08 Bright Sparks

   To all of those who have enjoyed reading our posts over the last year, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the lack of activity on this blog for the last 3 months. I have been on leave from school and the wonderful Bright Sparks have been unable to continue posting their thoughts about all those exciting events that occur each and everyday at our school. I am not sure if the Bright Sparks blog will be continuing on next year as the students will all be moving on to new classes in 2009. I would like to thank all those who contributed to our blog through their comments or simple stopped by to have a look.

To the Bright Sparks, I would like to wish you all the best next year. Your enthusiasm for learning and your genuine respect and care for each other has made you a wonderful group of students to teach.

  As the festive season is approaching very quickly, I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy holiday and prosperous new year.

Photographs by Jonathan, Ridwan, Mariam & Saja

On the 21 August we went to our Athletics Carnival. It was at Campbell Oval. We travelled by bus. When we got to Campbell Oval we had to race. First it was the junior boys’ 100m race. Daniel came 1st and Bobi came 2nd. Then it was the junior girls’ 100m race. Tianna came 1st. After that it was the 200m juniors’ race and Mutu came 1st. After a while we had recess. After recess we had to run the 800m race. The students who ran in this race had to sprint around the oval 2 times. Then it was lunch. We only had lunch for 20 minutes and then it was time for captain ball and tunnel ball. The students in the Fraser House won both of these games. When all the events were finished we got back inside the bus and went back to school. We had a wonderful time because everyone payed attention to the teachers and the canteen ladies.
By Puni and Sioeli

On the 11th August scientist Gwen from the CSIRO visited the Bright Sparks to teach us a little about the human body. We got to do lots of experiments. We looked for germs on our skin under a microscope and tested our lung capacity and pulse rate. We looked at x-rays and investigated joints and bones on a model skeleton. We were able to investigate the insides of our body with a plastic model that you could pull apart and put back together. It was a bit tricky to get all the parts back in the right place. We were able to explore our senses through taste, smell and eye testing. Gwen ended the science lesson with an experiment which showed what happens in our stomach when we swallow a tablet. The science was fantastic. We hope to do some more experiments in our classroom this term.

Photographs by Jonathan

Today we had a cricket clinic at our school. The cricket player’s name was Michael Stickman who was originally from New Zealand but now he plays cricket for the NSW Blues. He showed us how to bowl, bat, and field (catch ). He also gave us cricket show bags which contained a packet of Milo, a cricketball, a free membership card for one person and posters and stickers. All the students really enjoyed the cricket activities. The most popular activity was the batting.

Written by Sioeli & Tristan

Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday our class have fitness with the other Stage 2 classes. We do skipping , ballgames and athletics. Each day we rotate to a new activity. Mrs F. does athletics, Mr H. does ballgames and Mrs J. does skipping. All the games are fun. The best activity out of them all is skipping.     

By Saja and Mariam

Congratulations to all those students who collected sponsership money for the school cross-country run last term. A special effort was made by one Bright Spark, Missy, who raised over $200. All students were awarded a certificate and prize for their effort                                                

Bright Sparks will represent the country of New Zealand at our school Mini Olympics. Over the next few weeks we will be researching information about New Zealand culture and customs. If you are able to assist us with our research, please leave a comment. We would love to hear from some students in New Zealand.

Today Bright Sparks had to choose a country for our class to be in the school mini Olympics. Our top 3 choices were Australia, China and New Zealand. Then we had to choose which sport our class would like to do. William chose running and Cain chose  cricket. The most popular sports in our class were “Swim Fishy Swim”, t- ball and soccer. In 5 weeks we are starting our school mini Olympics. During the mini Olympics the host class will be teaching the visiting class how to play their chosen sport or game. The school SRC will be making the final decision about  which country and sports each class will be doing.

By William and Cain

This week Bright Sparks tried a new Visible Thinking routine called “I See, I Think, I Wonder” using the Olympic Flag as a stimulus to introduce one the topics we will be studying this term. The great thing about this routine is that every Bright Spark had a chance to contribute their thoughts and opinions. As their teacher, I was very excited to see all students keen to participate and contribute their ideas. These are just a few of some of the very interesting thoughts they contributed about the Olympic Flag.

“I see rainbow circles. They are a symbol for the Beijing Olympics. I wonder why they are circles?” Farah

“I see circles connected to each other. I think the ring’s colours are very bright. I wonder why they are stuck to each other?” Destiny

“I see lots of circles. I think the circles are bright colours. I wonder why they are circles, not squares?” Mahnoor

“I see circles stuck together. I think that they make patterns. I wonder why they use those colours?” Ayse

The students have now researched information about the Olympic Flag and are able to answer the questions they were “wondering” about.

On Tuesday 1st July the Stage 2 classes had a spelling competition to select two students to represent our school in the Premier’s Spelling Bee later on this year. Each class had their own competition and selected the two best spellers. Then the best two spellers from each class competed against each other. We had the final competion in the hall. Six students sat in chairs in front of the Stage 2 audience. Our teacher read out each word and the students had to spell the word aloud. At the end of 5 rounds we had 2 winners, but it was a very close competition.