Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal…

Well, I think all I can say is “That wasn’t the week I was expecting!” Stage 4 restrictions have added a whole new dimension to things now, and for many of us it has made us feel further isolated.

I would like to introduce you to an educators most referred to pyramid, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He had a theory that in order to be creative and amazing you needed to have a few things… We have seen it within school, through behaviour. For instance, if a child hasn’t had breakfast, or if they don’t know who is picking them up in the afternoon, or maybe even feeling nervous about coming to school because they think they have lost friends, they will start to react, they may shut down, get angry or run away from their problem. A big one I know is if I haven’t drunk enough water during the day, my physiological needs have not been met so I might be a bit grumpy.

So let’s have a little think about our current situation in Stage 4 Lockdown… We want ourselves and our kids to be self-actualising with us, learning for themselves and being incredible, but guess what? For some of our kids and ourselves, a part of belonging has been taken away. We are starting to feel really lonely. We are starting to see our needs shift to the bottom of the pyramid. No wonder we have been feeling a bit flat?

Badger is worried about this… so we have a few things planned to help out for families that still want or need to connect…

Free Choice Friday is Back!

From next Friday the 14^th of August to the end of term, Free Choice Friday’s are back to help you with your work load. For those that want their child engaged in a task we will have some activities available, but we want to see your kids have a chance to explore their passions and hobbies for the day. We will have a special upload button for you to share photo’s of your child doing their fabulous things. We can then publish it in our newsletter or in our socials (By uploading it you agree to let us use it through our newsletter and other media).

The Afternoon Pick Up

I don’t know about you, but there is something Erin and I are really missing? It’s the conversations we have with parents and carers in the afternoon at pick up time. On Tuesday and Thursday from now on you will be able to click on a link on the blog called “The Afternoon Pick Up”, drop in to have a chat, tell us how your day has been and have a laugh. It’s strictly a safe space for the grown-ups to share their successes and challenges for the day. We hope you find a chance to come along and have a chat with us at the Afternoon Pick Up.

Lunch Eating Time

Next week we will be trialling “Lunch Eating Time” for our kids in remote learning to drop in and share their pet stories or their pets, show us things that they have made, or special treasures that they own. It will be a 30 minute session, from 12:30, once a week for each year level, at this stage. Mrs Whiteside has got the 5/6 students covered on Monday, the link will be on the blog. We will keep you posted with the other year levels on the blog early next week. It’s optional and it should be lots of fun for our kids to see each other (You might have time to eat your lunch properly too 😉

Parent tab on the blog

On the blog next we will have a new tab for parents that has a list of numbers and services in Healesville that can help you out with food, financial and health services. We hope this is a one stop place to find numbers that you may need. It’s okay to ask for help… Remember Maslow’s pyramid above? Asking for help can mean that our physiological and safety needs are being met. That’s important for you and your kids!

There are a few more ideas in the pipelines… stay tuned. A huge shout out to Josette O’Donnell at Eastern Health for helping us with ideas on keeping our families connected.

In other news, next Friday the 14^th of August you and your child will receive some video feedback on how they did with their Common Assessment Task on Monday. Thank you to all of you who tried to get this done. Sometimes it’s a real battle to get a child to write, we hope you survived.

That’s it for this week… I’m off to light a camp fire and do some camping at home this weekend! Maybe you might be able to light a campfire in solidarity with us, enjoy a mug of soup for dinner. Send us your photo’s!

Till next week, stay safe and stay within your 5km radius!

Nerae Preece

MUSIC NEWS

Greetings to our Wonderful School Community,

I love teaching music at Badger Creek! Even though we cannot see each other in person, I know that so many of you are engaging with music at home which is more than wonderful.

This week, our Junior School played their soundscape compositions with instruments that they found or made at home. I have included some lovely videos and photos of their work. I was very impressed by how carefully students were listening and the creative way they chose to make their sounds! Well done Badger Creek.

Next week, the senior school will be writing their own Rap lyrics and the Junior School will be having fun with rhythm.

