Curriculum Enrichment Week - Junior School

What's My Story?

The Kindergarten to Year Two students have been busy investigating their BIG IDEA, "What's my story?", during Curriculum Enrichment Week. The students have visited the Mundaring Discovery Centre; walked the streets of Ellenbrook looking for "treasure"; taken part in dancing, cooking, games, and craft of different cultures; shared lunch with their friends and families; connected with their spirituality; and created artwork for their dreamtime stories. 

Mundaring Discovery Centre

The students participated in the Nearer to Nature program on Monday 25 August. After a very long bus ride we broke off into three groups. Each group had a guide who told stories, showed us how to find 'tucker' in the bush and throw a spear, helped us to make honkey nut jewellery, led us on bush walks, painted our faces with symbols for knowledge and different animals, and explained the traditional roles the men and women took in their families. Some of the girls were not happy they were not able to help hunt and were left holding the baby!

          

Cultural Day

On Tuesday 26 August we learnt more about where our friends came from and what their stories were. Some of our families joined us in dancing, singing, cooking, playing traditional sporting games, and completing craft activities. We started the day by researching the flags of the different countries around the world. Some of the parents and staff then shared their interests and talents with the students: Tatiana's dad played the Flamenco guitar, Jennah's mum helped to make Maori Poi balls used in traditional dancing, Mbako's mum taught us Setswana which is spoken in Botswana, we cooked Australian damper with Isabele's mum, Mrs Doherty and Mrs Tucker taught Irish dancing and the Italian Tarantella, Mrs D'Andrea made Italian gnocchi, Miss Pritchard made English trifle, we made Indian paratha with Mrs Matthews, Mrs Basell taught us how to play bocce from Crotia, while we used footballs with Miss Croswell for Australian Rules Football skills, and we made English shields with Mrs Ryan. Thanks to all of the other parents for helping too.

After a very busy morning we stopped to share lunch together. Parents provided food from the country of their heritage. There was enough for everyone including the families who joined us for lunch. 

Ellenbrook Walk

Day 3 of Curriculum Enrichment Week, Wednesday 27 August, saw the Pre-Primary, Year One and Year Two students walk around the local streets of the Coolamon area in Ellenbrook. The students needed to follow the map and find the missing parts of their photo puzzles. There was a lot to look at and different artwork and businesses to find. The students noticed there was a lot of different types of 'coolamons'. On Monday the students learnt that the coolamon was used to carry food, bark, and even babies. 

The Year One and Two students explored the parkland that is also a map of Australia. They found and recorded the different coordinates of each city on their Explain Everything projects.

Aboriginal and Catholic Culture

The students were visited by Fr Bona on Thursday 28 August. The Junior School celebrated a liturgy together reflecting on how God loves us and the importance of our families and friends. 

The students listened to a number of dreamtime stories and discussed how they are important in passing the Aboriginal culture from generation to generation.

Miss Croswell
Head of Junior School
28 August 2014