Last week some of our Year 5 and Year 6 students nomiated for The Courier Cup swimming competition at Mount Barker Mountain Pool. Students participated with great energy and enthusiasm throughout the day, with fantastic results. Perhaps the highlight of the day though was watching the swim team come together, gathering at the end of the pool for each race, cheering each other on and motivating one another to just to go out there and give their best. It was the perfect example of students coming together as a team and displaying Unity, we are very proud of them all. 

As part of our visual art studies this term, the Extended Program children used plasticine to create models of fruit and vegetables. Real fruits and vegetables were used as inspiration and the children had to decide what coloured plasticine they would need. If a colour wasn’t available, they needed to squish plasticine together to make the correct colour. They practised how to manipulate the plasticine to make their 3D sculptures look real and even used toothpicks to carefully add brown bruises to their bananas and seeds to their strawberries. It was a very fun lesson.

“The apple has yellow and red on it.” Elsie 

“I put some brown on the banana. Red and yellow make orange for the carrot.” Aiden 

Another busy month in Cycle 1 (Correa class), actively preparing and crafting their artworks for the upcoming Festival of Arts. Children were exploring the works of contemporary Australian artists emphasising especially an artist's liberty to convey attitudes and

emotions through non-traditional and usually non-representational means.

We looked at a variety of Ken Done and Hayley Mischief Lord's works and children responded to different discussion questions like;

What is your initial reaction? How does the work make you feel?

What do you see at first? What shapes do you notice? Are they geometric or organic? What do they make you think of? What sorts of colours does the artist use? How many layers do you see in the painting? How can you tell? How do you think the finer details in the second layer were achieved?

Some of the responses were:

 “You don’t finish art in one day." Alinta

“Hayley Mischief Lord art is so pretty, and I like her middle name!” Elora

“Adding white to any colour makes it lighter." Sunny 

“A lot of fish under the ocean and other creatures." Madeleine

“Sometimes I have no idea what to paint but when I choose the colours, I just make shapes and lines and it looks really good." Jack

The Five Great stories are traditionally told in the Cycle 2 Montessori classroom at the start of the school year. The Great Stories provide the structure and form the basis of the Montessori Cultural Curriculum.

The Great stories introduce students to the universe by stirring their imaginations and initiating their exploration of important questions.

The first Great Story explores how the universe and the Earth may have come into being. The story uses currently accepted scientific theories to explain the origins of the universe and the Earth. Cycle 2 also explores other creation stories and uses this as a teaching point about acceptance of everyone’s different beliefs. 

Cycle 2 enjoyed an evening get together in week 2 sharing the First  Great story, complete with live experiments such as an exploding volcano, the layers of the earth display and feeling for air vapour (gas) particles in the air. Eating pizza and watching volcano documentaries together was also a lovely way for Cycle 2 students to spend time together at the start of the school year. Each student left with a little keepsake, a tiny planet Earth and a reminder about its amazing creation.

Volcano research has continued as a cultural studies focus this term and we will soon begin research on rocks.

Comments from class:

‘I really liked the part of the story where the balloon popped’ Henry

‘It was the Big Bang’ Kai

‘One ray of the sun can fit more than 20 Earths on it’ Mae

‘I love learning about volcanoes, how they are made and their parts’ Aurora

‘We learnt where volcanoes are found around the world’ Emilio

“I like learning about how volcanoes erupt and the parts like magma, conduit, crater, gas and dust’ Zohair

‘It was fun watching the volcano movies on our pizza night’ Tanush

‘We all loved eating pizza’ The whole class!!

Earlier this term our Year Six cohort had their much anticipated leadership day. 

The day kicked off with a two hour team building session at school with Adam Saffin. The students discussed why leadership is important and the different types of leadership. Students engaged in activities which promote team work and other tasks that involve clear communication and involvement of all team members.

After a quick lunch, we then ventured to the city, where we were lucky enough to catch a fringe performance of knife juggling on a unicycle in Rundle Mall! After the entertainment, we  arrived at Adventure Rooms Adelaide where we split into four groups to undertake the ‘Max Scientist’ and the ‘Black Queen’ escape room. The students were able to utilise the leadership and teamwork skills they practised in the morning to work collaboratively to either break out of their room or catch the other team before they escaped! 

The day was a resounding success and a great time was had by all! A big thank you to Adam for running the morning session! 

 In Cycle 4 we are busy working through our Occupations tasks. Our younger students (Year 7 ) are spending time in the kitchen with Doris and Monica preparing for the Tastes of the World event. They have been investigating the nutritional value of various meals, as well as learning new skills in the kitchen and completing a kitchen knives skills course.  Students are currently selecting a cuisine from around the world to focus on for their Twilight Market meal preparation.

