PLC News

Professional Learning Community Foundation  (Preps)

What a wonderful start to Term 2! It was great to see Prep students come back from the break refreshed and ready for another term of learning. The Preps competed in their first Cross Country on Thursday and gave it a red hot go, even in the misty terrain! They should be very proud of their efforts. 

In Literacy this week we have been revisiting the sounds we learnt last term, and learning Rr, Uu & Jj. We have also began reading and writing about Australian animals. This week is was the koala. 

In Numeracy we have been learning about patterns and have had a lot of fun finding them in real life. This week we have been practising recognising and making teen numbers. Ask us how many tens and ones are in a two digit number, we might be able to tell you! 

This week we have been also trialling a change to our Fruit Break where we are enjoying our fruit at the very start of the day rather than part way through. We are finding this allows the transition between Reading and Writing to be a lot smoother. Can we please request that if your child is eating an apple or orange that they have been cut for them. This saves us a lot of time in the classroom. 

Here are some photos from over the last few weeks. Have a wonderful week,

The Prep Team

Professional Learning Community 1  (Grade 1 )

A huge welcome back to all PLC 1 parents, carers, and students. We hope you all enjoyed the Easter break and spent some quality time with friends and family.  

It’s been so pleasing to see our Grade 1 students hit the ground running and settling in so seamlessly in their classrooms. We anticipate another busy term with our mid-year assessment just around the corner in Week 5 and 6.  

In Reading, our focus has been on monitoring and self-correcting whilst using a range of strategies to ensure that we’re making sense of what we are reading. We’ve also been making inferences during reading with a big emphasis on determining a character’s emotions using a range of text and picture clues. In Writing, our students have been focusing on the theme of ‘A Magic Carpet Ride’ where they have been describing what they can see above them and below them. We’ve been super impressed with the incredible imaginations of our Grade 1 students and look forward to reading the finished writing pieces at the end of this week. 

In Numeracy, the focus has been on solving addition and subtraction worded problems with students identifying what the question is asking of them and using a range of strategies and resources to solve these problems.  

Finally, thank you to all parents and carers who were able to attend parent-teacher interviews last week. It was excellent to be able to sit down and discuss your child’s progress thus far in 2022 as well as meet some parents/carers whom we hadn’t had the opportunity to meet in Term 1. 

Many thanks, 

PLC 1 Staff 

Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2 ) 

Congratulations to all PLC2 for settling back into school so well. 

Please remember, now that we are entering the colder and wetter months, students should come to school with a spare pair of socks (and pants if you wish) in their school bags in case there are any slips outside. While it is cold outside, our classrooms are warm so jumpers and coats are coming on and off. Please ensure all school uniform is well labeled. 

In Reading we have been analysing texts - noticing the Genre (fiction or non-fiction), the Author’s Purpose (persuade, inform or entertain) and the features of the text (diagrams, pictures, headings, contents page, glossary, captions, page numbers etc.) When students are completing their home reading they can show off their analysing skills by identifying the genre, author’s purpose and text features as they read. Please remember to sign readers every night, we know that the nights get busy so we are happy for students to sign their own diary and get an adult to sign or initial it. The classes with the least students in Reading Club will get a Zooper Dooper - let’s make sure it’s the Grade 2s. 

Our writing topic for the first half of the term is ‘Mythical and Magical’ where the students have been working on writing a description. They have been focusing on using powerful writing strategies and descriptive language to explore ‘Show Don’t Just Tell.’ This week we began writing a narrative piece where they will include descriptive language into their narratives which will enhance their vocabulary.  Students have also been using flashcards that can assist with the vocabulary of new words that they can use in their writing.                                                                                                                                                                                             In Numeracy students have been working hard on identifying, making and adding collections of money. Students have used supermarket catalouges to shop for different items, add the amounts of items, make the cost of items using different combinations and spend a certain amount of money that was relevant to their budget. 

 Don’t forget about the Mother’s Day stall on Thursday the 5th of May and our Curriculum Day on Friday the 6th of May.

Have a great week everyone!

