Learning in 3/4FC Just another Edublogs site 

On Monday, 25th September, the Year 3/4 unit went on an excursion to the Botanic Gardens and Migration Museum as part of our unit of work in History and Geography about the Indigenous culture, the First Fleet and early colonisation in Australia. At the Botanic Gardens, our tour guide took us on a tour where we learnt about a variety of plants used for food, medicine and shelter by Aboriginal people. She explained how each different plant was used. Some of the plants we saw and leant about were the River Red Gum, the Bottle tree, the Grass tree, the Hollow tree and the Queensland Macadamia Nut tree-just to name a few! We all spent most of the morning flicking mosquitoes off each other! (The mosquitoes in the gardens had a feast!). We ate recess in the gardens and then set off for a long walk to the Migration Museum.

Our tour guide at The Migration Museum talked to us about the Indigenous people of Australia. He also explained what life was like for the first settlers who migrated to Australia and also the convicts. We also learnt how the arrival of the Europeans had an impact on the Aboriginal culture. After our visit to the Migration Museum, we walked back to the Botanic Gardens and had lunch with 3/4 RM. Then we all had play time and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. We all had a great day!

On Friday, 22nd September, our school celebrated Italian Day. We were immersed in all things Italian! The students and staff members dressed up in colours from the Italian flag. The day began with an assembly. Our special guest was our local Member of Parliament, Vincent Tarzia. Vincent gave a speech in Italian and presented the school with a large map of Italy. The students were involved in a variety of activities from making biscotti (Italian biscuits), designing/making masks and being a great audience during our special performance by some students from Mary MacKillop College. The Mary MacKillop girls performed a variety of Italian songs for us. There was also food, food and more food! The students enjoyed gelato, cannoli, zeppole (Italian donuts) and pasta of their choice. We were also blessed with beautiful weather. It was a fantastic day celebrating the Italian culture!

On Tuesday, 8th August we celebrated the life of St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Mary was born on the 15th January, 1842 and died on the 8th August, 1909. Mary started the first St. Joseph school for poor and disadvantaged children. We celebrated Mary MacKillop Day with a variety of activities. The day began with a liturgy. Students from different classes shared activities they participated in about Mary MacKillop. There were paintings, charcoal sketches and songs.
During recess and lunch time, the Year Sevens organised stalls and fun activities in the middle yard. Some very brave teachers (and Mr Grbin) took part in the wet sponge throwing game. All donations went to The Mary MacKillop Foundation and the Cancer Council. After lunch, classes did an activity with their Buddy Class. It was a great day of celebrations!

Last Thursday, two of our Year 4 students competed in the Athletics Carnival where they showcased their skills in athletics. Both students achieved great success in their events. Well done and congratulations to both students on a fantastic effort in their first Athletics Carnival!

Today, 20th June, the Year 9 drama class from Kildare College visited our school to perform a play called ” Princess”. The performance was based on a combination of fairy tale characters all coming together in one play- two narrators, a group of step-mothers, a queen, a princess (actually, a few princesses), a lonely frog prince looking for his lost princess and a very green, lonely frog- just to name a few! The characters all came together to tell the story of how the lonely prince found his long, lost princess- but was she really a princess? The students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the great performance of “Princess”.

Yesterday, 14th June, 3/4FC visited the Life Education Van. We learnt all about being “cyber wise”. Our teacher’s name was Isabella. She showed us a video which taught us all about the importance of not putting any of our personal information online. We also learnt about how to create passwords. We worked in groups to create different passwords. Here are some of the responses from the students about their visit to the Life Education Van:

I had a great time! I enjoyed making the passwords. Some were really silly and I had lots of fun! – Charlie

We learnt about things we should do if a stranger is online and asks for your personal information. My favourite part was when we watched clips about cyber safety. – Leila

We met Harold at the end of our session. – Darcy

We got to do many great activities including making our own passwords and thinking if it would be safe to share information with other people. When the lights were switched off, we could see so many stars up on the ceiling! – James

We had a great time in the Life Education Van!

It was very interesting and educational to learn about being “cyber wise”. – Isabel

3/4FC celebrated National ReconciliationWeek. We learnt about the meaning of reconciliation and the importance of reconciliation between the the white Europeans and the indigenous people of Australia. We designed friendship hands using the colours in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands flags. The students wrote what reconciliation means to them. Every child in the school designed their own indigenous rock using Aboriginal symbols. The rocks have all been placed in our new Indigenous rock garden. Come and visit our Indigenous rock garden. You will see some very creative Indigenous art!

3/4FC celebrated Catholic Education Week. The students wrote their personal thoughts to the question “What does being a student in a Catholic school mean to you?” They published their work and designed a poster to match their responses.

St. Joseph’s, Tranmere commemorated National Sorry Day by writing messages about Sorry Day and reconciliation on indigenous coloured ribbons. The whole school then tied the ribbons along the fence facing Magill Road to help spread the message of hope and reconciliation for all.