Professional Learning Community Foundation (Preps)

Professional Learning Community 1 (Grade 1)

What an action-packed couple of weeks we have had in Grade 1. The fortnight started with students coming to school to find that their chairs had quit. Students were excited to hear how the chairs had been feeling and adjusted extremely well to not having them. As part of our writing, students were required to use their persuasive skills to persuade the chairs to come back. Students were able to develop some excellent arguments and use their figurative language knowledge to successfully persuade the chairs to come back. It was wonderful to see the students’ excitement reflected in their writing. As our students are so good at persuasion, they have started writing a letter to Mr Phillips to persuade him to buy us a fantasy creature for school. What do you think we should get, a dragon, mermaid or unicorn?

In Reading, students were given a book which had no words. They were required to work in groups and use the pictures to help them create their own script. Once finished, students presented their plays to another class. Students were learning to adjust their voice to match different characters, punctuation and feelings.

Within Numeracy, students have been having real world and hands on experiences with fractions. They thoroughly enjoyed cutting and dividing their recess and lunch into fractions, in particular halves and quarters. Students also cut up fruit and made fruit skewers representing a range of different fractions. This week, we have been focusing on 2D and 3D shapes, and being able to describe and identify their features.

It has been wonderful to see our students demonstrating kindness to others. Students enjoyed following Allen the Alien on Anti-Bullying Day and making text to self connections.

Book Week was a huge success. Thank you for your support organising your students’ costumes. It was evident in the students excitement how much they love reading.

Within Grade 1, we focused on Dr. Seuss and completed the following activities:

The Cat in the Hat - Cat in the Hat fruit and marshmallow kebabs

Happy Birthday to you - Birthday games

The Lorax- Creating truffula tree

Oh the Places You’ll Go – Building bridges

Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2)

Reading

In our Reading sessions, we've been diving into the exciting world of storytelling! We've been practicing fluency by changing our voices to match different characters and their emotions. This helps us understand the text better and brings the stories to life. Keep up the great work, readers!

Writing

Our young writers have been honing their persuasive skills! We recently completed persuasive pieces on the exciting topic of space travel – why we should go to the moon. It's been incredible to witness our students using persuasive techniques like powerful words and convincing arguments to sway the reader. Well done, persuasive writers!

Numeracy

In Numeracy, we've been delving into the world of volume and prisms. We've been using our multiplicative thinking skills to find the total volume of various shapes. It's been an engaging journey, and we're excited to keep exploring mathematical concepts!

Book Week

Thank you to our wonderful parents for joining us in making Book Week a fantastic experience! Every class looked absolutely amazing in their book-inspired costumes. Your support and enthusiasm truly made this event special.

Events

1. Trivia Night: Get ready for a night of fun and brain-teasing challenges on Friday the 25th. Don't miss it!

2. Father's Day Stall: Our Father's Day Stall is on the 30th of August. Get ready to pick out some special gifts!

3. Curriculum Day: Please note that we have a curriculum day on the 1st of the next month.

A big thank you to all our students and parents for your continued dedication and enthusiasm. Let's keep working together to make this term a success! If you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Warm regards,

The Grade 2 Team

Professional Learning Community 3 (Grade 3)

Camp is finally here - it seems like we’ve been waiting forever! Please make sure that students arrive to school on time, Thursday morning, as we will be leaving on the buses as soon as the roll has been taken by the classroom teacher. We are hoping for clear weather, great times and lots of memorable stories to tell upon our return on Friday.

It was wonderful to see so many students dress up in their favourite book character for Book Week on Tuesday. What a way to celebrate the joy of reading!

In Numeracy we have been exploring Chance and Probability through a racing car activity, doing an author study in reading by exploring lots of different texts by the same author and enhancing our sentences in writing through improved word choice. We are truly a group of super stars! Grade 3 teachers.

Professional Learning Community 4 (Grade 4)

Grade 4s have been having an amazing Term 3 so far! We can't believe we are over halfway.

In Writing this week, we are learning to write a description all about t-shirts! Yes that is right…t-shirts. Students had to design a creative t-shirt that they will wear during writing time for the remainder of the term. We are super excited and hope the t-shirts inspire creativity.

In Reading, we are currently learning about the reading strategy – synthesising. We have been using the sporting brand NIKE to help us pull together background knowledge, newly learned information, connections and inferences to fully understand the text we read.

In Numeracy, we've nearly finished our fractions and decimals unit for the term. It's a little bit tricky doing the conversions but we'll get there soon enough. We're working on using our different strategies and using our growth mindset.

Professional Learning Community 5 (Grade 5)

Dear Parents/carers,

Last week the Year 5 cohort went on camp to Norval in Halls Gap. The students participated in a number of wonderful activities such as orienteering, hut building, scavenger hunt, team initiatives, archery, high ropes course and a hike. At night we had a camp fire, went on a night walk and had a trivia night. We had the most beautiful weather which made our time in Halls gap even better. The students and teachers had an absolutely amazing time.

Last Friday was Anti-Bullying Day. The day started off with a whole school assembly with guest speaker Josh Hose, followed by class activities gaining a deeper understanding about bullying, being safe, trust and learning strategies in how do deal with bullying. The students also watch a range of videos and did some role plays. The day finished off with the whole school gathering on the tennis courts where the formed the shape BE KIND AT DPS. The photo from the drone looks incredible.

On Tuesday we celebrated Book Week. The students looked amazing and put great effort into their costumes (a big thanks to parents/carers who helped with costumes!). In the morning, the students participated in two literacy activities based on our class novel ‘Wonder’. The first activity was a ‘break out' game, and the second activity was making masks. They were all very engaged and did a great job.

Aside from all that excitement, the students have been very busy in class this week learning about the three multiplication laws in Numeracy, summarising in Reading and writing a description about the life of an ice block.

We hope you enjoy the rest of the week!

From,

The Year 5 Team

Professional Learning Community 6 (Grade 6)

Hello PLC 6 parents and guardians,

We are excited to share with you what we have been up to in our classrooms!

Reading Critique: "Fuzzy Mud" by Louis Sachar

Our enthusiastic young readers have been engrossed in the novel "Fuzzy Mud" by Louis Sachar. The book follows the story of Tamaya, Marshall, and their adventures with a mysterious substance known as "fuzzy mud." Currently we have been critiquing the text in terms of its authenticity to real life scenarios.

Writing Exposition: "The Consequences of Our Actions"

In Writing, students have been working on implementing powerful writing strategies to effectively persuade their audience to their point of view. Our topic of writing is if all actions have consequences. This has promoted some thought provoking conversations around the types of consequence for different actions, both within their own lives and the wider community.

Numeracy: Order of Operations

In Numeracy, students have been sharpening their skills by solving equations using the order of operations. Here's a glimpse of what they've been working on:

Solve the equation: 4 + (8 ÷ 2) x 3 - 1

Remember, the order of operations is Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division (from left to right), and Addition and Subtraction (from left to right). Can you solve this equation? The answer is 15

Book Week

Finally for book week we thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone dressed up in their costumes to celebrate their favourite books.

Division Basketball