Ormiston Spirit Awards

Congratulations to the following students who were awarded our annual Ormiston Spirit Awards for 2020. This prestigious award is handed to students that consistently display the school values of respect, integrity, commitment, hope and courage.

Foundation – Kayla Chen

Year 1 – Emma Zhang

Year 2S – Cynthia Li

Year 2Z – Serena Hu

Year 3L – Lauren Tang

Year 3R – Ruth Whelan

Year 4G – Stefanie Nguyen

Year 4C – Mo Lin Yu

Year 5D/W – Emily Foo

Year 5S – Aathana Sivapalan

Year 6C – Sophia Zeitoune

Year 6R – Zoe Lim

F-3 Music – Lu Year 3L

Year 4-6 Music – Jasmine Xie Year 4C

Library –Amber Chia Year 6R

Chinese – Aratrika Kadam Year 3R & Cathy Wang Year 4C

French – Samantha Lovell Year 5DW

Year 6 Graduation Ceremony

This year, our Year 6 Graduation Ceremony was organised differently due to COVID-19 restrictions, however many aspects of the ceremony remained the same as previous years. Each Year 6 student was awarded their Graduation certificate by our Principal Debbie Dunwoody and two students were awarded the following special awards: Millie Greenbank of Year 6R was awarded the Elizabeth Lockley Citizenship Award and Rithanyaa Prakash of Year 6C was awarded the Marjorie Shaw Award for General Excellence.

A special mention must go to 11 of our Year 6 students who started their educational journey in our Early Learning Centre. These students have spent either 8 or 9 years here at Ormiston and are ready to continue onto Senior School. The students are:

> Rida Cao

> Amber Chia

> Madeleine Huynh

> Usha Nadarajah

> Anika Selvaratnam

> Sharon Tjioe

> Penelope Petrakis

> Trinity Sideris

> Anneka Sinnappu

> Zoe Lim

> Sofia Giannicos

> Mara Vais

The Year 6 students performed a unique activity called body percussion and this performance signified the handover between Year 6 and Year 5 students. Specific videos were once again presented at the ceremony which gave our school community the opportunity to learn more about our Year 6 students.

I would like to thank our Year 6 class teachers Katrina Cheong and Nancy Robottom for all their planning and preparation in organising a very successful ‘live’ ceremony this year. Additionally, I would like to thank our CGGS Information Technology Team for all their help and expertise in making sure the event was ‘Live Streamed’ successfully into our Ormiston classrooms. A wonderful team effort!

Please click on the photo below to expand them.

Year 3 & 4 Extended Day

The Year 3 & 4 students thoroughly enjoyed their camp experience this year. Shane Maycock our Deputy Head of Senior School – Co-Curricular Programs organised an extended day that involved a number of educational outdoor activities such as:

> Group imitative activities such as the cup moving challenge

> Nature walk

> Extended play tasks such as giant chess, photo challenge, bombardment and scooter board races

> Movie night

Here are some Year 3 extended day reflections from specific students:

“My favourite part of the day was making the paper rockets – even though mine did not work. I liked this activity because it was clever using the straw to make the rocket fly.” – Sophie-May 3L

“Something I found challenging was trying to think of ideas during the cup challenge because you couldn’t touch the cup with your hands and you had to leave a few centimetres between the cups.” – Joyce 3R

“I worked well with Kathleen and Aaratrika because we followed instructions and cooperated with each other.” – Selinna 3L

“My favourite part of the day was when we were doing nature art because we created impressions of leaves in the air-drying clay. I put it on my Christmas tree and it looked stunning.” – Aaratrika 3R

“I found the photo hunt challenging because there were some pictures which we had no idea where they were. After we found them, we had to crack the code. My team could not figure it out.” – Ruth 3L

“I worked well with Sophie-May and Shreya because when we didn’t know where the pictures were for the scavenger hunt we helped each other out to find them.”

A big thank you must go to the Year 3 & 4 class teachers Rebecca Leondidis, Liz Ruffles, Jasvindar Gill and Craig Goodwin for helping organise the day with Shane Maycock. Also, I would like to thank Emma Hinchliffe for helping to make the day such a success. The Year 3 & 4 students are definitely ready to tackle camp in 2021.

