What's Happening
Foundation
This term has gone by so quickly! By the end of next week, we will have almost finished learning all the letters of the alphabet (just x and w to go!). We are incredibly proud of the growth our students have made this term, both socially and academically. We have had such a fun and memorable term, from coming to school in our pyjamas, to celebrating Grandparents Day, and participating in many activities with our buddies.
Literacy This week, we are learning the letters u, y, j, and k. We have been completing a range of activities to support students’ retrieval of previously learned sounds. Next week, we will finish the term by reviewing our learned codes, as well as VC and CVC words.
Maths This week, we began our fluid maths groups within the topic of Pattern. Students have settled into their groups beautifully and are showing growing confidence! Next week, we will complete our Pattern unit and continue developing our problem-solving skills during our Friday maths sessions. In Term 2, we will begin maths groups with a unit on Place Value.
Social Skills Last week, we explored our final school value, Excellence. We are using the word “yet” to encourage students to persevere and always try their best. We have also discussed how making mistakes is an important part of learning.
This week, we are reviewing our “Super Six” values. In our final week, we will wrap up our social skills lessons by revisiting these values and reflecting on an amazing first term of school.
Inquiry We are learning all about our five senses and investigating them through a variety of engaging activities, including crafts, a nature walk, and exploring our fruit/snack boxes. Students have been describing what they can smell, taste, see, hear, and feel. They have shown wonderful enthusiasm, especially when sharing their explorations and knowledge during Show and Tell.
We are very excited about what Term 2 will bring and hope that all students have an enjoyable and restful break. Continuing to read over the holidays would be very beneficial in supporting student confidence as they head into next term.
Bring on the final week of term 1!
The Foundation Team
Grade 1
Wow what a great term! We cannot believe the fact that we are almost at the end of Term One. We want to say a very big thank you to all of our lovely families and students for making the term such an enjoyable one.
The last two weeks have been extremely busy with Grandparents/Special Friends Day, Harmony Day and lots of learning.
We have continued to learn all about our families and our role within them. Even having a bit of fun, looking back at us as babies and then forwards to what we might look like 60 years from now.
We have been learning lots about the Addition process and all about the different strategies we can use to solve our equations. Ask us about; Ten’s Friends, Doubling, Counting On, Partitioning and even Bridging to 10.
During our writing lessons, we continue to learn about how to structure and write an entertaining Recount. Using shared experiences like Assemblies, our special visitor days and other shared experiences. Our sentences are now much more interesting because we use adjectives and adverbs. We could even show you our Word Raps that help us remember what an adjective, noun, verb and adverb are.
The spelling focus students are learning about is the spelling of words with the long "ee" sound, which can be spelled in two different ways: "ee" and "ea”. There is no strict rule for when to use "ee" or "ea" in every case, so it’s important to remember that these spelling patterns can sometimes be tricky. At this stage in their learning, we encourage the children to ask an adult or use a reference material, like a word list, to find the correct choice, when they are unsure of which code to use. Over the next two weeks the children will also learn that the code ‘ea’ can make 3 sounds - long /e/ as in eat, short /e/ as in bread and long /a/ as in steak. To help your child learn these codes at home, keep an eye on homework folders for this fortnight's word study practice page! You can also try looking for these codes in readers, practice listening carefully for the sounds in words and sorting words into groups.
A big thank you to those that have been completing the home tasks and regular reading at home. It is extremely beneficial to the student’s progress, growth and reading stamina, to continue reading over the break.
Happy Easter, we hope you have an awesome break, and we cannot wait to see you all in Term Two.
The Grade One Team.
Grade 2
We wanted to congratulate our Grade 2 students on their terrific behaviour and enthusiasm shown on our excursion this week! Also, say a huge thank you to our parent helpers that came along to Moonlit Sanctuary.
Literacy: Students are further developing their recount writing skills, with the goal of describing their experiences written in past tense using time connectives (first, next, after, finally), interesting adjectives, and including their thoughts and feelings. Students have written recounts about our excursion to Moonlit Sanctuary.
Students have also been learning to apply their knowledge from our ‘Grammar Project’ lessons to complete sentences when provided with but, because and so sentence stems and edit our sentences for boundary punctuation.
During our PhOrMeS/Word Study lessons students have been revising all 5 silent final e rules.
For reading, we continue fluency pairs for the remainder of the term, where students read to a partner for a set amount of time. Once reading fluency is developed to an automatic/proficient level, readers can focus much less on decoding and more on the comprehension of the texts they read.
Maths: We are wrapping up our Subtraction topic! Students have been developing strategies to solve problems as well as exploring the relationship between addition and subtraction, and how they can use addition strategies to help solve subtraction problems.
Inquiry: Habitat diorama construction has begun this week! It is always such a fun way to finish the term and consolidate understanding about different habitats and ways animals adapt to their environments.
Wellbeing: This fortnight our wellbeing and social skills focus is on help seeking activities.
Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud and word study sheets. Optional online extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).
As this will be the final newsletter for Term 1, we’d like to thank our wonderful parents and families for all your support this term and wish you a lovely holiday.
Grade 3
Core Knowledge: We are continuing to read a variety of texts exploring the concept of sustainability. As well as building students’ knowledge, we are focusing on developing their ability to identify information within a text, discuss, and answer questions after reading. Students are also building on their teamwork skills by working together to construct a ‘solar oven’ with the purpose of using the sun’s energy to cook ‘s’mores’.
