After much deliberation and conversation, we have decided that it is best to create our own blogs for our doubles, as well as continuing to use The Village Blog for our shared learning. This will mean that the content on our blog will be much more specific to what we are doing in each class, and we will hopefully be sharing more of what your children are doing throughout the day. We have noticed, as well as having had some feedback at the end of last term, that some children are being missed when we are blogging, so this will hopefully rectify that!
We can’t wait to continue to share our learning with you all.
Please follow these links to find and subscribe to the new blogs:
Welcome back to another term full of learning in The Village. We hope everyone enjoyed their break and were able to spend some time with family over Easter. We have not missed a beat in The Village today, diving straight back into a busy day of investigations. We all started our day with Come Read with Me, a great social time for the children to catch up about their holidays and share their books with friends. Thank you to the parents and friends who are able to join us for Come Read with Me throughout the week, we love having you with us!
R/1EQ & R/1MS started their day with investigations, allowing the children to choose their own adventure. The children were busy with restaurants and hospitals in the home corner and book nook. We also had amazing teamwork with the Lego as children worked on houses, shops and cars. Outside, Bibi, Dhyani, Charlee and Harper created a base where they made their own slime and potions. Nhial worked on a building, which Alexander, Nahom and ‘S’ flew their paper planes through. We had lots of creativity and collaboration as the children engaged with box construction, making hammers, binoculars, boats, dinosaur tranquilliser guns and some things that the children were not yet able to name.
R/1EN & R/1MC enjoyed come read with me, spent time recognising character strengths in their welcome circle, fitness on the playground and exploring numeracy concepts.
After recess, The Village re-joined to continue investigations.
R/1EQ & R/1MS packed up early before lunch and spent some time exploring in Log Park. We also visited the fish pond to check on the goldfish and tadpoles. The children loved checking on the fish and sharing their knowledge with one another. We even had some of the boys naming the fish.
We spent the afternoon reflecting on our holidays. The children were able to choose to reflect in their Learning Journal or writing book. We supported the children with a sentence starter: In the holidays…
R/1EQ & R/1MS finished their day with student-led prayer:
Thank you, God for giving us this world to live in and giving us a house, so we can sleep and get good rest and get energy. Thank you for the brothers we have and the sisters we have and mum and dad and grandma’s and grandpa’s – Kobe
Thank you, God for letting us have lots of toys to play with and a lot of people in this school and our teachers and our family – Mikayla
Dear God, I like how the teachers are here and we share and then we get some mums and dads – Nyok
Dear God, thank you for this school and the teachers and to get a bit of rest and get to sleep and grow – Alexander
This morning, the children were treated to a great assembly by 2RG & 2JH. The children shared their curiosity and creativity, incorporating their learning from their classroom and weekly music lessons. It was a great reminder of how we can use our learning powers each day. After assembly, we stayed for GoNoodle. R/1 children were able to dance on stage, which was very exciting!
After recess, the children continued their Easter investigations from Thursday. We saw some great creativity as the children continued to add details to their Easter baskets, create Easter bunnies and cards. Children also chose to build and battle with Beyblades and play in the courtyard.
Just before lunch, the moment we had all been waiting for occurred – an Easter hunt in Log Park. The children were super excited to find the eggs they had made earlier in the week, exchanging them in class for a chocolate egg.
We wish you all a very Happy Easter and happy holidays and we will see you back next term, for another exciting term. God bless, The Village teachers.
This morning the children began their day by making Easter eggs, ready for an Easter hunt in Grevillea Park tomorrow. In R/1EQ, the children engaged with The Beginners Bible Easter story as they created their eggs.
The children thought about different Easter eggs they have seen in the shops, adding colours and patterns as they worked.
After recess, children continued with Easter-themed investigations, making cards, baskets, masks, finger puppets and more eggs.
After lunch, we went to the hall to watch the year 5/6 classes present their modern-day take on The Trial of Jesus and The Stations of the Cross.
This morning, The Village started their day with literacy investigations – a great way to first introduce a new sound – ‘Rr’ and then get the children involved in consolidating their learning, but engaging in investigations based on words that begin with the sound. These investigations include, drawing, writing, making, colouring, building, designing and constructing, and lots and lots of oral language. We started by brainstorming some words that begin with ‘r’ or ‘wr’. The children then chose their own adventure, moving across the four classrooms to find activities that suited their understanding and interests.
Children were able to create rabbit masks, write ‘r’ words, design their own robot and rocket (both through drawing and construction), design their own roads and race tracks, make a fishing rod to catch and write ‘r’ words, design and build with rocks (words, letters and objects), paint and draw rainbows, record ‘r’ words found in books, and make books for writer’s workshop. We saw such high levels of engagement as the children moved across the activities and used their own understandings to engage in a way that helped them to make sense of the new sound, linking it to their interests. It was such a wonderful way to begin our Wednesday.
