From the Primary School
Book Week Parade
SCEGGS Primary students celebrated their love of books, authors, illustrators and reading on Thursday with the annual Book Character Parade to celebrate Book Week.
To the delight of the girls, many parents lined the playground as the 9am start time approached. Afterall, this was the first event with a live audience in more than two years. The thought of parading in person after last year’s virtual Book Parade due to COVID was almost too good to be true!
We commenced the official proceedings with an Acknowledgement of Country to recognise the First Nations People as the very FIRST storytellers. This was followed by an official welcome by Mrs Dempsey who was dressed as Paddington Bear. Amongst the colourful crowd, we had several Little Red Riding Hoods, many crayons from ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt, lots of Dr Seuss & Mr Men characters, as well as at least three teachers dressed as ‘Gangsta Granny’ by David Walliams – just to name a few!
The theme for Book Week in 2022 is “Dreaming with eyes open!” It certainly felt like we were dreaming with our eyes open as we watched the kaleidoscope of book characters proudly parading past with their treasured and favourite books.
Congratulations to Radha Bhindi and Lucinda Morgan from Year 6 who demonstrated outstanding maturity and leadership as the official hosts of the Book Parade. The interviews of several girls and staff about their reading preferences and choice of book character outfits was a real highlight.
The enthusiasm of the Year 6 girls for their final parade EVER was extraordinary, as they appeared together as Alice in Wonderland (Ms Tennant), the Queen of Hearts (Mrs Gloor) and the pack of cards. The announcement that 260 of the primary girls had completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge was only overshadowed by the excitement that 3L and 4S had achieved 100% participation rates, and therefore were receiving a special incentive reward for every student in each of these classes.
A HUGE thank you to the parents for assisting the girls with their book choices and matching book character costumes. With feathers, glitter and sequins all over the playground, Book Week 2022 is a now a wrap and my Bin Chicken ensemble from ‘Bin Chicken’ by Kate & Jol Temple, is officially retired!
Karen McBride
Primary School Teacher Librarian
Science Week Celebrations
National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology. In the Primary School, our Science Week celebrations extended beyond a week as we participated in a range of different activities. The theme for this year’s Science Week was “Glass: More Than Meets the Eye”. Glass is an important, versatile and transformative material that will play an integral role in sustainable developments in the future. By investigating the properties of glass, our girls had the opportunity to explore the chemistry of glass, bending light, recycling and sustainability. Year 3 got their hands messy as they made glass decorations by making dough and then crushing up hard boiled lollies. When heated in the oven, the lollies acted like glass as they melted, fused and then cooled to become hard again.
Year 3 making glass decorations
The girls were treated to a Science Show that was run by Ms Mia Sharma, Science Teacher in the Secondary School. Ms Sharma set up a number of interesting experiments that had the girls learning about pH scale, indicators and chromatography. A highlight of the show was definitely the Mentos and fizzy drink experiment. Which type of fizzy drink do you think would produce the highest geyser? Fanta, lemonade, Coke or Diet Coke? The girls were asked to make their hypothesis before the pin was released and the Mentos plummeted into the drink. Some girls were very surprised by the outcome and were left wondering why Diet Coke produced the highest geyser. Ms Sharma also had some very important advice for our young scientists – to persist and never give up when conducting experiments and learning new things. She spoke about the famous scientist, Gregor Mendel who, over eight years, grew over 30 000 pea plants as he investigated patterns of inheritance. His persistence and patience enabled him to uncover some significant discoveries in the field of genetics. A big thank you to Ms Sharma for organising this amazing Science Show.
Primary Science Show with Ms Sharma
Celebrating National Science Week provides a wonderful opportunity for our girls to appreciate the importance of science and technology in our world and to reflect on the work of scientists, both past and present, who have made significant contributions to our scientific understanding and continue to inspire us to be curious, persistent scientists.
Cristi Wilsmore
Deputy Head of Primary (Teaching and Learning)
