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Category: 1/2 Posts

Storybox incursion

Storybox incursion

To consolidate their learning of “Then and Now”, Grade 1/2 s had the opportunity to participate in an incursion from “Storybox”. They were so eager and attentive much to the admiration from the teachers  and learnt how times have changed, clothes they wore, the games they played and the gadgets and the gimmicks they used. The best discovery was the bedpan which they thought was a mixing bowl!!!!!!

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Predicting before Experimenting.

Predicting before Experimenting.

Today 1/2 s gathered together learning how different materials can be combined, including by mixing, for a particular purpose. They discussed similarities and differences between mixtures, explained why they thought different mixtures created different outcomes and also brainstormed what they already know about mixtures and their uses. The best part was predicting the outcomes before the experiments and some getting their predictions right! Definitely some future scientists in the making!!!!!! 

 

 

 

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Cross Country at HT

Cross Country at HT

On Monday (8th of May) all the students at HT and St. Mary’s participated in our school’s annual Cross Country event. The students walked to Egan Lee Reserve to complete the run. Even though the weather wasn’t ideal everyone tried their best & had fun! The younger students ran 1 lap of the track (1km long), the students in the 3/4 level ran two laps and the older students ran 3 laps.

The preps were lucky enough to run with their buddies. Even though many students felt quite nervous leading up to the event it was great to see so many students doing their best and ‘getting active’.

Thanks to Mr D for organizing this day and for all the parent volunteers for helping with running the event!

Here are some pictures of a some of our ribbon winners after their events ….

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Prep – Yr4 Swimming

Prep – Yr4 Swimming

Each Friday this term there has been lots of excitement amongst our Prep to Year 4 students as they have been have been participating in swimming lessons at Swim World in Glen Waverley. Each week the students dress with their swimming costumes underneath their school clothes. At their allocated time each class gets ready by putting on their swimming caps and goggles and then they go on the bus to Swim World.

During swimming lessons the students have been learning a variety of skills including floating, water safety techniques and practising the different swimming strokes.

Last Friday, the students brought along some old clothes to wear in the pool to practise what a person should do if they were to fall into the water. The students seem to really enjoy this adventure!

Overall, the students are having a great time at their swimming lessons and are looking forward to the last fun lesson this Friday.

Here are a few photos of the students in action …..

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School Production – The Land of Dance

School Production – The Land of Dance

There is lots of excitement around HT & St. Mary’s at the moment (particularly around the Italian room) as 2023 is going to be a School Production year. The theme for this year’s production is The Land Of Dance and our school concert will take place towards the end of term 3. Each class is learning their choreography songs and theme and over the coming months they will learn about the dances and costumes they will be using.

The auditions of the different parts of our production have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. The 5/6 students were given the opportunity to audition for these parts.  Seniora Formichelli is filming each auditioning character and then these videos will be shown to the Italian Production Committee to decide on who will be the different characters. Some of the different characters in the production include nonna, nonno, the mayor and the bus driver.

Seniora Formichelli has been working on putting the whole production together since last year and we are very lucky to have her helping to create so much excitement for the concert.

There will be lots of different posts on the school blog over the coming months as the production gets closer.

Here are a few photos from the recent auditions …..

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Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday

All the Grade Ones and Twos gathered together in the Great Space and celebrated Shrove Tuesday. They learnt about it’s connection to Lent. The students watched how pancakes were made and completed a procedural writing afterwards about how to make pancakes.  The best part was they got to eat delicious pancakes too!

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Prep – 2 Melbourne Zoo Excursion

Prep – 2 Melbourne Zoo Excursion

Two weeks ago on a bright Monday morning (10th of October) our Preps, Grade 1’s and Grade 2’s had a special excursion to the Melbourne Zoo as part of their Science Inquiry topic. The journey was an exciting one for our junior students who were able to travel by bus with their friends for one of the first excursions many of them have ever had. They saw the big cats, elephants, snow leopards, hippos, monkeys, butterflies, all sorts of sea life and of course lots of Australian animals such as kangaroos and koalas. They also had a unique opportunity to get a close up learning experience at the educational centre. Despite all of this for many of the students their favourite part of the day was when they got to eat their food and play with their friends in some of the beautiful green areas of the Melbourne Zoo.

For many students this day could be the highlight of their time at school.

We would like to say a big thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers who assisted throughout the day and to the Prep to 2 teachers for helping to organise the day.

Here are a few pictures of our experiences at the Melbourne Zoo …..

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Zentangles

Zentangles

2 Yellow have recently started a new mindfulness activity this past few weeks called Zentangles. It allows the students to calmly draw patterns, practice focusing and taking their time. The students have enjoyed this activity, particularly towards the end of the day when we all need some quiet time. Take a look at some of their amazing patterns.

 

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Push Race Cars

Push Race Cars

In Science at the moment the Year 1 students are learning about the forces of push and pull. As part of this topic the students built a Lego car model that used an elastic band to power the car a bit like a wind-up toy. Our Year 1 students were lucky enough to build this model with the Year 6 students and then they got to test and race them against other students in the class.

Overall, the students learnt a lot about how you can power a car without needing a motor to get it to work just like the forces of push and pull.

Here are the students in action …..

This is one of our races between the different Lego models that the students built ……

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Year 2 learning

Year 2 learning

This term in the Year 2 level there has been a big focus on developing their skills in writing and Maths.

In writing, the students have been writing information reports about some of the animals they have studied.

In Maths, the Year 2 students have been learning about addition and subtraction there has been a huge improvement in there overall mental maths skills.

Overall, it sounds like the year two students are really developing their skills well and it is awesome to see how much they have learnt.

