Jess and Susan’s Class: Term 1 Week 10

Dear Parents,

What a term! It’s been such a great start with the children embracing the new year with enthusiasm and joy. They have engaged in the ‘What Matters’ topic with gusto and have developed their persuasive writing skills admirably alongside this. The PIPs were outstanding this term, and the addition of Canva to the children’s toolkit has been very timely.

Some highlights from this term, but by no means an exhaustive list, include (take a deep breath in): the excursion to the Art Gallery; a Summerhill day featuring chocolate chip biscuits, chocolate milk, and some seriously popular games of dodgeball and capture the flag; Mad Maths Minute and times tables; fun with literary devices (rhetorical questions, emotive language, and the ever-dramatic trio of ethos, pathos, and logos in advertising); Monopoly marathons; paper airplanes that may or may not have flown; the legendary Cheetos birthday; plasticine creations; questionable hot glue decisions; cardboard cars; reading; pulley system inventions; Carnivale; Crazy Sock Day; 3D objects; place value; Poo Mountain; swimming; cubby building; Rock and Water; and The Wild Robot… (and breathe out now).

Despite being quite small the class has proved to be very cohesive, and the new faces to the group have fitted in beautifully. We are continuing to work through social issues together, and I feel very confident that the children are well positioned to enter into their tweens with empathy and self-awareness.

Thursday was a day of fun and celebration as we wrapped up the term. We began by tuning in to the live launch of Artemis II for their 10 day journey around the Moon (thanks for the reminder, Frida!) and discussed Australia’s involvement in tracking and communications. We related it to the Apollo era and the role of the Parkes radio telescope. Artemis II’s planned lunar fly by is on Monday, April 6.

Later in the day, we walked to the shops to buy lunch and along the way we choreographed the “Driveway Dance”, before returning to school to watch Zootopia 2.

This week, of course, has been about finishing off work, tidying up, and enjoying our time together. Fruit Day on Wednesday was wonderfully silly (have you tried to keep a straight face when sucking on a finger lime?), and our trip to the park was a beautiful break from the usual routine.

I wish you all a very restful Easter, and I look forward to seeing all the children in term 2 to begin our next chapter for this year.

I hope the Easter bunny finds you all!

Jess and Susan