Sinai News

January/ February 2020 5780

What has been happening at Sinai College?Welcome to our new students.

Rosie Avraham Rebecca Declan Yasmine

VALUE OF THE MONTH WORK HARD AND DO YOUR BESTPrep /Year 1 Year 2/3 Senior Class

Prep /Year 1 Year 2/3 Senior Class

Prep /Year 1 Year 2/3 Senior Class

Prep /Year 1 Year 2/3

VALUE OF THE MONTH

A POSITIVE ATTITUDE TO LEARNING, TO EACH OTHER AND A POSITIVE MINDSET Prep /Year 1 Year 2/3 Senior Class

Prep /Year 1 Year 2/3 Senior Class

CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Emma Harrison and her partner Kieran on the birth of their second daughter Felicity Rose.

Congratulations to Bina Jaffe as well as Rabbi and

Devorah Jaffe. Bina celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at the

Brisbane Synagogue on Sunday 9 February.

Mazel Tov.

OUR NEW SCHOOL BUS

Our children are very fortunate to be able to travel to and from school in such a beautiful new vehicle.

TU B’shevat. Tu B’shevat gets its name from the date on which the holiday occurs, the 15th of the month of Shevat. It is often referred to as the new year (or “birthday”) of the trees. The holiday originated in the Talmud, and was based on the date chosen for calculating the agricultural cycle of taking tithes from the produce of the trees, which were brought as first-fruit offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem.

SWIMMING

This year our focus for swimming is based on general safety and survival skills within and around the pool setting. Students are working on water confidence, strokes and survival skills to help keep themselves and others safe in the water.

THE NEW DOLL HOUSE IN THE PREP AND YEAR ONE ROOMOur sincere thanks to Leah Phillips for her kindness and generosity. It has brought so much pleasure and laughter to the Preps and Year Ones.

PREP AND YEAR ONE LEARNINGWe started the New Year with some great learning. Our class is very fortunate to have Mrs Kiyomi Baladi in our room on a Tuesday and a Thursday for support.

Our first IPC unit was BRAINWAVES. We learnt about the different parts and functions of our brain and then ‘cut up’ a brain and put it back together as a puzzle.

We did many activities to develop and maintain a positive and learning growth mindset and we know that we can’t do some things just yet… but with practise, perseverance, and patience we will get there!

Our second IPC unit is called ‘We are what we eat! ‘We are extending our learning about the brain as we continue to learn about a well- balanced diet, our taste buds and much more.

YEAR TWO AND THREE LEARNINGOur first IPC unit this year was Brainwave, in this unit we explored the many different ways in which our brains can learn and how the connections in our brains get stronger the more we practise things. We did some comparisons between our experiences of learning in Australia with many different countries that students in year 2 and year 3 have connections with including Israel, South Africa and Fiji. We learnt what a mindset is and how we can cultivate a growth mindset and positive attitude towards learning.

YEAR TWO AND THREE FIELD TRIP TO SEALIFE

Our second unit is Land, Sea and Sky. We started this unit off with an exciting underwater adventure at Sea Life on the Sunshine Coast. Some of the creatures we learnt about were the little blue penguins, who even had their own ‘penguin treadmill’, sea dragons, lionfish, and even jelly fish. We watched a great seal show where one of the seals taught us how to recycle objects. We also went into the Tidal Touchpool zone were we could touch the different star fish and sea cucumbers. We walked through the ocean tunnel zone where our guide Terry explained to us about the variety of different sharks and fish that were in the tank. We even saw some divers putting new sand into the tanks, who kindly waved to us as the sharks were swimming past them. We have now got a new Year 2 member, his name is Pengy Fluff Seasquad. Thank you to Bruce and Kathy for coming with us and ensuring we had a safe and enjoyable trip.

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Pengy Fluff Seasquad.

“Don’t argue, my dear child,

please don’t argue!” cried Mr. Wonka.

“It’s such a waste of precious time!”

For our literature study this year, to further develop our creativity year 2 and year 3 will be reading some of Roald Dahl’s books. We started off with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As a class we have been reading the novel and unpacking the different aspects of the story. We have been doing some comprehension activities, vocabulary building as well as character descriptions alongside the reading. Soon we will be watching the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie and then doing a comparison between the book and the film. Our next book is the BFG. We have started a display on the one side of our classroom and our aim is to fill up the whole wall with our literature learning this year.

LEARNING IN THE SENIOR CLASS.The Senior class have been busy learning about the brain and ways we can ensure we are in the Positive Mindset zone.We have also worked on developing our narrative writing skills and are eager to share these with our new friends at Yarranlea School.The class visited Yarranlea School to work on some STEAM projects looking at coding.We have also started our new unit Existing, Endangered, Extinct.

JEWISH LEARNING.

We have had a very busy few weeks in Jewish Studies this term. The first festival that we celebrated was Tu B’shevat. After Davening Rabbi Jaffe and the pupils of Sinai College planted a pomegranate tree. We then focussed on the 10 Commandments and how we should implement them in our daily lives. Then the preparations for the happy and fun festival of Purim started. The

children had great fun dressing up and participating in a Purim Shpiel. A Purim shpiel is a humorous and dramatic presentation of the events outlined in the

Book of Esther. The children have made graggers to block out the sound of Hamman’s name when the Megillah is read. We look forward to seeing you all at our Purim festivities on Tuesday 10 March.

 

MUSIC

Music Room News!It’s time to celebrate with Purim just around the corner! In preparation our Sinai musicians have been busy making castanets to drown out Haman on the big day. Be prepared to see some very creative castanets creatures clicking loudly (even some with teeth!). The choir have also been working hard to learn a variety of traditional and modern Purim songs to entertain Sinai family and friends on Tuesday. In addition to preparing for Purim the Prep/1 class have been learning about music opposites: Loud-Soft, High-Low, Fast-Slow and Long-Short through a variety of learning centres, singing, playing (untuned and tuned percussion) and Orff inspired composition activities. The year 2/3 and 4/5 class have been focusing on the musical elements of tempo, pitch and rhythm through rotational learning centres involving notation spelling, active listening activities, worksheets, composition and performance-based tasks. Year 4/5 have also been working with a one of my favourite educational composition programs called Incredibox, experimenting with song writing and live composing. You can use Incredibox online at home for free www.incredibox.com it is also available as downloadable app on your phone or tablet. Musically yours,Mrs Tassan

CELEBRATING BIRTHDAYS AT SINAI COLLEGEAt Sinai College we celebrate the children’s birthday according to the Jewish and Hebrew calendar.

Happy Birthday Micah, Ava and

Mia.

DATES TO DIARISE

TUESDAY 10 March: Purim

WEDNESDAY 1 APRIL: Model Seder 10 am- 11.30 am FRIDAY 3 APRIL : Exit Point. Last Day of School