25 Sep 2019
Jesse (5/6N) had a wonderful time at the Peninsula Engagement Program (PEP) held at Sydney Secondary College, Balmain in weeks 8 and 9 of this term.
The 2019 PEP theme was "Working together in your community". The mission statement for PEP is to create leaders in our community. This applies to primary and secondary students and teachers. Each subject/elective involved fun, engaging and challenging teaching and learning experiences for students in Years 4 and 5. There are some photos of the PEP experience and creations in the Gallery section of this website.
Jesse has written a recount of his PEP experience below.
Going into PEP was very nerve wracking. In my class I had no friends but no worries because I made heaps of friends. When everybody introduced themselves I realised that we had a drama teacher, so it turned out that we were doing Japanese mixed with drama.
On the first day at PEP we really got to know about the Japanese culture. We learnt all about the Japanese language and loads about mascots. We learnt about what they do and the rules they have to follow.
Then it was lunch and the food was so good. I got to see my friends and I could tell by their faces that their first sessions were great like mine.
When we got back inside we played a lot of drama/Japanese games. Our classroom had a really good view of the harbour. We had to look out on the harbour and think of a Japanese mascot, or Yuru-chara, to represent the Balmain/Peninsula area. I made really good friends with my partner and we had a really cool idea.
We started sketching our puppet and I knew it was going to turn out great.
The next day we got our materials and started working on our amazing puppets. We used bottles to make the shape of the puppet.
We finally finished our amazing puppets. Our puppet was a mixture of a dog, cat and ice-cream. Our puppet is friendly, nice and loves cuddles!
To finish off the PEP days we learnt about all the different puppets, how they are controlled and we also watched a few amazing videos about puppets.
Personally I think it was a wonderful experience and I encourage other people like me or you to go.