The Activities Team

Activity: Sew Eco-Friendly Boomerang Bag

The aim of these sessions was to learn and make a Boomerang Bag for our Community. We learned the importance of perseverance and time management. This Activity has grown our comprehension in the world of sewing. We hope to make a more sustainable eco-future and get more people to make a conscious choice around the things they use and carry.

James Stuart Y10

Activity: Make and Bake for a Cause

The aim of Make and Bake for a Cause is making desserts and treats to sell them at our stall and donate the money to a charity of our choice. This year the charities are Doctors Without Borders, Cancer Council and Cat Rescue. We sold our food at Friday lunchtime and raised money. Thank you!

Rose Maher & Claudia Aylward Y7

Activity: Walk/Run for Charity

The Activity I am doing is Walk/Run for Charity. The aim of these sessions is to pick and enter a fun-run. We get to train on Mondays and then on Fridays we go to a reserve or park like Baxter Park or Ballam Park and we just run. I like it because it gets you fit and when the time for the fun-run comes around, we will do fundraisers and get sponsors so we can raise money for people, animals, and businesses in need.

Will Muir-Simpson Y7

Activity: Learning and Teaching Initiatives & Games

In the Learning and Teaching Initiatives Activity, we get into groups and create a game of our choice and then share it with the other groups. We learnt how to play a lot of games and teach them.

Remy Morris Y7

AWARE – Help Local Wildlife Carers and Shelters

When I entered the AgHort room on my first session of my new Activity, I had no idea what to expect. I had been assigned 'AWARE – Help Local Wildlife Carers and Shelters' led by Ms Janky for my Unit 4 Activity. I was hoping for an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and give back to the local community, but the experience was even more rewarding than I could ever have predicted!

From the very first session, meeting the carers and volunteers from AWARE, I was thrilled by what an exhilarating experience working with such passionate people was! AWARE stands for Australian Wildlife Assistance, Rescue and Education. Throughout the sessions, we learned more about the native species that call the Mornington Peninsula home and what it takes to rescue, rehabilitate, and release these remarkable creatures.

We fixed rehab toys for birds, made homes for possums, painted bat boxes, helped around the Woodleigh Farm, and overall had an awesome time! We also got the opportunity to visit the AWARE Warehouse in Carrum Downs, which was heaps of fun! As well as visiting the warehouse, we visited their dedicated plantations at Overport Park in Frankston South. There we helped by weeding the plants and putting down mulch. AWARE has been an incredible experience, one of my favourite activities yet! I wonder what Activity I'll be assigned next time?!

Charlie Russo Y7

Activity: Sports Leadership

During the sessions we learnt to build our coaching skills and extended our knowledge on how to coach a community. These skills helped us run PE lessons for Minimbah and Penbank. Unfortunately, Minimbah was called off due to flooding, but these community leadership skills helped us make fun and engaging sessions for Penbank. We talked about what role we would like to try in other community sports, eg. refereeing, coaching playing and discussed what leadership means to us as well.

Thomas Oswell Y10

Activity: Make Laser Cut Items for Woodleigh

During the sessions of Make Laser Cut Items for Woodleigh, we spent time creating our own items to sell for the market and the results were amazing! I'm sure everyone felt a sense of achievement when they saw their final product. From designing to selling, we experienced using online tools and manual tools like the laser cutter.

Charlotte Calvert Y7 & Cate Faulkner Y10

Activity: Soap Making for Pinch-a-Poo

In Soap Making for Pinch-a-Poo, we have been trying to understand and help homeless people by making soap. We learnt how to make different types of soap as well as problem solve. At the end of the Activity, we deliver the soap to a warehouse, and they then get distributed to the homeless.

Bec Oswell and Grace Broadfoot-Liddle Y7

A thing I enjoyed was doing the Activity with Rhiannon and making the soap with her; we had a good process. We had time at the start of the Activity. We learned about what homelessness is, how we can help and what Pinch-a-Poo is. If we did something different like have more soap-making lessons, have more time for things and learn more about what Pinch-a-Poo is and what homelessness is, I would like to do this Activity again. Something that I learned on the way was that 1.6 billion people in the world are homeless from domestic violence, abuse, and loss of money

Isabella Stewart Y7

I enjoyed being a part of this Activity because it is a positive step toward raising awareness about homelessness. I enjoyed learning about the history and purpose of Pinch-a-Poo, as well as making soap to donate. The process of making the soaps was not as simple as it appears, as we researched the best textures for skin and devised a plan to make our soaps. I would participate in this Activity again as I found it very rewarding to create something for someone else. It surprised me that over 116,000 people are estimated to be homeless in Australia each night. I believe that having more moulds in the future would be beneficial because we could produce more soap to donate, such as 12 instead of 8 soaps per lesson.

Emma Hamson Y10

I enjoyed this Activity because we got to do an interactive fun activity whilst knowing we were doing something for others. My favourite part was decorating the finished soaps and getting to write little messages for the people receiving them. The process of making the soaps was first learning about the Pinch-a-Poo organisation and researching homelessness. We then looked at some design ideas for our soaps. We then started the process of making the soaps. We used the kits provided for us, and over the lessons, each pair made an average of 12 soaps each. What we could do differently next time is make a larger amount of soaps to make that little bit more of a difference.

Marlo Jones Y10

I enjoyed the teamwork and independence we had in making our soaps. It was fun to take out the equipment and independently work on creating our own soaps.

We got in groups and unpacked the boxes of our soap kits. We then started by melting the wax and adding pigments while the soap was melting over a bowl with water in a pot. We then poured the hot melted soap into moulds and sprayed it with alcohol to stop the resistance of bubbles.

I think helping the homeless is something I am passionate about, so doing this Activity could be something I would do again.

I discovered the statistics over Australia of how many people cannot maintain proper hygiene because they don't live in a home.

Holly McConnell Y10

I enjoyed this Activity because I learnt a lot about the problem of homelessness and how much of a positive impact Pinch-a-Poo has on this problem. The process of this Activity was to get into groups and make as many soaps as possible with the given time and materials. I would do this Activity again and suggest it to others because while supporting people you can also have fun and create soaps. I found it surprising how many homeless people there are worldwide and think that next time in this Activity we could make more soaps by having individual kits.

Sascha Shashyan Y10