On Wednesday morning, Kindergarten students shared their learning about 'The journeys we take help us learn about the world' as part of their Unit of Inquiry, 'Where we are in place and time'. Students enthusiastically shared their work with their parents and demonstrated the knowledge and understanding in a variety of ways. ​Thanks to all families that came out to support their children - see below for some photos of the event:

This morning, our ELC families had the opportunity to connect with their child/children as part of their Celebration of Learning. The students were very excited to share a variety of provocations with their parents, inviting them to join in with painting, patterning, creating and construction activities. They also shared cookies with their parents - that they had made and baked themselves in class this week! Thank you to all of the families who were able to come and support this special morning for the children.

Last Friday 6 December, the Kindergarten students showcased their learning in a Performing Arts Showcase. They adapted the story of 'Stone Soup' to highlight how our journeys around the world to different places are so much better when we are kind and share with the people we encounter along the way. Through acting, dance and singing the students demonstrated that we can build a community wherever we are through our kind actions and words. Well done Kindergarten students!

Since the beginning of the year a number of Primary students have been walking the track before school to get exercise, chat with friends and to start the day in a healthy way. Nora and Noa from 5NC have analysed the data collected from the track walkers and have written the  report below.
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Students have been running around the primary field every morning. We have been keeping track of how many laps each student or adult completed. The adults ran 218 laps. The average amount of laps per person is 72 laps. Grade one ran 158 laps. The person who ran the most laps was Bryce who ran 104 laps, which is four times the average. Grade 2 ran 491 laps in total. The average amount of laps per person was 25.8 laps. The student who did the most laps was Caitlin. She ran 88 laps. Grade 3 ran 921 laps - this is the most laps per grade! Well done, Grade Three. The person who ran the longest distance was Milo. He ran 162 laps. Grade 4 ran 350 laps. The student who ran the longest distance was Aurielle who ran 59 laps, three times the average amount. Grade 5 ran 258 laps. The average amount of laps per person is 19.8 laps. The person who ran most was Rayna with 75 laps and Coralie who had the second most laps. 

In total, our school ran 609 km which is roughly the travel distance to Hwange National Park. We think that Rayna, Coralie and Aurielle show a great example of why you should come to school early and run some laps. Caitlin, Bryce, and Milo all have parents that work at this school so they come early too. In conclusion, the students at our school have been doing a great job at being committed and doing something that helps them stay physically active. 

In last week's Leopard's Tale we shared with you a Ratio and Proportion problem that we asked you to solve. This week, students from 2JM have solved this problem using a variety of strategies including; drawing a picture, skip counting, multiplication and fraction knowledge.

The roof repairs to the library are now complete and beginning this Thursday, 5 December, we will be welcoming everyone back to our renovated space! Thank you to all our community members for your patience with this process. Our coffee bar will be ready by the end of the week, too!

We will be OPEN this Saturday for our usual Saturday hours:
9:00-14:00

Please take advantage of this amazing community resource and come with the whole family. We have something for everyone, including board games, a Lego creation area, books for all ages (including board books for tiny humans and lots of adult fiction and non-fiction). We also have air con for the hot days so you can be comfortable while enjoying the space.

Next week we will be celebrating Computer Science Education Week (this used to be Hour of Code Week) in the library. Come have a peek and feel welcome to play with any of the tech tools and activities we will have on offer, including 3-Doodler pens, robotics kits, Cubelets, MakeyMakeys, circuitry kits, augmented reality coloring, and more. We look forward to welcoming everyone back in to our library.

This week, the Earth Squad has finally put their plan into action. Boxes have been placed around the school in both the Primary and Secondary divisions labeled 'Operation Backpack'. Operation Backpack is a plan to collect a minimum of 300 backpacks to give to children who do not have them. Please bring in backpacks that you are not using anymore and place them in the boxes. You will find boxes in Primary at the covered court area, outside the G2AM classroom, and at the Early Learning Center (ELC). The boxes in Secondary are located at the Secondary Office and near the AISL bulletin board. We thank you in advance for supporting our initiative. 

In the Primary School, our literacy program consists of differentiated instruction in reading and writing. These programs include explicit instruction of strategies for comprehension, decoding and word study, as well as strategies and structures for writing in different genres. This presentation focuses on the Reading and Writing Workshop models taught throughout our Kindergarten t0 Grade 5 classrooms and is a recap of the Tuesday Parent Coffee morning. 

Last Friday, our G3 students communicated the powerful message, "people can take action and make a difference in our lives and communities", through dance and song. As part of their Performing Arts assembly, the students created original choreography highlighting the divide that happens between us when we do not work together. By making small changes and exhibiting random acts of kindness, we are able to gain strength as a united whole. Well done to our talented performers and to Ms Natalie for helping pull together all of the students' ideas. Again, we want to thank all of the G3 families who came to support our students' performance.