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Students of the Week

Foundation

This week in Foundation, we have continued to demonstrate courage, persistence and resilience. We spent the week spreading happiness and positivity in recognition of Edward Debono’s thinking hats. The yellow hat represents positiveness and optimism and reminds us to see the good in everyone and everything. We decorated yellow hats of all shapes and sizes, wrote messages of hope, love and kindness, put them on our windows and fences, and delivered them to neighbours and local cafes. Please continue to spread some much needed positivity throughout the community during this challenging time.

As self-managers, we continued to engage respectfully online in our Google Meets. Each day, we are becoming more and more confident and continue to share our thinking and wonderings. 

As mathematicians, we began finding out about the concept of Location. We had so much fun learning about positional language through songs, books and games. We played a variation of Simon Says called “Miss Marsico Says” and “Mrs Wenckowski Says” and created obstacle courses for our teddies and toys at home. 

As readers, we celebrated Book Week. On Friday morning, we met online in costume to share our character and what book we were from. Miss Marsico came as Little Red Riding Hood and Mrs Wenckowski as the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz. 

There was Matilda, Where’s Wally, Goldilocks, Gruffalo, Pete the Pirate, Simba, Oompa Loompas, Spiderman, Superman, monsters, animals and princesses. As thinkers, readers, writers and artists, we spent the day engaging in lots of fun book week tasks. Some of us made our own books, posters and bookmarks, recreated different characters and went on book scavenger hunts. However, our favourite thing to do was build our own little reading fort, tent, cubby or corner, and curl up in there with our family and read our favourite picture story books.

What a wonderful week it was in Foundation AM and Foundation LW. We are excited for the week ahead and curious about what new surprises and exciting learning opportunities are in store for us. 

Once again, we thank all the parents and carers for all their hard work and support during this time. Keep it up, you’re doing a wonderful job. 

Foundation Team,

Leanne Wenckowski and Alycia Marsico 

Year 1/2

We would like to congratulate all Year 1 and 2 students for continuing to attend their Google Meets with their ‘Yellow Hats’, ready to participate with enthusiasm and cheer. We have loved seeing hats and we thank you for being such positive learners during this challenging time!

As readers, we are continuing to engage in remote learning opportunities via Google Meets. We continue to practise good reading strategies and build our knowledge of words. This week, we have been reading the shortlisted Book Week texts such as ‘There’s No Such Thing’, ‘Anemone is Not the Enemy’ and ‘Busy Beaks’. We have been exploring the De Bono Thinking Hats to consider multiple perspectives, facts and feelings when responding to these texts.

As mathematicians, we are finding out about the mathematical concept of addition using money. As thinkers, we have been finding out about and using a range of strategies to help us solve problems. We have been learning about adding dollars, cents and making equivalent amounts of money. We continue to be confident and take risks with our learning as we share our thinking and ideas with our peers over Google Meets.

As members of a Catholic Faith Community, we learnt about the importance of being unique and appreciating the gifts and talents of others. We learned that God gave us gifts and talents so that we can live fully for Him. 

As curious inquiriers, we were fortunate enough to engage in some learning from Wanyara, an Indigenous Australian company who helps young learners understand and embrace the perspectives of Indigenous Australians. We look forward to taking our new learning further in the coming weeks. Here are some of our reflections after our session:

• I learnt that you need to get permission to use a picture of the Aboriginal Flag - Joseph G
• I found out that the didgeridoo is a man's instrument. - Christian L
• I learnt that the symbols tell a story. - Maddie C

We were very excited for Friday as we had the opportunity to dress up as our favourite book week characters! Everyone looked absolutely amazing and had lots of fun. Check out the photos below to see us all dressed up! 

Here are some of the activities we engaged in for Book Week:

We thank you for your support during this time, and look forward to another week of marvellous learning from our wonderful students!

Kind regards,

Belinda Filippone, Maria Delaney and Stefanie Carriera

Year 3/4

The Year 3 /4 students have continued to work well this week. Most meets are attended on time and the student’s learning tasks are continually completed to the best of their ability.

In Reading, our focus has been on the comprehension strategy of compare and contrast. The students have read a variety of texts and have been asked to look carefully at the writing and then show how characters in a story, the settings and different animals can all be placed in a venn diagram to show their differences and similarities.

In Writing, our focus has been on how to write an Information Report. The students have worked on researching accurate facts about Australia, sorting them into categories to then use when writing paragraphs this week.