Writing: This fortnight, we wrap up our focus on the persuasive writing genre, with a ‘post-assessment’ writing task next week to measure student progress. We have looked at structure and language features, as well as brainstormed multiple arguments, selecting the strongest three to support their opinion before writing their persuasive text. In our grammar and syntax lessons, we have worked on using apostrophes with contractions and sentence writing.
Word Study/Literacy Review: We have been reviewing the ti, ci and si codes when adding a suffix, investigating words with the /x/ sound, and reviewing suffixing conventions such as the ‘1-1-1 doubling rule’, ‘drop the silent final -e’, and ‘changing y to i’. Students have also been reading and spelling a range of homophones and ‘weird words’.
Maths: This fortnight, students are working through our ‘Data’ topic, with a focus on identifying, collecting, representing and analysing categorical and discrete numerical data. Over the holiday break, we’d encourage students to engage in games or activities (if time) that continue to build their number skills and fluency with counting, addition and subtraction.
Wellbeing/Values: Our whole school focus this fortnight has been on our Super Six Value of ‘Excellence’. Well done to our Grade 3 cohort for regularly demonstrating all of our values this term.
Homework: Please remind your child to read daily and help them to record this in their diary (parent to sign at the end of the week). Diaries are checked by their classroom teacher every Friday and house points are given. Students will need to return books borrowed from school before the end of term, however we’d encourage all students to continue reading over the holidays.
Grade 4
Congratulations to all students who participated in the Cross-Country last Friday. It was fantastic to see so many students giving their best effort, demonstrating perseverance, and supporting one another throughout the event. We were incredibly proud of the positive attitudes and determination shown by everyone involved.
We also loved welcoming our grandparents and special friends into our classrooms last Friday. It was such a special opportunity for students to share their learning and spend time with important people in their lives. We hope all our visitors enjoyed their time in Grade 4 as much as we enjoyed having them!
In Writing, students have continued working on their information report unit. This week, we focused on completing our body paragraphs, ensuring each included clear topic sentences, relevant facts and details, and strong closing sentences. Students also wrote their conclusions by summarising their key subtopics. We then began the editing process, highlighting important words and using our green pencils to “tick or fix” our structure and punctuation.
In Reading, we are deep into our Into the Unknown unit. Students explored what life was like for British convicts during early settlement in Australia, including the harsh conditions they faced and the roles they played. We also examined the significant impact that European settlement had on Indigenous Australians, prompting thoughtful discussions and reflections.
In Maths, we are nearing the end of our multiplication and division unit. Students have been learning about fact families to help make connections between multiplication and division. We have also been dividing numbers by 10, 100, and 1000, and practising short division both with and without remainders. Thank you to those who have already brought in a glass jar, which we will be using in Term 2. If you haven’t had a chance yet, students are welcome to continue bringing them in throughout the remainder of the term.
Grade 5
Students began the week with an incredible excursion to TwistedEd Science in Moorabbin. They experienced an engaging workshop called ‘Chemical Chaos’ where they applied the scientific method to a range of experiments before moving down to the exhibition floor, where they were treated to a range of hands-on science activities relating to motion, biology, mechanics and aerodynamics. There was even some fun to be had with bubbles and PacMan.
Reading Comprehension: A Long Walk to WaterStudents have been reading about Salva’s time at various refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya and reflecting on the challenges he’s faced during this time. As a class, we’ve also unpacked how both he and Nya have grown and developed as characters over the course of the novel.
Writing: Persuasive WritingStudents have been using their knowledge of DAFOREST techniques and PEPS to create a powerful and persuasive letter convincing their reader that Australia should stop it’s reliance on non-renewable energy. The teachers have been thoroughly impressed with the detail students have provided both in their arguments and evidence. Students are working toward their Persuasive Writing post test which will occur next week.
Inquiry: Science ExperimentsProject groups have been completing their scientific experiments in classes and recording their results and conclusion. Teams will then present their findings to their classmates.
Maths: Multiplication and Division
Maths groups are learning a range of mental and written strategies to divide large number accurately and efficiently. Teachers would like to urge families to please ensure your child is practising their recall of all basic number facts including timetables as part of their regular homework schedule at home.
Grade 6
Literacy
As the end of term draws near, the Grade 6 students are close to finishing their novel study of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In the upcoming lessons, the students will focus on how Long John Silver persuades Jim to bargain with him and how Silver convinces the pirates to stay loyal to him. They will also share opinions, supported by evidence, about the successfulness of the voyage to Treasure Island. All students should be extremely proud of the time and effort spent on our novel study.
Writing
This past week, the grade 6 students continued their persuasive writing journey with a mid-cycle check in. They typed up their country persuasive texts on Elastik and were able to use the results to check if they were on track to achieve their writing goals set at the beginning of the unit. This week they will begin writing a persuasive text using the prompt “Child Labour is an exploitation of basic human rights”. Students will build their background knowledge of the topic before writing their persuasive texts. This particular writing prompt will also lead into our Term 4 novel study.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, the students are wrapping up their area and volume topic. This week they have focused on calculating the area of polygons, triangles, and composite shapes. They also completed assessments in preparation for our Time topic starting next term.
Inquiry
The Grade 6 students started their group projects which involves them acting out a debate within a House of Representatives setting. The topic of homework will be on the cards.
Interschool Sport
Last week, Interschool sport took a back seat for our whole school Cross Country event. The Grade 6 students did a tremendous job, showcasing not only their talent but also as role models for their younger peers. This morning, they faced Mentone in their final Interschool Sports event for this term.