The Big Sing

On Friday 19 August the Year 6 students will be involved in The BIG SING. The BIG SING is in its 4th year on TP campus. It is one of the BIG FOUR Inter- House events in the annual calendar. ALL children in each of the 6 Houses spend several weeks rehearsing a song they have selected, arranged and then choreographed.

On performance day, all the Houses each perform on stage in the Fisher Chapel. One House performs in front of the other five in turn. It is a colourful, fun and highly dynamic event. The children have control over the material. Houses are often led by students who have some natural ability in performing arts, as singing, dancing and even some acting is involved, but the key aspect of the event is participation and enjoyment.

The performances are judged by a small panel and positive comments made. We look forward to taking the Year 6 students to this event and giving them some exposure to life on the Torrens Park Campus in readiness for Year 7.

Book Week and the Scholastic Book Fair

In conjunction with our Book Week theme, One World Many Stories, we will have a Fly a Flag Day on Thursday, 8 September.  Students will display their heritage by wearing the colours of a country’s flag. 

The Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the Gilchrist Library from Thursday, 15 September, through to Tuesday, 20 September.  A wide range of new release Scholastic Books will be available for purchase at very reasonable prices.  Entrance is through the Albert Street door from 8.15 – 9.00am in the morning and 3.15 – 4.00pm in the afternoon.  The Fair is coordinated by Mrs Rose Secon-Hondros and is staffed by many parent volunteers.

Fiona Rowe

Building Positivity in Health

In Health lessons this term students will be working from the ‘Keeping Safe Curriculum’ and ‘Bounce Back’ resource. A key focus for the early part of the term will be on relationships and in particular power in relationships. Students will define what power in relationships is, and investigate characteristics that make people powerful, in both positive and negative ways. They will also discover how the abuse of power can impact on individuals and groups in society and have long lasting effects. Aspects such as guilt and contributing to abuse in relationships is touched upon, as are strategies to assist individuals if they feel a relationship they are involved is volatile.

Following this the students will be working from the ‘Bounce Back’ curriculum, written by well know experts in the field of Positive Psychology, Helen McGrath and Toni Noble. The topic of ‘Humour’ will be taught and within this the students will look at things that make us laugh, when and how often we laugh, positive aspects of laughter and specifically the impact it has on our bodies. Further to this, classes will discuss the use of positive humour, as a tool to help us cope with difficult situations encountered in life and a final lesson will be devoted to telling a joke correctly. 

Maths Madness

Students will be exposed to a diverse range of Mathematics topics throughout Term 3.  As stated in previous entries, our methodology is varied and varies according to the topics covered.  Work samples are also tiered, so that students feel challenged and supported where needed. The following strands and sub-stands will be explored this term.

Number and Algebra topics - rounding and integers

Geometry and Measurement  - perimeter, area, volume, square numbers, angles

Statistics and Probability – chance and data - probability

React to Reading

Reading in Term 3 will focus on Government and Citizenship. In this unit of work, students will firstly look at rules and laws to identify the differences between the two and reasons why they are so important. Following this they will then discover what democracy is and features of a democratic society. This then complements several more topics for investigation, namely: Government, Parliamentary features and the process involved in law making. The final component of our reading this term will look at prominent political figures, their position and roles for their various political parties. 

To conclude this unit of work we will look at Elections, the electoral process and the issues that people consider when casting their vote. Students will also gain an understanding of preferential voting, voting age and penalties for not casting a vote during an election. Much of this knowledge will then be utilised in a visit to Parliament House.

Perfect Peer Support

Peer Support is a lovely way in which the older students can mix with the younger students.  I can genuinely say our Year 6 class loves seeing their buddies on a fortnightly basis.  Our sessions together are largely surrounding the theme – ‘Cooperation’ and students participate in a range of activities that are designed to develop this skill.  Other activities include annual events such as drawing and designing images for our Junior School Musical and introducing the Year 2s to the Mind LAB games. All in all, a wonderful and relaxing experience for both year levels.

Mind LAB - Life and Games

The Mind Lab Group was founded in 1994. Its activities are centred around the development and training of thinking skills through thinking games.

The goal of Mind Lab is to impart thinking abilities and life skills, that will assist them to maximise their own potential and help them to become more successful and happy individuals, who act honourably toward their peers and achieve optimal self-realisation of their respective talents.

