Ulysses Community Report

Term 4 2020

Thank you and a happy holidays!

We would like to say a big thank you to all of our Ulysses students and families. This year has been a very different and unusual year but it has been a great year to get to know our amazing kids and families. Thank you for all of the dedication and support with your child's learning.

Our Learning

Reading

In Term 4 Reading, students have been exposed to a variety of new sounds that have helped develop their reading skills. Complex sounds and spelling choices, such as a wr, rr, and r (write, Warren, road) were investigated, along with ay, ai, and a-e (hay, rain, shave). Through this study of more complex sounds and spelling choices, students were able to access and read texts with increasingly complex letter patterns. Students read decodable texts in order to support their new understandings.

Mini-Lessons provided an opportunity to model how punctuation can impact on the flow of a text, how an Author’s Purpose can be determined through the language features of the text and how rhyming words can add fluency and engaging elements to a text.

Writing

In Term 4 Writing, students became actively involved in writing autobiographies using the 6+1 Writing traits. In order to support their understanding of an autobiography text structure, students were exposed to this through the mentor text ‘The Little Refugee’ by Anh Do. Students explored the purpose of an autobiography honing into the ideas presented in the book and created like sentences using adjectives in their autobiographies. They grasped the concept of organising their information to ensure their sentences were grammatically fluent. Students also used their voice when writing ensuring the personal pronoun ‘I’ was used throughout their writing. Students read their autobiographies aloud in order to peer and self edit and worked on ensuring that their conventions were correct and there was evidence of edited spelling, punctuation and upper case letters.

Students then explored the structure of a persuasive text and presented arguments orally and in written form. We are proud of the voice our students presented with and we witnessed enthusiasm when presenting their differing ideas and evidence. Students took part in whole class persuasive text writing such as ‘Should the boy squish the ant?’ and ‘How to persuade my parents for a pet’.

Maths

In Maths Term 4, Ulysses focussed on Fractions, Money, and Time. We explored fractions through the use of paper folding of a whole. Students folded, cut and pasted halves, quarters and eighths. We then extended our knowledge and practised halves, quarters and eighths of a collection. Students were given the opportunity to think beyond the classroom and apply their knowledge into real life experiences and contexts. For example: Cutting a cake or sharing lollies with our brothers and sister.

In Money, students described the features of coins and notes and ordered them from least value to most value and in reverse.Students put coins in categories such as cents and dollars. We played games like ‘Which coin am I?’ by giving clues of shape, colour and size. Students made connections between the value of each coin by using MAB for example $1= 100cents. We then continued to practise our skills in skip counting by counting small collections of coins or notes.

In Time, Ulysses identified the features of a clock and identified the numbers on a clock and the representation of minutes. Students manipulated hands on a clock to demonstrate time to the half hour, quarter past and quarter to. Students have also had the opportunity to describe time to their peers in order to apply their knowledge of the positioning of the hands on a clock.

SEL

In Social and Emotional learning this term, students have practised skills to develop their social skills and awareness. We have explored how to cope with stress and what we can do if we get worried. Students have identified body signs of stress and techniques to relax. We have also identified what are safe and unsafe behaviours and who we can seek for help.

Inquiry

In Inquiry, students explored citizenship and an Inquiry into their own history and that of their family; this included stories from a range of cultures and other parts of the world. As participants in their own history, students build on their knowledge and understanding of how the past is different from the present.

Students were immersed in text such as ‘The little refugee’ , ‘My two blankets’ and ‘You and me Murawee’. Through these texts students were able to identify the differences and similarities between themselves and the characters in the book. They were able to apply their knowledge in their ‘So What?’ project of creating a family tree, writing their own auto- biography and/or writing a biography on a classmate.

Important Notes to Remember

Please have a happy holiday.
Please label all belongings in preparation for 2021
Please bring back all items
Students are encouraged to bring their iPads to school each day.
Purchase a hat and water bottle if you have not done so.