Year 3

television series and words like, ZAP! WHAM! POW!

As part of our Spinning in Space Science unit the boys went on another excursion. This time they went to the Brisbane Planetarium.

The highlight this term I’m sure the boys will agree was Multicultural Day, which tied into our History unit. The boys went to a lot of trouble to come dressed up representing various cultures from around the world. They brought beautiful dishes to share from a variety of backgrounds. There were parents who presented information about their cultural heritage on the day. The boys and the teachers were in awe of the amount of work and effort put into their presentations. They were amazing! This was followed closely by another dress-up day, Mitre House’s Superhero Day, an event put on to raise money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. This was a huge hit with the Year 3s for obvious reasons!

Term Four was an exceptionally busy and quick term. This term saw the boys wrap up their Narrative Writing unit and touch on poetry. They completed their History unit with a celebration or commemoration of their choice to focus on for a narrative story. Their Science unit explored Heating Up. The boys were given a class project to work on entitled ‘Once Upon a Crime’. They became crime-scene investigators and needed to find out if in fact Goldilocks had been telling the truth about the Three Bears’ porridge. To complete the year the boys had their first school mini camp. They had a sleepover at the Senior School, went twilight swimming in the pool, a sausage sizzle, movie and popcorn, and home the next morning after breakfast. The Year 3 boys have been an absolute pleasure throughout the year with many milestones and achievements along the way. We have no doubt they are now ready to take on Year 4, and we wish them well on the next part of their educational journey.

YEAR 3B

SEATED ROW: T. WEBSTER, C. MURAKAMI, P. BOUSGAS, A. BROWN, Z. DE MARTINI, A. LYNCH, S. RICHARDS, M. SHARP SECOND ROW: D. BURNZ, J. ATKINSON, B. TZANNES, S. COLLIVAS, J. WATERS, F. STINSON, T. MULLINS, MISS M. BRAMWELL THIRD ROW: C. HUTCHISON, X. STEINFORT, C. CARLOS, L. MURPHY, H. PALMER, B. SHUTTLEWOOD, M. BIALOCERKOWSKI

YEAR 3L

SEATED ROW: R. EAST, B. JURISICH, N. MAHONY, C. PALMER, J. BENDER, W. COX, J. FOSTER, X. GRASSO SECOND ROW: J. RYAN, H. GOFFMAN, W. NICHOLSON, A. MCMATH, N. VAN DER LAAN, M. SCHWEDE, D. MCINNES, F. ZOU, MS C. LAWLESS THIRD ROW: J. MCDOWELL, B. PARKER, T. GOFFSASSEN, B. FAULKNER, S. STURGESS, H. KERRISK, D. ALKHALIFA

YEAR 3M

SEATED ROW: S. LIN, D. CHEN, N. EVANS, D. STATHAM, W. CONDON, S. HAMADI, J. MCCARTHY, S. LEDINGHAM SECOND ROW: E. CHABERT, C. LYGO, O. HAMID, M. FISHER, A. WHITTAKER, A. ROBINSON, B. NICKALLS, J. WESTMACOTT, MR B. MASSEY THIRD ROW: F. KUKAS, A. HILL, B. BRINSMEAD, A. VAN RIET, B. HAYES, O. JACKSON, T. ROSSITER

3/4

LISA CORBETT

Years 3/4 Honours

The Junior Honours Class for 2014 has been a hub of activity! This is the program’s second year running and it has continued to bring together likeminded boys into an environment that is safe, supportive and flexible. This year has seen boys successfully access curriculum beyond their chronological age in carefully managed accelerated programs, particularly in numeracy and literacy. This has been rewarding not only for the boys to be developing their talents among other academically strong boys, but also for the teaching staff involved to see these boys reach their full potential. The year has been full of inquiry-based learning, investigations, engagement and laughter along the way. We have had a busy year with incursions and excursions; some of our trips were to Fleays Wildlife Park in Burleigh, where the boys impressed the rangers with their extensive knowledge of the wildlife. Another of the boys’ favorites was Surf World in Currumbin, where we ate lunch on the beach as well as building castles and listening to some very knowledgeable volunteers who knew everything there was to know about surfing.

Incursions included shows for our Poetry and History unit. One brave boy even got up and shared his own poetry in front of everyone! Another favourite was our ‘Real Men Knit’ afternoon knitting sessions. The boys were introduced to French knitting, which helped develop fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination, maths skills, and what Multiple Intelligences educational researcher Dr Howard Gardner calls “Bodily Kinaesthetic Intelligence”.

The Year 4 boys went on their muchanticipated camp to Tyalgum Ridge Retreat in Northern New South Wales. The camp was a place where the boys worked on leadership skills, Outdoor Education and ways to support their fellow classmates. Funny enough, the boys who are normally quiet in class seem to find their voice on camp. This was also a wonderful way for teachers to bond with the boys out of a classroom setting. Some of the highlight activities were archery, the flying fox, teambuilding games, hiking, canoeing and the evening talent show.

A few boys were chosen to attend the Writers’ Festival in Brisbane during class time and many others went up on the weekend with family or friends. All boys that attended this festival came back enthusiastic and inspired to write, write, write!

The classroom lessons have been set up around the curious minds and learning desires of the boys. The timely introduction of Geography into our curriculum this year not only allowed the boys to cover the core material, but also access a differentiated curriculum, which gave them the ability to be able to branch out and discover new sites, such as TOMNOD and help look for parts of the missing Malaysian Airline flight MH370 and its 239 passengers that vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The boys were able to research, look at the speed of the plane, current direction in the water and the last known communication with the plane. They worked out a radius that they felt should be searched. They looked at conspiracy theories and the way the media then portrayed certain people that may have been associated or responsible for the disappearance. This was a perfect way to hone their geography and inquiry skills. Unfortunately, as the flight was not found, the boys were not able to find out if their theories were correct.