Professional Learning Community 3 (Grades 3)

Welcome back to Term 2 everyone. We have a very exciting term planned. We shone during Cross Country and smiled so happily during our school photos and we have used our enquiring mind to get stuck into our Science topic of Smooth Moves where we are learning all about forces in the world.

This week in Reading we have been working on solving words when we read by using a wide variety of strategies such as skipping the word, reading to the end of the sentence and then going back to think about what would make sense before chunking letters together. You can work on this at home also. In Writing, we have enjoyed being little authors to write a narrative story set in the garden. Wait until you see these in portfolios at the end of the term, you are in for a real treat! What creative writers we have in PLC3. Numeracy has been an exciting challenge as we have made new discoveries about fractions.

NAPLAN is next week and it will be important for students to be at school on time and well rested so they can do their best. Please keep reminding students to complete their home reading.

Professional Learning Community 4 (Grades 4)

We hope everyone has had a relaxing term break and is ready for Term 2!

We've already gotten straight back into learning. The Grade 4s are expanding their number knowledge as we are now looking at fractions and exploring parts of a whole in Numeracy. We've found it challenging but we are persisting and getting the hang of it!

Our Reading focus this week is inferring characters emotions or even their non-physical traits, this has helped us develop our skill of understanding cause and effect. 

In Writing we are developing our narrative writing skills by writing about the bush and camping. We are learning to try our best and give everything a red-hot go!

Speaking of camping, thank you to all the parents who have handed in their camp forms. The teachers are currently working hard to make sure that every detail is planned out so we can have the most amount of fun! We have a lot of great activities in store, such as canoeing, bushwalking and more! The purpose for this is to develop our love for the outdoors through challenging and fun activities while making lifelong memories and developing our social skills, problem solving skills and independence!

There are many exciting things awaiting this term!

Professional Learning Community 5 (Grades 5)

I hope everyone had time to rest and recuperate over the holidays because once again we have a lot happening this term, especially considering that it is such a short one! Just a friendly reminder that NAPLAN begins next week; this is not something that students need to be concerned for, it is just about students giving it a ‘red hot go’ and displaying their personal best - please take the time to reassure them of this. 

So far this term students have been working on critiquing texts- looking at the plot, setting and believability of the story and evaluating it as a pre-adolescent. This week in reading we are solving a mystery as they develop the skill of synthesising, noticing how their predictions change as they gather new information. Why not ask your student who they think stole the missing cupcake. In Writing we have been creating a narrative based on the prompt ‘What lies beneath’; students are enjoying the chance to slow down the writing process and focus on quality not quantity. In Numeracy students have began creating their own city where they are required to apply a variety of measurement skills to complete the task. Students are challenged to incorporate compound shapes and work with measurements to the mm. I am so excited to see students finished products!

Professional Learning Community 6 (Grades 6)

And just like that…we are back! PLC 6 hopes that everyone had a safe and amazing break over the holidays and that all of our wonderful students have returned with a positive mindset. This term is a short one (just 9 weeks) so the students will have a busy period ahead of them. 

This week in Reading, we are beginning to explore the skill of summarising. We are continuing our whole class text of ‘Harry Potter’ and exploring some of the themes that present themselves within each chapter. It is a book that holds a lot of interest amongst our students and we look forward to analysing it further as the term progresses. One summarising skill we will identify is- Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. Challenge- quiz your child to see they can remember this…

In Writing, we are beginning a new piece that is also on our theme of magic. Students will spend time developing their vocabulary on this topic before beginning to write their narrative. The students have been very engaged thus far, and I am sure they will all be able to create their own little piece of ‘magic’ in their own respective pieces.   

In Numeracy, we are beginning to look at fractions. We will consolidate some of our understandings from last week’s topic of decimals and then begin to break down what a fraction actually is. Students will be working on several different areas relating to fractions, including but not limited to: representing, ordering, comparing, simplifying, adding and subtracting.  

Have a great week and don’t forget that with the weather beginning to cool down, it would be beneficial for the students to start finding some of their warmer clothing that has been hidden away.