It has been a busy few weeks of Kinder. In this time, the students have been busy establishing daily routines, investigating through play, gardening, counting Blue Tongue Lizards, sharing stories and learning how to identify and form letters and numbers.

We have been exploring what it means to use our imaginations. We read the story ‘The Dress-Up Box’ and identified ways we can use our imagination when playing dress-ups. We each chose items from our class dress-ups box and engaged in imaginative play.

Here were our findings:

“I’m a superhero” – River.

“I’m a Zookeeper” – Johnny.

“I’m exploring” – Oskar.

“I’m an Explorer, searching” - Tarkyn.

“I’m on an adventure in the cold”- Ollie.

“I’m an Eagle” – Dot.

“I’m a Princess Mermaid with a crown” – Isla.

“I’m Princess in a rainbow castle” – Isabell.

“I’m walking down the street with my fur coat” – Tyler.

Inquiry Learning:

As part of our Term 1 inquiry, the students have also been investigating who belongs to our school community. We are currently in the finding out phase of our inquiry, where we have begun exploring different buildings and areas of our school, to help us identify different members of our school community.

 This week, we visited the Library, Prep/1 classroom, 1/ 2 classroom and Mr Spyker’s office. It was so much fun exploring different areas of the school.

It has been wonderful opportunity to talk to and learn from and meet other staff members. We have also been lucky enough to plant potatoes, broccoli and spinach in the Kinder Garden with Andrew. We are learning how to care for the plants by watering them and ensuring people aren’t stepping on the garden beds and soil.

Here are some pictures to show what we have been up to in Kinder.

On Thursday the 6^th of March we had the Antarctic Mobile Classroom come to visit Bicheno PS. They set up in the gym. We learnt lots of fun facts about the Antarctic, Mawson’s hut, animals and the people that visit there now. We also pretended to be king penguins and try to roll an egg from one penguin parent to another without letting it touch the ice, tried to identify different animal sounds and tried on jackets that have been worn in the Antarctic.

When we got back to our classroom, we did some writing about the visit. (Students who were absent were: Phoebe, Zavier, Jarrah and Olivia).

Our inquiry question for term 1 is:

How do our emotions, values and rules help us to understand what it means to belong to a community.

During the SORTING OUT phase we looked at ways that we each feel like we belong. We shared those at the first sharing assembly. Below are the photos of our work.

Prep/Grade 1 Ditto Visit

On Tuesday the 11^th of March Ditto came to visit the K-2 students to show us the Bravehearts program.

Bravehearts Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Show is underpinned by the below principles of personal safety. An evaluation of the Ditto Show suggests that teaching young children these principles can help to increase resilience and reduce the risk of child sexual abuse, as well as other forms of abuse including family violence and bullying.

• Differentiating safe and unsafe feelings
• Recognising the body’s warning signs
• Body ownership and that it is ok to say no
• Helping children name public and private parts using anatomically correct names
• Reinforcing that there is no secret that children cannot tell someone
• What to do if you feel unsafe or unsure
  

  These personal safety principles are distilled into three easy-to-remember ‘rules’ that are reinforced throughout the Show. ‘Ditto’s 3 Rules’ are:

  • We all have the right to feel safe with people.
  • It’s ok to say NO if you feel unsafe or unsure.
  • Nothing is so yucky that you can’t tell someone about it.

  What is something that you remember from Bravehearts?

  Alice, “Your bottom is a private part.”

  Bowie, “My private parts belong to me.”

  Pippa, “Your mouth is a private part because it’s used for kissing.”

  Jarrah, “Between your legs is a private part.”

  Eve, “Your chest is a private part.”

  Kingston, “You can’t take pictures of someone else’s private parts.”

  Phoebe, “If you feel unsafe you should run and tell someone.”

  Kobe, “You need to ask someone before you kiss them.”

  Abigail, “We all have the right to feel safe.”

  Jim, “If I was feeling unsafe I would tell my mum.”

  Banks, “You shouldn’t look at other peoples’ private parts.”

