Duncraig Primary School

Languages Week is celebrated in August!

This year Année 6 learnt about the Francophone World, becoming aware that French is spoken in 40+ countries, such a great reason and benefit for our school to be learning French!

The students learnt about the location of these countries, territories and departments.

The students then spent time writing a précis about the French Australian connection that exists between the two countries. French can be a useful asset in such fields as cultural exchanges, scientific collaboration and the promotion of trade ties between France and Australia. Parents were given the opportunity to read their children’s work giving highly favourable feedback about our unique connection with France.

The Year 2 to 5 students had fun learning about the shape of France (it’s a hexagon!) and they were very interested to learn about some fun facts regarding the icons of France. Currently we are just putting finishing touches to our maps designed in class.

We have also had some lovely story books added to our Library Book collection which will be ready for borrowing very soon.

Below you can see some great dialogues and surveys taking place by some Year 3 and 4 students. These were written by the children and here they are exchanging information called “All About Me”.

Happy Book Week, Bonne Fêtes!

Madame Wilderspin.

Bonjour!

Thankyou to all the parents who have recently viewed and responded to their children’s work samples that we sent home from Yr 2 and Yr 3. It was very rewarding to receive such appreciative and enthusiastic comments.

Currently in the school office entrance there are some great pieces of Yr 6 and Yr 5 French are on display, it’s a shame I could not display everyone’s work, they are very pleasing work samples!

Please remember the amazing “Van Gogh Alive” Exhibit at the Supreme Court Gardens if you able to go along. It is an experience not to miss!

During his time in France, Vincent van Gogh lived in Paris, Arles and Saint-Remy-de-Provence and finally in Auvers-sur-Oise just outside Paris, where he died in 1890. The fact that he spent much of his working life in France leads many to wonder whether he was French. He was in fact Dutch, born in Zundert in the Netherlands in 1853. In 1888, after spending a few years living in Paris, van Gogh decided to move to the South of France. The unique light in Provence fascinated him and the quality of life there suited him.

We will enjoy exploring Van Gogh’s artistic contributions to the world in lesson time.

Bonne semaine,

Madame Wilderspin

As part of their Design Technology, Year 3 and 4 students in Room 6 enjoyed investigating how forces, and the properties of materials, affect the behaviour of objects, products and systems.

They then used their knowledge and skills to design and make Moving Monsters.

Each student developed their ideas through labelled drawings, using appropriate technical vocabulary. Following this, they selected suitable materials and made their monster, before finally evaluating both the process and product.

Watch the videos

We are very lucky this year to extend our French Programme to the Year 2 students!

So far we have an enthusiastic cohort who have been very busy learning all their French greetings with our fun collection of puppets!

The Year 2 students receive one lesson a week which gently introduces them to the language.

The school also has a new learning space for French which is now located in the library.When Covid restrictions are lifted I would welcome parents to come and visit before school pour un perouse “look and see”!

We also have several new students starting French for the first time, being new students to our school.

Already Seth claims French to be his favourite subject.Bryce has made a mini sheet of useful vocab that he carries in his pocket to practise throughout the day! Olivia has asked for catch up work so that her Mum can help her with beginner French at home! Every new student is trying so hard during lessons and I know having French and English so closely linked does give the confidence and support to learn the language. Remember French is spoken in 43 countries around the world and students learn about their own English language whilst we explore French as a second or even third language for our students at Duncraig Primary.

“Un grand merci”,a big thankyou,to mainly the younger students who have made flags,cards and posters for the French Room which highlights their love of learning the language!   Vive le français!

Finally un grand merci aussi(a big thanks also) to Dioné, Demi and Anna who come along most mornings to carry out monitor jobs in the French Room on a completely volunteer basis.

Bonne semaine! Enjoy the week!

Madame Wilderspin

Congratulations to our champion swimmers from Year 4-6!

 

Beach Swimming Lessons – Years 5 & 6

In Weeks 3 and 4, Year 5 and 6s have been attending swimming lessons at Mullaloo Beach. The students have loved the swimming lessons, especially with the awesome weather!

