My will is filled with fire and might;

As days grow shorter, it burns bright!

I face the world; I have no fear.

And many things become more clear.

For though there's much that I don't understand as yet,

I seek for light.

Dear GHSS Families,

Thanks to Denmark Arts and The Festival of Voice, we were treated to a visit from members of Madjitil Moorna, Kobi Morrison, Kylie Walpole and Sez, last Friday.  Classes 3 – 6 gathered in the hall and together we learned songs in Noongar that we will be practicing over the next 4 weeks before performing them at the opening ceremony of the Denmark Festival of Voice on  Friday, June 4^th.

Our Board AGM is fast approaching and we are looking for members to join us.  If you have the skills and interest to assist with governance of our school, we would love to hear from you. Information packs are available at the front office and you are encouraged to speak to our board chair, David Stockdale or principal, Jacqui Hamblin, should you have any questions.  The AGM will take place on Monday, May 24^th in the staffroom of Golden Hill Steiner School straight after school.  Afternoon tea will be served followed by the meeting.  All parents and interested parties are welcome to attend.  Copies of our Annual Report and audited financials will be available.

A number of Class 3 & 5 students will be sitting their NAPLAN tests this week.  Parents are reminded that these tests are based on the WA curriculum, not the Steiner curriculum.  As such, staff do not place any emphasis on these tests in class and the results are of limited use to the staff.  Having students sit the test does, however, assist us in meeting our registration obligations with the Department of Education.  We adhere to the correct procedures for implementation of the tests but go about things in as low-key a way as possible to ensure minimal stress.

We will be having an assembly this Friday as we had to postpone last week due to the Madjitil Moorna workshop.  At a recent staff meeting, staff requested that we explore having assemblies once every 3 weeks.  This is because most Main Lesson blocks are 3 weeks in length and staff feel they are able to present polished, complete items at each assembly when given the chance to complete the Main Lesson ahead of having an assembly.  For Term 3 we will trial holding assemblies on weeks 3, 6 and 9 of term.

Wishing everyone a fantastic fortnight!

Warm regards,

Jacqui Hollingworth

Principal

Kobi, Sez and Kylie of Madjitil Moorna

Djeran season is here now,

With boola boola clouds, and rains (midjal)

Hey you fullas let`s make our Kwornts,

Make them safe and sound (safe and sound)

Moorditj moortung families busy at this time

For our kaarl we get all the wood, for cooking, warmth and healing

Djeran season is here now,

Kert kert koorl come on 

Noongar people were a busy mob, collecting all the wood,

Setting up winter camp 0h  0h  0h

The above song shared by Aunty Iris Woods has set the seasonal context for the start of Term 2 at Bush Kindy and Bush School.  Lots of collecting and sorting of kaarlboorn (firewood), our first fires for the season, stories of fire spirit and protocols for fire safety, preparing our kwornt (shelter) for the coming rains, discovering the wonders of the ancient clay harvested by Kristi from the deep earth, encountering the variety of our fungi friends in all their abundance, the return of flowing waters to our beautiful creek bed; the children have been kept very busy as we move towards the fullness of midwinter.

“I have built a pretty nest, look inside, look inside

Hungry birdies with their beaks, open wide, open wide

And the little birdies grow, day by day, day by day

Til they spread their wings and fly, far away, far away”

Each Tuesday morning after our circle we sit on the chairs and warm our hands, making them into a “cosy nest”.  While we sing the song above, the teacher brings a little “egg” of beeswax modelling wax, and places it into the “nest”. The wax has been warmed slightly (in a bowl placed on a hot water bottle) so it’s ready to be moulded into something, a snail, a bird, or a mushroom might emerge.  The children’s hands must be warm or the wax hardens, and it’s impossible to make something unless it’s softened with heat again.

We display our creations on a round of wood and they are softened again the following week to make something new, and sent home after about three weeks.  Once the wax becomes dirty it is difficult to model with it.  A wonderful natural material, it’s a joy to use and a great activity to  keep little fingesr busy on car trips or outings.  The wax is available to purchase from Third Stone Traders in Denmark.

As the days grow colder, we have the room warmed ready for the children, and the vigorous activity of the morning circle helps little bodies to warm up too, but unless they are warmly dressed (three layers on the top half of the body, two on the bottom, and some slippers), hands are usually cold.

Beeswax modelling works with many of the senses, especially the sense of touch, which is one of the four foundational senses we focus on in Early Childhood.  Rudolf Steiner identified a total of twelve senses, one of which is the temperature or warmth sense.  This sense is not fully developed until the age of about nine years, so little children rely on parents and caregivers to ensure they are dressed appropriately for the weather.  It’s not easy in Denmark with the weather being so changeable so dressing in layers of preferably natural fabrics works well.  Please also ensure your child has a complete change of clothes in case they get wet, as well as a pair of warm slippers to wear inside.

