Thursday 30 August 2018

Senior Report - Term 3, Weeks 6-7


 Senior Report - Term 3, Weeks 6-7

Book Week
Last Monday book week started and we dressed up as our favourite book characters I dressed up as Darth Vader and my friend dressed up as Michael Jordan. On Monday morning we went to the parade and showed off our costumes. Evan and Eden were hosting the parade and they were interviewing random students that had good costumes such as Where’s Wally, Harry Potter and even Auggie from Wonder! I really liked people high fiving me because I was Darth Vader.
By Alex and Evan

Who is the smartest owl on earth?
OWLbert Einstine. 

Last week on Tuesday we did readers theatre for Book Eeek, where we were picked to be certain characters in a small play. There was Shipmate Sparrow, Peg Leg Watson, Captain Barnacle and Mean ‘O’ Reilly. Once we were assigned our characters, we had to practice the script. When we had practised enough, we performed it in front of the whole class and one group even performed at assembly. It was extremely funny.
By John and Oscar

Wonder in Aliceland
Last Thursday the 5/6’s went to Mentone girl’s secondary college to watch their production of Wonder in Aliceland which is a play on the Alice in Wonderland story. It was really good with the girls playing most of the characters in boy roles. I would rate their play a 10/10 and I reckon a lot of people would rate that too.
By Baylin

Production Rehearsal
For the past few weeks we have been working on our dances for the production. The grade 5’s are going to be clowns whilst dancing to Finesse by Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B, and Lions whilst dancing to Mi Gente. The Grade 6’s will be Acrobats when dancing to Party Mix then they will dance as fire breather’s to a mix between Lemon, Panda and Man’s Not Hot. Throughout the show, Jackie (Eden) and Grace (Emma) are shown around the amazing circus, Under The Big Top, by the Ringmaster (Darcy). Along the way they see unique acts and awesome people such as Lion Tamers (3/4s), Strong People (1/2’s) and Magicians (Preps).
We have been working very hard on our production this term and we are very excited to perform it next Tuesday!
By Kate

Athletics
Last week on Friday the 5-6 had Athletics Trials. They competed in their last two activities and those who were lucky enough made it into District Athletic Team. Those who made it into district will represent the school on Monday next week and represent their age group. Some people made it in for multiple activities and they will do both of the activities. I also made it in for long jump and the relay. I am really exited to go to district on Monday!
By Irene

School Painting Project
This week, MPPS students have been painting some beautiful patterns on wooden poles. Each class got one wooden pole to design and paint with bright colours. As soon as they are all finished, they will be placed outside the office in the garden beds that we are re-doing. If you walk past the office in the next few weeks, you should be able to see our new and improved garden. 
By Jordyn and Olivia



Important Dates
Happy Father's Day this Sunday!
Monday 3rd September - District Athletics. Make sure you wear clothes suitable for your event, bring warms clothes, your lunch and two water bottles. 
Tuesday 4th September - Production! See details below.

Production Tickets
Tickets for the 12:45pm matinee and the 7pm evening performance on Tuesday September 4th are available on the Kingston Arts Centre website now. Adults are $12 and children aged 2-5 are $6. Bring along your family and friends for a fabulous show!

Absences
If your child is absent from school, you must notify the school via flexibuzz of this in the morning. If not, you will now be sent this message from your child's teacher via flexibuzz:
Dear Parents/Guardians.
Your child has been marked as absent from school today. Can you please contact the office to notify us of the reason for this absence.
Kind Regards,
Mentone Park Primary School/Your Child's Teacher


Reading
This week in reading rotations, there have been four groups based on reading strategies that each of us have chosen as our goals. The main idea group were focusing mainly on our reading strategy. We had to read our own books and think about who was in our books, what they were doing or was happening, when it was happening, where it was happening and why it was taking place. This was to help us find the main idea. We also did focus group where we learnt about supporting ideas and main ideas. A main idea is basically the main thing. A supporting idea is not as important, but helps the main idea to do its job. My highlight of the week for reading was my reading strategy!
By Holly

Why couldn’t the man catch the burger?

It was fast food!

Writing
Hi, my name is Maya. Today I will be telling you about our new writing topic, debating! We were split into group of 3 and were all give a role: speaker 1, speaker 2 and speaker 3. We all have to write a speech on a topic either supporting the side, affirmative or negative. Our topic was plastic bottles should be banned and we were placed on the affirmative side. As a group we brain stormed ideas and wrote a speech. As speaker 2 I had to write a rebuttal of the first speaker on the negative side. Speaker 3 also had to do this so we brain stormed what they may make as a reason and came up with something to rebut that point. Next week we will have our debates against the opposition! 
By Maya  

Maths
What is your highlight from Maths from the past few weeks?
"I liked doing the cartesian plane because I didn't know about it before and now I know about it. I found it really interesting to learn about. We also have been working on maths booklets about different topics. My topic is algebra. In the algebra booklet I learnt how to simplify algebra equations for multiplication and also division. This has been challenging but after I found out how to do it, it's been simple" - Arunita