Year 5 & 6 Extended Day

As the Year 5 & 6 students missed out on their camp experience this year, the class teachers and Mr Maycock organised an extended day of outdoor camp activities here at Ormiston. The students were excited to complete a number of different activities that included:

> NASA Mars Landing Mission

> Orienteering Photo Hunt

> Nature Art Sketching

> Talent Show

> Movie Night

Congratulations to all the students that joined in on the day. I would like to thank the class teachers Anjali de Quadros, Meagan Wilson, Fiorella Soci, Katrina Cheong and Nancy Robottom for all their work, as well as Emma Hinchliffe for helping with the organisation of activities and food and drink from Pinwheel & Co.

2020 Boroondara Literary Awards

It was a great pleasure to find out that two of our Ormiston students were recognised at the annual 2020 Boroondara Literary Awards that were conducted virtually on Webex on Thursday 3 December at 6.30 – 7.45pm.

Congratulations to Samantha Lovell of Year 5D/W and Victoria Mao of Year 6C who both received awards at this ceremony. Both students completed their written entries during remote learning earlier in the year.

The Boroondara Literary Awards are a joint activity of the Rotary Club of Balwyn and the City of Boroondara and we look forward to participating in this literary activity next year.

EL3 – Year 2 Little Smiles Dental Visit

We were pleased to have Jesslyn, an Oral Health Therapist, and Valerie, a Dental nurse, from Little smiles at Carrington Health visit on Tuesday morning.

Students in EL3 and EL4, Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 each received an education session about good dental hygiene and those with parental consent received a free dental screening and a bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste and a letter with the findings of the screen.

We encourage parents to read the findings and if necessary to make an appointment with your regular dentist for a follow up treatment if this has been advised.

Jacquie Little & Kylie McDonald
School Nurses

Year 3 Ormiston Prayers

Each week Junior School students lead us in prayer. Last week Amelia and Aaratrika in Year 3 prayed in this way.

Dear God,

We thank you for supporting us during this difficult time, especially when COVID-19 took over the world.  We are grateful for having such a caring and loving Father. We also thank you for helping us every step of the way this year.

We are very happy because of your kindness and your patience.  We ask you to help everyone live as long as they can, because everyone deserves to live a happy life. We wish that hope follows everyone through this new adventure. 

Amen

Helen Creed
School Chaplin

I wish all of our Ormiston families a safe and restful Christmas and New Year and may this festive season be filled with love, joy, peace and happiness for all.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

2021 Foundation – Year 6 Orientation Morning

Our annual Foundation to Year 6 Orientation Morning session will take place as per advertised in the Junior School Diary – Tuesday 17 November 2020. This session will occur from 9.00am – 10.30am and each Ormiston student will spend this time with their 2021 class teacher and classmates.

At this stage, no new students to Ormiston will be able to join us for the morning session therefore we are planning to connect with the new students via video conference later that day or during the week.

If you have any questions about the 2021 Foundation – Year 6 Orientation Morning, please contact Paul Donohue Head of Junior School on donohuep@cggs.vic.edu.au.

Foundation Meteorologists!

Our Inquiry during this term has involved learning about the different types of weather we experience and thinking about the way this impacts on our lives. The students have been very interested in discovering what happens in extreme weather events.

They have also particularly enjoyed some weather-related craft activities. In the photos included below you can see the students expressing their creativity as they make paper snowflakes. They had to use trial and error and adjust their work to achieve the design they wanted. Unbeknown to the students, they were also working on their fine motor skills!

Selena Reedman
Foundation Teacher

Year 1

This term we have been exploring how our foods and fibres get from farms and factories to our houses. We have looked closely at specific foods and their farm to plate process. The students have identified some common key steps in the process including: growing, washing, packing, transporting and buying different foods. Some of the foods we have explored include: mushrooms, wheat, cheese, chocolate, apples and blueberries.

The students also learned to create their own simple flow charts to show the production process and began to learn when to use diamonds to show choices: for example if food can be sold in the same form it is grown in or if it goes to a factory to be changed or combined with different products.

