Students in our school today, will grow up to be global leaders of the future, and as such will require a remarkable insight into people and cultures across the world, and an unprecedented concern for the well-being of the world community. Around the world, many educational systems are gearing themselves toward catering to a greater global consciousness.

As a PYP school we represent a phenomenon that is able to take the lead in setting an example to educate students toward international-mindedness, through an education that reduces ethnocentrism, increases knowledge of other cultures, and promotes a concern for global environmental issues.

Towards international-mindedness

International-mindedness is a view of the world in which people see themselves connected to the global community and assume a sense of responsibility to its members. It is an awareness of the inter-relatedness of all nations and peoples, and a recognition of the complexity of these relationships. Internationally-minded people appreciate and value the diversity of cultures in the world and make an effort to learn more about them.

They exhibit personal concern for people all around the world, and this manifests itself in a sense of moral responsibility to other people, and a commitment to the values of a community. They are aware of the long-term consequences of human behaviour on the environment and on global society.

It is through educational experiences that students can develop a sense of international-mindedness, which gives them competences to exercise influence on problems facing the world.

Aren't be blessed to be part of such a wonderful community. 

STOP MOTION

In year 5/6 we had to create a stop motion video to show our understanding on a world issue. It was important for us to identify the connection between finite resources and global problems.

In year 5/6 we had to write a newspaper article about our chosen world issue. We had to include the relationship between our world issue, linking it to resources and a way to fix or help the problem.

Dance 

This term we have been fortunate to have Mrs Jan Simpson as our dance teacher. During her sessions we explored the movement concept of contraction using verbal and visual stimuli – open and close as well as slow and sustained contraction as well as combining fundamental movements such as jumps, bends, turns, with the manipulation of elastics as our props.  We rehearsed a teacher choreographed dance with elastics and added our own choreography to complete the dance.

Dance Reflection

In dance groups today we discussed our culture through dance. We danced Italian and Aussie because that’s my groups heritage. Sam was Aussie and I was Italian and we had lots of fun and experience speaking through dance.

In our dance group we discussed our heritage, which is African, Samoan and Irish. We tried to use different levels of dance, like in the African dance we use body percussion and went down low. In the Samoan move we used our hand to make waves, in Irish we used our feet to do Irish dancing.

In this group with Gabby, Mia and myself Emily we discussed our heritage and created a short motif using Australian, Irish and American. We tried to reflect Australian greetings with a handshake, Irish with Irish dancing and American with a spinning arm reflecting a lasso.

In dance to today we discussed our heritage of and created a short motif of 3 movements reflecting our heritage. You will see Mexican, English and Dutch movements. We tried to reflect Mexican dance by swinging our arms and skipping as if we were holding the long traditional skirts. We tried to reflect English movements by pretending we were on a double decker bus. We tried to reflect Dutch dances by linking our arms and skipping.

ART 

My 3D artwork represents the idea that we all need to work together to stop pollution or it will continue. Sophie Roche
	This represents the idea that factories are polluting our world. I used acrylic paints which I blended to give affect. Amelie McKellar
I tried to express that we need to share the planet and we are all equal. I used plaster to make the hands. Jarvis Christie
	My painting shows two perspectives. One side shows a girl who only has access to dirty water and the other side shows a tap for clean running water. This would mean she can stay healthy. Emily Roger

Positive and Negative Space

Students utilised the use of patterns and their knowledge of negative and positive space to produce these black and white artworks to highlight an important concept our Unit of Inquiry.

The Exhibition represents a significant event in the life of an IB school and the students in that school.

As a culminating experience, it is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the Learner Profiles that have been developed throughout their engagement with the Primary Years Programme (PYP) over a number of years.

Our Year 5/6 Exhibition commenced in week 7 this term with a number of provocations including guest speakers, an excursion to the National Museum and even a Skype session with a cancer researcher. By now our Year 5 students, who undertake a mini exhibition, and 6 students, along with their teachers have worked through the Central Idea. This is followed by individual students developing their own Lines of Inquiry and deciding upon an issue and/or problems to be investigated. 