Occasionally some students have seen amazing sights which include dolphins and jelly blobs. The teachers have been awesome and taught us lots of life skills. At the end of the lessons the teachers let us do flag racing, body surfing and relays.

We have practised our swimming strokes, beach to water signals and tube/board rescues.

This has been an excellent and fun learning experience for us all.

Safer Internet Day 2022 – Rooms 3 & 4

Students in Rooms 3 and 4 were two of the classes involved in the Safer Internet Day program, on February 8^th. The program targeted raising the awareness about online safety. One of the key messages was that there is no place for online abuse, and that we can all help to make life online enjoyable by being kind and respectful to each other.

The students in Kindy C had a very successful and busy first week of school. With the support of their parents, the students arrived excited and enthusiastic to discover the new classroom environment and playground. Some of the popular learning areas in the classroom included the dinosaur table, playdough table and water trays. A highlight for the group was sitting outside to eat together on the picnic rugs and learning how to independently pack their own bags. On Friday we even enjoyed running under the sprinkler to cool down and making delicious mud pies in the sandpit. It is going to be an amazing year with a wonderful group of students! Congratulations Kindy C on a fabulous start to the year. We are very proud of you!

Mrs Rossi and Mrs Garie

This term, the Year 6s have been visiting Duncraig Senior High School to participate in a three week STEM program on Tuesday afternoons. Students chose to participate in one of three subject options; problem solving, coding or science.

Here are some insights into their experiences so far.

In problem solving we have drawn multiple patterns and shapes onto either graph or dotted paper. With the graph paper we copied complex patterns following the design sheet closely. On the dotted paper we drew unfamiliar shapes with a varying number of vertices depending on the shape. These shapes were types of optical illusions and were quite challenging to copy. The work required lots of concentration and perseverance as the shapes weren’t always what they seemed. Check out some of our work below!

In coding we have been working with Mr. Norman to code microbit with block coding and python. We have also been learning about algorithms, sequencing and loops. It has been a great experience and we have enjoyed every minute.

In science we have been working in the science lab with proper science equipment. We have learned how to safely light a Bunsen burner and the scientific names of equipment. We have carried out some experiments and enjoyed boiling some red cabbage and rose petals to create a red cabbage and rose petal indicator, which we then used to test the pH of substances including vinegar and milk. It has been great fun!

We have all really enjoyed visiting the high school and we are looking forward to going next year.

Numero

Duncraig Primary School recently participated in the North Western heat of the Interschool Numero Competition. Congratulations to the members of the three teams; Duncraig Dragons, Dynamite and Dugites. Thank you to the team members; Kade, Hayley, Sasha, Alex, Cooper, Julia, Zaxson, Rowan, Josh, Jay, Scarlett, Sofia and Mila. All competitors did a fabulous job, performing their best maths under time pressure and in front of an audience.

‘We have been learning about bears and teddy bears in Kindy this term. On Monday 25 October, Kindy A children were so excited to be invited to bring their teddy bears to school for a Teddy Bears Picnic! Parents and grandparents were also invited to attend picnic! Despite the rain we enjoyed a lovely picnic together with delicious food!

After lunch the rain cleared, and we treated our teddy bears to a bounce on our parachute and sang a teddy bear song for our families! This event was full of love, laughter and good food! Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make this a highlight of our year and a very memorable day for all the children! ‘

Throughout the course of the year, Year 6’s in Rooms 1 and 2 have been studying the works of world renowned, Perth born author and artist Shaun Tan.  We have studied a few of his many books including Cicada, The Rabbits and The Lost Thing. We have also enjoyed viewing the Academy Award winning The Lost Thing short film, an adaptation of the book. If you haven’t seen it, check it out!

Shaun Tan has been inspirational to us, as we created our own “Miscellaneous Anomalies” in the style of his characters.  We emailed these to him to enjoy, along with a few questions we devised.  Much to our excitement, he responded by answering all of our questions!

Below are a few Shaun Tan inspired anomalies created by our students.