With warm wishes,

Denise

Class 1 began Term 2 with a treasure hunt for the last missing letters of the alphabet - the vowels!  These important letters that make our words sing were hidden around the school.  The children had to work hard to solve the riddles and find where they were hidden.  Finding and learning the vowels wrapped up our Alphabet main lesson that we began last term.=

In Week 2 we moved into our Quality of Numbers main lesson, starting with a focus on the Roman and Arabic symbols we use for the numbers 1-12.  Our stories have been exploring Number Land and the Kingdom of Counting with King Counting and Queen Equals.  The children finished making their gem bags for the gemstones that we use for our counting and number games.  We have also been skip counting with movement, rhythm and actions in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s. 

In Week 3, the children were excited to meet the Number Gnomes: Portly Plus, Merry Minus, Tommy Times and Davy Divide.  The Number Gnomes are helping to tell our number stories and guide our learning of the processes used in problem solving.  We've been using the gnomes to help us solve Maths problems in our classroom - such as sharing the strawberry guavas as you can see in the photos! 

We are moving into the next Maths main lesson this week, with the Number Gnomes accompanying us as we delve deeper into counting, patterns and grouping. 

In other exciting Class 1 news, the children received their recorders at the start of the term.  It has been fun to learn the first 3 notes and we have been learning to play some simple songs.

On Tuesday mornings we have been having some special visitors to our classroom.  See if you can guess who from the photos!  The Class 1 children have enjoyed meeting and learning about each other's pets from home.  It is a lovely way to strengthen our connections between home and school.

In Class 2 we began the term with a Main Lesson called The World Around Us which followed the adventures of Pippa the ring tail possum as she went on a journey to find her friend Wallace the Brush Tailed Wallaby.

Pippa journeyed to the West and then to the East of Denmark and met many local native creatures.  She noticed how the vegetation, landscape and even the weather changed as she travelled.  We learnt the Nyoongar names of many animals.

We went on a class excursion to the Kwoorabup park and saw the stone in the middle of the Nature Park which shows how 3 Oak Trees and 1 Karri tree – the four sisters – indicate the directions North, South, East and West.

We walked along the nature trail, following the river all the way back to the weir at the end of Riverbend Lane.  We imagined how Pippa must have felt as she travelled on her journey.

On our excursion we also visited the Blue Wren Lodge and  enthusiastically sang many of our favourite songs and recited poems and verses to the residents.

We are now beginning a Maths Main Lesson with the gnomes in Numberland as they discover Place Value. 

Place Value allows the gnomes to help King Counting solve many new problems as they count to 100, then 1000.  How many 1000’s will they need before they get to one million! 

We have lots of bags, baskets and boxes of beans and gemstones as we discover how Place Value works.

Our maths stories with the gnome workers has coincided with us beginning the knitting project of our own knitted gnome. 

This is a big project that should keep us busy for a while and test our patience and perseverance.

We made wet felted and hand stitched dragonflies for our mums for Mother's day.  The Nyoongar word for dragonfly is djerakan noort.

We also baked some delicious gluten free almond biscuits for our mums because we think they deserve to be spoilt!

Class Four and Five have just completed their numeracy main lesson.  Class 4 completed fractions 1 and Class 5 completed their first decimal-fraction main lesson.

Class 4 began with apples introducing basic fractions and then looking at equivalent value fractions.  We then moved onto the addition and subtraction of fractions with improper and mixed fractions.

Class 5 began looking at writing decimals from a fraction using their already learnt understanding of place value.  From this we looked at the mathematical symbols of greater and least and were able to order decimals accordingly.  We also looked at the addition and subtraction of decimals.

In our final week Class 4 and 5 came together to make up a data set from a 60 metre sprint.  As a class, using lots of different mathematical processes we found the mean, median and mode of our data set.  Lots of fun.

This week we begin our Ancient Persian main lesson as part of the ancient civilization main lessons.  We will begin by looking at the geographical aspects of the once dominating Persian Empire and the many wonderful fables and poetry from the era long ago.  Many traditions and cultures will be discussed and form part of our independent writing exercises.  We will be reading the Epic Tale of Gilgamesh as we begin to learn the story for our upcoming play performance.

Our room smelt beautiful this week as we made essential oil perfume scents for our wonderful mums for their special day.  The children made beautiful cards and wrote heartfelt words in prose.  A sense of gratitude for their mum’s was certainly felt in the room.

My favourite pictures…  Children immersed in reading.

Robyn x

Class 6 are finishing up their first main lesson of Term 2 – The Wonder and Wisdom of Words. We began by learning about different techniques authors use for effective writing such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, consonance, powerful opening sentences and the power of 3 and repetition.  The children have analyzed different works and then have practiced incorporating these techniques in to their own writing.  They are currently working on writing a fictional story about the class going on an epic journey…  What dangers will they face in the magic forest?  Will they work together to make it home safe?  Who will survive and who will perish?

Please know that as a school we are always open to feedback should you wish to provide it.  We are constantly striving to refine our processes and make improvements where necessary.

Feel free to contact us via phone (9848 1811), email - office@goldenhill.wa.edu.au or principal@goldenhill.wa.edu.au) or come in and make an appointment to speak with someone.

Positive feedback especially welcome!