French Program Focus

This term we welcome the Foundation students to the French program! It will be a fun filled term of songs, actions and games to help us to learn our basic language skills for classroom communication, greetings and basic French vocabulary.

 

Grade 1/2 children will be focussing on French culture for the first half of the term, this is to align with their unit of inquiry. We will be looking at French art, music, cuisine (revision from last term), formalities and architecture. We will then move on later in the term to learning our animals in French, building on vocabulary for I like/I have/I would like, to talk about animals and pets.

 

Grade 3/4 pupils are starting a new unit on the weather; “Quel temps fait-il?” This will incorporate language for the seasons, months, days and all things weather. I am hoping to align with some science terms that they will come across in their inquiry unit in class. We will be working towards delivering weather reports or perhaps discussing weather in terms of science and/or life cycles.

 

Grade 5 students are working towards doing a research project around the history of a French food of their choice. They are beginning the term with a grammar focus, in order to lay the foundations of communication for the work ahead.

 

Grade 6 pupils will be working on grammar too. They will build on their knowledge of verbs in order to communicate more fluidly and independently. We will embark on a project about the Tour de France and hopefully work towards getting outside the classroom later in the term for a Tour de Fairfield en français!

 

PE—A Term of Exercise & Learning

In term three the Foundation and Grade 1/2 students will be practising motor skills which are used in a smaller range of sports and games. Skills such as kicking, dribbling, shooting, chest passing and bounce passing will continue to build the foundation skills required to play a range of sports and games. Currently we are focussing on football skills and students have been working on marking, handballing, kicking and ball handling skills.

 

Grade 3/4 students will spend the beginning of each lesson this term exercising in an effort to understand how their body reacts when they exercise, as well as track improvements that they may notice along the way. For the remainder of the lesson students will be looking at balance, the importance of balance within games and sport and how they can improve their balance.

 

Grade 5/6 students are exploring their body movements and are designing routines that highlight their ability to control their body movements. The students will test their abilities to balance as an individual or a group as well as synchronise and link a routine of movements together.

 

Visual Arts Focus in Term Three

AlbertManatjiraIn term three all student artists will be exploring the art of Albert Namatjira,(1902-1959), the first Australian Aborigine to be recognised internationally as an artist. He was also the first indigenous Australian to paint watercolours in the European manner.

 

We will be sketching and painting the gum tree in Kaan’s Winya, a subject Albert loved to paint. This work will be part of Art4All’s Children’s Gallery.

 

Imagine… nearly 500 images of our special eucalyptus!

 

Performing Arts Focus with Elise & Clare

A big hello from Elise Winterflood, I’m the new music teacher for years 3-6 (and 1/2G). There are some big shoes to fill with Keri Spence on maternity leave and we’re off to a great start and I’m super excited about what we’ve already achieved.

 

1/2G children are beginning to plan the choreography for our Alice in Wonderland concert that will take place at the start of term four. We are very excited!

 

The 3/4 students are polishing the Jitterbug and the Munchkin Land for the Wizard of Oz concert. It is nearly upon us! Please note—students need to wear a black singlet or T-shirt and black pants or skirt, with black shoes or black school shoes under their costumes.

 

The grade 5 pupils have watched the Axis of Awesome—Four Chord Song (clean version) and have learned that there are a lot of popular songs that use this chord progression, some students even recognized over 50! We are learning to play it on guitar, piano or ukulele and will compose our own melodies and lyrics. We have some very talented musicians and creatives, I can’t wait to see what we come up with.

 

The grade 6 students are looking at music from cultures other than our own. We began by learning a beautiful Indigenous Australian song called Bura Fera, or Ngarra Burra Ferra. This song was originally a gospel tune but was adopted by the Yorta Yorta choir at Cummeragunja reserve and translated into language. It appears on the soundtrack to the Sapphires. It has a message of freedom from oppression. We have formally been given permission to perform it by a custodian of the language, a descendant of Teresa Clements, the lady who made the translation. We feel very honoured and excited by this opportunity.

 

The choir is also singing Bura Fera. We are learning Aladdin’s Medley along with Outdoors—a four chord song by Jason Mraz, set to the tune of I’m Yours.

 

The orchestra will be adding the Harry Potter theme song to our repertoire this term and we are very excited to begin rehearsals this week.

 

Hi, my name is Clare Hopper and I am excited to be teaching grade 1/2 music on Mondays. The Grade 1/2 children are preparing for a fabulous concert performance of Alice in Wonderland at the start of term four. In music classes we are choreographing our dance, singing songs and learning our lines.

 

Foundation children are developing their singing, dancing and dramatisation skills through the BounceBack! program. Children will be working with Marjie this semseter.