Inquiry
One week ago, we started our new inquiry topic. This time, we got to choose out of 2 science topics: Astronomy (space and the universe/solar systems) and Natural Disasters. I chose astronomy. Once we chose, we split up into 2 classrooms. We first watched a video all about our solar system and the planets. We learnt a lot of new things like how there are a lot of solar systems, not just ours. After the video, we started coming up with a big question (a question we can’t just google) and smaller questions to help us answer our big question. My question was if there was another planet in another solar system in our universe that could host life forms and if they could, how much different would the life forms be from the ones on our planet? This week, we started to research our topic. Overall, I think this science topic is very interesting and I definitely want to keep learning more about it.
By Victoria


Book Week









Production Rehearsal








Garden Painting




Thursday 2 August 2018

Senior Report - Term 3, Weeks 1-3


 Senior Report - Term 3, Weeks 1-3

Canberra Camp!
As you know, last week the year 5/6 students got on a bus very early in the morning to travel to Canberra for our camp. The students went to many exciting places such as Parliament House, the War Memorial, AIS, Government House, Questacon, Mt Ainslie, Telsta Tower and the National Gallery. Everyone had a fantastic time.

The Bus Trip
Last week on the bus we got bring our devices on the bus and I listened to TAYLOR SWIFT which was very fun. We could move our seats back and the teachers came round with rubbish bags just like an aeroplane. We also got lights above the seats which was great.
By Alannah

Parliament House
Last week we went to Canberra as most of you already know and we had so much fun, but who goes to Canberra and not visit the parliament house? So we went to the new Parliament House (as well as the old one). First while we waited for our guided tour, we were led into a room and they gave us a fruit bar and a cup of water. After that they taught us about all the 150 members in the house of representatives and 76 senators in the senate, 12 from each area. Then we went to the house of representatives and they showed us where the Claire O’Neil sat, who was the one that represented us there. We also got to see the senate and the great hall. We learnt how the clocks have a light and when they shine it means they have to go to the house of the colour of the light (green, house of representatives, red, the senate). The actually only have 5 minutes to get they close the doors and nobody can come in or out. Then they showed us the portraits of Prime Ministers who had died although some of the girl ministers weren’t there, they told us how every prime minister had to get a portrait when they died, and I wondered how come somewhere missing? At the end they showed us the great hall.
By Lua

AIS
Last week in Canberra the grade 5’s and 6’s went to many places although my favourite activity was obviously the AIS. The AIS stands for the Australian Institute of Sports. Inside the AIS they had many activities which included all types of different sports but the best activity that was there was the basketball hoop and I was just shooting buckets the whole time. They showed us many different places but I got really excited when we saw Luc Longley’s championship rings he won with Michael Jordan! Luc Longley is the first Australian basketballer in the NBA! They took us to the next section of the AIS which was a massive stage where people from all different sports train and get stronger. They told us about how many famous people have been on that stage including Ben Simmons and the Harlem Globetrotters. The people there took us to many different sections and while we were watching a group of men playing Volleyball we saw that the tallest man that they had there was 6 foot 11!!! And the average height for a volleyball player is over 6 feet tall.
Towards the end we went to the gift shop and bought a lot of merchandise. I bought me and my friend something from the store and even though we were only there for an hour and a half I could tell we all had a lot of fun and I hope to go again soon.  
By Evan

Questacon
On Wednesday bus one went to Questacon! We went to all different rooms and went to a public place so we went in a big group. First we went in to Questacon then we had to go line up against the gift shop. Mrs Windley signed us in and also Mr Hardie and Miss Jardine stayed with us. Then we went to the gift shop first and then when you purchased something you would put you’re name on it and then you would put it in the box and our bus driver would collect it. The first room we went to was my favourite it was dark cool room it had a massive drop side on it but I did’nt go on the drop slide. Then we went to the next room it was a construction room. The worker there was really nice to us and showed us a awesome T Rex. He told us he was seeing the Jurassic park with he's friend. The next room we went to was a very cool room: it was the electricity room. It was really cool because every 14 mins there was huge lighting strike.The next room there was cool because there was a machine that on one side there was your normal self then it turned to a side were you could see if your face was burnt and if you had freckles it will show up with alot of freckles. As we were walking back we saw an amazing water sculpture. Then we went back on the bus with our amazing bus driver. 
By Harper and Jasmine.