After recess, the children continued their investigations, with the addition of the Spheres, Ozobots and Easter card making. R/1EQ & R/1MS also visited the library, where the shared reading text was Say Something by Peter H Reynolds. This beautiful story explored the different ways children can share their voice, and even use their 100 languages to make a difference, both on a local scale and a more global scale.
The blurb reads:
There are so many words to SAY SOMETHING.
So tell the world – who you are, what you are thinking. What you are dreaming. What you believe. And how you’ll make it better.
In this empowering new picture book, beloved author Peter H. Reynolds explores the many ways that a single voice can make a difference. Each of us, each and every day, have the chance to say something: with our actions, our words, and our voices. Perfect for kid activists everywhere, this timely story reminds readers of the undeniable importance and power of their voice. There are so many ways to tell the world who you are… what you are thinking… and what you believe.
We reflected on the message from the story:
It was kind, it doesn’t matter which voice – Zac
Share and be nice and take care of other people – Bodhi
You need to be nice and be kind and when somebody is angry, you will say ‘why are you angry’ and you need to be happy and not be cross – Declan
You be kind and respect others – Arjan
You be kind and share together and be friendly and you help each other – Nyok
Be nice and kind. If someone is pushing someone, say stop – Nahom
Be grateful, be kind, share to one another and be kind to one another – Alexander
You be friendly every day and you play every day and be very happy and no more being unkind – Oliver
Be kind to one another, don’t hurt one another, love one another, care for one another, like one another. If you don’t care for one another, you will get hurt. You need to share to all of your friends and family. Give food to the poor and the people who don’t eat your kind of food, you give them something else to eat and care for the people who are poor and do not hit one another, or they will get angry and sad and they will cry and then tell the teacher and then the person who hurt them will say sorry, and then they will be friends again. Be kind to people, even if they are not in your family and pray every night and morning, so we can have a nice day – Elnathan
You share the world and be kind to one another and we share toys, don’t fight to one another, we love them whenever they hurt themselves and we don’t spit water at people. We be responsible and we share goodness – Charlee
When the person gets pushed down, you go to help them and everybody is nice and respects elders – Arjan If you angry you can use your voice to tell someone – Eva When somebody gets hurt we can help them by bringing them to the teacher – Annabelle Don’t be afraid to be creative – Kobe Animals should be nice to one another as well – Alexia When someone falls help them – Kyle Help people – Hayley We have to help people when they are hurt – Irin Be kind to other people not just my friends – Max When you get hurt make sure you help them – Emily Don’t be afraid to put your hand up – Nelson Always speak up – Charlize Always speak from the heart – Mikayla You can say something is so many way – Darina
After lunch, we went to the hall to watch the year 3/4 classes Holy Week presentation about The Last Supper and The Trial of Jesus (thank you Charlize for the photos).
We finished the day with some time at Log Park (thank you Elnathan for the photos) and prayer in our classes.
Thank you, God for letting us all have friends and letting us share toys with everyone in your home. If you want to play with them, you say yes – Mikayla
Dear God, thank you for all of the things we have at school and letting us have fun and play every day and giving us food – Adum
Throughout the day the children attended music, Spanish and PE, meaning that we had a lot of time out of the class. When in class, we explored a range of themes, including ecology, investigations and writer’s workshop. After sports day chants in the afternoon, the children chose to engage in mindful activities, such as mindful colouring, relaxation, reading and writing.
