Asian Festival

What a week we have had in Kindergarten to Year 6, immersing ourselves in learning about various countries and people of Asia.

Gallery

All classes and students contributed to the creation of our Gallery space. Classes took time this week to visit the Gallery and find out what their peers in other grades have been learning about. The Gallery was a spectacular display of student learning and engagement – we hope that the parents who came were similarly impressed with what they saw!

Special Guests

Some classes were lucky enough to have special guests. Quinn and Arie’s mum took time to visit both Year 2 and Prep to talk about her time living in China. She brought many interesting Chinese artefacts for students to examine, and was able to answer questions about her life there.

Ved’s father visited Prep A to talk about life in India. The students were fascinated to hear about festivals, such as Diwali, which is being celebrated by the Indian community this week. Congratulations to those celebrating this occasion!

Music teacher, Mr Smith also kindly visited Year 4, and shared stories of his time living in Thailand.

Thank you for sharing your photographs and stories Mrs McGuire and Mr Pandya. If there are other parents who would like to share stories about life where they are from, our students are always very interested to here. Please talk to your child’s class teacher to arrange a day and time.

Cinderella Stories

There are many cultures which have traditional stories with strong similarities to the more modern version of Cinderella. Classes have been sharing picture books with similar storylines and comparing them to each other, and to the more commonly known Disney version. Prep A enjoyed hearing about Angkat, the Cambodian Cinderella, but were shocked when the evil step-sisters seemingly won over the heroine, Angkat.

Taster Plates

Students in Year 3 kindly used their MMK cooking lesson this week to prepare enough dumplings for all of the students in Kindergarten to Year 6 – that is a lot of dumplings! They were delivered to classrooms right in time for lunch, and most students were eager to give them a try. Some were not a fan of the taste of the soy sauce for dipping, but most enjoyed the texture and flavour of the dumplings. Our thanks to Mrs Davey and her fabulous crew of chefs for making them for us all to share.

The second opportunity to taste something a little out of the ordinary was on Wednesday morning, when Year 8 Japanese students cooked up some Japanese curry and rice. It was a very busy time in the kitchen, but bowls of steaming curry and rice were delivered on time for students to sample at recess time. From all accounts, the curry and rice was very well received, with many students taking the opportunity to go back for seconds, or even thirds! Our thanks to Mr Golding and his amazing team of curry makers for creating this experience for us.

Qi gong

On Tuesday at lunchtime, Aran sensei led interested students in a session of Qi gong. In the wide open space of the oval, overlooking the river and being watched over by kunanyi, students channeled their positive energy and found peace and tranquility. After the experience, students commented:

“I feel really relaxed and calm. I think I really liked it.” Eamon (Year 2)

“It was nice and peaceful and relaxing and I think we should do it every day.” Tom (Year 2)

“It was nice and peaceful and made me calm. I got all the bad memories out of me, and the bad energy” Jackson (Year 2)

“I really felt inner peace. When we were doing those movements, I really felt the energy coursing through me” Sean (Year 3)

“I felt relaxed. I liked the part where we reached up to the sky.” Jonevis (Year 2)

“It was very calm, soothing, nice and smooth. I wish I could do it forever and ever.” Sally (Year 4)

“It was really relaxing and really calming. It was very nice, and I hope we can do it again.” Janelle (Year 4)

Martial Arts workshop

On Wednesday, Year 2 students were lucky to have a Kung Fu martial arts workshop with Wenda Tan of Jow Ga Martial Art Academy. Tan kindly donated his time to conduct both this workshop, and also two workshops to train our magnificent Year 8 Dragon dancers – but more about that later!

Year 2 students were unsure of the expectations of learning a martial art at first, especially those who have never encountered such as experience before. But with Tan’s guidance, students developed discipline and coordination to combine a series of moves. We would like to express our gratitude to Tan for his generosity with sharing his time and his talents with our students.

Bon dance

At recess on Wednesday, Year 9 and 10 Japanese elective students ran a Japanese Bon dance (bon odori) for the K-6 students. Bon dances are traditionally a part of summer (in August), where Japanese people believe the spirits of their deceased ancestors return home. The dance is relaxing and calm, and many students came to join in with their senpai (seniors). Smiles were broad, and arms and legs flowed gracefully to the rhythm of the music. Thank you to the student leaders who made the bon dance possible!

Class work

Classes have each spent a wonderful time dancing, singing, researching, exploring and creating.

Assembly

The culmination of all of these activities was the Asian Festival Assembly on Wednesday afternoon.

Flag bearers proudly entered the Savio Centre with their allocated country’s flags. This was followed by a knockout performance by Year 8 Japanese elective students, who after only two workshops, managed to perform a thrilling and awe-inspiring dragon dance.

All students combined to sing the Asian Countries of the world song, which was followed by Year 5 dancing the Algorithm Calisthenics, an amusing collection of moves involving precise teamwork and trust.

Brave and powerful Year 7 student, Connor Eastley followed with a very impressive demonstration of two Karate kata.

Our talented junior concert band delighted us with two peaceful tunes, ‘Sakura’ from Japan, and a lovely Thai lullaby.

The combination of Sarah Fitzpatrick, Dione Oloroso and Ella Fitzpatrick from the Year 9 and 10 Japanese elective class singing a song from a popular Japanese anime movie was spellbinding. Students were entranced by the trio as they sang a complicated song to perfection!

The Year 6's were next, with the challenging task of singing one song in three languages! English, Japanese and Chinese were used to sing the well-known song, ‘It’s a Small World”.

After some inspiring words from Ms Gilligan, the Kinder to 6 students almost brought down the roof of the Savio Centre with a highly energetic rendition of the Soran Bushi, a traditional dance about the role of a fisherman in Japan.

To top off the festivities, students enjoyed a very special taiko performance from our school’s group, Dominiku Daiko. This was the inaugural performance of Junior taiko, and also the first time that we have seen a combined performance with the Senior taiko group. Students in Year 8 and 10 who participated in the after school taiko lessons in Term 3, combined with Year 4 students who have been learning taiko with Kumashiro sensei of a lunch time, to create a taiko spectacular! The powerful sounds of the taiko overflowed from the confines of the Savio Centre and the power, teamwork and determination of our students was clearly displayed. A big thank you to Hobart’s taiko group, Taiko Drum for their ongoing training and advice. In particular, our thanks go to our wonderful teacher Amy, and her teammates Belinda and Hayden.

Many thanks to all who contributed towards providing many amazing experiences for our students!

本当にありがとうございましたhontou arigatou gozaimashita! (Thank you so very much).