Specialist News

YEAR ONE HEALTH

Health in Year One will focus on identifying strategies to use in case of an emergency or if help is needed. They will begin to identify locations of safe places and recognise the people they can turn to for help. They will also discover positive ways to show their emotions in different situations and how our body reacts to safe and unsafe situations. Finally, the children will contribute to making their classroom a safe and happy learning environment by being fair and respectful to adults and their peers.

YEAR 2 HEALTH 

In Health this term, Year Two’s will be looking at ways they can stay healthy and active.  We address adopting healthy eating habits, exercise, meditation and other areas that promote health and wellbeing. The children will learn new terms such as inclusion and exclusion and the feelings associated with these. They will explore strategies to deal with incidents that may occur in the playground and classroom using stories, drama and vocabulary that will help them identify and help, not only themselves, but their peers also.  Developing empathy is an important step in the children’s development.

The HEALTH LEARNING AREA in 2018 will give students in Years 3 to 6 the opportunity to explore aspects of Health that influence and contribute to their whole being as a child of God created in his image.

Over the past three weeks, each year level has had the opportunity to explore and define what ‘Health’ means and how it encompasses many aspects of our growth and development as important people who can contribute positively to the world in which they live by leading healthy, active and safe lives.

The headings Emotional, Social, Cognitive (Intellectual), Physical, Nutritional and Spiritual Health were developed with the students and these will drive the learning for the year under the Health Curriculum’s Personal, Social and Community Health Scope and Sequence.

The focus for Years 3 to 6 this term will be implemented under the Emotional Health banner, focusing upon the ‘personal self’.  More explicitly, the outcomes for exploring feelings and personal behaviours in Years 3 and 4 (Being Healthy, Safe and Active) will be implemented.  Years 5 and 6 will explore emotions and feelings and the importance of developing strategies to enable resilience and well-being, under the preventative health measures outcome for Contributing to Healthy and Active Communities.  It is important to also to point out, that the Health Programme for 2018 will, wherever possible, align and support integration with the Religious Education Units of work and the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) throughout the year.

I am looking forward to working alongside parents and guardians to ensure our children feel safe, respected and loved, as God intends them to be.

Best wishes Mrs Kerry King  (Health Specialist)

MUSIC NEWS

This week in Music, auditions were held for new and existing choir members who showed interest in being part of the Choir for 2018. To my delight, 70 students from years 4, 5 and 6 auditioned. As the new music teacher at Infant Jesus School, I am looking forward to exploring new and exciting repertoire with these eager students.

We’ve had a very positive start to music classes for the year – the students being particularly excited by the newly decorated and colourful music room and the creation of our music class wall mural, which will represent each student in the music classroom by a personally decorated music note reflecting the quote – “Each individual is like a single note… but together we create a masterpiece.”

In the early and lower years, we are establishing beat, rhythm, pitch, music appreciation and understanding through movement, song, listening and performance activities, and the introduction of Solfa. In the middle and upper years, we are focusing on the consolidation of beat, rhythm, pitch, texture and structure, establishing the use of Solfa and hand signs, while introducing new techniques and ideas such as ostinato, singing in canon, part work and performance tasks. I look forward to sharing the students’ progress as the term and year progresses.

Miss Claire Condipodero – Music Teacher

SPORT NEWS 

Start of the term

It was wonderful to meet all the students of Infant Jesus School. Everyone is really excited and ready for the next year of sport and activity. The upper primary students will begin this term focusing on AFL and cricket. Through these two exiting sports they will develop specialised skills, fitness and team work skills.  The lower primary students primary students will be playing a variety of games to further develop fundamental movement skills and interpersonal skills.

Swimming carnival

The Infant Jesus School Swimming carnival will be held on Friday 23 March at Bayswater Waves, for Years 4-6. In preparation for the carnival, the upper primary students will participate in two days of intensive swim stroke lessons. These lessons will be held in week 6 and 7, of Term 1. A consent  form will go home to parents this week. Good luck to our swimmers!

SCIENCE NEWS

Science in Year One is Fun!

This term, the Year One’s have begun to explore Biological Science with a focus on identifying characteristics of living and non-living things. We ventured out into the playground and with a partner, classified objects according the criteria we learned in the classroom. In the next weeks, we will look at the common features of plants and how parts of plants have a particular purpose as well as what a plant needs in order to survive. This will lead us to discovery different habitats and finally, what happens to living things when the habitat no longer meets their needs.

Year Two – Six

I am excited to bring the children of Infant Jesus School another year of Science development and fun! Engaging students interests, Exploring ideas, Explaining the Science behind our observations, Elaborating on what we have discovered and Evaluating results will be the focus again this year.

All year groups with the exception of the Year 6 students are beginning the year with Earth and Space Sciences. In the early years the content is build around Earth resources and how they are used with the focus on water being our primary resource. Then the mind blowing content of outer space and Earth being part of a system of planets orbiting the Sun.

Our Year 6 students will deepen their understanding of living things growing and surviving and how they depend on the environment around them to do so.

Prompting children to ask questions and further their understanding of the world around them is something that I would like all students to do as they progress through their year of learning.