Stage 2 students have been BRILLIANT learners this term! As we move toward our final week of 2024, the students have been working very hard across all learning areas, from English to Maths, Art and dancing up a storm in our school musical. We couldn't be prouder of the effort, enthusiasm and maturity our middle school students are showing as they prepare to move into the 2025 school year. Here’s a snapshot of some of the learning taking place across Stage 2 this term.

Mary Poppins JR, the Musical!
We started off our term with all things MUSICAL. We were so impressed by our Stage 2 students who not only were part of the main cast for Mary Poppons, giving up many a lunchtime and afternoon to practise and prepare for the school production, but all our ‘Jolly Holiday’ and Office workers for ‘Precision and Order’ dance routines. With thanks to Hayley VW for her expert advice and choreography, our students were shining on the stage. We also thank Carrie F, (Milton’s Mum) for her incredible effort to sew all our Year 3 costumes: (striped vests, head scarves and belts). We know the students all looked amazing and wore their costumes with much pride and excitement. We thank all our families for supporting us by providing the costumes and extras for the production. We are sure it will be locked away as a special highlight of this year.

English
This term, we have been exploring our final Novel for the school year, ‘The Wild Robot’ by Peter Brown. The story surrounds a robot, named Roz, who was shipwrecked on a deserted island. Roz must learn to adapt to its new surroundings and build relationships with the native animals. After some observations and unfortunate mishaps, Roz soon develops a bond with an orphaned gosling. We have asked the students to write some predictions about the story, what do they think will happen to Roz and the gosling, and how might they feel if they were on a deserted island.

To further engage the students in the novel, we took part in a modelled drawing session to recreate the cover of ‘The Wild Robot’. We showcased our skills in space, line, perspective and colour to present the following artworks. We think they look pretty great!

Daily Review/Sentence Level writing
As part of our Daily Review, we investigate words to increase our vocabulary, which helps our writing become more complex and interesting. In Year 4 students used the word ‘mangled’ and in Year 3, our investigations were surrounding the word ‘demeanour’. We developed some interesting sentences using the word demeanour and shared them with the class.

Zane: ‘The dogs have a happy demeanour.’

Reign: ‘The dogs had a crazy demeanour because they were playing’.

Ashley: ‘My dog had a friendly demeanour when I was playing with her’.

Maisie: ‘The dogs had a happy demeanour because they were at the dog park for a party’.

Oliver: ‘The dogs had a very happy demeanour when they were going to Ohio’.

Theodore: ‘The two dogs had a happy demeanour’.

Akeyla: ‘The dogs have a friendly demeanour and are happy’.

Maths
In Maths we have been enjoying working in our CMC Maths groups and in our class groups for Daily Review sessions to solidify our knowledge of maths concepts for fast recall. . Connecting Maths Concepts teaches explicit strategies that enable students to master challenging concepts. Students continue to develop their problem-solving capabilities and their ability to think and communicate mathematically. During weekly daily review students are practising their skills with using money, telling the time and volume and capacity concepts.

Science
This term in Science, Stage 2 students are investigating Physics! We have been identifying heat as energy, heat sources, transference of heat and will move into looking at temperature and solar energy as the term progresses. It is wonderful to see the students engaging and interacting with each other to share their knowledge and understandings of the world around us through hands-on activities and experiments. 

Religion
In Religion, students have been immersed in the Creation Story by the Book of Genesis. This is part of our RE unit ‘Looking After the World: How am I created for Creation?’ What we have learned so far through our in depth look at the Creation story, is the harmony, order and balance within God’s creations over the seven days. We have begun to represent our own understandings of the Creation story through a comic strip task. The students were asked to think carefully about the story, the order and the ‘why’, and design images and symbols to represent this very important and significant Bible story as well as reflecting on our own special place in God’s creations.

This week marks the first week of Advent. The students have been reflecting on the meaning of Advent and how it comes from a Latin word meaning ‘coming’. We have been thinking about all the waiting and preparation that we all go through as we wait for the coming of Jesus to celebrate on Christmas Day. We have started to make Advent wreaths, and create word banks about what happens during Christmas as Christians.

Geography 
In Geography we have been learning about different biomes and landmarks in our local area in Year 3 and in Year 4 we have been exploring different types of biomes from around the world such as tundra, alpine, aquatic, deciduous forest, and rainforests. Students have created an information report cube and are currently working on creating a diorama to represent their chosen environment. 

Art
Throughout this term we have learnt about the effective use of shape, colour, line and texture to create different artworks and landscapes. Recently, we explored using a variety of warm and cool colours to create abstract trees and leaf art. We have also begun to create a colourful and patterned echidna, using a variety of shape, texture and colours. We are sure we have the next up and coming artists in our midst here in Stage 2 and we are extremely happy with how they turned out.

Last week, we began our Christmas Art series and started off with making a paper Christmas Tree. We designed our own colourful Christmas Trees using strips of paper and decreasing them in size, then adding a Christmas Star to finish it off.

PE with Mr Hill
This term, students have been thoroughly enjoying how to play the game of Volleyball with Mr Hill. Some key skills we have had to learn very quickly, is how to work as a team to keep the ball in the air and to get it over the net with only a few spikes (hits) of the ball. While we are all still learning the rules and how to spike the ball effectively for our teammates, we are loving working as a team all while learning skills in strategy and tactics, as part of our learning in PD/H/PE. 

Swimming Program
What an improvement we have seen in our young learn to swimmers so far during our Swimming Program! Each Friday, we have been very keen to jump in the pool to practise and refine our skills in the water. With Summer holidays just around the corner, and living by the coast, it is such an invaluable life skill to be safe in and around the water.

We asked some of our students to share what is the best thing about swimming each week:

Xavier E: ‘I really liked last week when we learnt how to rescue a friend if they were having trouble in the water.’ .

Lucy T: ‘I have enjoyed swimming each week because I have learnt how to swim better and get more confident in the deep end of the pool.’ 

Ethan T: ‘I love blowing bubbles and diving for the sticks.’ 

In wrap up…..Highlights from 2024!
We have had such a wonderful year in Stage 2 2024! From Gala days and carnivals, from musicals and incredible art lessons, we have made such growth, made new friends and learned so many new skills.

The students would like to share some of their highlights from the year, what they are proud of and what they are most looking forward to as they move into the next stage of primary school.

Patrick S: ‘I have really enjoyed the variety of art we have done this year. I can’t wait to display them at home.’

Winter F: ‘I have really loved Mrs Hampson teaching me this year because she is amazing at everything that she does. I will miss her so much next year!’

Patrick W: ‘I have loved sport this year, especially this term when we have learnt how to play volleyball. I really enjoyed throwing the ball over the net and seeing if the kids could return it.’ 

Natasha S: ‘I really enjoyed Mission Day this year because we got to eat lots of yummy food and play really fun games.’ 

Ginger: 'A highlight would be our fantastic art sessions with Mrs Hampson.'

Mrs Megan Grant, Mrs Alicia Hampson, Mrs Carla Durnan
Teachers Stage 2