  Olivia, “If you are feeling unsafe you need to say STOP and ell someone.”

  Thomas, “The bathroom is a private place.”

  Archer, “The shower is a private place.”

  Ruby, “Keep your private parts covered when you are in public.”

  Zavier, “You should tell someone on your safety team if you feel unsafe.”

  Rory, “You should have grown ups that you trust on your safety team.”

  Stevie, “There’s no secret that you can’t share.”

  Eddy, “You don’t look, touch or take photos of private parts.”

  Tia, “Ditto goes to school to teach kids how to be safe.”

  (Absent – Ivaan and Indiana)

“In our Belonging inquiry, students explored powerful words that help us understand emotions, values, and relationships. This week, we focused on onomatopoeia—words that mimic sounds—to bring our belonging vocabulary to life.

After selecting a key word from our word wall, students created vibrant onomatopoeia images that visually represented their word’s meaning. This activity helped students deepen their understanding of belonging and how words can connect us to others.”

Investigating the Jump of an Origami Frog: A Statistical Inquiry

In Grade 3/4, we are diving into an exciting investigation with a simple yet fascinating question: How far can an origami frog jump? After making our own origami frogs, we are not only measuring their jumps but also learning valuable skills in asking better questions and conducting meaningful investigations. Our overarching learning questions are:

• What is a statistical investigation, and how can understanding it help us ask better questions when creating our own investigations?
• As thinkers, how can we ask better questions to help us create and understand statistical investigations?

Understanding the Importance of Controlling Variables

To start, we’re focusing on controlling variables to ensure we get reliable results. We are learning that when measuring the distance of a frog's jump, consistency is key. By controlling variables, such as how we flick the frog and how we measure its jumps, we can make sure our results are accurate and trustworthy. We are being careful and thoughtful as we design protocols for our experiment to make sure the data we collect is reliable and meaningful.

Our Jumping and Measuring Protocols

We are learning how to establish clear protocols for jumping and measuring. These protocols are essential to ensure that every jump is consistent and every measurement is accurate. Here’s what we’re focusing on:

• Jumping Protocols: How do we ensure that each frog jump is consistent? This includes how we fold the frogs, how much force we apply when flicking them, and how we position them each time.
• Measuring Protocols: How do we measure the frog’s jump consistently? We’ll be using units of measurement like centimeters (cm), meters (m), and millimeters (mm) to calculate the distance of each jump.

Thinking Like a Mathematician

As critical thinkers, we are learning to ask big questions and dive deeper into the data. Sometimes our first thoughts can change the more we investigate, and that’s part of the mathematical process. We are being encouraged to look closely at the data and ask ourselves: Does this information make sense? Do we need more details to understand it better? By doing this, we are practicing valuable skills for thinking critically and solving problems mathematically.

Using Mathematical Language

Throughout this investigation, we will also be using mathematical language to describe our findings:

• Distance: How far the frog jumps.
• Measurement: The total distance the frog travels.
• Estimate: A guess about the frog's jump distance before testing it.
• Average: The sum of multiple jumps divided by the number of jumps to find the average distance.
• Units: We’ll measure our jumps in centimeters (cm), meters (m), or millimeters (mm) to make sure our results are consistent and accurate.

An Inquiry-Based Approach

This investigation is all about asking questions, testing hypotheses, and learning from our results. We are exploring not just the distance of the frog’s jump, but also how to conduct a scientific investigation. Our inquiry approach is helping us learn that the more we investigate, the more our understanding deepens. It’s a reminder that as thinkers, we can always improve our questions and methods as we learn more.