Australian War Memorial
In Canberra we went to so many amazing places! One of my favourites was the Australian War Memorial Museum. There we learnt about all the wars Australian's had fought in. One of the staff members told us stories. My favourite was about this black dog who was a bomb detector in the Afghanistan War. She got lost and she got replaced. A while later some Americans saw the dog and were confused how a black Labrador got into the desert, they called to her and she understood English. The villagers had fed the dog, that's how she survived in the heat for that long. She was returned to her owner. I also liked seeing the mini light shows about Fighter Planes, when Sydney was attacked by submarines and a plane called "G" for George. It was interesting to see all the uniforms too.
By Maya


Italian Project
The Senior Students have had a new Italian Assignment about cooking sent home. The assignment is as follows:
'I CIBI' - Food. Due Date: Thursday 20th September
PROMO - First
Decide on what you are going to have in your Menu. It must be something Italian. You may chose two or more from: entree (soup, salad etc), anti-pasta, a main course, biscotti (biscuits) and/or sweets (dolce) but the main course must be included.
Once you have decided on the menu, you need to write up everything you will need - including any relevant equipment (bowls, whisks, oven)
Challenge level - write the ingredients only in Italian
SECONDO - Second
With an adult, purchase or locate all the necessary food items. Sort them out and wash your hands and bench space you will be preparing on. Follow the recipe's steps to make your menu. Make sure you provide evidence of what you are doing. This could be photos, etc. Your family can help you with this.
TERZO - Third
Prepare and set the table in a creative and Italian inspired way. Again, you should provide evidence of this. Make sure you have place cards which you can save as part of your evidence.
QUARTO - Fourth
Serve your guests their meal. Afterwards, clean the table, kitchen and dishes. Hand out your scoring cards for completion.
QUINTO - Fifth
Decide how you will present your written part of this assignment. It can be a poster, booklet, fold out or power-point. Make sure you include all steps you took to complete your meal (even the cleaning up!). Be creative and neat. Check for any spelling errors.
Buon Appetito!

Friday Atheletics
The year 3-6 students are now beginning their Athletics trials each Friday morning from 9-10:30. Any parents and guardians are welcome to come and assist in the timing or measuring of each event. If you are interested, contact your child's teacher or Hope Laycock to find out more.

Absences
If your child is absent from school, you must notify the school via flexibuzz of this in the morning. If not, you will now be sent this message from your child's teacher via flexibuzz:
Dear Parents/Guardians.
Your child has been marked as absent from school today. Can you please contact the office to notify us of the reason for this absence.
Kind Regards,

Mentone Park Primary School

Reading
So far this term in Reading we have been learning about determining the important parts of a text and have been reading a book called Boy Overboard by Moris Gleitzman. We read 2 chapters on the floor and then we read another 2 chapters at our tables while we do a character tree on the characters in the book. When we finish reading we answer some questions on the chapters we just read. Wednesday and Thursday we do our reading rotations: the reading rotations are comprehension, focus group, reading strategy and spelling.
By Morgan

Writing
In Writing for the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about procedures. Procedures explain someone how to cook, do or play something. We learnt the structures of procedures, the language we should use in procedures and we had a go of writing a piece ourselves. The structure of a procedure is a title, the goal/aim, the materials/ingredients, the steps or method and the conclusion or evaluation. We all had a go at doing a procedure on how to make a solar-powered oven. We had to be very detailed to get the best procedure we can. Some of those things were adding subheadings, measurements in materials or ingredients, etc. We have all enjoyed writing procedures!
By Holly

Maths
For the first few days of Term 3, the grade 5/6’s did some problem solving tasks with addition, subtraction and multiplication. We started with 6 numbers and we had to find as many sums as possible with those numbers. This week, we started a new unit on mapping. First, we learnt (or had a refresher) about coordinates and how you read the x axis before the y axis. After, we drew a picture with coordinates. Then finally, we started doing some activities with a Map of Kingston. We had to find the coordinates of some destinations and where some coordinates lead to. After we finished that, we had another activity that was slightly harder. We had to give directions from certain places to other destinations by using north, east, south and west. We also learnt how to read the scale. Overall, these few weeks of Maths was pretty fun.
By Victoria

Inquiry
Our new topic in Science this term is animal adaptations. We are learning about how plants and animals adapt to different weather conditions and habitats.
An example of an animal adaptation is: bears live in cold places and hibernate during the winter season. There are plants that adaptations to different weather conditions, for example: an aloe vera plant stores water in the leaves. Some plants survive by growing their roots near the surfaces or they grow them deep down. Also another fact about animal adaptations is that there are different parts of the animal's body like:
  • Structural: where the outside of the body does the adapting
  • Physiological: where the inside of the body does the adapting
  • Behavioural: when the animal's behaviour changes to the different weather and habitat around it
By Irene


STEM
This term in STEM our challenge is to make a solar powered oven that is to melt a piece of chocolate!
We were all put into groups of three and given a booklet to follow! The booklet is to help us through a process of brainstorming, testing, designing, getting prepared, constructing and at the end a group and self-reflection and each day of stem we complete a daily log!  This project is to be completed at the end of the term!  It’s really fun to explore which materials are good to help make our ovens solar powered and to design possible ovens!
By Annistasia

Athletics
From week 3, Year 3 to Year 6 started doing athletics try outs. The 12s girls did 200m and discus and there are lots of other events as well such as 100m, 1500m, shot put, high jump, long jump, triple jump, 800m, and more but we don’t do my favourite event which is 400m. We are doing try outs next week as well! Shot put is done on the cricket pitch but you can’t step on the grass.
By Alannah  

Canberra Camp















Pencil Community Workshop












Buddies - 100 Days of School