ABORIGINAL CULTURAL DAY 2011

Sofia has been busy writing her news report about Friday’s Cultural Day!  Great work.  Add a comment telling her which was your favourite activity on the day. 🙂

On Friday the 16th of September it was our Aboriginal Cultural Day. The Aboriginal Cultural Day is a day when we celebrate the culture and history of Aboriginal people. The previous day the classes went to the undercover area to each get their group numbers. There were sixteen groups and each child was in a group that was one to sixteen. The groups would each go to activities around the school.

Since it was a rainy day there was a change of plans and all the activities were indoors. The groups each did five activities, including the dance after lunch. There were over twenty activities around the school. No group got to do all of them. We had Aboriginal people visit our school to work with the groups.

I would like to list some of the activities that were organised around the school.
Here they are:
• The story of the Mimis (about being proud of who you are.)
• Aboriginal dancing (learning how to do aboriginal dances.)
• Learning about aboriginal art (leaning that aboriginal art is very different from other art.)
• Aboriginal paintings (painting pictures that are similar to the real aboriginal paintings.)
• Dentist activities (learning about how to keep your teeth and mouth healthy.)
• Making masks (making masks out of coloured paper and a bit of fabric.)
• Story about Sorry Day (a movie all about what happened in the past around Sorry Day.)
• Animal caring (learning about Australian animals and learning about how to look after them.
• Tool making (learning how to make aboriginal tools and having a go yourself.)
• Story about reconciliation (learning about why we Australians and Aboriginals should come together as one.)

After lunch the whole school went to the undercover area to watch the dance that room 1 performed. Then we got some teachers to come up and dance. After the dance all the female teachers came up to dance. The dance was the final activity that we did and it was different because all of the groups did it. It was one of the most exciting events at the school. Everyone enjoyed it and had lots of fun.

By Sofia (Room 6)

Wetlands Visit

We are so lucky to have two really good journalists.  Thanks, Mitchell, for this report on our Wetlands excursion with Tracey. 🙂

On Tuesday 13th September the Year 3s visited the Margaret River Wetlands with Tracey Muir from the Cape-to-Cape Catchment Group.  The purpose of the visit was to investigate the macroinvertebrates that live there.  They collected samples and were able to closely examine the individual tiny creatures.

Tracey also told them what habitats the macroinvertebrates use to keep themselves safe, such as:

• Logs and trees
• Rocks by the shore
• Pits in the sand at the bottom of the water

Other creatures that they found while collecting samples included tadpoles, fish, spiders and various insects.  This showed that the wetlands is home to many more creatures than just macroinvertebrates, so it must be a healthy environment for animals to live in.

The Year 3s thoroughly enjoyed the trip and it was another very educational visit hosted by Tracey.

Wetlands Excursion on PhotoPeach