TEACHING AND LEARNING COORDINATOR

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Students have been busy over the last two weeks while all Australian schools celebrated National Science Week and Book Week.

SCIENCE WEEK

National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of Science and technology and thousands of individuals take part in many Science events across the nation.

We started our Science Week with a Science themed school assembly. In the beginning, Year 6 students explained different branches of Science and their importance. They read Science poems and famous quotes of few scientists. They participated in four diverse Science rotations based on different themes. The stations were Marvellous Magnets, Kitchen Chemistry, Fabulous Flight and Busy Builders. These stations gave them opportunities to experiment and learn about different topics.

Marvellous Magnets - Students learnt about properties of magnets and did experiments.

Kitchen Chemistry - Students did experiments using kitchen chemicals to observe physical and chemical changes.

Fabulous Flight - Students built and tested their parachutes and paper planes.

Busy Builders - Students built towers and bridges using common materials.

To add fun, students dressed up as ‘Mad Scientists’ to get the real feel of being a scientist. They looked really cute and participated enthusiastically in all activities.

BOOK WEEK

Each year across Australia, the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) brings children and books together celebrating CBCA Book Week. During this time schools, libraries, booksellers, authors, illustrators and children celebrate Australian children's literature and you will often see children's book character parades and talented librarians creating amazing displays.

Sirius College organised many activities to celebrate the Book Week. Emma from local GV library came to our school to read and share shortlisted books with all students. During lunch time, literacy activities were held in the school library and students enjoyed participating in them. As the theme for this year was “Find the Treasure”, students dressed up as pirates to find the treasure hidden in the books. They also watched the movie Matilda based on the children’s novel ‘Matilda’ written by Roald Dahl.

I hope they got a lot out of these two fun-filled busy weeks! Thanks to all parents, students and teachers for their hard work and efforts.