Wednesday was Tom's last day with us at Brookvale as his family moved back home to England on Thursday. 1/2J are really feeling his absence and randomly began chanting "we need Tom" during class the other day. The children have also collected all of Tom's name tags and stuck them to the whiteboard as a little shrine to him. :( This video is for you Tom!
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On Tuesday we had a visit from Tracey from Northern Beaches Council. She talked to us about water and catchment areas. She taught us about where our water goes, from inside the house (kitchen, bathroom etc) and outside the house (washing cars, hosing etc). She explained that the water from inside the house goes down pipes leading to the sewage treatment plant and the water outside the house goes down pipes leading to the stormwater drains. We learnt about the importance of keeping our waterways clean and we even had fun with some interactive activities. Tracey read us a story about all the different people who work and play near a waterway and the different things they do that can pollute the waterway. Each time a person in the story polluted we had to pour something into the duck's water tank. By the end of the story there was so much rubbish, dust, dirt and other yucky things in the water that it turned brown. Jaysha and Ashton then had to try and clean the water with just tongs and a small sieve. We learnt how difficult it is to clean up a waterway once it has been polluted and the best way to change it is to prevent it happening in the first place. Today we celebrated Book Week 2016, "Australia: Story Country". Students participated in a book parade, dressed as their favourite book character, and then were treated to a performance called "Fair Dinkum", featuring 4 CBC Shortlisted books; "Mr Huff" by Anne Walker, "Perfect" by Danny Parker, "The White Mouse" by Peter Gouldthorpe and "Suri's Wall" by Lucy Estela. Check Out Our Costumes! Thank you to the parents and friends who came last Monday to help paint whales and shark fins for our showcase performance. 1/2J and 1/2T students also painted some beautiful fish!
As part of our History unit, Present and Past Family Life, Stage One visited the Old Schoolhouse Museum in North Ryde last week. When we arrived we had our crunch and sip and then students were broken into 3 groups. 1/2J were a group with some additional students from 1/2SR. Students were lined up with their new teachers and 1/2J/SR were introduced to the morning routine of Drill. The teacher led students in an exercise routine involving wooden dumbbells and marching, designed to get their silliness out before the day's learning began. Next students were dressed in pinafores and sailor collars to dance around the maypole! Our next rotation was into the 1880 classroom where there was no electricity and there was an open fireplace to keep us warm. We were told that all students from Years 1 to 5 (there was no kindergarten) were taught in this room and then when students finished Year 5 they went out to work! 1/2J/SR were taught reading, writing and arithmetic! They had to chant the times tables, spell words and even got to write using a slate and then pen and ink! It was pretty difficult using the ink without leaving blotches especially when using your right hand if you were a lefty as being left-handed was forbidden! The teacher in this room also demonstrated the cane and thankfully no-one was injured. After this room we were transported to the 1910 room where there was electricity and pencils! In this room students were treated to some activities that the teachers did such as stamping stencils onto workbooks and they were also sent on a treasure hunt for historical artefacts. There were suitcases set up with artefacts inside and before students opened them to explore the contents they have to wear white cotton gloves to preserve these important relics. A very exciting activity in this classroom was toasting bread on an open fire and eating it with golden syrup! Finally, it was time for lunch and the long bus ride home. We had fantastic day and learnt a lot about the past! Well Term 2 this year was certainly a whirlwind, especially with me being away for 2 weeks right in the middle of it. Sorry it has taken me a while to post the photos but here they are! Where the Wild Things Are Performance!1/2J did a fantastic readers theatre version of Where the Wild Things Are for our assembly performance item this term. Well done everyone! Snail ObservationAs part of our Science unit on Minibeasts, we had an up close look at some snails. We observed their appearance and movements and discovered that snails can actually move fairly quickly. We also discovered that snails have two pairs of antennae (which are actually called tentacles) and their eyes are located on the end of each of the tallest of their antennae! Tjupurru NAIDOC Week PerformanceWe were so lucky to have Tjupurru perform for us as part of NAIDOC week celebrations this year. He is a very talented Indigenous musician who plays an innovative and uniquely Australian instrument called the Didjeribone. It is a didjeridoo that can extend out like a trombone to create different sounds. He is very clever and very entertaining. Thanks for visiting Tjupurru! Charlotte's Project Penguin TalkWhat a treat it was to have Ms Thomson's daughter Charlotte come to talk to us about her work with Project Penguin. Charlotte's school, Manly Village, are participated in the Project Penguin program, partnered by Taronga Zoo, this term. As part of this conservation project, Charlotte had to get the word out to the public about the locally threatened Fairy Penguins at Manly Beach so she came to tell us all about it! Gold, Silver Bronze Winners Term 2!Gold - Jaysha
Silver - Philippa Bronze - Harry Congratulations! |
Mrs McArthurThis is my third year of teaching at Brookvale Public School and my fourth year of teaching altogether. Archives
December 2016
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