Students are now interested in the factors that affect how well different foods grow. We looked closely at our school vegetable patch using the “See, Think, Wonder” thinking routine to identify challenges farmers might face when growing foods. The students made some interesting observations and are excited to be planting their own seeds in different conditions this week. By following the planting and growing process the students are hoping to find out:

> Why are there bees on some plants and not others?

> Why are there so many snails?

> Why do some plants have holes in them?

> Why do snails like eating plants and flowers?

> Why are some sprouts different colours?

> How do bees collect pollen?

Below are some thoughts of the students:

Olivia –“I learnt that apples can be used to make apple cider vinegar.”

Aarna –“Chocolate can be made at home instead of in a factory.”

Alessandra–“Apples can be made into different things, such as apple cider, apple cider vinegar and apple juice.”

Ellie–“It is interesting that chocolate comes from trees.”

Aanya–“So many different machines used to process food like – apples, blueberries, chocolate and lollipops.”

Faye–“I learnt that chocolate comes from cacao beans.”

Annabelle–“I learnt that lollipops are made in a factory.”

We have been very impressed by the students’ curiosity and wonder, and the way they have embraced new learning experiences and opportunities.

Angela Columbine
Year 1 Class Teacher

Year 5 Virtual Author Visit

On Wednesday 4 November, Mark Greenwood, an award-winning children’s author met with the Year 5 students via a video call. Mark was at his house in Western Australia. He shared his journey about why and how he became an author. Mark Greenwood has written books such as “Simpson and his Donkey”, “Jandamarra” and “Moonwalkers”.

We learnt about Mark’s interest in rocks that eventually became a book titled “The Book of Stone”. Mark shared his fascination with history, especially Australian history. Mark talked about the History Mysteries series and explained how one single idea, thought, question, photograph – ‘ a treasure from the past’ – became the ‘seed’ that inspired these stories.

This was such an enjoyable and funny presentation. Mark Greenwood is an incredible inspiration for us to continue to write original, creative and exciting stories.

Fiorella Soci, Anjali de Quadros & Meagan Wilson
Year 5 Class Teachers

Virtual Author Visits

Although we were not able to have authors and illustrators visit us on site this term, students from Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 have all enjoyed participating in wonderful virtual author visits over the last two weeks.

Alex Miles is the author of many popular middle grade series including “Geek Girls” and “Olive Black” and on Tuesday 27 October she spoke with students from Year 3 and 4. Alex described her writing processes and showed the students her journals where she documents her ideas and plans. Alex also introduced the students to a wonderful story brainstorming model to help with writers block and encouraged them to be persistent.

Mark Greenwood has written many amazing books about fascinating characters, stories and events from Australian history. Mark visited with Year 5 and 6 on Wednesday, 4 November and had the students enthralled with his tales about the last Tasmanian Tiger, lost diamonds and hidden treasure buried at sea. Mark also detailed to the students how he finds his story ideas, explained how he undertakes his extensive research and encouraged the students to always be curious.

Sally Spencer
Library Teacher

Mountfield Maestros Zoom Concert a HUGE success!

It was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic participants and hear musically engaging performances in the Music Mountfield Maestros Zoom Concert on Thursday 5 November. The students celebrated the opportunity to share and showcase their performances to very appreciative audiences at both the EL4-Year 3 session with Mrs Adams and the Year 4 – 6 session with Mrs Byrne.

The diverse range of presentations illuminated the many and varied talents of our Ormiston musicians across all year levels. We congratulate the students on the courage and confidence they displayed in presenting their selected pieces. We thank our music staff for enabling their students to build individual performance skills and for encouraging them to explore ways to communicate their musical presentations.

Kate Savige and Rohan Mack
Directors of Music

Year 1 Art Club

Art Club provides space and time for creative thought, the exploration of interests and talents, and a chance to simply spend time doing something you really enjoy. During the first two weeks of Art Club, Year 1 students have been exploring the art element of line. Students were introduced to street artist Keith Haring and used his work as inspiration for their own art making. They experimented with various lines and explored the water colour resist technique to create bright celebratory artworks using symbols to communicate love, happiness and friendship. Keith Haring is currently showing at the NGV. The exhibition can be viewed online via a virtual tour.

