SPOTLIGHT - Specialists
Spotlight on Music
During online learning there has been so much music fun for our students to enjoy!
I have loved seeing the creativity and enjoyment the students bring to their google meets with me.
Here is a Term 2 snapshot:
Year K-2
Dressing up like a pirate!
Learning about pitch in music with high and low animal sounds.
Year 3/4
Learning dance moves to ‘Can’t stop the Feeling’ keeping with a beat and following the music changes.
Year 5/6
The Year 5/6 students have been ‘Hooked on Classics’ and are learning about famous composers-Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and Chopin. (One student commented that classical music is kinda cool!)
Students are also working through their Term 2 music project called ‘Instruments of the Orchestra’.
Spotlight on Health/PE
Over the last month Health & PE has had to make some adjustments for online learning. To start with we looked at the importance of staying physically active at home during this period. Students were given a large variety of fitness activities that they could do by themselves or with the whole family for fun. Week 1 of home learning students were surprised by videos from Jarrod Croker who is the captain of the Canberra Raiders. Jarrod also spoke about the importance of staying physically active which is important for our body and brains for learning. Jarrod demonstrated several exercises through his videos for the students to do.
Throughout the online learning students have also looked at a variety of fundamental movement skills to practice at home. These include catching, throwing, skipping, striking and more. As equipment is limited at home, we looked at using objects from around the house to use as replacements. This included replacing a ball with a pair of rolled socks, making a skipping rope out of plastic bags or using a plate as a racket.
It was great to see so many of the students online and to see their excitement being able to interact with their peers during our Google Meets. I would love to see students and families continue to keep active at home by playing games, doing fitness exercises, kicking a ball or just going for walk together. Keep up the good work.
Spotlight on Environmental Science
This term students in Environmental Science and Culture are looking at Energy. The Key Inquiry Questions we will be covering are:
- Energy is an essential resource.
- There are renewable and non-renewable energies.
- Human consumption has a major effect upon energy resources.
- We can reduce our energy consumption and lessen the environmental impact.
- Sustainable practices will ensure energy for the future. Sustainable practices will extend our existing energy resources.
This unit of work is designed to raise awareness in students about:
- What is energy?
- Why do we need energy and how much do we use?
- Where does energy come from? (assumptions about energy)
- How was energy used by different people in the past?
- How do we use energy today?
The Environment Centre will once again be growing crops and enable students to understand the practical benefits of recycling.
Spotlight on Japanese 日本語 (nihongo)
Ngunnawal students worked very hard on their Japanese while learning from home. It has been fantastic to start the Japanese club up again this week and have fun with origami and other games!
All year levels celebrated Japanese Boy’s Day or Children’s Day on (May 5) from home with some art and craft activities making samurai helmets and koinobori (carp kites) in a variety of ways.
Kindergarten:
It has been fantastic to see kindergarten students try a lot of different ways to say numbers and colours in Japanese. They are now going to work on words for animals and a farm.
Year 1 and Year 2:
Students are becoming experts at reading and using clues to understand stories in Japanese. The are now working on a story called “There is a bird” とりがいますよ (tori ga imasuyo).
Students have been working on how to talk about their birthday. They have worked hard to master saying and writing days of the week, months and the full date of their birthday.
Year 5 and Year 6:
Students have been doing a great job of mastering a conversation and vocabulary about body parts and going to the doctor. It has been fantastic to use flipgrid and screencastify to see the students practicing their speaking with great expression and clear pronunciation.
がんばってください ganbatte kudasai (Do your best)
フィオナ 先生 (Fiona Sensei)