St Joseph’s Primary School - Grenfell eNewsletter

Class Happenings - K/1

The K/1 students had a number of opportunities last term to use the scientific process of design, trial and test. The school ‘chooks’ (unbeknownst to them) donated their eggs for the first design task. The students had to use a variety of materials to design a container that would protect their egg from breaking when dropped from a height.

Some students were successful and the conversations as they were designing their containers was productive and thought provoking. One of the most important lessons was about being resilient and persevering when things do not turn out the way you planned! After this experiment, the students were more open to the challenge of coding, testing and recoding of the Beebots in order to meet the demands of various set tasks.

The K/1 class was the first class to prepare a mass to be celebrated by Father James. This occurred on Wednesday of this week. What a wonderful way he has with the children… talking about his brothers and sisters (all 20 of them), dancing, teaching the students a new song and thanking the children for preparing and presenting the prayers and readings. He shared with the children in a very personal way.

In Religious Education in the K/1 classroom, the children will also be learning about the life and times of Jesus and some of the customs and traditions of the Jewish faith.
Earlier this year, the K/1 students helped Miss Clancy plant some vegetables. In a real ‘paddock to plate’ style experience, the K/1 students were able to enjoy some of the fruits of their labour before they headed home for the two week break. Those carrots may have been small but they were very tasty!

In Literacy, the K/1 students have been looking at the work of Mo Willems. He has written a series of books about a pigeon. Some of his books include: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late and The Pigeon Needs a Bath. These books provide an easy way to teach younger students about what to say when you are trying to convince someone about something. The students can recognise the methods that the pigeon uses to try and trick us into letting him drive the bus. Each child is in the early stages of writing their own ‘Don’t let the Pigeon’ books.

Mo Willem’s books also inspired the artwork that K/1 sent to the Preschool Art Exhibit. They didn’t let the pigeon drive the bus or stay up late but they gave the pigeon a party instead!