Here are a few pictures of some of the work displayed in the Year 2 classrooms.

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Peer Feedback in 2 Yellow

Peer Feedback in 2 Yellow

This morning in Writing, 2 Yellow had a go at providing peer feedback to each other. The students were asked to listen to their partners information report and provide a star 🌟 (something they did well) and a wish (something they could improve on). Giving peer feedback is a useful skill as it allows the students to reflect on the learning intentions and success criteria of the lesson, and provide useful feedback, rather than it just coming from the teacher. Very powerful stuff!

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House Cross Country 2022

House Cross Country 2022

On Friday 18th of March all students from Prep to Year 6 participated in our annual House Cross Country event at Egan Lee Reserve.

This year we had a number of firsts including the students in Prep to Year 2 having an opportunity to participate in the event for the first time and the event taking place in term one (it usually happens in term two).

Mr. D had measured out a one kilometre circuit for everyone to follow which began on the training soccer fields and followed a track around the back of the main soccer field before returning back to the starting line again. Each class has been preparing for our cross country during their PE sessions this term.

Our Prep to Year 2 students completed one lap of this circuit (1km) whilst the 3/4 students completed two laps and the 5/6 students completed 3 laps.

Our District Cross Country team is chosen from the students who compete in our cross country and usually include students from Years 4, 5 and 6.

Thank you Mr D for organizing amazing fun day and thank you to our wonderful parent helpers and staff for assisting with the running event. Everyone overall did amazing and it was great to see everyone doing their best to keep active.

Here are the results of the students who came first in their Years 3 to 6.

Year 3’s: Jackson & Avery

Year 4’s: Luke & June

Year 5’s: Eden & Darcy

Year 6’s: Ella D & Nathan

Here are some photos from the day ……

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Cooking with Kids

Cooking with Kids

The Year 1/2’s have been learning about how to keep their mind and bodies healthy! Some 1/2 students and parents were lucky enough to be involved in Cooking with Kids last Wednesday afternoon. Cooking with Kids is a parent and child cooking class, celebrating and encouraging cooking with children at home using fresh vegetables. Families prepared a simple dish together and children had the opportunity to taste some different veggies! 

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P-4 Swimming

P-4 Swimming

The students in Prep to Year 4 are very excited at the moment because this Friday they will all be starting our school swimming program at Swimworld Aquatic Centre in Glen Waverley. Each Friday in term one the Prep to Year 4 students will dressed in their PE uniform (students wear their swimming costumes underneath their uniform) and they will bring everything they will need to be able to swim including their goggles, towel and a bag to carry their wet clothes in afterwards.

Each year level has a set time to catch the bus from school, participate in their swimming lesson and then catch the bus back to school after the lesson. The first students to leave are the year 4s who will depart school at about 9.10 am and the final students (Preps) will return to school at about 1.15 pm.

I spoke to a couple of year three students about their thoughts with the upcoming swimming  lessons and they said that they will looking forward to practising how to dive, learning the different strokes such as freestyle and backstroke and also all the fun safety activities you do such as treading water with extra clothes on. 

We will keep you posted with our swimming lessons over the next few weeks.

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Help Save the Emperor Penguins

Help Save the Emperor Penguins

Aryana D in 2 Blue has been concerned with the Emperor Penguins.

The Emperor Penguin is the largest penguin in the world. Unfortunately, they are dying because they have nowhere to live as the polar ice caps are melting due to global warming.

One of the big ways that we can help stop global warming is by using recyclable materials instead of single use plastic. Another option is to reuse items more than once such as to using a refillable drink bottle instead of buying water from the store.

Aryana would like to remind us that we can help save the Emperor Penguins from climate change by thinking about using recyclable materials such as cardboard, cloth bags or even recyclable plastic before we use single use plastic as much as possible.

Here is a poster to help remind everyone about how we can help these beautiful creatures to survive on earth for many years to come.

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ALL TOGETHER AGAIN

ALL TOGETHER AGAIN

Welcome back everyone!

We are so excited to have everyone back at school, all together again. All the staff were so happy to see all your smiling faces this morning. The bubbles were a big hit and it was great to see everyone using their bubble wands on the playground and oval.

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Cyber Safety ‘Mind maps’

Cyber Safety ‘Mind maps’

During the past few Digitech sessions the students in Years 1 to 6 have been learning to use an online mind mapping program called Mindmup. Mind mapping is a visual way of setting out our learning where we put together similar ideas into groups much like we group our ideas into paragraphs or onto the same slide. Students enjoy the ability to use images to represent a phrase as well as to colour code the different topics that they use. Our Digitech mind maps demonstrated our cyber safety understanding that we have developed during remote learning.

I would like to say a massive THANK YOU to our wonderful parents who supported their children in learning to use this new program. I’m sure they learnt some new skills as well during our unit. This program will certainly be regularly used in classrooms in the years to come.

Here is a small representation of some of the impressive mind maps that have been created over the past few weeks.

Year 1/2’s Mind maps

Year 3/4’s Mind maps

 

Year 5/6’s Mind maps

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SRC – New School Uniform

SRC – New School Uniform

This term our SRC (Student Representative Council) have been regularly meeting to work through what our new school uniform might look like in 2022 and beyond.

Over the past couple of weeks we shared some of our wonderful ideas including labelling our designs.

Some of ideas included introducing a tie, having a hoodie and creating a uniform that can be worn by both girls and boys and having just one uniform that is a bit more ‘sporty’ and can be worn on both PE and non PE days.

We would love you to add your thoughts about the below designs into the comment section of this post.

Here are some of the designs that our SRCs came up with …..

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