Nicole Burnes
Art Teacher

Colour Your Threads Day

On Wednesday we celebrated the “Colour your threads” initiative, in recognition of the incredible strength that the CGGS community has shown over the last year, and in celebration of World Positive Education Day. It was fantastic to see all our students brightening up the school by wearing colourful clothing and reflecting on what they have learnt to do or about themselves over what has been a challenging year. Students celebrated their learning and reflections across the school and shared something they are proud of themselves for doing or learning this year.

Thank you to our Year 6 Wellbeing leaders and Student Council representatives who wrote some colourful messages of strength and hope on the basketball court to remind everyone how fantastic they’ve been this year. Our Year 6 Wellbeing leaders also set up a challenging letter scavenger hunt around the playground for students to participate in throughout the day. It was great to see so many students work together to find the secret message: “Strong together!”

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

I wish Ormiston families a restful weekend

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Welcome Back!

This week has been very exciting for our Early Learning students. The students have been actively engaged in their learning and there have been many opportunities for them to play and socialise together whether inside the classroom, or outside in the playground. I would like to sincerely thank our Early Learning staff for transitioning the students so seamlessly this week after a long period of time of remote learning.

Our Foundation – Year 6 students will be returning to Ormiston on Monday. Class and specialist teachers have been completing their remote learning program this week on Seesaw while at the same time, getting their classroom and resources ready for face-to-face learning activities next week.

Below are the Foundation – Year 6 student arrival and departure times starting on Monday 12 October.

Arrivals:

Foundation – Year 2 /8.30am
Years 3 & 4 / 8.20am
Years 5 & 6 /8.10am

All parents are required to pick up their children using the Stop, Kiss and Drop procedure at the front of the school. Departure times are listed below.

Departures:

Foundation /2.55pm
Year 1 /3.00pm
Year 2 / 3.05pm
Year 3 /3.10pm
Year 4 /3.15pm
Year 5 /3.20pm
Year 6 / 3.45pm 

From 3.20pm – 3.45pm Year 6 students and their sisters will be able to go outside in the playground and then get picked up by their parents at Stop, Kiss & Drop at 3.45pm.

Celebration of Sport Assembly

At Ormiston each year in Term 4, we organise a Celebration of Sport Assembly to recognise the efforts of students across different year levels. This special assembly will not take place this term because of COVID-19, however at our weekly Foundation – Year 6 assemblies we will hand out specific sporting certificates for students that were involved in school and community sporting events early in Term 1.

Additionally, each year at this assembly, we hand out a trophy and an award for the Ormiston Sportswoman of the Year. Unfortunately, we will not be able to complete this task due to limited sporting opportunities throughout the year. However, we hope our Junior School students may be able to participate in some non-contact training at some stage during Term 4 depending on the Victorian State Government guidelines.

Early Learning 3 Update

Easing back to school in Early Learning 3 after remote learning for many weeks has been such a joyous occasion for us all. The children could not believe that they were able to come back to school and they walked into Early Learning Centre with beaming smiles and plenty of confidence.

Here is what some children had to say about being back at school:

Chelsea said, “I happy to see my friends I like playing with Eason and I like doing puzzles.”

Jayden said, “Me like playing with blocks and Lego.”

Sophie said, “I am so happy to play outside with my friends and I like going to Music.”

Ryan said, “I like seeing all my friends and playing with them with playdough and building with blocks and sitting on the mat.”

Melanie said, “I like playing outside and playing with Iris and seeing all the pictures of our families on the wall.”

Eason said, “I like playing with blocks and building things with Jayden.”

Scarlett said, “I am excited to play in the home corner and to see Kimi from EL4 and to see Sophie and Azalea back.”

We all look forward to a dynamic Term 4 in Early Learning 3.