Our Year 8 students are working hard in the productive garden, part of the Working the Garden curriculum. We have been caring for the space, learning the science behind plant energy and growth, as well as refining our outdoor skills. Spreading mulch, clearing paths and weeding are regular jobs, but this week we got to harvest our beautiful sunflower seeds.

Our senior students have been learning about business, economics and investing. To put theory into practice, students are developing their own small business to run at Twilight Market this term. This involves developing business plans, pitching to 'investors', creating a stall front and of course developing original products to sell.

 Apart from learning a new language, students in Preschool, Cycles 1 and 2 classes have also been busy preparing for the Festival of Arts  (29 March). They are working enthusiastically, practising their performances of popular traditional dances, ‘Hei Yamko Rambe Yamko’ from West Papua, and North Sumatra’s ‘Tari Ratoh Duek’. 

Students are also learning the children’s songs ‘Topi Saya Bundar’ and ‘Dua Mata Saya’; and will be playing the song ‘Raise Me Up’ (by Josh Groban) in a Angklung orchestra, using bamboo instruments.

It is  pleasing to see students so determined to master the words and actions while still having a lot of fun with the costumes and instruments. I am so proud of them!

We look forward to an amazing performance on the night - don’t miss out!

Terima kasih banyak! (Many thanks!

Over the past several weeks, both Cycle 3 and Cycle 4 students have been exploring the theme of food in our Indonesian lessons. As food reflects the values, beliefs, and traditions of a society, it is a valuable way to learn about Indonesian language and culture.

Recently we have been sampling some tropical Indonesian fruits such as durian and longan. While some children enjoyed the unique flavours, others were strongly opposed to the strong aromas, comparing the smell of the durian to “dirty socks”.

Pictured here are the kids enjoying the longan fruit, also commonly referred to as dragon eye. These experiences supported students to develop their Indonesian language as they practised expressing their likes, dislikes, and preferences and employed descriptive language to describe tastes and smells.

 In addition to exploring Indonesian fruits, we have also embarked on a study of Indonesian street food. We have grand plans for the kitchen and can’t wait to see what delicious Indonesian foods we can make.  

Well done to Cycle 3 student Bella, who ran a bake sale fundraiser at school last week  to support the Freedom Hill Sanctuary. Bella's bake sale was so successful that not only did it sell-out, but she raised $262.50 for Freedom Hill Sanctuary which promotes a safe haven for rescued animals. 

On the weeknd, Bella visited Freedom Hill Sanctuary to deliver the funds. We’re extremely proud of how proactive our students are in supporting causes they feel passionate about. Well done Bella and a big thank you to all the students and staff who supported the bake sale.

Many children have recently been bringing to school Pokemon cards which are currently the latest “fad”.  It has always been a rule that these types of cards are banned at school.  When trading becomes involved in these “fads” it invariably creates tension, disharmony and conflict amongst children and regularly “ends in tears”.  To avoid further disputes we would appreciate it if you ensure your child DOES NOT bring these cards to school.  

The Wairoa Tucker Café run by our middle school students in our Adolescent Program, will be looking a little different this year as students have transformed a food truck!

The cafe will  still provide the same freshly brewed coffee and baked goods, however it will also be serving a breakfast menu. The serving times have been extended, with an earlier start at 8.15am to accommodate  parents who want their caffeine hit but need to get to work or have morning commitments. 

The Café  will run until 11.00am, and as always it is child friendly with babies and toddlers  welcome. 

Our middle school is located at 142 Mount Barker Rd, Stirling. Follow the driveway up from Mount Barker Rd for 500 metres, past the oval  and look for the signs. 

Our Festival of Arts evening is Wednesday 29 March.  This is a fantastic school  event that brings together students, staff and parents from across our  community. Artwork will be on display, arts and crafts actitvities will be on offer, performances and entertainment from busking students, as well as pre-ordered meals, desserts and bar facilities. There will be more information to follow shortly via Skoolbag.

On Thursday 6th April we will hold our annual Community Breakfast in the school courtyard at Yultiwirra commencing at 8.15am.  Keep your eye out for the pre-order form via Skoolbag.  It is a wonderful way to come together as a school community to end the term.  We hope to see you there!

Are you an ideas person who doesn't mind rolling up their sleeves? Are you busting to join the 'funnest' committtee going around? You might be perfect for the Fundraising Committee! If you'd like to find out more, enquire at the office.