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Students of the Week

Foundation News

This week in foundation, we have been very busy being communicators, collaborators , researchers, scientists, thinkers, mathematicians, builders, designers and self-managers. It has been a busy week filled with lots of fun and exciting learning experiences.As part of our Discovery Time workshops, we were invited to explore, create, build, find out, question and problem solve.  We had Inquiry expert Kath Murdoch join us for a session to see the amazing learning we were engaging in! As scientists, we investigated how magnets work by seeing what objects a magnet attracts. As researchers, we discovered that some objects, such as a screwdriver or a peg, were made of  magnetic and non-magnetic materials. As builders and designers, we shared our ideas, came up with a plan, shared materials and took turns as we collaborated to build underground swimming pools, secret caves, racetracks and triple decker houses with wooden blocks. We faced many challenges as the blocks fell down again and again, but we were persistent and kept trying. We explored exciting talking tubs filled with different objects, photos and artefacts. One tub was themed ‘holidays’ and another was all about ‘Space’. As communicators, we shared our thinking with each other about these items, talking about what they reminded us of and telling stories as we made connections. We made sure to look at the person who was talking, listen respectfully and take turns to share. One of the talking tubs was about Space, and as researchers, we looked closely at the photos and the books to find out more about the planets.

As part of our inquiry, we continued to investigate different materials and their properties. We collaborated to build bridges and ramps that had different materials on them, such as wood, tissue paper, bubble wrap, hessian fabric, artificial grass, foil and rubber, and as curious researchers, we tested the ramps with toy cars to see which material worked the best. We discovered that the smoother the material, the faster the car will go. Here are some of our discoveries…

• The car went down the grass very slow because it was spiky - Florence 
• The car went down the foil fast - Orlando
• The car went down the foil the fastest and the grass the slowest - Hunter
• The car stopped on the rubber - Petra

As readers, some of us have been engaging in small focus groups to consolidate our knowledge of different letter sounds and matching these to different words and images, and some of us have been exploring the different parts of simple words by segmenting them into onsets and rimes and blending them back together. The onset is the initial consonant sound or blend in a word, and the rime is the string of words that follow, such as c/at and p/in. The onset in pin is /p/ and the rime is /in/. This helps us to decode new words when reading and spell words when writing. This week we are exploring the sounds /h/ and /c/ and those of us in FAM are exploring the  words ‘did’, ‘go’, ‘how’, ‘yes’, ‘you’ and ‘there’, and those of us in FLW are exploring the words ‘who’, ‘with’, ‘all’, ‘how’ and ‘this’. When engaging in literacy learning at home, please continue to assist your child in identifying these sounds, and reading, writing and spelling these words. 

As mathematicians, we are continuing to explore Measurement. As researchers, we found different objects in the space and compared them to identify if they were long or short. As collaborators, we engaged with a partner to measure different objects using informal units, such as teddies, blocks and counters. As thinkers, we focused on measuring from end to end and made sure not to leave any gaps. We are also continuing to work with two-digit numbers to 20, and some of us to 40, as we continue to practise  counting forwards and backwards, identifying numbers before and after and reading and writing these numbers. If you go on any walks, engage in a number hunt and look for different numbers on houses, number plates, letterboxes and road or shop signs. 

We hope all the mums, aunties, grandmothers and special women in our lives had a wonderful Mother’s Day! 

Foundation Team

Leanne Wenckowski & Alycia Marsico

Year 1/2

A family oriented week and community spirit truly evident with the wonderful Mothers’ Day Stall.  We trust that all of our mothers enjoyed their cards, written tributes and carefully chosen gifts.  Our students were very excited about celebrating this very special day with their mums!

The month of May is when we honour the beauty and virtue of Mary, the Mother of God and our mother. The students have begun to explore the relationship that they have with God in relation to their view of Mary. They will identify and explore scripture stores that demonstrate how Mary has many qualities that make her a special person in the Catholic Church.  Students will reflect on a variety of images of Mary in art work and identify these images with a personal connection they have to Mary. 

As Mathematicians, we have been having so much fun exploring and describing the faces, edges and vertices of 3D objects. Using blu tac, icy pole sticks and tooth picks, we made models of cubes and rectangular prisms.  We are identifying what makes a prism different to a pyramid.  Mrs Monaghan found some great 3D objects that we could flatten and touch to help us to describe their properties. It will be great to see the shape gallery evolve with all of the 3D objects brought from home!

