On Thursday each week the Year 4 students come over to the STEM Lab (or more commonly known as the MPR) for a lego building session. So far the students have built a ferris wheel, conveyor belt and today we built a hand blender (maybe these could be used in the kitchen). By the end of the lesson we have lots of fantastic models and lots of new concepts have been learnt. Here we are in action recently …..
Over the last few weeks all students have been having fun in PE lessons. They have been developing their kicking skills, knowledge and game sense related to soccer. Each Monday we have been lucky enough to have Melbourne Victory development officers assist me in PE and with training our Senior Inter school Boys and Girls soccer teams at lunchtime. Overall, the students are having lots of fun as well learning lots of new skills.
On Wednesday 15th of May our prep classes were lucky enough to have an incursion as part of their Inquiry topic about Life Cycles. Wildlife Xposure brought along a variety of animals including snakes, crocodiles and birds to teach the students about the wonderful world that we live in. The students got to examine their behaviour and some even go to touch the animals.
Overall the preps had a great time and learnt a lot about animals for their Inquiry topic.
Every second Friday afternoon the students move into their Friendship Groups(multi aged groups from Prep to year 6) to participate in an activity based around our TORCH values. Our TORCH values are Tolerance, Optimism, Respect, Confidence and Honesty. Our lesson recently was based around Optimism where students created their own rose coloured glasses. The aim of this activity was for students to look at different events with ‘rose coloured glasses’ in order to see the bright side of things.
Here are a few photos taken from our Friendship Group activities a couple of weeks ago…..
Over the past couple of weeks the students in year 6 have been working on their persuasive writing skills. Persuasive writing is where you write a series of arguments to convince people about a topic that you think is important with the aim to get more people understanding your point of view. The year 6 students were writing persuasive arguments to help make a real impact in the world.
Here are a couple of examples from 6 Blue ….
On Wednesday the 24th of April the students in Years 3 to 6 participated in our school fun run. Everyone tried hard and it was a really successful event. The top ten girls and boys in each age group will be going on to the District Cross Country in a couple of weeks (Friday 24th of May). Overall Mackay team (blue) won the day for earning the most points and and MacKillop team (green) won the spirit shield. Thanks to Mrs. Harrison for her great organisation and to all the parents who came along to assist with the running of the event.
Last week the year 4’s went on camp to ADANAC (Canada spelt backwards) which was in Yarra Junction for 2 days and 1 night.
Camp went something like this …..
All the excited children left Holy Trinity at around 9am and it took about 45 minutes to reach our camp site. When we arrived we unpacked and explored our cabins. Makayla (our camp leader) showed us around the campsite. My favourite bit was the giant water slide that went all the way into the lake. Later on we had completed our rotational groups activities which were canoeing, zip line (flying fox), hut building and camp cooking. My favourite activity was the zip line which was 150 meters long During the afternoon we also had cake to celebrate Jasmine’s birthday.
During the evening we had dinner that was pizza and salad. Most of our favourites was a yummy dessert which included cake, chocolate fudge and topped with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. Some children had gelato instead. At night time we went on a long night walk around the lake and stopped at the campfire to roast marshmallows. The only problem was that Mr. Harvie had never started a campfire before so it took about 20 minutes to get going. After we roasted the delicious marshmallows we walked back up to the gym and played 5 different games. Suddenly the lights went out and some of us squealed. After a fun day we went to bed for some rest even if some of us went to sleep later than others.
On day 2 of camp we woke up and we packed up our room before 8 am because the next school was arriving soon. For breakfast we had a choice of porridge, cereal toast, yogurt and fruit. Afterwards, we finished off our last activity rotation and had morning tea which was cake for Lara’s birthday. We got to play a game of bonbardment for 30 minutes. At lunch we had beef burgers and 25 minutes of free time. Finally, we drove back to Holy Trinity to find our “excited” parents waiting for us.
Overall year 4 camp was a 9 out of 10 and I can’t wait for our next camp in year five.
Lego sessions have begun for our Year 4 and 5 students in the MPR (renamed as the STEM Lab). Both year levels are learning about centrifugal and and centripetal forces in machines such as Carousels, Ferris Wheels and Flying Chairs. We have learnt how changing the size of the driving wheel can dramatically affect the speed that our lego models can work at.
Here are our Year 5 students in action this week building their flying chair models…..
This afternoon as part of our final assembly for the term we presented the SRC (Student Representative Council) members of each class and the TORCH bearers of term 1 2019. All candidates for the SRC were required to write a letter saying why they think they would make a good SRC member to represent their class. The TORCH bearer of the term is a special award given to students who consistently display all the TORCH values (not just during this term but throughout their school lives. Congratulations to all our SRC members for 2019 and to our TORCH bearers for term 1.