Ramila Sadikeen
Early Learning 3 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time Update

Cultivating an attitude of gratitude in Early Learning 4 (Full Time)

This week it was wonderful to see the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children return to school. They were very excited to reconnect with their peers after remote learning and spending time at home during the holidays. Throughout the week there were many opportunities for the children to engage with each other, both in the classroom and garden.

In the classroom we shared stories about the character strength gratitude and dialogued about those things that we are thankful for and are good in our lives. We wondered about the words ‘grateful’ and the positive emotion ‘gratitude.’

Calista and Rubyrose expressed their understandings:

“Grateful means that you be grateful that you have toys. In some parts of the world little kids don’t have toys.” – Calista

“My daddy said that you have to be grateful for what we have – for everything.” – Rubyrose

We paused to notice and appreciate the things in our lives both at home and school that we need to be grateful for, such as, family, friends, a house to live, food, clean water; and things from nature such as butterflies, flowers and rainbows. During our afternoon reflection time, we have been thinking about the day and expressing gratitude (thankfulness) to each other for positive actions and thoughtful acts of kindness that have been experienced both in the classroom and garden.

The children are currently expressing things they are grateful for through drawing and dialogue. We will be compiling these into A Gratitude Story that we look forward to sharing with you.

By cultivating an attitude of gratitude, the children are experiencing positive emotions and feelings of happiness and this is important for their wellbeing.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 4 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time

The Early Learning 4 (Part Time) children returned to the Early Learning Centre, excited to see their friends and educators and eager to explore new experiences. A group interest emerged from a book we started reading called ‘Mr Archimedes Bath’ by Pamela Allen.

In the book Mr Archimedes has a bath with a kangaroo, wombat and a goat. He is furious that the water keeps overflowing and blames each of the animals. We decided to explore the problem in the book using a tub of water and plastic toys to represent the characters in the book. The children helped act out the story and shared their theories about why the water rose. Through participating in teacher guided investigations, children learn how to participate in simple inquiry cycles. They explore, wonder, raise questions, share ideas and engage in deeper explorations.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Class Teacher

I wish our Ormiston families a restful weekend and we look forward to seeing all our Foundation – Year 6 students bright and early Monday morning ready for face to face learning back at Junior School.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Early Learning 3 are thriving in Remote Learning!

EL3 children and families are to be commended as they have transitioned into remote learning seamlessly, enabling us as teachers to be able to offer a wider variety of approaches to engage the children and the families.

Our new student Francis Yan was introduced via Zoom where he was able to virtually meet his fellow classmates. Hopefully, Francis will get to meet everyone face to face in Term 4, when students return back to school.

During remote learning, we have recently focused our chats on plant life. The children wondered how plants could grow without air and it was pleasing to witness their involvement during our Zoom sessions with the support of their parents.

We are thankful for our EL3 parents as they played a vital role in helping the children to make their very own bears. The EL3 children are enjoying the company of their bears and have been involving them into their daily lives.

The bears have become a symbol of hope and comfort for the children as they settle into remote learning with just as much enthusiasm as if they were learning inside their classroom.

Ramila Sadikeen
EL3 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time

Zoom has provided an opportunity for the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children to remain connected during Remote Learning. Every child engages in one of three Zoom sessions that are offered each day. We also gather at the end of each week as a whole class on Zoom.

During these sessions, the children engage in various learning opportunities, some of which have included:

> sharing and dialoguing about their interests and ideas, in particular their creative and imaginative constructions, drawings, paintings, science experiments, musical pursuits and number sentences

> meeting and finding out about family pets such as Madelyn’s rabbit and Ginger her dog; and Qianqian’s cat named Echo

> physical exercise

> stories, in particular, The Paper Bag Princess that provided a message that girls are courageous, brave and risk takers

> discussions that focused on endangered animals, such as sea turtles, and how we can take action to create positive change

> singing and movement

> games, for example, ‘I want to be challenged’ and a variety of bingo games

I am very proud of what the children have been learning to do and to be during remote learning. As learners, they continue to develop the dispositions of risk taking, curiosity, flexibility in their thinking and persistence.

