1/2 C love to meditate each morning. Sometimes teachers and parents think that we are the 5/6s because we are so quiet at it. If students are late they know to remain quiet so that the class can continue to meditate. Some things we do whilst meditation is closing our eyes, deep breathing and trying to clear our minds as much as possible. Here is our class in action ……
Today, the students in the 3/4 Level explored the world of robotics through learning to use our new Ozobots. They learnt how robots have helped to make so many aspects of our lives easier and safer. The students explored how they can use different coloured codes to help tell the Ozobot what to do. Sometimes the Ozobots do what they are coded to do but other times they can be a bit like a ‘naughty student’ and not do what they are told. Nonetheless, they all learnt many new skills plus had lots of fun along the way.
Today some students in the 1/2 Level played a game called ‘Reversi’ during Maths Groups today. It involves trying to block the other player’s counters so that you could capture them as your own. It was a bit of a combination between connect four and chess. Our brains were really working throughout the session.
Here is some of us at work ……
Some statistics for you:
It is not too late to join the Reading Challenge. If you took part last year you can start reading straight away – your card details are the same.
There are enrolment forms on the circulation desk if you would like to take part for the first time. Anyone who wants their name in the online honour roll at the end of the challenge needs to have one of these forms signed by a parent and returned to school.
Anyone who completes the challenge gets a special certificate and book mark at assembly. These fabulous readers also have the chance at winning one of 4 Book Club $25 book vouchers to use in Book Club or at our annual Book Fair in November.
In week 7 of this term we were fortunate enough to have the ‘world famous’ John Burland attend Holy Trinity to teach us some great songs. It’s easy to see how much we loved the day!!!!
Here is a link to a few videos of the day as well for you to enjoy. They are well worth a look.
Thanks to Mrs. Cascinelli & Mr. Downie for organising the day!!!
The students at Holy Trinity have been learning about Maths all over the world. Students have been taking photos about Maths related concepts they see in the world and share it with me to describe at Friday’s Assemblies.
Here is a copy of the presentation showing some of the ways that Maths is used in our world.
[embeddoc url=”https://docs.google.com/a/htws.catholic.edu.au/presentation/d/1MiXjjFpgJR2F4Q4Mo26HKha0UEXHqoABI-gBBiuAdF8/preview” download=”all” viewer=”drive” ]
Last Friday, we celebrated Holy Trinity’s Feast Day and Carnevale!
We started the day with a school parade and then got to the watch each year level preform a dance they had been working on in Italian. The dancers were great! Next all the students got to show of their costumes by doing a lap around the basketball court, it was great to see everyone’s wonderful costumes.
The other highlights of the day were the gelati van, the making of the italian masks and the comedy and singing show at the end of the day.
It was a wonderful day and everyone has lots of fun!
As the students have been introduced to calm breathing as a focus for concentration meditation, in the last Friendship Groups session we introduced a physical object as a point of focus for meditation.
“Object focused meditation is a visual meditation involving an external physical item. Since we are conditioned to be task-oriented since childhood, we have learned to keep the mind from drifting by giving it a task to focus on. Object focused meditation makes use of this conditioning by getting the mind to focus on the object in front of you. It tricks the mind into staying in the present moment. . .
The external object of attention is useful in as much as it acts as a point of reference to which the mind can easily be tethered. Every time it strays, you simply need to bring it back to the object.”
Holding a certain posture or doing some simple, such as repetitive movement may help children focus their concentration. A meditative gesture repeated again and again can also help them begin to develop the initial stages of concentration if used as a focal point. You can focus on a physical object or one you visualize in your mind. Some students have already been introduced to the use of a mandala.
Object focused meditation is good for beginners, it helps them to still their mind and the more they practise they will find that thoughts (which may be causing worry or anxiety) disappear.
http://www.do-meditation.com/object-focused-meditation.html#sthash.gS7bWCVb.dpbs
Yesterday, the 5/6’s represented our school for the first day of their Interschool Winter Sports Competitions. As part of this day the boys soccer team not only performed well during the game but also afterwards doing a HT version of the Haka proudly led by Bruce. Click on the link to see the boys in action.
Yesterday, Aisling McGing, David Mutimer, Samantha Wahrenberger and I, went to the fourth Network of Schools seminar at Melbourne University. It was valuable listening to the informative content from different presenters, in particular Jan Van Driel who spoke about the Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) education initiative. Together, we had opportunities to discuss and reflect on our current school practices in light of STEM. In the afternoon we had time to work in groups with other schools who share the same school focus, ‘Feedback’. We began looking at our focus in a more indepth way. We are looking forward to working more closely with these schools over the next 3 years.
On Wednesdays during this term the 5/6’s have been learning about Ozobots and how to use them. We created a track to accomplish some tasks where the Ozobots follow some colour commands. We even got to play a game of Bowling with them where the Ozobot knocked over some pins like in the real ten pin bowling game. We also learnt about using a website called Ozoblocky.com where you can code the Ozobots to do different things.
Here are some pictures and videos of our lessons.
On Wednesday lunch times the Tech Leaders have been teaching interested students about different parts of ICT. Lately we’ve been learning about hardware and the parts of the computer. The students have been taking apart some of the older computers in the school and learning how they fit together.
The students think it has been ‘really cool’ learning about some of this stuff.
Here is a few photos of the students in action.
Today the 1/2’s used the Chromebooks to read a story on Sunshine Online called My Sad Skeleton. Sunshine Online is a website with a huge range of interactive books at different reading levels. It also has activities about each book which the students find highly engaging and secretly they learn a lot from.
This term all grades have been learning about Carnevale time in Italy. The Preps & 1/2 classes have been learning about Arlecchino and his costume of many colours, the 3/4 classes have been learning an Italian tarantella dance and the 5/6 students have been learning about La Commedia dell’Arte – the Comedy of the Arts and creating ‘lazzi’ – which are short comedy skits. The students have been creating their ‘lazzi’ to music.
We are looking forward to our Carnevale themed Italian day and Holy Trinity Feast Day celebrations on Friday 9th June.
