Parkerville Campus (Class 7-9)
Class 7
Ngoolyark (Class 7) News
I sit here on the back veranda; the setting sun sends a golden goodnight kiss to the tea tree while bathing her in warming ruby hues. The Coolgardie sings away to me excitedly, sharing all about the day that has just been. And my heart fills with awe and wonder for purity of presence.
A similar feeling arose in me last week, when I looked out from the classroom windows, and much to my surprise saw the rain tumbling down upon the parched land. It felt mystical and magical, almost other worldly. We all let out a great whop of excitement, “The rain, the rain”, we all declared. I couldn’t believe how much gratitude I felt for this simple, common place event.
It is quite profound when simple moments present themselves to us, taking us off guard, bypassing all our weary predictable ways of doing and thinking, to gift us the preciousness of right here, right now. This simple moment.
Enough of my musings, onto the workings of Class 7!
This week we commenced The Healthy Human Being Main Lesson. Have you ever thought to consider how the elements of earth, water, fire and air are reflected in our bodies? It’s humbling to see how interconnected the human body and earth really are. Imagine the circulatory system pumping blood throughout our bodies much like the rivers and streams as they carry water throughout the planet, playing a vital role in sustaining life. Another example can be found in the life-giving warmth of the sun upon the planet and the way our own bodies generate warmth through our body temperature.
Over the course of the past few days, we have been exploring the amazing feat of the digestive system. Truly the more you discover the more you are amazed.
I will leave you with some very interesting facts about the digestive system.
- The salivary glands can produce up to 6 cups of saliva per day.
- The stomach is the size of a tennis ball when empty but expands to the size of a football when full!
- The acid in the stomach is so strong it could dissolve a nail.
- Our intestines total over 8 metres, we measured it with a rope, which we then tried to squeeze into a very tiny space - that’s a lot of intestine!
- The liver is the largest internal organ with over 500 jobs.
- We only need one kidney to stay healthy, but two is much better.
So next time you pop a little something in your mouth, give a little bow to the wonder of digestion!
In Gratitude,
Anne-Marie McShannon
Ngoolyark (Class 7) Teacher
Class 8
Class 8 Poetry and Art History
Following the first four weeks of Term 1 preparing for the Class 8 drama performance, the students took an inward breath as we explored the Art of Poetry. We took a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about childhood rhymes and clapping and skipping rhythms, linking these fond memories to the poetry that we hear, and read and of course also in the songs that we listen to. Students had the opportunity to play with words and images through writing a range of different short poems, some with set rules, and others which were more free flowing. Students composed a number of original poems including: Haiku’s, Limerick’s, rhyming tercets and quatrains, as well as a free verse simile poem, all of which were beautifully illustrated. Class 8 students were also introduced to poetic and literary devices during this Main Lesson, allowing them to begin to identify these techniques in other poems and also to begin to use them more consciously in their own writing.
From poetry, Class 8 are ending the term with a deep dive back in time to the pre-historic period and then on into Ancient Egypt, examining he fascinating and wonderful world of Art History. Last week the students explored the incredible art found in caves around the world over. We discussed the different pigments they used, the range of animals and figures portrayed, and some of the reasons they may have painted. Through examining paintings from caves in France, Spain, Australia, Indonesia, Africa and South America, students were shown a rich tapestry of pre-historic art and a range of images from coloured bison, etchings of felines and charcoal outlines of what appear to be rhinoceros in a French cave, to human figures, and caves with hundreds of handprints. Like humans the world over today, the pre-historic people wanted to document their stories, their lives and rituals, and leave their mark through art.
The final week and a half of the Main Lesson will find Class 8 exploring the artworks from Ancient Egypt, which they are very much looking forward to. There is a real leap in artistic prowess from the pre-historic time to Ancient Egypt in subject matter, their use of colour, and the materials they used to create art from and paint on. The Art History Main Lessons are such a wonderful opportunity for students to be exposed to many different artistic movements and cultures and to see how art has changed over time and what it tells us about these times and people. Class 8 got a glimpse of this diversity in our first lesson when they had work together to try and construct a visual timeline of the different art movements using a range of images of art from pre-historic works to contemporary paintings.
English & Humanities Teacher
Ethna Brave
