Hello Parents and Carers,

This week is our last week at school for Term 1. During Term 1 we had many treasured moments and learnt lots of fun things, here are some of our highlights.

Stitch has come to Yarra this year and we’ve been teaching him a range of social skills and the Yarra values. We’ve also explored harmony through our Harmony Day activities and put ourselves in the shoes of someone with a sight disability. 

We have had many proud sporting moments this term, one of them being the Year 5/6 Summer Gala Day. Everyone showed commitment, our school values and sportsmanship, it was also super fun! We’d like to thank Lauren for organising the tennis and soccer clinics for Prep to Year 4.

Another highlight was our science incursion for our new Science specialist class. We explored dry ice and learnt dry ice is super cool! In the middle years students learnt about matter through Oobleck, which is a very interesting substance. We recommend that you try to make some in the holidays with cornflour, water and food dye.

Overall it has been a great start to the year and we can’t wait to see what else is in store. Happy Easter holidays!

Nude Food

Nude food is amazing for the planet and saves animals lives, especially turtles. Nude food is good for the environment and creates less plastic in landfill. You can help this situation by using reusable containers. In fact you should try to have a plastic-free lunchbox. If you do choose to have plastic make sure you REUSE it. So many people are starting to realise that plastic really isn’t the best thing for our planet.

Recycling/Compost

Every day after lunch a different Enviro Leader does the special compost announcement over the PA.

• Monday - Bridget
• Tuesday - Lily
• Wednesday - Oliver
• Thursday - Florence
• Friday - Alice

However, the announcement will commence after the clean up (see in “Friday clean up” section). Compost is any pieces of fruit apart from citrus and bread scraps. It is put in the compost bins and then used to create rich soil for our garden.

Garden Club

Garden club is a great way to work as a team while meeting new people. This club is held every Thursday and Friday during lunch time. Some of the things students have been doing during this time is helping find our pesty snails, planting new veggies/herbs, watering our garden and much more. It’s been fantastic seeing so many people attending this club and us as environment leaders are so happy to see that so many people are passionate about saving and caring for our environment. Well done everyone.

Friday Clean up

We as environment leaders have started a program where every Friday we clean up the yard. It is a great way to help the environment  because there is a lot of plastic in our yard. This way  everyone can help save our planet. It goes for 5 minutes every week but  5 minutes a week can make a big difference. We think it's really amazing how the students are getting involved to help their earth. We hope to continue this because we all need to take care of our planet. We are looking for some fun environment music to play while we clean up the yard. If you have any suggestions please let us know. We hope you clean up at home as well as school. Thanks for cleaning up our school.

Upcoming events

Things to get excited about next term!

Earth Day is on Thursday 22nd April which is the first week of Term 2. Earth day is an annual event celebrated around the world. The purpose of Earth day is to show support for environmental protection. Keep a lookout on Compass for more information!

National Bee Day is coming up Thursday 20th May. Keep a lookout on Compass for more details.

Harmony Day is celebrated on 21st March in Australia, but as this was Sunday, Yarra Primary celebrated it on Monday 22nd March. Harmony Day began in 1999 to recognise our multicultural country. It is celebrated with many community festivals and local events with global food, music and traditional dress. Harmony day is about not being scared of who you truly are. Harmony Week is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values.

Why we wear orange

On  March 22nd, we told the YPS community to wear orange. This is because the colour Orange was chosen to represent Harmony Day, and orange signifies meaningful conversations, the freedom of ideas, and encouragement of mutual respect. An orange ribbon also represents Harmony Day.

Prep to Year 4 Harmony Day Activities

Students from Prep to Year 4 coloured in their own paper chain person. Each student got their own template shaped like a person. They were allowed to colour themselves or a made up person. It was a lot of fun.



Year 5/6 Harmony Day Activities

Year 5/6 did some different activities than the other grades. Students created a chatterbox with traditional questions about their country, completed a word search filled with Harmony Day words, drew what Harmony Day meant to each of them, as well as shared something important to them. Early finishers also had the opportunity to create a quote. It was a lot of fun.

By Audrey, Miri, Jude, Astrid, Eva, and Kristina from 5/6.

LAWN BOWLS

The Yarra Lawn Bowls team played at the Regional Finals on Wednesday 24^th of March at the Preston-Reservoir Lawn Bowls Club.

The team played in wet conditions throughout the day. All students displayed great sportsmanship and should be commended for their efforts.

Yarra came equal second at the event. Congratulations to the following students who made up the team - Anthony , Elijah, Aston, Hung, Rose, Julia, Edwina, Popi, Oliver G, Josh M, Liam, Harry.