Ecology
Children followed up on the talk by d’Arcy Lunn from Teaspoons Of Change by thinking about how they can change:
I can change by…
picking up rubbish – Jacob
making sure I turn the tap off – Viraj
planting plants and helping them grow by caring for them – Dim
riding my bike instead of going my car – Cooper
not hurting animals homes and habitats – Ishpreet
not wasting water and paper – Chase
not leaving the tap on – Isabella
turning off the power – Nickolas
using the pure tap instead of bottled water – Awan
helping people in the world – Angie connecting with people and picking up rubbish – Nhial
don’t put rubbish in the sea – Adum
by making more plants and love one another and care to one another and share to one another and don’t be rude to one another because then we will fight and you don’t want to fight because it’s not good to fight and you are never allowed to fight because then you will get in trouble and get hurt and you will bleed and give nature food and don’t put rubbish in the sea and give people food if they don’t have food and care for them if they don’t have food and give them food and always love your parents and listen to your parents and your teacher and you must listen at school and you should always listen to your teachers or you will get in trouble – Elnathan do sports and picking up rubbish and we help people because they don’t have anywhere – Nahom
helping people and being nice. I can play with people and if they are hurt, you help them and take them to the teacher – Arjan
I like playing with people and making some flowers with them and being friends with them and do good choices and we get some food and some water and you go to school and wash the dishes and play with my friends – Nyok
sharing stuff to people and help people and be kind and care about them and respect the people – Alexander
you have to be kind and then you have to put rubbish in the bin and be very sharing stuff. We have to help people and you can’t say bye when you’re crying, you have to be happy and say goodbye to your friends – Oliver I can change by growing taller and stronger – Khyle I can change by helping other people, not letting there be rubbish in the world and picking up rubbish, picking it up off the environment by taking care of it – Kobe
…by finding some of your friends to walk together to make new life – Eva
looking after our animals, and when you see someone litter you can tell them to put it in the bin – Charlize To help our environment you need to put the rubbish in the world, and if you don’t the world will be affected and everyone will get sick – Alexa
When we put rubbish in the bin, it helps the environment so the ducks and fish don’t die – Enrique
You have to take care of the environment otherwise it will be so dirty, and we don’t like it being a dirty world – Kobe
Helping others will help our world – Khyle
Children were given the choice to record in their learning journal or writing books:
Investigations
Children engaged in a range of investigations throughout the day. There has been a continued interest in using design skills to create Beyblades, ready for battle. The children choose each piece of their Beyblade carefully, continuing to work on them in order to make them stronger after each battle.
Children have also used their design skills when creating cubbies and forts outside. Children use teamwork to build on a shared vision. Creativity was also on show when Alexander and Elnathan created a ‘sled’ to build their muscles, and when Bibi and Dhyani used chalk to create coloured water.
The Ozobots and Sphero’s have also been in use, as children create tracks and code for their robots to follow along. The children have an increased
We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow at 12pm for SportsDay!
As with each Friday, we spent today investigating through play-based learning. This means that we are exploring the things that are of interest to us as individuals. Children engaged with a range of provocations, consolidating their learning from the week, adding their own interests through exploration inside and outside. Today, the children used the laptops to research, follow drawing tutorials and play games. The children continue to explore their social skills through the formation of new and old friendships, and sharing their interests with others. We love seeing the children in flow as they engage in self-directed investigations, limiting mat-time and direct-instruction from teachers.
You would be forgiven for thinking that a tornado had rolled through the class by the time we were done, such were the levels of engagement in our play.
After lunch, R/1EQ & R/1MS met their buddies from 3MA & 4BH to create streamers and signs for sports day next week. The children led the whole afternoon, which also resulted in some spontaneous dancing and conga lines.
Declan: I liked doing a zombie.
Nahom: We were making words for sports day next Friday.
Alexia: I hold up my picture and it said ‘Team Titans Go”.
Kobe: I liked making a card for sports day. We drew on it and made a picture together with my buddies and then we took a picture of it.
Nyok: I like drawing Enderman with my buddy and taking a picture of it.
Please don’t forget to check the newsletter, which is now up on the school website. We hope you have a happy and safe weekend, and look forward to another great week of learning next week.
R/1EQ & R/1MS and R/1EN & R/1MC are seeking parent/family helpers to join us on sports day – Friday 5th April (week 10).
We will need support to walk to Creaser Park with the children, and then with scoring some events throughout the day. Some other jobs may include supporting children when they need to go to the toilet. But mostly, you will be able to join in the fun of sports day and watch your child/ren participate in their events.
If you are able to help us out, please comment on this blog, send us an email, or catch us in class.
We can’t wait for this exciting day in our school calendar.
Please don’t forget to book your interview with your child’s teacher. Click here for the instructions to book your time. If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to see your teacher, and they will be able to help you choose a time.
Please note that interviews need to be booked by this Friday, 29th March.
Today we celebrate Harmony Day. To begin our day, we were treated to an amazing cultural experience at assembly. Mrs Moise, Mr Coad and Ms Hong put together an amazing display of song, dance and information about different cultures within our school.
Congratulations to Kobe Brunner – R/1MS on winning a prize in the Harmony Day photo competition. Kobe shared this photo, depicting ‘diversity and harmony’ within our school:
For more information about Harmony Day, click here.
After recess, the children participated in investigative play, both inside the classroom and in our outdoor learning environments.
R/1MS & R/1EQ also completed their harmony day activity, connecting their puzzles pieces to represent how ‘we are all connected’.
Check out our finished puzzles:
One of the best parts of Harmony Day is sharing our food for shared lunch. The children enjoyed using their growth mindset to try new foods. Thank you to everyone for making, buying and sharing with us. We are so blessed to have such amazing food to share at our school.
We spent the afternoon relaxing with quiet inside activities, like drawing, blocks and paper crafts. Children wanting to be more active spent time in the shade of the courtyard.
