First for the Season

July + School holidays + sunny still day = skiing! We christened our season passes today with a day trip to the snow in perfect conditions. It was an early, cold and misty start to the day leaving home just before 6am in time to get a park at Perisher. We made good progress as there wasn't much traffic around and arrived at Perisher around 8.30am parking in one of the last rows of the carpark.

Al, Mira and Max were already on the slopes having arrived about 30 min earlier having made it through the biggest queue at front valley. From then it was a very quiet day on the lifts much to our surprise.

We spent a good deal of the morning on Interceptor - firstly winding our way through the snow gums on the Discovery Trails and then zooming down the run under the chair before returning to the top via mid station. Andy and Ella were both full of wobbles and near crashes as they adjusted to the feel of their new skis.

Post lunch, we headed over to the Ridge Quad for a few runs before splintering into several groups. Andy and Ella decided on harder stuff, Al and Max went on their own adventure towards Mt P, while the two little girls and I headed back to Interceptor.

Katy and Mira named a new location on the map - the Katy and Mira Snow Pillow. A snow ramp which they loved skiing down. Their first go they both ended up crashing and spent a long time recovering from their laughter! Every run from then on involved the snow pillow and they improved with each attempt.

Wondering how the others were going, I received a call from Andy - Ella had crashed hurting her ankle. Their plan was to catch the skitube back to perisher. It was around 2pm by this stage and the little girls were getting tired too so I called it a day and we began to make our way back to the car as well, seeing though it was still a fair way away. In perfect timing we bumped into Al and Max coming down the final run into Perisher. A great day sweeping away the spiderwebs and finding our skiing legs again!

Circus

The first week of the school holidays saw the girls return to the Warehouse Circus holiday program. Both were exhausted at the end of each day. The combination of thinking in order to master tricks clearly took its toll. At the conclusion of the program, the parents were treated to a show choreographed by the children displaying their favourite aspects of circus.

Vegie Patch Makeover

Since the silky oak lost a few branches including one that fell and squashed part of the fence to the vegie patch we've been discussing potential redesigns. Our two main criteria were 1. to have raised beds and 2. keep the stormwater manhole clear / accessible. When we started the vegie patch looked like this.

We first toyed with the idea of making beds from pallets however sourcing vegie friendly pallets was difficult so that went by the wayside fairly quickly.

Next while down at Bunnings for other supplies we noticed the galvanised raised beds. One in particular caught our attention - the parts could be arranged in a variety of ways to create different shaped beds. Noting the price and potential sizes, we continued on to the timber section to check out prices and timber sizes for comparison.

It was while we were in this section chatting to a very helpful Bunnings man that we were introduce to a system called Retain It. A prefabricated system utilising steel posts which sleepers simply slide into. No drilling, no screwing just a bit of digging and aligning! By the that afternoon, we'd installed the first sleeper! Thankfully we managed to skirt around the winter vegie crop that is doing so well.

Technology - Grand Designs

Grand Designs was the theme for Year 3 Technology unit, in which students are challenged to design and make houses to withstand a physical element based on climate. The houses are constructed from recycled materials collected from home. Katy was allocated Tropical climate. With a tissue inside, her house was required to withstand rain. Other climates were desert (aim to keep an ice cube inside from melting due to heat wind) and arctic (aim to withstand snow beanbags placed on the roof).

Her design was made of a milk container placed on stilts with a meat tray covered in alfoil as a roof.



As for the test, here is how her house stood up (or perhaps not) under rainy conditions. The tissue however did remain dry!

Winter Showcase

Both girls are really enjoying silks. They have been working towards perfecting their silks routine in readiness for the Winter Showcase. This involved choosing a piece of music and choreographing their own routine incorporating the skills they have learnt over the last 6 months. The evening was not only for their group, several adults from another centre performing.





Ella's routine was to Colour of Carnival by Kasey Chambers

Katy's performed to Roar by Katy Perry. She is a little hard to see in the photos with the dim lighting, wearing black and performing on the black silk!
















What was also lovely to see in the evenings performance was the collaboration with others. Mia involved Ella into her performance, while Lauren, the girls teacher, involved the littler girls in hers.

An Insight

For six hours a day, the girls are at school. Some afternoons they are chatty telling us snippets of their days while other days are one syllable answers - How was your day? Good. We are kept informed of their learning via a variety of ways. A portfolio comes home each semester displaying a variety of pieces of work from various subject areas. Then there are the 3 way interviews - student, parent and teacher. Plus seesaw... an app that the teacher post photos, videos or messages relating to your child, class or year.

I particularly love the portfolios, a keepsake of their learning journey. A fun piece from Katy's portfolio was this obviously done at the start of the school year - the glasses are looking into one's expectations and goals for Year 3.



On her glasses Katy wrote - I can not blew (believe) I am in year 3. I'm so exited (excited) about this year. I am rilly (really) looking forward to learn how to use chom books (chrome book - a computer) and go on camp and bing (being) a big budy (buddy). I rilly (really) want to learn my time tables and to learn how to tipe (type) farst (fast). I am so exited (excited) about the reset (rest) of the years and what exiting (exciting) things will be.

We are halfway through Year 3 now and I'm pretty sure that Katy is loving it as much as she thought she would. She has really clicked with her teacher, which has shone through in her academic progress.

Ella is also embracing the year especially the split Year 5/6 class format. From what I can see, they tend to mix up both the years and the classes. Lots of collaborative learning. She has had an interesting year full of lots of opportunities, experiences and surprises including one of her friends coming out as transgender. Ella (like most of the year) didn't blink an eyelid, is in full support of her friend and continued like nothing had happened.  Perhaps a recent piece of work from her portfolio in recognising those inner qualities of others was to help build strong relationships between students. In this piece, a student would identify a character strength, write down supporting evidence and sign their name. The student would fold the paper so their writing was hidden and pass it on to the next student who would add their thoughts. Once filled, the person whose was being written about would unroll the paper and read all the lovely comments. A interesting exercise to see how one is views by their peers!

Creations at Home

Ella, inspired by the cold weather, decided to make her own heat packs with scrap fabric and rice. The first model was hand stitched and not surprisingly leaked at little. After suggesting the sewing machine might make a better, more secure stitch, the production line began and the rice box was emptied as numerous mini heat packs were created. Ella handed out her mini heat packs to school friends the next day! Her larger own heat pack is warmed up in the microwave each night before being taken to bed!


Meanwhile inspired by a shop bought stone baked loaf of sourdough, I decided to investigate baking bread using this method. Normally I use a no knead recipe which involves mixing a few ingredients together, letting them hang out overnight together, then wrap them into a tea towel for a little longer before baking in a cast iron pot. Very easy and very delicious.

After scouring the net for a simple stone baked recipe, I settled on one and set to work. A few hours later, a couple loaves emerged from the oven. Note only did they look wonderful but were a super accompaniment with our soup! I declared the bread a success and have added it to my recipe book.