Junior School Term 1 Week 8

Who’s on Your Team? 

With the AFL football season upon us and the opportunity to focus on and support our favourite team I was prompted this week to share a reflection on the idea of ‘who’s on your team?’ 

An article I read by Wally Odum quotes the American pro football coach Casey Stengel as saying “It’s easy to get good players. Getting ‘em to play together, that’s the hard part.” This observation by Stengel can be applied to life in general. In life, just as in sport, we need to consider how we can use our gifts and talents to complement those of our team mates to achieve a collective goal.  

Wally goes on to write “Basketball, baseball and football are team sports. You’re only as successful as the team is. Christianity, and life really, are team sports. The key to success is knowing how to work with others. Qualities such as pride and selfishness often serve to hinder a team from being successful and Jesus tells us to lay aside pride and live to serve others.” The encouragement of the old saying ‘there is no I in TEAM’, is one that helps us to shift our focus from selfishness to one of unselfishness. 

Harmony Week!  

This week, the students and staff at Junior School explored and celebrated the national week of Harmony, with the reminder that ‘Everyone Belongs’. Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises that we are all different and it brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. We believe that God created us all really great, with this week reminding us that everyone has a place, everyone deserves respect and everyone belongs. The students took part in many different activities and conversations throughout this week, recognising the different cultures we are blessed to have here at Christian College. 

The Year 4 Project Care leaders ran an assembly for the students and staff to highlight why Harmony Week is important and shared some beautiful reflections as to why it is important to them. We also had students from a wide range of cultural backgrounds pray for the school and each other in their local language which was incredibly special. The sea of orange on Friday wrapped up the week perfectly, a visual representation that we all uniquely designed, and we all have a place to be valued and belong. 

Year 2 Masterclass 

Walk into any classroom throughout the day and you are likely to observe group work in action. Whether it is a Think/Pair/Share routine to explore and extend the students’ thoughts during discussions, or fluid ability-based groups to work on a particular skill in Mathematics or English, group work features prominently in the students’ learning. 

Masterclass in Year 2 is a particularly wonderful time for group work. It provides the students with opportunities to either catch up with friends from classes in previous years, or to make new friends whilst building the capacity to work cooperatively, collaboratively, and respectfully with others. 

Gabby the Yabby! 

This week 3R was surprised to arrive at school and find, not one, but two yabbies in our fish tank! Well, at least it looked that way. After some research we discovered that yabbies do, in fact, shed their outer shells as they grow bigger. We were very excited to be able to see what looked like a perfect copy of ‘Gabby’.  

The students wanted to retrieve the shell for a closer inspection, but we decided to do some more research to find out what we should do. We then discovered that yabbies like to eat their shell! We initially thought this was disgusting but continued to research and find out why this is the case. 

We found that the shell contains large amounts of calcium which is vital for the yabby to grow and stay healthy. 

Other animals that ‘moult’ and then eat the remains are salamanders and frogs. The shedding or moulting process helps the animals to become stronger and bigger. We cannot wait to see when it happens again! 

Preppies take on PE! 

What a wonderful start our Prep students have had in PE. We’ve had lots of fun playing games together, learning fundamental motor skills and developing new friendships through games and sport-based skills. The Preps have also been working towards sharing equipment, communicating, and compromising in game situations. It has been great to see the children beginning to encourage one another, celebrate together and cheer on their teammates. They have also enjoyed using new pieces of equipment such as the wobble boards, climbing frames, ladders, and steppers.  

Our focus in PE this term has been developing locomotor skills including running, jumping, and hopping. This week the Preps were given the task of working with a partner or small group to create a short jumping or hopping activity to share with the class. It was wonderful to see the Preps work together and apply their knowledge of jumping/hopping to develop a suitable activity to share. For this task the Preps needed to individually demonstrate the correct jumping and hopping techniques. They also needed to share ideas with their partner, compromise and work together to develop an activity that they were both happy with. This can certainly be a challenge for children (and adults!) and it was so lovely to see the Prep students trying hard to work together towards a common goal. PE is much more than playing sport and games. It’s a fantastic platform for children to develop their communication, leadership, and social skills. We are so proud of the progress the Preps have made so far.  

What’s New in the Library 

This term in the library we have been enjoying a number of new books that have proved popular with the students. 

1. ‘Hedgehog the Wonder Dog’ arrived at the perfect time as it coincided with the arrival of Winnie our well-being dog at Junior School. This story is beautiful both visually and figuratively, telling the story of the power of connection and the healing power of dogs. 

2. ‘Epic Adventures: Explore the World in 12 Amazing Train Journeys’ 

I am always on the lookout for new books about trains. There is a group of students that adore train books, so I was delighted to add this book to our collection earlier this term. It invites the reader to travel across 6 continents and 34 countries and numerous cities on 12 of the world’s most amazing train journeys. 

3. Speaking of popular, a few new Bluey Picture Books are on high rotation lasting only a few minutes on the shelf once returned before flying out the door with the next student who sees it. Interestingly all age groups borrow the Bluey books. 

4. Finally, the graphic novel section continues to be a much-loved genre and as a result we have purchased some new books. Publishers are responding to the popularity of graphic novels.  Much-loved classics such as Anne of Green Gables and the Famous Five are now on our shelves as graphic novels.