Full STEAM Ahead!
This term Year 1A’s Integrated Studies focus has been on Light and Sound. We have been looking at what natural and artificial light sources are, as well as the importance of light and sound sources in our everyday life.
During a STEAM lesson with Mrs Campbell, the girls got an absolute buzz out of working with battery powered circuit boards. The girls displayed excellent collaboration with their partners as they learnt through hands on creation and discovery. The girls discovered the circuits had to be closed in order to allow the electrical energy to flow and move. With this understanding the girls explored switching between open and closed circuits, using the power to light up a bulb, making a siren sound and sending fans whizzing up to the roof!
Lucy Saarinen | Teacher 1A
Mindfulness in the Prep classroom
Each day the Prep girls participate in the practice of Quiet Mind. We have a growing list of ideas in our classroom and the girls enjoy choosing a different one each day. The girls have also enjoyed adding their own suggestions and demonstrating for their classmates. The girls engage well during these times and are able to clearly articulate the benefits of this practice; helps us to stay calm and clear our minds, encourages us to breathe deeply, helps us to focus on our learning, can help us to shift from cross or worried feelings to happy ones. Last term we made breathing wands and these are a popular request. Use of these, encourages a slow and steady exhalation to make the streamers flutter. By far, the girls’ favourite activity is The Bell. The girls sit in a circle and pass a little brass bell around the circle. On the first round, the girls give the bell a quiet ring and on the second round, the aim is to pass the bell without it making a sound. All attention is focused mindfully on the bell as it progresses around the circle and by the end of the round, the feeling of calm and stillness in the room is considerable.
Mary Whitcher | Prep A Teacher
Dress Ups
Our Performing Arts program helps our Tintern girls build self-confidence and self-esteem. The students also learn how to explore outside their comfort zone, appraise new situations, think outside the box, express their thoughts, solve problems, cope with performance fears and build trust and self-reliance. Dress-up play in Prep and Year 1 allows our girls to dream, improvise and use their imagination. It gives them permission to pretend to be someone or something different. Whether they dress up as a unicorn, a fairy, a princess, a pirate, a creature or any other character, their brains go into high gear when they put on a costume! Students benefit cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally through dress-up play. When the girls dress up, there is no limit to who, where or what they can be and they have so much fun!
Puppets
Utilizing puppets in our Year 2, 5 and 6 Performing Arts classes creates such joy, and focus and enhances student’s oral language skills. From Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie puppets to the Muppets, students have watched some of Jim Hensen’s techniques and learnt how to make puppets capture imagination and come alive. When I watch the girls work with puppets, every emotion and every movement is mirrored in the puppeteer. The girls work on eye focus, movement, and correct lip sync all while keeping their heads and arms out of sight! They have written a short script, in groups, and created a short puppet show, which will be performed to a live audience. The students are so fortunate to be able to perform their puppet shows using the fabulous puppet theatre built for them by our Maintenance staff. They love bringing the puppets to life, interacting with each other and having so much fun!
Jacquie Casey | Junior School Choral and Performing Arts Co-ordinator