We were so happy to have a visit from Kath Murdoch during our Discovery session on Tuesday morning. Students enjoyed the opportunity to actively engage and investigate hands on learning experiences such as puppet play, book making, construction, mixing materials, water colour, tinkering and gardening. As communicators, some students shared their wonderings, reflections and their plans for the next sessions. 

“We need to plant plants in season, in winter.  We need to harvest the plants in the garden”. Sam

“I wonder why there are lots of weeds in the garden?” Maddie C

“We need to prepare the garden and plant veggies that are in season”. Madison 

As part of our Shared Inquiry, we have been reading ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ and exploring the alliterations and adverbs used by Roald Dahl. We composed our own marvellous medicine using adjectives and verbs.  We look forward to making some Marvellous mixtures of our own and like George’s medicine, start to think about which ones will melt? Which ones can be mixed together? Which ones can’t be mixed together?

Our Shared Inquiry focus is on mixtures that we use for all kinds of purposes. We are learning about the types of mixtures, materials that don’t mix well, and others that are difficult to separate. Through hands-on investigations we will explore how changing the quantities of materials in a mixture can alter its properties and uses.  We brainstormed examples of mixtures using food catalogues, sorted them and pasted them into our Inquiry books.  What is in the mixture?  What is it used for?

Year 1/2 Team 

Stefanie Carriera, Belinda Filippone & Maria Delaney

Year 3/4

Last term, our Physical Education Coordinator, Michael Jennings, applied to the 'Sporting Schools Funding' Program for a government grant to conduct a sports program at our school. We were successful and received a grant to conduct  netball lessons for the Year 3/4 students during Term 2. Netball is one of the most popular sports played in Australia and worldwide. The program will  run for five weeks and provides each 3/4 class with a one hour session each Friday.

The coaches from Netball Victoria  have been assisting the 3/4 students in learning new netball techniques and drills. This week the  students have been learning different passing styles, such as the chest pass, bounce pass and shoulder pass. The students also practised shooting goals and played some fun games. Who knows St. Fidelis  school may have another Liz Watson (Australian Diamonds Netball star) in the making?

The 3/4 students have been extremely fortunate to be part of this netball program and have shared their responses below. 

I enjoyed passing the ball to my classmates in a drill because it got harder and harder to do and you had to keep up. Anthony  

The netball clinic was lots of fun. I loved playing the different games with my friends.Savannah.

This was the first time I tried Netball. Surprisingly it was  more challenging than I thought it would be and it was also lots of fun!Marcus

It felt like we were actually doing training for a real netball game. Patrick.

Netball is similar to basketball but also a lot different. I really enjoyed learning new Netball skills today! Amber

I learnt that shooting goals in Netball is really tricky because unlike in basketball there is no backboard attached to the goal post. Isabella.

I enjoyed playing the game Golden Child where we practised our running and passing the ball very quickly. Xena

I play Netball at Net, Set, Go in Parkville. This netball clinic was just as much fun! Adelynn.

Year 3/4 team

Mark Mac Gregor, Katarina Davidson and Graham Troy 

Year 5/6

The 5/6 students are continuing to progress their learning and collaborate well with each other. 

The students have been focusing on setting a learning asset goal that will help improve areas of their learning that they need to work on. They have chosen from the learning assets of communicator, thinker, collaborator, researcher or self-manager. They have also written about which dispositions will help them achieve their goal such as being confident, responsible, flexible, persistent and open-minded.

In reading, writing and Maths the students are also writing goals using the SMART goals strategy of 

Specific - What exactly is your goal? What do you hope to achieve?

Measurable - How will you know when you reach your goal?

A-Attainable - What action plan will help you achieve your goal?

R-Relevant/Realistic - Is your goal realistic to your abilities? Does it relate to your learning?

T-Timebound/Trackable - When will you achieve your goal? How will you monitor your progress?

Goal setting will help students to be self-reflective about what areas of the curriculum they need to work on to further progress their learning. Their goals and how they have achieved them will be discussed at Student Led Conversations later this term.

NAPLAN for the Year 5 students is this week. We have been discussing strategies and conducting some practise questions with them.  It is important for the Year 5 students to remember to not stress and just try their best. We wish them well for the tests this week, which commence on Tuesday and conclude on Thursday.

Tania Fragopoulos, Viv Clarke, Olivia Sargent and Michelle Casamento

Year 5/6 teachers.