At the heart of Mind Lab Method is the notion that the most effective way to learn is through an immediate and authentic experience that leaves one wanting more. Game playing is the perfect example of such an experience – it is entertaining, engaging and exciting, and therefore stimulates eager involvement. No less important is the fact that the game-playing experience provides students with the training and application of thinking abilities and life skills.

The Four Goals

Developing Awareness

Awareness of thinking processes is essential for personal enhancement in every walk of life. The Mind Lab Method, making use of unique metacognitive thinking models, emphasizes reflective and cognizant thinking that enhances the use of rational processes and enables pupils to constantly progress.

Imparting Thinking Skills

In our information-rich age, an ever-increasing emphasis is being placed on the importance of basic thinking skills. The Mind Lab Method provides a broad range of these skills: problem-solving strategies, decision-making models, investigative processes, information and data management, logical and mathematical thinking, verbal and communication skills, and more.

Strengthening Life Skills

The game-playing experience is an extraordinary simulative tool for the development of emotional and social intelligence. It obliges us to deal with situations involving cooperation and competition, winning and losing, success and failure, and it reinforces our ability to effectively manage and control our emotions, to defer gratification and to enhance our determination, perseverance and self-discipline.

Interdisciplinary Transference

The application of content and skills learned in one setting to another is considered by many researchers to be one of the most important learning abilities. Mind Lab's unique teaching method establishes an organising base for many aspects of our lives. Through this method, children develop the ability to identify links between different fields of human thinking and activity, and this consequently enables them to transfer knowledge and apply it to other fields.

Methodology

The Mind Lab learning process is simple and yet extremely powerful. The process begins with children indulging in game playing, which ultimately empowers them with skills and knowledge relevant to real-life situations. The Mind Lab Method is the bridge that connects the World of Games with the Real World.

Royal Adelaide Show Exploration

This term in Design and Technology the Year 6 students will be engaged in the topic of ‘Amusement Rides’. This topic has been chosen for Term 3 as it relates extremely well with the upcoming Royal Adelaide Show in early September. Throughout this unit students will develop a deeper understanding of the Royal Adelaide Show and its importance for the local community. Furthermore, students will be required to explore and understand the science, safety and marketing ideas behind amusement rides when they design their own plans for a new and exciting ride.

Another essential component of this unit is the incorporation of differentiation and the RAFT task model. This provides the students with the opportunity to have more choice in the assessment task, thus generating more interest from the students. Some of the possible tasks include; create a news report of the new ride, design an advertisement campaign or construct the model, just to name a couple. This is an exciting unit and we encourage you to speak with your child about their task selection and progress.

Helping others...a SOSE project with meaning

Students will be involved in a range of activities designed to promote community and global awareness. Such activities will provide a platform for students to write a report about a chosen ‘help’ organisation.  This project will comprise of two separate components, a research project and questionnaire.

Author in Residence

Later in the term Year 6 Facci will be meeting Nathun Luff (our author in residence) on Friday, 9 September.  Nathan Luff was born in 1981. He is one of five boys and they all grew up on a farm outside of Yass, New South Wales. Nathan was born with his head in a book and has rarely been seen without one since. He graduated from Charles Sturt University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Theatre/Media) and later received a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting from the Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS).

Nathan began his career writing for newspapers, theatre & television. In 2007 he was nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild Award (Awgie) for a youth/community theatre project titled Smashed. The same year he received 2^nd prize in the Grenfell Henry Lawson Short Story Competition and was commended in the Children’s Book Council (NSW Branch) Frustrated Writer’s Mentorship Program for what was to become Chicken Stu. Since 2005, Nathan has worked for the Wakakirri National Story Festival, an arts festival for Australian schools promoting sustainability and education through the telling and sharing of stories. In 2010, Nathan takes on the role as Festival Director for Wakakirri.

Chicken Stu, published by Scholastic in April 2010, is Nathan’s first children’s novel.  The story is loosely inspired by the antics he and his four brothers got up to on their home farm. We are currently reading this book as a class.  We have already encountered witty moments and look forward to reading the remainder of the novel.