Angela Follacchio
EL4 Full-Time Class Teacher

Health & Safety with Foundation

During the second half of this term, the Foundation students have been investigating how they can be safe and healthy. They have learnt about the importance of hygiene and caring for their body, why we have rules and guidelines for road and water safety and who can help us in and emergency.

This very topical unit of work has been enhanced by some special guests to our class. We would like to acknowledge: Atlas Ko (Estelle’s Dad), Ed Karim and Zainab Hamudi (Lina’s parents), Julian Maingard (Olive’s Dad) and Lisa Williams (CGGS Aquatic Swim School Coordinator) for giving up their time to attend Zoom meetings with Foundation to explain what their jobs entail and to give some fantastic advice about how the students can stay safe and healthy in a variety of situations.

As you can see from the photographs, the students were particularly enthralled by the huge toothbrush and big set of teeth. They learned about the most efficient and effective way to brush. We should be seeing lots of sparkly, pearly, white smiles in Foundation!

Selena Reedman
Foundation Class Teacher

Year 5

Throughout the year, the Year 5 students have been challenging their mathematical thinking by participating in the APSMO Mathematical Olympiad and Mathematical Games competitions. These competitions consist of five tests interspersed throughout Terms 2 and 3. They consist of five extremely challenging questions and the students have been spending time in class preparing for them and refining their problem-solving skills. They have increased their problem-solving toolkit and worked on developing strategies such as guess and check, finding a pattern or creating a table. The Year 5 students, along with students in Year 6, will sit their final test this coming week. Good luck!

Over the past few weeks, the students have also refined their debating skills as they completed Round 1 Debates via Zoom. They consistently used a range of powerful persuasive strategies to convince classmates of their team’s argument. The topics were related to our Inquiry topic – ‘How can we make informed choices as consumers to create a more sustainable world?’

> Bottled water should not be sold

> Cheap, fast fashion should be banned

> Cars should be completely replaced by public transport

To further explore the Inquiry topic, the students have embarked on an Inquiry Project. They will be writing a persuasive letter and making a documentary to present to their family about how their family can make sustainable changes to lessen the impact of climate change and global warming. We are sure we will be seeing greener and more sustainable living in many of our Year 5 homes – ‘be the change you want to see in the world’ – Mahatma Ghandhi.

Meagan Wilson, Anjali de Quadros & Fiorella Soci
Year 5 Class Teachers

Chinese Heritage

In the Heritage class, students have the opportunities to appreciate their rich culture and literary heritage through the study of short poems and rhymes.

> Foundation students have shown great interest in learning seasons and weather by reciting and drawing Chinese rhymes and watching Chinese cartoons.

> Year 1 students enjoyed sharing riddles they have learned in class and had fun reciting them to their family members for them to guess.

> Year 2 students, whilst studying the topic on animals, had the opportunity to appreciate a poem written by an ancient poet about Goose when he was only 7 years old.

> Year 3 students have covered many topics and one of the topics studied was about Chinese Art and Craft. The students created their own craftwork and made a short video explaining how they made it.

> Year 4 students started learning informative writing and wrote about the city they were born in.

Chinese Mainstream

In the Mainstream classes, students continue to develop their language skills through exploring different stories in Chinese.

> Foundation students have been describing Paddington Bear’s family, facial features and body parts in Chinese.

> Year 1 students have been focusing on developing speaking and reading skills. They have created their own Chinese version ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and presented this piece with confidence.

> Year 2 students have been discovering a new part of the story ‘The Cat and The Little Ducklings’ and are learning different verbs.

> Year 3 students have a strong focus on verbs and different vocabulary when studying the classic story ‘Three Little Pigs’. Students have been using sequencing cards to develop their storytelling skills to retell the story in Chinese. The students will focus on developing their retelling and describing skills.

> Year 4 students have been learning the story ‘The Gift’ in Chinese. Students are currently using a thinking routine called “Name – Describe – Act” to recall nouns, verbs and adjectives and then produce sentences in Chinese.  Students first look at a scenario shot from the story ‘The Gift’ on a Padlet and then make a list of vocabulary. They are then encouraged to add more details and description. View the padlet here. https://cggs.padlet.org/zhangs/year4liwu

The last thinking process involves students putting different vocabulary and phrases into a sentence to describe a picture. Year 4 students will use this thinking routine until the end of this term.