Here is our SRC members for each class for 2019 …..
These are our TORCH bearers for 2019.
Recently the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 parents were invited to come along to a Cooking with Your Kids session run by Belinda, Catherine and Fabi from EACH (Eastern Access Community Health). From 3.30 to 5.30pm the children, mums and dads prepared some yummy healthy snacks including avocado dip, tzatziki dip and rice paper rolls. Belinda also made some amazingly tasty wholemeal pita chips for everyone to eat with the dips. Each family received a ‘Lunchbox Legends’ cook book full of recipes children will love making and the whole family will enjoy.
On Thursday the 4th of April Holy Trinity gathered together in the Community Space to have a prayer to remember Holy Week and the sacrifice that took place when Jesus gave his life for us. Mr. Harvie talked about what a special time it is in Holy Week and we had readings explaining what happened on each day. As you probably already know Holy Week takes place during the school holidays and is the time leading up to Easter.
In the year 6 classes we have been working on our Genius Hour projects. Genius hour is an opportunity for students to learn more about an area of interest to do with the topic we are studying. This term we are learning about the Government and the students came up with some brilliant questions about this topic. Some of the questions included ‘Why do we need a Democracy?’, ‘What would it be like if the whole world used a Communism model?’, ‘Who invented the Commonwealth?’ and ‘Where does the Australian PM live?’. Lots of students came up with different ways to present their learning with some even choosing Scratch (coding) to present their project.
I chose to use Google Slides to present my learning and here is what I came up with.
In Year 5 we are learning about writing persuasive texts. A Persuasive text is a piece of writing that tries to convince someone to do something that they may not normally do. In my class we try to use the A.F.O.R.E.S.T techniques (alliteration, facts, opinion, rhetorical question, emotive language, statistics and triplets). It is also very important to use lots of exaggeration when writing. We are aiming to engage the reader so they are more interested in what they are reading. Like other pieces of writing it is important to write a draft piece before you write your published piece (good copy).
Here is some examples of a draft and final piece of the persuasive writing from 5 Yellow.
What an amazing turnout! Thank you very much to all of the children who came to make an owl both on Wednesday and today at lunch time. Each of you are contributing to such an amazing cause and your generosity is much appreciated! A HUGE shout out to the parent helpers who have supported this event with your donations and time!! We couldn’t have done it without your help! Students, the kindness and patience that you showed to one another is commendable! To the staff that came to support, thanks a bunch!!
Here are a few action shots of our owl making fun!
We are already halfway through Lent which is the special church season leading up to Easter. During Lent one of the areas that Christians try to focus on is almsgiving (or giving to those in need).
At Holy Trinity we often try to raise money for Project Compassion. This year many students have chosen to participate in some owl making sessions at lunch times as a means of raising money for Project Compassion. All the materials used to make these owl were donated by the students which is very nice of everyone who donated. Some of the items include buttons, old tops, pants and other material. We were also lucky enough to have some parents give up their time to assist us with making these owls. They brought in their sewing machines, needles and thread and helped us to make our beautiful creations.
Once the owls are finished the students can buy them for $5.00 with all the money raised going to Project Compassion. Thankyou to everyone for all your contributions and for your hard work.
Here are some of our creations …..
Next term Miss Hiscox and the Environment Leaders are working together to create a gardening club. One of our big project will be to revamp our “beautiful” veggie patch and make it a bit more sustainable. Students will get the chance to join in with the club which will take place each week.
Also our school is becoming more green every day by reducing , reusing and recycling our rubbish. Each will also be working on becoming more sustainable by getting their very own compost bin as well.
Keep an eye on the school blog for future posts about our school becoming more and more green.
On Thursday 28th of March it was time to pretty ourselves up because it was school photos day.
We all made sure our hair was nicely styled and we had our smiley faces on ready for the big day. Everyone has an individual and a class photo taken. We also have family photos taken for students that have siblings. The year six students have an additional photo taken in their leadership teams. For example, all the sport leaders had a photo taken together. I also got to have a special School Captain photo taken with the other 3 school captains which will be a photo I will treasure for the rest of my life.. The company that takes our school photos is called MSP and we have been using them for quite a few years. It usually takes a couple of months before all the photos come back to the school so they will most probably come before the end of term 2.
Overall it was a fun day where we got to show off our hair styles and of course our smiles.
We have had a great start to our learning in the new Italian/Performing Arts space. This week the grade 3/4 students listened to a story in Italian about Easter called Fra Martino. They learnt to play the Fra Martino song on the glockenspiels – they did a fabulous job! Fantastico!
Ciao a presto!
Signora Formichelli
