Featherbrook...Let's Dance!

Our Year 1 students stole the show today as they took to centre stage to entertain, enthral and engage their audience of no less than 300 parents, family and friends. No stage fright either, just confidence in their creative dance flare underpinned by lots of tuition from teachers Bec Clark and Tegan Dimble and considerable practice. Colour, movement, energy and unbridled enthusiasm ensured delivery of an outstanding range of dances. The students told the story of 'time' through dances notable down through the years from the 1920s to the 2000's. The Charleston, Swing, Line Dancing, HipHop and Disco. It was wonderful to see the fruits of the students' labour and one student was heard saying, 'we had so much fun working together.'

The event was filmed and will be made into a short video that will be shown during the school production of Featherbrook’s Got Talent on Thursday 10th October at 7pm at the Wyndham Cultural Centre. Stay tuned for more details to come!

.........and now for a different focus from the dancing Year 1 students........Year 8's Visit the Zoo!

Today the year 8 students ventured to Werribee open range zoo where they reflected on the various implications mining has towards our ecosystem. The day began with a journey back in time and was for most, a highlight of the day. The zoo dinosaur walk was a temporary exhibit which showed large scale animatronic dinosaurs in a natural environmental setting. Students then undertook a bus tour where they observed animals in a simulated natural habitat.

Students were informed of the negative implications electronic technology has on gorillas in the Congo due to the need to mine coltan. Students explored ways in which we in Australia can reduce coltan mining. This includes donating old mobile phones, which contain coltan, to the zoo to be then redistributed. Overall students left more aware and very reflective of how our everyday needs may impact on the world around us.

The commentary above was provided by science teacher Declan Sega.

Preps + Maths + Houses + Collaboration = Success for all!

I was privileged today to happen upon a very special maths learning challenge that Prep students were doing. In triads within House groups: Geranium, Acacia, Eucalyptus and Banksia, the students were set the task to create coloured and decorated paper links to make the longest chain possible. The intentions underpinning the task were to have students collaborate and in doing so, develop their team work skills in order to produce a paper chain that met the criteria: detailed drawings on each link to reflect our values, and to make the longest chain (the maths concept). The result was mighty close between the Houses in the end, but the most important outcome was the cooperation shown by our youngest students during the activity, whilst having a lot of fun in the process!