Aqua Fitness and Water Safety Sessions

At the beginning and end of each year, we run water safety sessions with our school. We take the whole school to the pool, we split into classes and we go through Water Safety skills developed by Royal Life Saving Society. It's an amazing opportunity to work with the kids and develop important and life saving skills. We focus on safe ways to enter and exit the pool, what to do in case of emergency and being able to cope in the water if you find yourself in a difficult situation.

This year we have been really lucky to have one of our parents (who is a qualified fitness instructor) run Aqua Fitness sessions. 

These have been fantastic for the kids and they seem to really enjoy doing them! Hopefully this is something we will be able to continue next year. 

Staying Connected this Lent.

Today we had our Ash Wednesday Mass. It's the only mass offered in our town so there were many parish/community members in attendance. It is always lovely for us to share our beautiful little church with the rest of our parish community. 

The theme we are using at our school for Lent is 'Staying Connected'. We are using the image of a battery circuit which is connected to a light globe. 

When we do good things and make good choices we are connected to God. Our connection remains strong and our lives are lit up from this connection. When we do bad things and make bad choices our connection may be temporarily disconnected. BUT by saying and doing the right things it always has the chance to be reconnected and provide us with the power and energy we need to light up our lives again. 

What an inspiring way to remind children and community members of what Lent is and why we should try and be better versions of ourselves throughout this important time in the Church's year. Happy Ash Wednesday to all!

Pancake Tuesday

Today we celebrate Pancake Tuesday 

and with it the beginning of Lent.

This week in class (so far) we focused on Lent and its meaning. We have made our Lenten promises and created crosses to hang in the room to remind us of these. We have discussed Jesus' strength and all that he sacrificed for us. The children have been encouraged to take something up, for example doing more at home to assist Mum and Dad, trying harder not to fight with siblings or trying to be a better classmate or friend. These were only a few of the ideas and many children had their own take on what they could use as a Lenten promise. 

A huge thank you to Mrs Parker, one of our Teacher Assistants at school, who in her own time made pancakes for everyone at the school including the teachers! She is a treasure! 

I know that my students thoroughly enjoyed the pancakes and were very appreciative of Mrs Parker's cooking!

How much fun are Maths games!?!

Today my class participated in two different maths games. We were working on place value and had been looking at three and four digit numbers. Add a little competition and things got really interesting! The students were begging to play more!

The first game was using place value cards and I would write a number on the board and the students (who were in small groups) would make that number with their cards. We played awhile just getting used to the game and then we added a little heat and made it that the group who constructed the three digit number first got a point. As always this heated things up and we had a lot of fun! 

It was never about actually winning but more about getting quicker at identifying and making the numbers recorded! 

We then moved to a game using numeral expanders and four dice. This is the game that moved us from three-digit numbers into four digit numbers. The students had to throw four dies and then make the biggest number possible and record it on their expander (or as we call them 'number slinkys'). Once we had completed five of these we had to record the points. The students used their calculators to add their four digit numbers and the group that came up with the highest total was given the honor of being the highest number collector!! A couple of maths games that have really engaged the children in learning more about place value! Simple games that engaged and excited the students to know and learn more!