The exhibition is a process and features the learner profile, key concepts, transdisciplinary themes, significant and relevant knowledge, attitudes, action, collaborative in-depth inquiry, and the full participation of all students.  To provide further guidance and to engage in their learning throughout the remaining Exhibition process each Year 6 student has been matched with a mentor. Students have also been keeping an Exhibition Journal to record and reflect on their learning throughout the process. Many students have commented on their excitement in finally reaching this culminating project of their PYP. It is a significant opportunity to demonstrate all aspects of the Learner Profile as internationally-minded students. They are now entering the longest stage of the Exhibition process which is gathering the necessary material to analyse and synthesise into key understandings.

We look forward to seeing you at exhibition.

This term in the library we have had big fun with our Book Week Celebrations.  The theme for 2018 was ‘Find Your Treasure’

Over a five-week period the 2018 shortlisted books were unpacked, read and involved in lots of art and craft activities. Voting for our favourite books took place and many discussions were held. We actually got a 50% success rate with our selections for the 2018 winning books.

The Book week parade was fantastic and 95% of the children were involved. We clapped, paraded and danced around for almost two hours. Class parties were held and a visiting story telling put on a show in the ELC, Kinder and
Year 1. The parent support was also very impressive – thank you all, the kids love Book Week.

Student Voice:

Amelie M:  I liked the Book Week Parade because we all got to dress up in different costumes. Some of us even got dressed up in groups.

Aashly J:  I loved dressing up as a book character. All the work we did on the actual books before the parade was great fun.

Liam P: I liked everything about Book Week – it’s sooo much fun. I loved all the new books we got to learn about.

Ava F: Making IMovie’s was great fun. Showing them to the school at assembly was really good. 

People around the world use song and dance to express themselves and their traditions

• People express themselves through song and dance (Function)

• How song and dance are used to tell stories of people’s tradition (connection)

Tuning In

Students had the opportunity to reflect about the use of instruments to create atmosphere and emotions within stories when they viewed various dance performances from around the world on the iPad’s.

Provocation

The students watched a Mexican Dance performance by Emilia, Sara and Sophia White. They then reflected the dance based on music, movement and clothing. Using these skills the students reflected on other dances from around the world describing the listed elements.

Finding Out

The students viewed Chinese Dancing Dragons and learnt about their history and significance.

We read an Indigenous story the story of the Brolga and painted visual response to the text.

We had various opportunities to learn how to perform various dances from different cultures from around world with Jan Simpson the dance specialist.

Going Further

The students were again given more opportunities to express themselves through song and dance. They leant how to play the recorder, dance the the macarena and respond through art using coding with Spheros.

The students had opportunities to investigate about different cultures of their choice with a partner, develop a poster and present this to the class.

Central Idea:

“Communities make efforts to create systems that meet their needs”.

Key Concepts: Form, Function, Change

Learner profile: Inquirers, Thinkers, Balanced

Provocation

Erin: I liked learning about different systems because they help us live.

Joseph: I liked at the beginning of our unit when we had to make a city with transport systems.

Lucas: I like using systems and I can’t wait to use Canberra’s new light rail system.

Leo: I loved going on an excursion to Kingston, Oaks Estate and Queanbeyan. The bus wash was the best.

Grace: I like systems because they are very helpful.

Tesia: When we went on our excursion we got to see a train system, light rail system and bus system.

Matthew: I like the light rail system the best because you could see the new stations, the power lines and the poles. I also like the “TC” symbol which means Transport Canberra.

Emily: I liked the task where we had to create an island for all of Year 1 to live on with our families. It was fun designing an education system, transport system and garbage system.

Why drive when you can catch the train?

Year 1 students discovered the answer to this question during a school excursion in week 7.

As a culmination to our Unit of Inquiry into how Communities Make Efforts to Create Systems that Meet Their Needs, Year 1 students rode on a train, had lunch in the park, took a drive past Canberra’s fast-developing light rail network and even had a ‘bath’ in a bus wash – all in the space of three hours.

