Personal stories kick off week of practical writing lessons

Newspaper Club - Merino Consolidated School

IN ENGLISH this week we have been learning about biographies.

We started off by writing our own autobiographies.

We are now learning what we need to include in biographies like using third person and writing in passive voice.

We were also practising how to summaries key information, so we know what to do when we have to write a biography in a few weeks’ time.

School improvements

ALL last week there was a builder at school, working on some jobs at our school.

We now have a new playground structure and brand-new garden beds.

The new garden beds look really cool and we are going to plan our Winter crop of veggies this Friday.

Tree planting

THIS week we also went tree planting around our school.

We have lots of room here at Merino CS and we have lots of room to plant trees!

We were able to get some trees from Landcare and we planted them around the fence to give the sheep in the other paddock some shade.

We put mulch around them and watered them in the ground.

Gymnastics

THIS term, Ms Hulin has arranged for us to take part in gymnastics lessons.

We drove to Hamilton in a bus and took part in our first lesson last week.

I LOVED it as I got to learn how to do movements that the gymnasts do on TV.

At the end of all of our lessons, I really want to learn how to do the splits.

Science

LAST week the Years 4, 5 and 6s travelled down to Geelong to take part in a full day of Science at the BioLab.

We went down with other schools and it was so much fun.

We learnt about how science works to help athletes with their sport performances.

We did an activity where we had to make our heart rate drop really low and then see if we could make it go really high – I got mine the highest out of everyone there!

Mine got up to 200 beats per minute!

Big week of entertainment at Casterton Primary

Jill Robertson - Casterton Primary School

THIS week is an exciting week for performances. 

We have two of them – one on Thursday and one on Friday. 

They will be fantastic. 

On Thursday we will enjoy a performance by Mara! performing ‘Music in my Suitcase. 

It is music from around the world and will complement our music program as Mrs Kelly has been exposing students to music from different cultures this year.

On Friday we are looking forward to a shared performance with Sacred Heart from Arts Victoria, called Junklandia. 

The underlying theme is recycling.

Both of these performances will be enjoyed from the town hall. 

Thanks to Mrs Kelly for bring these opportunities to our school.

In the classroom

LAST week the senior students have started an Australian history unit of work about explorers and the First Fleet. 

Initially they will be learning about explorers, what it was like to be one and they will think about where they would like to explore if they were explorers. 

The end point will be a flip-book or presentation mode of their choice with information about an explorer from their research. 

Science in Grade 6 … from our school leaders

YESTERDAY, in the Grade 6 room, the students were learning how to write a procedure. 

Mrs Lawrence cleverly disguised this activity in an engaging science experiment, giving students the subject matter so they only had to focus on the technique of writing procedure. 

Chloe explained the activity to me:

“Yesterday in science we mixed coloured H2O (water) onto some fibre.  The fibre looked like white cotton but it was actually the filling from a nappy.  We had to list the ingredients and guess what was going to happen.  None of us actually got it right.”

Mrs. Lawrence explained to the students the importance of using formal scientific language, so there was some extension of vocabulary as well. 

Jett explained:

“I predicted the fibre would absorb the liquid, but the sodium polyacrylate absorbed the dyed H2O and turned to a gel like substance.”

The students were asked to record the apparatus (ingredients), procedure, a prediction and the outcome.

P.E.

WITH the decanting of our classrooms, Mrs Barlow has made good use of the large empty spaces (getting ready for our capital works) to run bowling sessions in the large double blocks.

The kids have really enjoyed the ten-pin bowling activities.

Flying high on play-based learning

Suzie McManus - Sacred Heart School

THE Foundation and Grade 1s are buzzing with excitement.

They have an air travel theme to explore over the next few weeks.

They have a ticket booth, runway and model plane to engage with.

Nate O'Connell is learning to be a pilot and hopes to get his pilot's licence soon!

Meanwhile, Ruben was on security duty making sure the passengers did not have unsafe items in their suitcases and Lori Campbell was checking passengers in at the desk.

Getting Arty

THE Senior kids have been experimenting with creating Japanese Notans.

By combining light and dark elements (which can also be called negative and positive space) the Notan seeks to embody balance.

Every artwork includes both positive and negative space.

Notan is all about balancing these two factors.

Coastal environment offers extensive classroom

Ann Hirst - Casterton Secondary College
THE Year 11 and 12 Outdoor and Environmental Studies class did a day trip around Portland and the surrounding districts for their end of term one excursion.

Students were to put what they had learnt in theory into the outdoor experiences.

Firstly, the students went to Budj Bim to look at the eel traps and the huts that were replications used by the Gunditjmara tribe.

Students analysed their sustainable practices around Lake Condah.

The next stop was the Port of Portland, where students witness the use of the port through imports and exports, especially the exports of logs to China and Japan and Australia buy it back as toilet paper and paper.

Management strategies at Nunn’s Beach was the next focus.

Students looks at the ways in which the area is managed and encourages tourism and recreation.

The students were then lucky enough to get up close to the only inland breeding colony of the Gannets out at Point Danger.

We observed how they are being protected and the conservation strategies around protecting this species.

We then drove out to Cape Bridgewater to again observe the recreation and tourism uses of the beach.

We also observed management and conservation strategies in place for the beach and the Great South West Walk.

They also talked with some hikers of the Great South West Walk their journey and their motivations for completing the trip.

Next was to observe the wind turbines and learn the environmental impacts of this renewable energy source.

Our last stop was to the protected Ramsar site, Piccaninnie Ponds, where students were able to look at the aesthetics of the karst wetlands and learn about the management strategies of the migratory species.