source with a hairdryer.
We have discovered that heat transfers from one object to another and that there are many different heat sources.
We are excited to do heaps more experiments that will involve more ice, chocolate and eggs.
SEO Interview on Secondary Spectacular Rehearsals
We are enjoying trying on our costumes and we love the theme colour for SEO. This is something different than what we would wear on weekends. It makes us feel happy and beautiful.
The wigs feel different when they are on our heads and look a bit funny. We feel more confident to dance when we are in our costumes. We are really looking forward to our photoshoot and performances.
Students have been involved in getting photos done for our display. They all played their parts very well for the photoshoots last week! They looked amazing and are all looking forward to getting on the stage in front of our school community, family and friends.
PreCal Program in Secondary 7/8
SFC PreCAL are loving our integrated unit – Leisure. Last week the students went to Lush in Westfield Doncaster to research soaps; how they are made, explore different scents/smells and the different textures and colours. The students were able to touch and smell everything in store and watch a rainbow bath bomb in action.
In writing, the students have been learning about describing words. Their experience at Lush was a perfect opportunity for them to use adjectives to describe colours, shapes, smells and touch of the products. The staff at Lush were amazing and so supportive and encouraging of our students to get in and explore. The next day, SFC voted on the scents that they liked and we have begun to make our own soap. They will be on sale at the Secondary 7/8 Expo night in Term 4. This week, the students went to The Body Shop to further explore soaps and get inspiration.
Jane Stacey
Acting Secondary 7/8 Team Leader