Lin Zhang, Scarlett Zhang & Peipei Liu
Chinese Teachers

Year 5 & 6 French

For the greater part of the term, the Year 5 students learnt a number of words to do with animals, followed by learning some adjectives of colour, size and personality that they could use to describe animals. As a summative task they wrote a short description of their ideal pet (Mon animal idéal).

Concurrently, the Year 6 students learnt how to express themselves in the ‘future tense’. Combined with their knowledge of tourist attractions in Paris, they created an imaginary mini itinerary of a visit to the “City of Lights”. In the last few weeks of the term, the students have been learning vocabulary and grammar that will help them acquire conversational skills needed in a shopping context. 

Tafadzwa Gwamba
French Teacher

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Early Learning 3 are on Zoom!

The children of EL 3 are truly a community of learners. They are embracing multiple and diverse ways of learning which has been displayed when the children entered their first Zoom classroom session followed by partaking in our Seesaw online platform activities.

The children navigated their way on screen by first acknowledging the country to help increase their awareness of the plants, birds and animals and people of all cultural backgrounds.

The focus on nature and virtues such as kindness have continued to play a dominant role in the lives of the EL3 children as they settle into remote learning and Zoom meetings.

On Zoom, we read a story called “Kindness makes you strong” followed by Iris and Scarlet making cards for their friends. The cards say how much they miss their own friends, while Jayden sorted leaves in pairs, Chelsea noticed different leaves in the environment, Angus joined in with action songs and made the sound of the wind.

A highlight during remote learning was when the EL 3 and EL 4 Part-Time students observed together ‘The acknowledgement of Country’ via Zoom with Murrundindi and they continued to work together on their path to building a community of learners.

Ramila Sadikeen
EL 3 Classroom Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time

During Remote Learning, the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children have used digital technologies for purposeful communication, to gain understandings about wonderings, to document learning, to share a skill or interest and to maintain relationships with peers and teachers.

In the same way that children learn to share and collaborate within the classroom, children are learning how to take turns, listen to peers and teachers, work towards shared goals and contribute to discussions – through their engagement with digital technologies. These are important social behaviours that children require to actively participate with others in digital contexts, for example, during our daily small group Zoom meetings.

Our recent engagement with digital technologies have provided many learning opportunities for the children, for example:

Through Zoom, we connected with Murrundindi to learn about ochre as well as Wurundjeri symbols and the meaning of ‘Elder’. The children used ochre, provided by Annette Sax (Taungurung) to paint Wurundjeri symbols.

During a class Zoom meeting, some of the children shared their creations and Alex showed us an astronaut helmet that she created from recycled materials at home. Through Google, we connected with Storytime from Space and listened to the story ‘If I were an astronaut’ read by an astronaut on the International Space Station.

Through WebEx, we connected with Rebecca from the Wurundjeri Council and she shared stories and artefacts to celebrate National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day.

We connected with Bec, a teacher from Healesville Sanctuary and participated in Wurundjeri Way – a webinar that focused on Australian animals and their homes. The children also listened to a Dreamtime Story and learnt more words in Woiwurrung language.

We advocate for and understand the importance of children having a balance of digital and non-digital experiences both within the classroom and at home. For optimal health and wellbeing, the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines recommends screen time limits for children – this link provides further information.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 4 Full Time Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time are Scientists!

This week in EL4 Part-Time, the children have been participating in Science Week experiences. The theme of Science Week this year is Deep Blue: innovation for the future of our oceans. The children have been conducting science experiments at home such as cooking and making an ocean in a bottle. They have been challenged to make a sea creature (real or imagined) using recycled materials. They can enter their sea creature in a Science Week competition.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Teacher

Foundation – the comedians!

Ordinarily in Foundation, students would share Talk Time with the class every week. Whilst there is no longer a live audience, the Foundation students are still working on their presentation skills by creating a short video on different topics. They are focusing on speaking in full sentences, articulating their words clearly and making eye-contact by looking at the device that is filming them. These presentation skills are so important as the students will use them right throughout their schooling and for the rest of their lives.