In Mathematics, we have focussed on the concept of Area. We have looked at the strategies you can use to measure the inside of regular shapes. The students have used a formula, counted square centimetres on a grid and drawn shapes with stated areas on a piece of paper.

In Inquiry, we spoke about the meaning of the words: contribute, participate, diverse and culture. These words all link to our unit of work which looks at how diverse individuals have contributed to the world we live in. We read the story about Faith Bandler and Jessie Street who lead the 1967 referendum to give Aboriginal Australians the freedoms and rights all others had. We discussed the amazing contribution these two ladies made to our country's history.

On Friday, the children dressed up as their favourite book characters. It was great to see the joy on their faces as they shared with one another who they were. I thank you for assisting your children with this activity. The children also shared the variety of tasks they completed as part of the Book Week grid. Listening about and seeing the blanket cubby/ fort brought many fond memories of my childhood.

Thank you again for the support you provide to us teachers and your children. 

Stay safe and well,

Mark MacGregor, Katarina Davidson and Graham Troy.

Year 5/6

The Grade 5/6 students enthusiastically continued to make leaps and bounds in their learning during this lockdown.  They are to be congratulated on their resilience and their independence in completing tasks on time and working to a schedule of google meets. Their time management and organisational skills are to be praised.  

This week our Grade 6’s have been preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  The Grade 6’s meet online with Michele L, a presenter from the Presentation Sisters order.  Her powerful presentation was insightful, thought provoking and  faith-filled.  We were so blessed to be part of this presentation where students and their parents were able to participate in their confirmation preparation in a friendly, interactive way.  Students also explored the story of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit.  They  identified the gifts of the Holy Spirit and have started to reflect on how these gifts can become part of their everyday lives.  

In Literacy, this week, we continued reading/listening to a whole class text “The 39 Clues”.  Students explored the use of adjectives within the text and how they are used by the author to bring powerful imagery for the reader.  Through a detailed exploration of the text, both literal and inferred, students were able to create a thorough character profile of the two main characters Dan and Amy. We look forward to exploring the 39 Clues mystery in the coming weeks. 

During Book Week, students focused on the incredible images in the book  ‘Dry to Dry: Seasons of Kakadu’ by Pamela Freeman and Illustrated by Liz Anelli and “How To Draw a Bird”  by award-winning author Meg McKinlay and celebrated artist Matt Ottle.  These texts allowed the students to be immersed in extraordinary imagery and rich language, which spark their imagination as they entered the creative world themselves.  Students also continued with their poetry unit and this week’s theme was Haiku poems.  Line 1 must have 5 syllables, line 2 has 7 syllables and line 3 has 5 syllables.  The students took their inspiration from their Book Week books. 

In Numeracy, students continued their work on division and more complex problem solving equations using division. Continuing on from our capacity scavenger hunt around the house, students used their skills to convert a number of capacity equations from millilitres to litres, to kilolitres and megalitres and back again.  This was a challenge they relished! 

We continued with our Inquiry unit investigating people who have changed our community and world for the better.  Students investigated wonderful leaders such as Adam Goodes, who has changed Australia with his work with Ingenous Australians and Racism in the AFL.  We also researched Caroline Chrisolm, who was fundamental in our early  history and the educational and financial support of immigrant women and was found on the Australian five dollar note. 

On Friday, the students participated in our Book Week Dress-up Day and completed activities themed around Book Week.  Enthusiasm was high with Thing 1, Cats in the Hat, Harry Potter, Ancient Mummies, 101 Dalmatians, Tom Cruise and we even had Scomo and Dan Andrews (impersonators) make their presence on our Google Meets! We had to watch out for Mrs Trunchball though - she was on the rampage!  

Our students' amazing creativity was in abundance as they completed various Book Week activities, including bookmarks, board games, preparing and cooking a meal for their character and making playdough!  We thank all our students and their parents for their continued energy, support  and enthusiasm over the continued lockdown.  We understand the incredibly hard task that is home learning for you and your child, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to all parents and carers for their ongoing support, understanding and patience.  The 5/6 teachers couldn’t be prouder of how well the Year 5/6 students are continuing to meet the challenges of remote learning.  They are really rising to the challenge set out by St Francis of Assisi “Start by doing what is necessary, then do what’s possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible!” 

Take care, we hope to see you back at school soon, 

Cherrie Arnold, Olivia Sargent, Michelle Casamento, Viviana Clarke