Primary School Notices

The 18th Century returns for a day in Class 5. We have been learning about life in the 1800s as part of our Mai Lesson. Today we’ve had a lot of fun dressing up as people who loved in the time of the arrival of the First Fleet.

A selection of Autumn watercolour paintings done by Class 6 with Eleni.

In Kindergarten, we have had the pleasure of hosting two work placement students, Annette and Henrietta from Norway. They are visiting the Kindergarten for five weeks. You may see them also visiting classrooms throughout the school. Annette and Henrietta have brought with them, Norwegian stories and verses which they are sharing with the children in Kindergarten during story and circle time. Annette and Henrietta have also been sharing songs and words in Norwegian. Both students have been helping in the routines of Kindergarten and enjoying our children and our wonderful community. Last week along with the children, they were fortunate enough to see a Koala visiting high up in a tree and also some chicks that visited Kindergarten.

To welcome the Spring, Class 1 held a Wattle Ball. We heard a story, sang, recited poetry and danced the “Wattle Polka” in order to celebrate the change in our local environment. The blooming of the wattle is important to Indigenous Australians and gives an indication for Bundjalung People
that hunting the Eastern Long Neck Turtle should cease as this is the time which marks the beginning of the turtle’s breeding season.
The children made wattle crowns and necklaces in preparation for the day and were accompanied on the violin by Ayla, Coco, River and Nina from Class 6.
What a beautiful way to welcome spring and the class will be performing this dance at the Spring Fair this Saturday.
James – Class 1 Teacher

The Kindergarten children have just finished creating felted soap and wooden soap holders as gifts. The children have worked for many weeks on rasping, sanding and waxing their pieces of wood. The wood was sourced from the Melaleuca Trees near the Vegetable Garden. The trees were originally planted over ten years ago by students who are no longer at our school. After completing their gifts, the children visited the Melaleuca Trees to gather the paperbark to wrap their gifts. Whilst on our excursion to the trees, Gavin visited and shared his memories of the trees being planted.

We have had several parents visiting on Friday mornings to garden. The children were very keen and enthusiastic to help weed, dig and lay large rocks to shape the garden. Bricks were wheelbarrowed over to the garden and the children helped to bed them into a spiral design in preparation of a sensory garden. Mulch has been added and strawberries planted. The gardening project will continue over the next few Fridays.

In our current main lesson we are learning about the inland exploration of Australia, the history and geography of our land. Working in small groups, the children are researching a particular explorer and their expeditions. Each group is preparing a lesson to teach the rest of the class, and is working from a list of supplies to calculate how much food and water they are consuming and how the weight of it can be shared evenly in the packsaddles of their horses or camels.

This theme will continue in our upcoming camp at Gibraltar Ranges National Park where we will experience the landscape in a very practical way – walking, camping and exploring the landscape.

Matt

Class 5 Teacher

Class Two went on their very first excursion out to Ann Poulson’s (Class 5 teacher) farm in Burringbar. The children drew from nature, fed a lovely herd of black and white show cows and observed, groomed and interacted with a small herd of horses. Watching how each child approached a horse, braving their fear, and experiencing their joy, when a large animal responded to them was fantastic! It was such fun to be out and about with the class. They were so respectful, well mannered, joyful and appreciative. Steiner teachers are one lucky group of professionals.

Naina
Class Two Teacher

Class 6 have had their gaze up in the night sky over the past couple of weeks as part of our Astronomy main lesson. To further our celestial explorations, we went on an excursion to Brisbane to visit the Planetarium where we very much enjoyed the dome show. We then visited the museum to see the exhibition ‘NASA: A Human Adventure’. It was fascinating to learn so much about humanity’s journey further into space, and to see some objects that had actually been to space and back. Class 6 spent most of last week sharing their fabulous and well-researched Astronomy projects with the class. This happened to coincide with the 50th year anniversary since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first human beings to set foot on the moon on 20 June in 1969.
And to top it off, Class 6 did a marvellous job presenting some of the southern hemisphere Winter sky constellations at our Winter Festival on Friday.
‘One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind!’

Here are some poems and prose composed by some Class students, as part of our recent exploration of the Wonder and Wisdom of Words.

Arctic
by Tonali Davies
The Arctic is like a cold enchantress,
An old woman at the end of the earth.
She sits silent, watching, forever watching.
She watches the bears, white on the snow.
She watches the seals as they come and they go.
She watches, waits the whole year round.
The northern lights are her crown
And her feet, deep deep down.
Below the sea, ice shrinks and grows
And in her heart of ice she knows,
That she will wait for a thousand years.
In the ice locked are her tears.

Creative stimulus writing
by Marlon
The sea was rough and the Golden Bell was tossed around like a toy in a bath. The day the storm exhausted itself calm as calm. There was a soft breeze and the ship rocked gently back and forth. All the crew were exhausted after what they had been through the night before. But little did they know, under the ocean something stirred. The storm had woken it from a long sleep and now it was awake. And hungry.

Similes
by Quin
The moon is like a lonely diamond in the sky.
The wind is like a mother hushing her child.
A sunflower is like the sun.
A dandelion is like a small mammal curled up on a stem.
A pine tree is like a tall man reaching out his arms.
A field of tulips is like the ground after a battle.
A flower bed is like a school for flowers.
The creak of trees is like a newly born baby’s cry.

We Give Thanks
by Ayla
We give thanks to all the animals,
Big and small,
Short and tall,
The fluffy and scruffy,
The spiky and soft,
The cute, the scary
They’re all the same
They have a purpose
Since the day they came.

A Letter from the Earth
by Coco
Dear people,
I just wanted to remind you to always tread lightly and think deeply. Just like you have a sponge when you have a shower to clean yourself, you feel like a sponge when you swim in my ocean. When you climb in my trees and bushes it’s like a comb running through my hair. When you place your bare feet on the ground it’s like a massage that goes on forever. I hope it will stay this way where you people are forever preening and making me a queen.
From the Earth, your source of life.

Moon Light
by Coco
The moon is an orb strung high in the sky
Surrounded by velvet as black as the night.
The velvet is studded with diamonds so bright
They twinkle and sparkle like jewels in the night.
The planets are lonely and really quite far.
They’re actually thoughts lost up in the stars.
If you look on rare nights the moon is a ruby
Engulfed in velvet, black and blue.

CLASS 6 PORTRAITS