Last week was very light-hearted as the students shared some of their favourite jokes. It was amazing to see that some of our youngest presenters could have such good comic timing! This week the students presented about their favourite free time activity at home. Reading, playing board games and playing with Lego are big hits with this Foundation cohort!

Selena Reedman
Foundation Teacher

Year 3

The Year 3 students have been working hard across all areas of the curriculum. They are confidently using the Seesaw platform to independently share their learning and demonstrate their understandings. Our current focus in writing is the use of persuasive devices to advertise products and services. We have been exploring a range of advertisement types, such as billboards, posters and television commercials and the different ways they persuade their audiences. Students have begun to identify a range of devices such as rhetorical questions, humour and jingles.

Last week the Year 3’s chose a toy product from their home. They brainstormed adjectives, slogans, facts and features to describe their product before using a storyboard to plan a television commercial to advertise it. Students then shared their completed commercials with a classmate and gave constructive feedback to each other. Their innovative and creative commercials demonstrated their knowledge of how a wide range of persuasive devices can be used to influence audiences to buy products.

Liz Ruffles & Rebecca Leondidis
Year 3 Class Teachers

MUSIC DEPARTMENT

CGGS presents ‘We’ve Got MORE Talent!’

In Music this week, it was time for sharing more Camberwell Girls COVID Creations. In ‘We’ve Got Talent’ we saw some incredible videos of our girls recording some of their talents from musicians, artists, magicians, trampoliners and even fast runners. So, we thought it was time to do it all over again. ELC to Year 3’s were invited to take part in our Term 3 Activity – ‘’We’ve Got MORE Talent”.

Once again students uploaded videos demonstrating one of the many talents that they have.

We had Singers, Gymnasts, Dancers, Pianists, Violinists, Comedians, Roller skaters, Artists and creative Lego builders – to name a few.

The talents and skills of our students are incredibly impressive and, despite the challenges we are all facing with remote learning, it is clear to see the students are artistically thriving. Never before has it been more important for our wellbeing to take some time away from our screens and allow ourselves to slow down and be in the moment.

In our creative moment this week, the students did exactly that and we couldn’t be more proud of them. Keep an eye on the CGGS social media platforms for some talent videos throughout next week!

Years 4, 5 and 6

The students have continued to enjoy working in Song-Maker in the chrome Music Lab. They have created a percussion accompaniment to enhance a given folk song.  Many of the students have taken up extension options and challenged themselves, creating stunning variations to their folk song theme. The Seesaw activities have provided opportunities to learn further creative tools available to them in this program including increasing the number of bars and splitting the beat. Song-Maker continues to be used to enhance students Kodaly based learning of music reading, writing, performing and creating.

They have been encouraged to continue using their sight singing school course to further develop their musical skills as an extension activity.

It is fabulous to see our students increasingly able to use strategies to learn independently and to work at their own level.

This week we commence our music history investigation. The music selected to begin is Mozart’s Horn Concerto No 4.

Below are two links if you want to hear examples of variations composed by students using the theme of the folk song ‘Ding Dong Digi Didi Dong’.

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/6230428437446656

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/5941611348361216

Nichole Adams & Penny Byrne
Music Teachers

STEAM Ahead

One exciting thing to come out of remote learning has been the STEAM Ahead club. We started in Term 2 as a way to allow keen students to explore Science/STEAM topics in more depth and in a holistic way. The first topic we looked at was Marine Science, with the help of our Senior School dolphin expert, Dr Sue Mason. Students enjoyed learning about local marine animals and we were lucky to be able to share their final models of ocean ecosystems at school.

This term we have been investigating microbiology, starting with yeast and breadmaking and moving on to mould and decomposition. It has been inspiring to see the careful observations and experiments that club members have been able to carry out at home. Hearing the students share their thoughts and energy in our Zoom meetings is a highlight of the week!

Ms Penny Dumsday (Science Teacher) & Mrs Annabelle Vivarini (Literacy & Numeracy Teacher)

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School