STUDENT PERFORMANCES

We have so many people who love playing music at Badger Creek and I would love to include some music in Assembly and in the newsletter. Feel free to record some of your music and send it to me and I will share it. Please give me a call at school if you would like to have a chat about this.

Have a great week everyone!

Jenny Legg

Music Teacher

Anneke’s Soundscape

Emily’s Soundscape

Sanna’a Soundscape

Vedra’a Soundscape

Lexie and the Runners

John and Robert

THIS WEEK IN ART

Hi Everyone,

We have been enjoying another week of creating and making in our virtual art room. Our students have been exploring the work of Australian illustrator Carmen Hui and her drawings of flowers in iconic jars and tins.

Our Senior School have been looking at how to set up a still life composition of flowers and practice their observational drawing skills. As you can see from the student gallery, their artwork showcases their talent and willingness to learn and develop their skills.

The Junior School have been exploring how flowers and plants can cast shadows onto paper, creating interesting shapes and lines. This process of artmaking helps our junior students to further develop their fine motor skills and explore interesting and creative ways to make artworks.

Our students have uploaded their art again this week in order to share it with our community. I hope you enjoy all their hard work and congratulate them on their achievements.

Speak to you all next week

Ms Imberger

This week in P.E

Hi Badger Creek Community

I hope everyone is enjoying their remote learning at home and are finding time to be physically active in many different ways.

I have been impressed with the feedback and photos sent in from our wonderful and enthusiastic students who have been committed in their PE sessions whilst at home.

Thank you to all the students that have been following the learning blog and getting active! To live a healthy and active lifestyle, we should all be aiming to achieve 60 minutes of physical activity every day!

Our Junior students have been learning about different locomotor movement skills and building their physical activity levels. They have also had an at creating their own obstacle courses!

Our Senior students have been focusing on enhancing their physical fitness levels through many different games and activities with minimal equipment. We have been building our AFL skills, and have set them some fitness challenges, including the Burpee challenge!

I look forward to seeing you all very soon! Please remember to utilise the google feedback forms on the PE blog to send through photos and comments about the weekly lessons! Let’s all be proactive in achieving 60 minutes of physical activity every day!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

David Pitts

PE and Health Teacher

Around the Year Levels

IN PREP THIS WEEK

“We have had loads of fun in Prep this week. The most exciting day for us was Bluey day! We spent a whole day doing learning that was inspired by our favourite pup, Bluey. On top of this, we have been preparing for our 101^st day of Prep next week by making some fun celebratory videos at home. We’ll give you a sneak peak of what to expect next Tuesday with a couple of photos of our lovely dressed up Preps…

We have been practising using locational language in Maths. In literacy, we have been practising different ways to make a sentence. We look forward to lots more he fun in our learning next week.”

IN GRADE 1 / 2 THIS WEEK

Work this week from our amazing 1 / 2 students.

Keep up the hard work!

15960802997183579575003274803558 – Belinda Parker

IN GRADE 3 / 4 THIS WEEK

This week in 3/4 we have been delving deeper into division and started our questioning unit in Reading. During one of our reading sessions we had an interview with Katherine Rundell! But when we looked closer, we realised it was just Mrs Riley dressed up!

In writing this week, we have started drafting our own procedural texts and the teachers can’t wait to try whatever you are making or doing in your texts. Over the next two weeks our 3/4s are making a fact file of a chosen country in South America, hopefully one day we will get to visit them.

5298CFC6-953F-4490-ABB8-5C8D5DAA843D – emma lowing

IN GRADE 5 / 6 THIS WEEK

This week in 5/6 students have been honing in on information that they don’t understand, and then clarifying the meaning by using their inferring skills. As we continued our dive into persuasive writing, we explored the notion of issues having a range of viewpoints, and the importance to understand that others will often have opinions that differ to our own. Students have been calculating the volume of rectangular prisms, a layer at a time. And in Inquiry, we have completed our brief study of North America, Central America and the Caribbean by comparing deforestation and marine life degradation in these regions to that found in Australia. It’s been a big week!