Library in the Girls’ Junior School
The GJS Library program fosters creativity and a love of literature through open-ended learning experiences coupled with scientific inquiry.
SPOTLIGHT on Year 1 Library
The Year 1 girls have been reading The Owl Who Was afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. This text explores themes of emotional resilience, growth mindset and overcoming challenges. It also delves into opportunities for inquiry into day and night, nocturnal and diurnal animals, habitats, food-chains, space, meteors, and constellations.
The girls spoke about times they were afraid, and we brainstormed strategies we can use to overcome difficulties. We created nightscapes and described the night sky using descriptive language. We classified animals according to when they are awake. As you can see in the photos, we also made our own constellations by comparing and creating constellations in the northern and southern hemispheres. This knowledge of stars was built upon by learning about how aboriginal and first nation peoples use stars to navigate and find food.
SPOTLIGHT on Year 6 Library
The Year 6 girls have been reading How to Bee by Bren Macdibble. This text was the CBCA gold medal winner in 2018. How to Bee explores themes of food security, and the crucial role of bees in pollination and global food production. This text also explores themes of family, friendship, resilience, responsibility, selflessness, empathy, and social privilege. The girls were deeply engaged in the story of Peony, the main character, and her family. We discussed the use of language in the text as well as connections, changes, challenges, and concepts woven throughout the plot.
Alongside the literary exploration into the text, the class also conducted experiments into the nature of honey and debated the best pollination processes. The girls also conducted several mathematical investigations into the shape of hives and which shapes work best for their structural integrity and capacity. As you can see in the photos, the Year 6 specifically investigated ‘why are hexagons the best shape for a hive?’
Do you know why hexagons are the best shape for a hive? Can you think of other six-pointed, naturally occurring structures or objects in nature?
Year 3A Girls
We have had lots of great learning experiences in the last few weeks in Year 3A. Here are some of our recent highlights.
For our Assembly Share we presented our reflection of our Camp to Lady Northcote YMCA Recreational Camp. Using the Tintern Compass points, the Girls shared how they demonstrated each of the points whilst on Camp. The Girls did a terrific job of working collaboratively to achieve the outcome and despite some of them being nervous to speak in front of an audience, they showed great confidence.
In Literacy we have learned about what it means to persuade. We determined that to persuade is to convince someone to do something or to agree with us. We thought of reasons why dogs or cats would make a better pet. We learned that we use modal words, such as should, should not, probably, might or absolutely, to help us to support our reasons.
Working on our persuasive skills we invited Mrs. Yardley to our classroom to convince her which chocolate biscuit was better; the tim tam or the chocolate teddy bear biscuit. The Girls considered the different features, the deliciousness, the cost and the popularity. In the end Mrs. Yardley decided that the tim tam was the better biscuit. Either way, we got to try each biscuit and we decided for ourselves!
In Maths this week we focused on graphing, We devised a question, collected our data, and created a bar/column graph to show our results. We worked together for our first attempt, and discovered that 3A’s favourite chocolate was a KitKat – yum! Following this we collected data and represented our favourite food. Once the Girls felt confident enough, they chose their own question and gathered their information to create their own graph.
During our STEAM Centre session, the Girls, using their design, commenced creating their animal. This animal/creature is an individual design. We used coloured playdough that had lost of salt in the recipe to build our creature. We then used white playdough, which had no salt in the recipe, to put between the colours. This meant that when we put the LED light into the coloured playdough, and attached it to the circuit, the LED light flashed. This was to show how a creature could be bioluminescent – glow-in-the-dark.
