Colleen Elkins – Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator K-6

Welcome back to face-to-face learning. Although we were distance learning, the opportunities for students to shine were still afforded them by their teachers.

Year 3 students meeting up at home to do their Maths Challenge together

As mentioned previously, our Maths students who are up for the challenge have been participating in the Maths Challenge for Young Australians. Our students in Years 4 – 6 are also taking part in Maths Olympiad Competitions and the Maths Challenge Competition is coming up in July.

A group of our Year 6 students are working together in the inter-schools’ Future Problem-Solving Competition; a process demanding critical thinking, collaboration and the formation of a strong written response to a question. The current question is about the effects of Gamification.

Students interested in entering the Dorothea MacKellar Poetry Competition were treated to  Zoom and in-person lessons with two Year 5 mentors, Leah Joshua and Sanne Nathan, who were delighted to share their knowledge of poetry techniques.

Below is a poem by Tamar Granot in Year 4:

Can you guess what Nathan Shammay in Year 2 is referring to in his personification poem?

It’s a big fluffy bunny
Who explodes when he is angry
Then he reforms happily
It sniffs water to make it grow

Here are some other ideas for students with curious minds:

• https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/  Weekly news episode for students. Great for general knowledge and staying abreast of current affairs.
• https://education.shemaps.com/liveinorbit?r_done=1 Live Science presentations, daily.
• Engineering challenges https://frugalfun4boys.com/awesome-stem-challenges/
• Logic puzzles https://www.brainzilla.com/logic/logic-grid/printable/
• Write and illustrate a comic strip
• Writers’ notebook: Several students carry one of these with them, to jot down any ideas that come to mind when they are out and about. I suggest this strategy for enthusiastic writers

Wishing you all the best as we settle back into our normal routine!