2010 - Northern Territory Schools

ESL for ILSSI.C.T.Thisyear in ESL for ILSS we had over 30 childrenenrolled in the programme. Sometimes wecame to the ILSS room and sometimes the ILSSteacher would support us in the classroom.We practised speaking in English with theteacher in small groups. We talked about ourfamilies and our homes and what we like to doon the weekends. We learned to name morethings in English. We liked to talk about whatwe could see outside. “I can see a butterfly inthe tree,” we would say.We used the puppets to talk to each other andto ask each other how we felt about things. Wesang many songs. Our favourites were aboutwashing our hands, a pig that wouldn’t swimand a little hen who escapes from a fox. Welearnt to cook pancakes and we learnt to passthings around in a circle, including a message.“Big rain coming,” and “who told you?” were ourfavourite messages.Speaking English at ESL Level 1 was our overallgoal for the year and many of us achieved this.Veronica HempelThis semester in ICT the school was very fortunate to receive over 100 XO laptops,which were distributed to students across the Primary School. Students from Years1-6 have been using their XO laptops to write short stories, create artworks, takephotos, make short videos, do research on the Internet and play educational games.Students in years 4-6 have also been able to customise their laptops by changing thebackground image and desktop style.Although the students in Transition have not been allocated their own laptops, thesestudents have been learning how to use a computer by playing simple educationalgames and have also been using a digital camerato take photographs of objects they have madeout of blocks.The introduction of the XO laptops across thePrimary School has helped to improve students’ICT skills and has also provided students withgreater access to computers when studying otherparts of the curriculum.Ben LandersP.M.P.PMPteaches the Early Childhood and Year 2 students skills with movement,and with speaking and listening. Four exercise stations are set up and each skillhas an English sentence to go with it.This year in PMP we developed skills with throwing, catching, balancing, climbing,pulling, skipping, kicking, stepping and bouncing. The students practised theseskills on all sorts of equipment including a balance beam, a scooter board, a minitrampoline and a climbing frame.Every Friday the students did PMP on the playground equipment.Their favourite activities were sliding down the slide andswinging up high on the swing.The students talked about what they were doing with theteachers. They learnt to use the present tense, “I am,” and thefuture tense, “I will.”They also learnt group skills becauseevery day they helped each other topack up all the equipment.