What's happening?
Foundation
This year has flown by so quickly, we can’t believe that we’re already more than halfway through Term 4. The students did an amazing job at swimming, practising their new skills and showing their independence when coming too and from the pool.
In writing, students will continue to write their narratives, which are coming along very well. We are focusing on adding extra detail and descriptive language to ensure our stories are interesting. All students continue to impress us with their ability to apply learnt codes within PhOrMEs and use their knowledge in their writing.
In maths, we have begun our unit on multiplication, where students are learning to make groups. During this unit, we are using hands-on strategies with manipulatives alongside drawing the groups as a visual representation. Next week, we will be finishing off our measurement unit by learning all about capacity.
Upcoming Event:
A reminder that on Wednesday 3rd December, we will be heading to the zoo, which I am sure the students are super excited for. Students are required to bring a small backpack with a disposable drink bottle, snack, and lunch (satchels are not required on this day). Please apply sunscreen before the excursion. On the day, please arrive at 8.20 and go straight to your classroom. The buses will leave at 8.30 am.
Further information is on Compass.
If you would like to volunteer, please email your classroom teacher by 20th November, and your name will be put in a hat.
Grade 1
The term is certainly flying by as we head into Weeks 7 and 8!
In Literacy, we are continuing our work on Narrative writing for the next two weeks. Our handwriting focus is the letters Pp and Rr. Students are learning about the long spelling after a short vowel sound – looking at the codes “dge” and “ge”, and next week will explore “tch” versus “ch.” Our suffix focus this week is “ly”, followed by “ment.” For punctuation, students are learning to use quotation marks correctly in their writing.
In Maths, students have been exploring Place Value, learning how to trade ten ones for one ten and ten tens for one hundred. Next week, we will return to addition and revisit different strategies to help solve number equations confidently.
In Wellbeing, our focus this week is Cooperation. Students have discussed what it means to show teamwork and will have the chance to practise these skills during our sport afternoons. Next week, our focus will shift to Gratitude, where students will reflect on what they are thankful for and look back on the wonderful year they’ve had.
Our Inquiry topic this week is all about Bees! Next week, we’re excited for our excursion to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, where students will explore the world of minibeasts. They’ll investigate different habitats and, hopefully, spot some of the fascinating creatures we’ve been learning about this term. Students will also take part in a structured Minibeast program run by the Gardens’ staff. Further details about what students will need on the day will be sent home soon.
Finally, a big congratulations to all students for their fantastic participation in our swimming program. Everyone showed great responsibility with their belongings, listened carefully to new instructors, and travelled to and from the pool sensibly. We’re so proud of their positive attitude and behaviour. A big thank you to all the parents who helped during this time — your support is always appreciated!
Grade 2
Our ‘olden days’ dress up day was such a fun and interesting day, aimed at giving students a picture of what school might have been like in the past, and how it has changed over time. Thank you for the super effort with costumes!
Reading: As part of our ‘Core Knowledge’ reading unit, we continue to engage in the text ‘The Wind in the Willows’ by exploring themes within the text, as well as investigating the meaning of interesting vocabulary. Students have been learning to understand the difference between narration and dialogue within the story.
Writing: Students have been very busy writing some fabulous narrative pieces! Over the next couple of weeks we will be editing and publishing our narratives with the inclusion of careful illustrations.
PhOrMeS: In our PhOrMeS lessons, students have been learning to read and spell words which contain wa, wha, war, whar, qua and quar spellings. The letter /a/ makes the “o” sound after a w, wh or qu and the letters /ar/ makes the sound “or” after w, wh or qu. They have also learnt about the suffix -ness (-ness means the idea of).
The Grammar Project: Students have been learning to use modal verbs within a sentence. Modal verbs can be used to indicate different degrees of possibility, ranging from high to low. For example: We must learn how to swim. Next week students will be identifying regular and irregular past tense verbs in a sentence.
Maths: This week, we are wrapping up our unit on Patterns. Next week, we will begin our Location topic, where students will firstly revise quarter, half, three-quarter and full turns in everyday situations. Students will then be learning to locate positions in two-dimensional representations of a familiar space and moving positions by following directions and pathways.
Wellbeing: Through our ‘U R Strong’ program, students are learning about ways to navigate friendships when feeling left out and saying “no” in a calm and polite manner when they don’t feel like playing.
Homework: Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud and a weekly Word Study/PhOrMeS worksheet. Optional online extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).
Grade 3
What a fabulous fortnight we have had in Grade 3! All of our students should be very proud of the way they conducted themselves, both during the swimming program, and on camp to Phillip Island Adventure Resort. Students consistently showed our Super Six Values, enjoyed many new experiences, and a great time was had by all. We’d like to say another very big thank to you our parent helpers, and also to families for your support with preparing the children for both swimming and camp. Please see our school Instagram account for more photos.
Homework reminders: Students need to have their natural landforms research completed (and brought into school) by the beginning of next week, as they will use it to begin their poster at school
Students should also continue their regular home reading, record in diary, get it signed by a grown up, and bring it to school every Friday. Thanks for your ongoing support with this.