Another big thanks to Jingles from Richmond Union Bowls Club for allowing us to train in the lead up to the event.

We’re looking forward to continuing the partnership with RUBC in the future.

Thanks also to parent helpers Fran & Sophie for assisting on the day.

SUMMER GALA

Grade 5/6 students represented Yarra at the Richmond District Summer Gala Day on Friday 26^th March.

Students departed Yarra in the morning and walked to a number of locations to participate in the following sports - Softball, Basketball, Tennis and Newcombe Ball.

All teams displayed the Yarra Values of Respect, Caring and Commitment whilst playing their various sports.

A big thanks to the teachers (coaches) and parent helpers that attended on the day. We’re very appreciative of the support.

The Mixed and Girls Softball teams finished Runners Up in their competitions.

They returned to school with pennant flags which will now be displayed in the office.

We’re hoping to add more to the collection at Winter Gala.

As you know, Science is a new subject at our school this year. This term, the whole school studied Chemistry and our focus was ‘matter’. Matter is everything in the world. Matter is made up of atoms and molecules.

This term the Preps focused on what things are made of, exploring the houses of the Three Little Pigs.

                  
                  

The 1/2s looked at mixtures and solutions, and conducted lots of experiments to prove their predictions. They have learnt that mixtures that are heterogeneous can be separated, and mixtures that cannot be separated, are homogeneous solutions.

                  

The 3/4s explored the material world and the properties of materials. They recently experimented with materials to test whether the leak, soak or repel.

In 5/6, we studied the 3 main types of matter which are gas, liquid and solid. Plasma is another state of matter, and it makes up 99.9% of the universe matter because it is mostly found in space.

Years 3-6 were overjoyed to attend an incursion. Year 3/4 learned more about states of matter by making oobleck, they added salt to ice to watch condensation formed outside the tin, and they put a tablet in a water inside a film container to see how chemicals react to create a gas that causes an explosion. It was “popping like a gun”. They all thought it was great fun.

In Year 5/6 we experimented with dry ice, to see how dry ice can blow up a balloon because it goes straight from a solid to a gas. We looked at the reaction between dry ice and water and conducted an experiment called ‘The Crystal Ball’. In class we looked at the viscosity of liquids, made oobleck, and blew up a balloon using chemical reactions between vinegar and bicarbonate soda.

                
                
                
                

We have found science this term really exciting and enjoyable. We are looking forward to learning more in science next term.

Liam and Toby

2021 Science Leaders

This year we are studying Intercultural Studies, not just Japanese. This means we are looking at cultures within our own community as well as Japanese culture. 

The school has focussed on words related to family. The senior classes learnt the names of family members in Japanese. The junior classes shared with each other what they called their grandparents in their background languages. This was lots of fun and led to the school creating an exquisite video. Watch it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Dj9WCpa2d6iX0ODw4Iv5KLQvbGk1rcz/view?usp=sharing

In 5/6 we looked at 5 different country flags and their location, then we had to say ‘This is….Kore wa …….” in Japanese. We explored the festival ‘Omizutore’, the water/fire festival in Nara. We have also been studying different countries around the world. The highlight of Intercultural Studies was when Andrew, a blind man with a guide dog, talked about what it is like to be blind. The grade 3/4s looked at milestones in Japan and compared them to their own. Grade 1/2 have continuing learning to count and have shared the languages learnt in their homes. The Preps have loved learning to count in Japanese and learning some new Greetings. Here are some photos when the younger students celebrated Hinamatsuri and the school celebrated Harmony week.

                  

Justine, Popi and Eliza

Intercultural/Japanese Leaders

This term in the Art room, we have been looking at ourselves!  Each class completed self-portraits, as well as creating a portrait in a different style using different materials and artist focus.

Year 1/2 students have studied the artwork of Paul Klee and his use of shapes, colour and balance.  The students created their own portrait in oil pastel with a focus on creating balance and shapes in bold colour.  Then they painted over their pastel and used a scratch tool to create patterns in the shapes.

                  

Year 3/4 students have studied the artwork of American street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who recently exhibited at the NGV together with Keith Haring. The students created their own portrait in the style of Basquiat, which included references to x-ray images, symbols and current events. The students used charcoal, marker and collage papers to create a powerful portrait using found materials just like the artist.

                  
                  

Year 5/6 students have investigated colour theory and used their findings as a background for their modern art self-portraits. 

                  
                  

These artworks and more are on display around the school so take some time to have a wander and appreciate the incredible talents of the YPS students!

Justine Moore

Visual Arts Teacher