Prep

What are some things you have been doing at school?

Louis P “When I arrive at school I put my bag away and then I check the whiteboard to see what I need to do. This morning I sorted the words we have been learning. The words are Ant, Cat and Tin. Then I copied the numbers on the whiteboard and I traced my name.”

Charlotte “Yesterday we went to sport and music. In sport we went outside, and we went to different stations and played different games. One game was throwing the ball to each other. Another game was throwing the ball, and we hit the cones. In music we played a Japanese game about big drums and little drums. We also played instruments to match the sounds for the Bear Hunt book”

Phonics in the Junior School

Students are working hard to learn different sound combinations (digraphs) each week, informed by the PhOrMeS curriculum - a systematic synthetic phonics approach to reading and spelling.

Olivia, Grade 1 - We have been learning about "aw" sounds, like "aw" as in saw and "au" in Australia.

Lawrie 1B

“Every week we watch a video about the sounds that different letters make. There are some actions that help you to remember the sounds for the different letters. One example is “ow”, which makes the sounds for Flowers Grow and we use our hands to show the flower growing. It is fun and it also helps me remember the sounds and it is making me a better speller”

Henry 1B

“When I try to spell a word and I am not sure how to spell it I can use my phoneme fist. I fold my fist into a ball and then for each sound I put a finger up. I just used my phoneme fist to help me spell the word ‘great’. I can hear the sounds g, r, ea and t. I know that the ‘ay’ sounds can be spelled a few different ways. It can be ea, a, ay and ai. I also know 'ay' is only used at the end of a word.”

Harry, will and Max and Michi (Grade 2)

We have been sounding words out and trying to spell them. We see a word on the TV and then it disappears, and we have to try to write it on our whiteboards and then we check to see if we spelled it right. We are learning some rules for spelling. If there is a short vowel before f, l, s or z we have to double it. To help us spell sometimes we make the sound for silent letters, or we break the word into parts so we can remember them, so we say K NOT when we are trying to remember how to spell knot. Or we might sat AT TACK when we try to spell attack.

Below: Grade 1 and 2 students love our focus on phonics

Japanese Visitors - reflections from our Grade 4s:

The Japanese student teachers have been so nice. We will miss them.

We really enjoyed the fun activities they ran for us at lunch time, like the traditional games and origami club. Some of us even made kites.

We all got to join in different lessons, Year 3s got to taste some different desserts. I liked the syrup, but the red bean paste tasted unusual.

Grade 2s and 6s did Japanese Calligraphy, which we had not done before. Writing in Japanese Hiragana is tricky.

We made connections to the words we learnt last year in Japanese, it was good to practice how we introduce ourselves. I felt nervous doing it to the visitors in real life.

We enjoyed the special drumming incursion - the drums were loud, but the pattern to the music was entertaining. We loved that so many of us got to have a try.

In the Hub we celebrated Girl's Day. It is a national holiday in Japan where mothers and daughters celebrate using traditional dolls. We made paperdolls and made wishes for the women in our life that we admire.

Grade 3

Reading is good for me because...

Clio

"When you read you learn new words and you can put them in your writing!"

Willow

"Reading is fun! When you read you learn new words like mythical and terrific."

Alice

"Reading is good for me because it helps you grow your brain. You will learn stuff that you haven't learnt."

Leni

"If you can read you can write. It makes you smarter. At school you do writing all the time!"

Gr 6 Maths

We have been adding, subtracting and looking at different strategies to add and subtract decimals using what we know about place value and estimating.

Gr 5 Maths

Jadson – we have been learning about prime and composite numbers and how to find them.

Hallie – and we’ve been learning about factors and multiples, we use the anchor charts in our classroom to help us remember what they mean.

Enrichment at BBPS - Today students from Years 5 and 6 participated in the Victorian Challenge & Enrichment series, where they learnt all about the importance of insects in the world's ecosystems and how their proteins and carbohydrates make up other creature's diets.

Dr Shasta Henry, a leading Entomologist, facilitated activities with students where they explored the science and geography behind insects. Activities included labelling world maps, creating their own insect super species, writing headlines for a newspaper and even giving the students the chance to eat crickets (corm chips which had cricket protein as an ingredient)! Here are our participants reflections:

It was fascinating to learn about new ways to make a positive impact on the planet through making insects part of our everyday diet - Liam

It was intriguing to find out about how bugs can be eaten - Nick

The cricket corn chips tasted a little stale, but not that bad! - Rose

It was interesting to learn about different insects and how people process them into foods - Anastasia

Students across Grades 1-6 at BBPS have the opportunity to engage in external extension programs, either facilitated at school or privately. Teachers are currently looking at whole school data to consider appropriate nominations based on selection criteria. Thanks for trusting us to make informed decisions based on our teachers thorough knowledge of our students and their strengths.

All students at BBPS will have the opportunity to be extended when we launch Enrichment at BBPS in term 2, more to come on this.

Around the school

Below: Grade 1 students learn place value and addition through the use of bundles and substituting pictures for numerals.

Above: Grade 2 students measuring the playground

Below: Grade 4 students map out the "pebble, rock and boulder" of their narrative scenario, an activity that teaches them how to build tension and suspense in their writing

Below: Grade 5 students playing hockey in PE this week

Below: Grade 6 students create posters for the The Ellen José Student Reconciliation Award, which honours the life of Torres Strait Elder Ellen José (1951 - 2017).

Below: More pictures of our creative grade 6 students

Parents Association