Mount Pleasant Road Primary School & Kindergarten

Independence Centre

Curriculum

Selamat siang!

 

Say hello to September! Massive thank you to all of the support from students and families around last week's Book Week celebrations. While life can be a little challenging throughout these lockdowns we truly appreciate the positive vibes coming from our school community. It was fantastic to see all of our 3/4 students getting involved in the virtual parade and book week activities.

 

Last week we trialled “Masterclass” support meetings from 11:30 to 12:00 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, due to low attendance at this stage we will look at other ways to support students. However, we will still be running our usual Literacy Live and Mini Math sessions along with our Lunchtime optional zoom meetings. At the lunch time meetings students are still encouraged to seek support from teachers as required. Thank you again for your ongoing support of your children and our learning community. We know this is a difficult time and are always looking for ways we can support our students. If you have any questions, please contact your classroom teacher on Sentral.

 

This week we will replace the Wednesday lunchtime zoom with a Zoo Zoom. What is a Zoo Zoom? It is a 30 minute program run by a Healesville Sanctuary Teacher. In this Zoo Zoom students will meet Australian animals and learn about the features, life cycles and habitats of these unique icons. Along with making connections to the animals that make this land unique and how they depend on each other and the environment to survive. This will be an optional zoom meeting which we hope will help engage our students and make connections to our past and future Guided Inquiry Units.

During our Literacy sessions last week students focused on synthesizing texts they had read. We used the “I think”, “I know”, and “I wonder” structure to help frame our thinking process before, during and after reading a text. We also extended our writing of persuasive texts with a focus on structuring a persuasive argument about why our book week character is the best. We got to hear lots of different opinions and arguments but clearly the best character is Mr O’Connor from Zoo School, as he is a snappy dresser. Together we also practiced our speaking and listening skills as we used discussion sentence starters to help express our opinions and to agree and disagree with one another as we discussed “Tilly the Tiger”. Students made good use of their seesaw microphones to continue the discussion together.

 

Mathematics last week saw students take on worded problems that didn’t have a set answer. The aim was for students to think about different ways to solve the fruity problems along with ways of recording and explaining their thinking process. Additionally, we kept up our work in measurement as we focused on mass. Students used estimating and measurement to find objects of different mass, size and adding objects mass together to reach a target mass. Truly there were some weighty problems last week.

 

Together we continue to think about our Wellbeing across the Independence Centre. Students in 3/4O recommend that to help feel our best during remote learning we try to keep to our usual sleep and habits by making sure we wake up at a normal school time, get dressed, and move to an area to start our learning for the day. Some of us have enjoyed working from bed in our pyjamas but have noticed that it gets harder and harder to get out of bed if we do so. Knowing that a set space is our work space for the day can be helpful as the act of leaving that space and going outside or somewhere else to relax helps change our mindset from work/screen mode to something else. While most of us enjoy our devices and working tools, ways to connect with friends, and to play games it is really important that we find ways to detach ourselves from them and find other ways to work and feel good.

 

We hope you have a wonderful week,

Mr Dix, Miss Gasowski, Mrs McCoy, Miss Molloy, Mr O’Connor and Miss Richardson

 

Student Voice

This week we asked 3/4 students what parts of remote learning they enjoyed:

  • “I enjoyed writing my persuasive piece.” Ivy S
  • “I love performing arts, this allows me to be creative and unleash my imaginations.” - Lahin
  • “I loved the literacy activities because we got to write poems and do fun tasks!” - Saumya 
  • “It’s been ok, we've had a lot of fun activities to keep our minds great.” - Brandon
  • "I like music class because it’s fun and it helps me understand what music is about." - Harnoor 
  • "I love PE because it allows me to be active" Tanmay
  • "I liked the warm ups." - Emily 

Reminders

  • See updated timetable above to weekly Zoom schedule
  • Zoo Zoom Optional This Wednesday at 10:45. See google class for link.
  • Students to check small group timetables
  • Literacy Live Zoom - daily at 9:15am
  • Mini Maths Zoom - daily at 10:00am

Pupil of the Week

3/4D: Tyrone K -

Well done on using your strength of bravery to work through challenges when working remotely on Zoom. Keep up the tough work Tyrone! 

 

3/4G: Parezae F -

For using expression and persuasive language to justify why your book week character was the best! You used creativity and a love of learning when writing this week. Perfect, Parezae!

 

3/4K: Vaanya M -

For demonstrating zest and curiosity in our Literacy Live sessions this week. You enthusiastically shared and responded to ideas about our group text, it was great to see you asking some deep thinking questions. Very impressive Vaanya!

 

3/4M: James N -

For demonstrating a love of learning during our Small Group Zoom sessions. You are an active and engaged member of the meetings and I enjoy hearing you share your ideas with the group. Just awesome, James!

 

3/4O: Viraj S -

For demonstrating a love of learning and teamwork as you engaged with your classmates in our problem solving mini math. You have continued to be eager to share your thinking and challenge your classmates to explain their thinking process. Victorious Viraj! 

 

3/4R: Edith I -

For demonstrating zest and a love of learning when participating in our Speaking and Listening task all about Zoos. It was great to hear your insightful opinions and your responses to your peers that were supported with evidence and anecdotal experiences. Excellent, Edith!