Grade 4
It’s been another busy couple of weeks in Grade 4!
Bike Ed began last week with great success! The students thoroughly enjoyed their first session and are looking forward to the next three sessions of Bike Ed. A big thank you to all the parent volunteers, and Mr A, who are helping make this program happen.
Literacy: The students have completed the mid term assessment for our study of ‘Wonder’ and we have been extremely impressed by the depth of understanding they have made whilst reading the text. The powerful themes within the book are hopefully challenging the kids thinking about how they see difference in our world. The written components of our study have looked at how to successfully compose a written response that includes sound evidence from the book, as well as apply learnt vocabulary from the book into their responses. All Grade 4’s have now almost finished creating exciting narratives for the story prompt “Stuck”. It has been great to see lots of strong descriptive and figurative language used.
Numeracy: During Maths sessions, the children have been exploring the topic of Probability. We have been conducting chance experiments and recording and reflecting on our findings. We move into one of our final topics next week, Statistics.
Inquiry: We were fortunate enough to have our Drumming Incursion last week, where the students were immersed in African drumming and dance. As we finish off our topic, the students will begin a group project for Inquiry, where they are tasked to work in teams to ‘Design a Country’, based on their understanding of South American or African climate, vegetation and land features. This will be an ongoing project to be completed in Week 10.
Grade 5
Last week 5H and 5G went to Parkdale Secondary College and participated in a high school Japanese and science lesson. Both lessons were very engaging. In Japanese, students revised numbers and how to introduce themselves and write their name in traditional characters even some of the teachers learnt some new Japanese skills. In Science, students explored chemical reactions and the theory behind how rocket fuels work.
Maths
In Maths, students have been developing their algebra skills. They have been exploring the order of operations and solving a range of algebraic expressions. Students have also worked with expressions where a letter represents a particular value to determine specific outcomes. In addition, they have investigated number patterns, rules, and geometric patterns, identifying the matching rules and expressions. Our next unit of work is time, where students will be reading and recognising times in 12hr and 24hr form, solving elapsed time and reading timetables.
Writing
Students have now completed our Narrative writing unit and are finalising their own pieces of writing. Over the past few weeks, they have worked steadily through each main paragraph, applying skills such as personification, figurative language, show don’t tell, and the use of action verbs. This week, students will be completing a post-assessment of their narrative writing skills and unpacking their writing with their classroom teachers..
Reading
In Reading, students have continued to deepen their understanding of our class text A Long Walk to Water, following the journeys of Nya and Salva. Through Salva’s story, students have learnt about the harsh living conditions within refugee camps and the mental strength he demonstrates as he continues on despite significant hardships. In Nya’s story, students are exploring her confusion about why several men have come to her village to dig between the trees in search of water, as she believes water only appears in the area after rain. Throughout these sessions, students have been developing their ability to read and respond to comprehension questions and to use evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Inquiry
Students have continued their research on various aspects of their chosen country and have been working diligently to compile information for their informational booklet. Last week, students created maps of their country, answered a range of research questions, and used a world map to locate several countries around the globe. This week, students are focusing on food traditions. They have explored how to create a pie chart and investigated which traditional dishes from their chosen country would be most favoured by their peers.
Homework
Literacy (Seesaw)
Maths (provided by students' maths group teacher), due Monday
Minimum 20 minutes of reading each night, recorded in diaries and signed off on each week by a parent. Due Friday
Grade 6
Literacy
Our reading and study of the novel "Rivet Boy" continues. We are examining the themes and meanings behind the writing throughout the various chapters. A weekly focus is also reviewing literary devices used throughout the text, such as idioms, personification, alliteration, similes and metaphors.
Writing
The Grade 6 students have been continuing to learn about narrative structure. They are well on the way to completing their own narrative based on a variety of picture prompts. We have been impressed with the language choices and vocabulary in their writing, and their attempt to include a variety of different sentence types (simple, compound and complex).
Mathematics
In Mathematics, students have finished the Decimals and Percentages topic. They have begun a partner project involving designing their own zoo within a given budget. They need to create a floor plan of a zoo within the given boundaries and calculate monetary values using a budget. This includes work with financial mathematics, working out running costs, gate entries, gift shop sales, as well as percentage discounts applied to certain aspects of sales.
Inquiry
The students have started working with their groups for Market Day and have established business names, slogans and logos. Their choice of products has also been decided and groups will be ready to start manufacturing.
Sport
The boys' cricket team did a great job on Wednesday in their Regional Finals. They won their three pool games against Woodlands, Beacon Hills, and Thomas Michell to advance to the Final. Unfortunately, they were beaten by Barton 145 to 170 runs. Congratulations on a fantastic effort, boys!!
With interschool sport over, we are back to playing a variety of sports and games with the Grade 6 cohort. The students have been asked to choose the games they would like to play for Friday sport, and we will rotate around those activities to finish off the year.