Science in the Classroom

This term in Science the students are focusing on chemistry. A major theme throughout the unit is identifying and classifying the differences between chemical and physical change of different substances. Through a range of hands-on activities students will foster a deeper appreciation of the importance of science inquiry, whilst continuing to develop effective science report writing skills. Students will conduct two major investigations in class; ‘Gas bags’ and ‘Fizz whizz’.

Another exciting component of the Year 6 Science curriculum in Term 3 is the involvement in the Junior School Science Fair (Monday Week 5) for National Science Week. In the weeks leading up to this event the students will be analysing qualities that make an effective science presentation whilst becoming more confident with their experiment. This event will give the Year 6 group an opportunity to exhibit their fine leadership and presentation skills to their fellow students within the Junior School. A wide variety of experiments and demonstrations have been chosen for the students to relate to this year’s National Science Week theme of ‘React to Chemistry’. We encourage you to talk to your child about the Junior School Science Fair as they are very excited about the opportunity this event has given them. 

Alice in Wonderland - The Junior School Musical

Alice in Wonderland was a huge success with three highly-polished performances delivered to the Scotch Community at the end of Week 3.  The performance involved students from Year 2 – 6 and featured some excellent performances from the main cast, who were Year 5 and 6 students.  Congratulations to all those students involved!

National Science Week - React to Chemistry

School Science Fair. This event will be held on Monday 22^nd August (Week 5) and has been designed to address the theme of ‘React to Chemistry’. The day will involve the three Year 6 classes presenting a range of safe and age appropriate chemistry based experiments and demonstrations to the other students in the school. Each class will have an allocated time frame of 40 minutes to explore the different workstations and will be involved in discovery-based learning.

To finish off this exciting day the students from Years 3 - 6 will be privileged to have a guest speaker, Mr Simon Lane, from ASC ship building. Simon is an engineer who has worked on the Air Warfare Destroyer program for 5 years. He will explain how science plays a crucial role in his position. Other activities that have been planned for National Science Week include; a daily whole school science quiz and a colouring in competition. There will be a range of prizes for these activities. 

 

Television Advertisements

Various techniques and media can be used to persuade an audience through television advertising. It is important to develop an awareness of how the media works to persuade us as the viewer. 

Throughout Term 3, students will be encouraged to plan and produce a television advertisement for a charitable organisation of their choice. Prior to developing a plan, they will analyse at least two existing advertisements, looking at methods they use for persuading viewers as well as various camera shots. As part of their plan, students will develop a storyboard and (in some cases) a script for the advertisement.  A selection of applications may be used to assist in the creation of the advertisement. 

Follow that Drop

To consolidate our understanding of our Term 2 topic, Sustainability, and to promote interest in our Term 3 topic, Global Citizenship, the children participated in an excursion on Friday, 12 August 2011, to the SA Water Learning Centre and Hope Valley Water Treatment Plant.  Both opportunities directly linked to our curriculum and offered excellent learning opportunities for Scotch Year 6 students. 
 

At the SA Water Learning Centre, students learnt to become water quality scientists and investigated the science behind making water clean and healthy.  At the Hope Valley Water Treatment Plant students went behind the scenes to explore the process of water treatment from reservoir to tap. 

The World of Narratives

Written Language is immersed in all curriculum areas, however, our focus during our literacy lesson is the Narrative genre.  Specifically, we will be exploring Myths, Legends, Fables and Fairy tales and the key language features found within each. 

Language features explicitly explored:

·       Direct and Indirect Speech

·       Spells, Charms, Incarnations, Curses

·       Alternatives for ‘said’

·       Similes

·       Symbols

·       Word intensity charts – characters and settings

·       Metaphors

·       Repetition

·       Alliteration

·       Connectives

·       Morals

·       Adverbials

When students have worked through the preliminary tasks they are ready to write their own Narrative.  Students are encouraged to choose from the above-mentioned Narrative Styles.  The language features listed above are the key components of the assessment rubric. 

The Crows Tree Planting Day

 On Tuesday, 2 August, the entire Adelaide Crows football playing squad planted trees with all Junior School students.  Each year level was assigned to a player and a planting area.  The Year 6 students skilfully planted trees along the banks of the creek beds to further enhance the beauty of our school grounds.  An opportunity was provided afterwards for students to have items autographed and meet other players.