The short train ride from Kingston to Queanbeyan doubled as many students’ first trip by rail.

The excursion provided an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning and see concepts covered in the Unit of Inquiry take real-life shape.

Transport is an example of a system that meets communities’ needs and takes substantial effort to create and maintain.

Other systems explored during our Unit of Inquiry included government, education, communication and supermarkets.

Here are some student quotes about the day:

“This is so much fun!” Ava

“Can we order from the menu?” Maddie, upon discovering the train’s canteen menu.

“Can we please keep going? Do we have to get off here!” Liliana

Artefacts contribute to understanding the past

• Features of artefacts (form)
• How artefacts connect us with our past (reflection)
• Why people keep or discard artefacts (perspective)

Provocation

Kindergarten brought in something special from home to share for their Topic Talks. When they came back from recess they found their special things ‘missing’. The children were very concerned that their special things were missing. Our provocation engaged the students emotionally and outlined to them how special their objects are and how disappointed they were when they found them missing.

Tuning In

We went for an excursion to the National Museum to participate in the Collecting is Fun program. The students looked around the museum and found different collections of objects. We read Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and talked about the term memory and how objects remind us of things, people and memories.

Here are some artworks that we also created. We chose an olden day object, drew the object then created another artwork of the same object and in present form.

Finding Out

We started looking at some objects from the past. We had artefacts from the olden days like old TVs, typewriters, scales and phones to analyse. We recorded our thinkings in a see, think, wonder and used adjectives to describe the objects and try to determine how they work and what they were used for.
Our 100 days of Kindergarten party also gave us an opportunity to play some 'olden day' games and dress up in 'olden day' clothes.

Sorting Out

We started sorting out objects into past, present and then talking about what the future object could look like and work. We also used box construction to explore what olden day objects looked like, the features they have and created our own olden day object. The children made artefacts including olden day sewing machines, skipping ropes, garages, cars and typewriters.

Going Further

To share our new learning, the students created their own artefact. We spent a lot of time making Papier Mache bowls that represent the students past and present.

Central idea:

Living things have certain requirements in order to grow and stay healthy.

 Lines of inquiry:

• Living things can be classified by many characteristics (form)
• Living things require certain things to survive (causation)
• People influence the living things in their environment (responsibility)

Living things can be classified by many characteristics

We identified what living and non-living things are and sorted photos and objects into these categories.

Living things require certain things to survive

We know what living things need to grow and be healthy. We know plants need soil, water and sunshine and animals need different things in their habitats to survive.

The pre-schoolers were visited by Healthy Harold. Healthy Harold talked about our bodies and how to care for our bodies through healthy eating, sun safe play, exercise and caring for teeth.

 

People influence the living things in their environment

We have started to action our new learning by planting seedlings and tending to the gardens they have been planted in. We have also been showing our Principled learner profile by collecting rubbish and placing it into the correct bins.

The ELC have also started to put their fruit scraps into a worm farm. We will be using the worm compost to fertilize our gardens.

       

 

 

 

 

In Italian this term Kindergarten has been learning about the seasons. Year 1 studied various types of transport and looked at how people in Venice get around. Year 2 has been learning about regional Italian dances and costumes. 3/4 have continued learning about Italian culture by looking at Italian artists, particularly Giuseppe Arcimboldo. They have even created their own masterpiece based on his style. 5/6 wrote and presented a weather report and have started doing research about significant Italians.

In italiano questo trimestre l’asilo ha imparato a conoscere le stagioni. L'anno 1 ha studiato vari tipi di trasporto e ha osservato come le persone a Venezia vanno in giro. L'anno 2 ha imparato a conoscere le danze e i costumi regionali italiani. 3/4 hanno continuato a conoscere la cultura italiana studiando artisti italiani in particolare Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Hanno persino creato il loro capolavoro basato sul suo stile. Il 5/6 ha scritto e presentato un bollettino meteorologico e ha iniziato a fare ricerche su italiani significativi.