Term 4 in Class 5 began with our Australian History and Geography main lesson.  This has built on from previous main lessons in Classes 1-4 and demonstrates the meaningful way the Steiner curriculum builds understandings through recurring topics with new perspectives and themes. Last year we loved the Spirituality of Dreaming main lesson and also completed the Local Area Mapping main lesson, investigating the settlement of our area by European people.

This term's main lesson brought those understandings together and deepened our perspective by comparing and contrasting the different peoples who have cared for and impacted our land.

We mapped the state and country using gridding and coordinates, sang, learnt poetry and heard historical accounts.  We practised notetaking using dot points, heard about famous people in history, and wrote thoughtful accounts from different points of view.

We went on an excursion with Menang custodian Larry Blight who showed us around the Oyster Harbour fish traps area.

We experienced plants for various uses such as insect repellent, soap and antiseptic. This fit in really well with our ongoing Botany studies. We tasted bush tucker, held ancient artifacts, saw an osprey nest, listened to a Dreaming story and heard about the way of life in the area when the fish traps were in use. 

Then it was on to the Old Convict Goal which gave an eye opening experience of what life was like for convicts and settlers in Albany in the early days. The cells were a highlight and our great guide had many stories of the men and women of the time which brought the buildings to life. The children heard many interesting facts and many were keen to ask their parents to take them back for a visit.

Back in class we learnt the song We Are Australian and found that just looking at the birthplaces of children and parents in our class we could relate to the chorus:

We are one, but we are many, and from all the lands on earth we come!

We thought about how we might get homesick for the land we were born in, and the song My Island Home was a wonderful way to consider the deep connection to country that First nations people have.

At the same time, the poem My Country by Dorothea Mackellar is a beautiful piece written by a 19-year-old girl from England who became deeply connected to the land of Australia, and we learnt the stanza beginning I love a sunburnt country with feeling.

In art we have been moved by the paintings of Albert Namatjira and worked on perspective and colour in our own landscape paintings and drawings. 

Our Botany studies of flowering plants have led us to consider the interrelationships between insects and plants and we used mixed media to bring this together in our art.

Artistic skills will be further nurtured as we delve into our Geometry main lesson starting this week -  with the wonder of form and angles, line and symmetry, brought together with our compasses and protractors.  Part of the curriculum content for the Class 5 Geometry main lesson is that we are inspired by the beauty of the creative forms which underlie the world and the cosmos. What a wonderful way to learn!