Connecting to the Australian Curriculum

This inquiry aligns with the Australian Curriculum's focus on developing students' skills in measurement, statistics, and critical thinking. Specifically, it supports the following content descriptors from the Australian Curriculum for Mathematics (Grades 3 and 4):

• Year 3 Content Descriptors:
• Measurement and Geometry (ACMMG061): "Measure, compare, and order the durations of events in everyday contexts."
• Statistics and Probability (ACMSP068): "Ask questions about familiar contexts that can be investigated statistically. Collect data, organise it, and display it in various forms."
• Statistics and Probability (ACMSP069): "Describe and interpret different data displays."
• Year 4 Content Descriptors:
• Measurement and Geometry (ACMMG083): "Compare the areas of regular and irregular shapes by informal means."
• Statistics and Probability (ACMSP092): "Interpret and compare data displays, including dot plots and column graphs."
• Statistics and Probability (ACMSP093): "Pose questions and collect categorical or numerical data by observation or survey."

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue jumping into this fun and educational investigation, where curiosity and critical thinking are key!

On Thursday, March 6, 2025, Sarah and Dakota from the Mawson’s Hut Foundation visited Bicheno Primary School to teach students about the who, what, how, and why of Antarctic wildlife research. 

While some students were completing their NAPLAN exams this week, other students reflected on their experience at the Antarctic Mobile Classroom. 

Please enjoy the recounts, infographics, and comic strips created by our Grade 3, 4 and 6 students! 

The start of the year has been an amazing start for staff and students, so far, we’ve had the Bee Workshop, where we learned about bees around the world and 3-6s cleaned up our foreshore for Clean Up Australia day. The Antarctica classroom came on the 6^th of March, and on the 10^th of March, the leaders are attending the GRIP conference in Launceston. Look out for the Lego competition, which is always a huge hit with lots of amazing entries. Entries are due on the 19^th March. Harmony Day is on Friday 21^st where we will be celebrating the diversity in our community.

At the start of term, the School Association had a welcome afternoon tea. Thank you to Julia and Ian for setting up the afternoon tea and thank you to the blue edge bakery for organizing the cupcakes. It was wonderful to see the community come together.

This year’s Grade 6 leaders have divided into three groups: Community, Assembly and Belonging. The Community group will organise a fundraiser every term which will add up to the gift the grade 6s will buy for the school. They will also report on what the Leaders have been up to in sharing assemblies and in the newsletter.

The Assembly group will be organising the Assemblies for the term and making sure the rosters for flags and line up are organised. They will also manage the sports equipment for recess and lunch.

Finally, the belonging group finds a way for everyone to belong to the school and community. This year we are focussing on building connection between students. Our belonging group have already created friendship benches to help people connect at recess and lunch.

 Every term, Grade 6 Leaders will cycle through the groups so everyone gets a turn at each role. We have also been working on what it means to be a leader and we have each made a leadership goal to help us be the leaders we want to be. We are looking forward to working together to improve belonging and connection at school and becoming better leaders.

We hope you have had a wonderful start to the year and have a great rest of the term!

Dear parents, carers and families,

I would like to welcome everyone to the new school year 2025 and hope everyone had a great start to the new year and settled in well in their new classrooms.

First of all, lets please welcome our new committee elected on 25^th Feb at the AGM:

Principal: Tom Spykers

Chairperson: Susanne Lucas

Deputy Chair: Rachel Jaeschke

Secretary: Sara Walkem

Treasurer: Eliza Di Francesco

Parent members: Nigel Palfreyman, Lucy Cunliffe, Claire Wood and Anna Heath

Teacher representative: Lucie Cornelius

Community Representative: Sallie Brockman

Please feel free to approach any of us if you would like to raise any issues, make suggestions or want to leave feedback. All our meetings are open to any parent or caregiver to attend, and we will publish our meeting times in SZapp.

Our fundraising goal this year is to make a sizeable contribution to the upgrade of the new Early Learning Outdoor area. We will also focus on raising funds for our next year’s grade 5/6 students school camp in Canberra. With this in mind, there has been a lot going on already:

On Wednesday 5^th March we welcomed the Variety Children’s Charity and Jet Trek to Bicheno on their fundraiser that took them from Hobart to Devonport on their jet skis. We were given the opportunity to feed about 160x people for lunch, which was a great success and lots of fun.