The Monarch Community Welcomes Jacquie Poole!

We’re excited to share that we have a new member that has joined our teaching team—Jacquie Poole!

Jacquie is stepping into the role previously held by Christina, who has moved on to a new opportunity at another school.

Jacquie brings with her a wonderful mix of enthusiasm, experience, and a passion for helping students learn and grow. She has already made a fantastic start in the classroom, getting to know her students and building strong, positive relationships. Jacquie is particularly passionate about creating a supportive, inclusive learning environment and helping every child feel confident and valued.

We’re so pleased to have Jacquie on board and know she will be a wonderful addition to our Monarch community. Please join us in giving her a warm welcome!

READING - Exploring Stories, Ideas, and Language

This term, our students are immersing themselves in a selection of engaging mentor texts. These stories offer rich narratives that encourage critical thinking and empathy. Here's what we're focusing on in our reading lessons:

Making Predictions

Before, during, and after reading, students used clues from the title, cover, illustrations, and text to make predictions about the story. They justified their predictions, fostering critical thinking and engagement.

Making Connections

As we read, students connected the story to their own experiences, other books they've read, or things they know about the world. These connections helped deepen understanding and make reading more meaningful.

Understanding Time and Place

Students explored how authors conveyed the setting of a story through descriptions of time, place, characters, and events. This helped them understand the context and enriched their reading experience.

Sharing Our Thinking

We encourage students to explain their ideas clearly and support their opinions with evidence from the text. They considered different perspectives, which promoted respectful and thoughtful discussions.

Noticing Language

Students paid attention to how authors used language, especially noun groups, to make writing more detailed and interesting. Recognising these elements enhanced both their comprehension and writing skills.

SPELLING - Exploring Sounds, Patterns, and Word Structures

Students are working in levelled groups to review digraphs (two letters making one sound) blends (two or more consonants pronounced together), long vowel sounds, inflected endings and syllable junctures. Learning to recognise these patterns helps in decoding, spelling, and pronouncing words accurately.

Additionally, students are using spelling data from their writing activities to see which words they commonly misspell and target those words for improvement.

WRITING - Crafting Informational Reports

The students are writing detailed, informative reports this term. Their reports are organised using the correct text structure, which helps readers easily understand and follow the information presented. They are adding non-fiction text features to their subheadings as part of their published work. Their reports include credible research that is paraphrased, using various strategies they have been taught.

They have practiced:

Read, Cover, and Retell: Reading a passage, covering it, and then retelling it from memory.

Synonym Strategy: Replacing words with synonyms.

Reword Strategy: Focusing on key information and changing the sentence structure.

MATHS - Exploring Numbers, Shapes, and Strategies

This term, our students investigated a variety of mathematical concepts, building on their skills and understanding. Here's an overview of what we learned:

Creating and Interpreting Data Graphs

We learned to create, compare, and interpret various data graphs, such as bar graphs and pie charts. These skills helped them understand how to represent and analyse information visually.

Ordering Decimals

Understanding decimals is crucial. Students practiced this skill, which enhanced their number sense and prepared them for more complex mathematical operations.

Estimating and Measuring Angles

Using protractors, students estimated, compared, and measured angles. They improved their understanding of how angles are measured in degrees, which is fundamental in geometry.

Transforming Shapes

Students worked with translations (sliding shapes), reflections (flipping shapes), and rotations (turning shapes). These transformations helped them understand spatial relationships and symmetry.

Solving Division Problems

Exploring ways to solve division problems using different strategies, such as repeated subtraction, grouping, using arrays, and , divisibility rules is a key focus this term.

INQUIRY - Understanding Natural Disasters and Safety

We are exploring various natural disasters to understand their causes, effects, and how to stay safe.

Bushfires

Students are learning about the causes of bushfires, such as hot, dry weather and lightning. They are exploring what happens during a bushfire and how it affects the environment, including the destruction of habitats and the impact on air quality.

Super Storms

Children investigated the causes and effects of super storms, including hurricanes and cyclones. They learned how these storms form, their impact on communities, and how to prepare for such events.

Floods

Students explored how floods occur and what to do in case you are facing flood conditions. Through videos, news reports, and articles they learned the importance of preparation, such as creating emergency kits and knowing evacuation routes.

Earthquakes

Students are studying tectonic plate movements and how earthquakes can affect buildings and communities.

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT – Building Strong Minds and Kind Hearts

The Resilience Project is a well-being program focused on building emotional strength through daily habits of Gratitude, Empathy, and Mindfulness (GEM). Through stories, discussions, and role playing, students are taught effective ways to manage emotions, build confidence, and strengthen relationships. Recent lessons have focused on Emotional Literacy, helping students identify and express positive feelings, and Empathy, teaching them to understand others’ emotions and respond with kindness—skills that boost mood and connection.

SEL - Social & Emotional Learning

Our SEL lessons are helping students developing self-awareness and relationship skills. This month's focus has been on using Character Strengths like kindness and perseverance, practicing Positive Self-Talk to build confidence, and learning Coping Strategies to manage emotions in healthy ways. These lessons help students grow into resilient, reflective learners with strong, supportive relationships.

UPCOMING DATES -

Athletics Day - 25 June 2026

9:30 am - 3:00 pm

Payment and consent for this event is due by 11:59PM on the 20/06/2025.

Get your BEST running shoes on and your house colour, because it is almost time for Athletics Day!

This will be a full day event, so please make sure you bring enough snacks and lunch to give you energy.

Please bring a labelled water bottle to keep hydrated. Warm clothing is also recommended for when you are not competing.

There will be points provided for the most creative house colour outfits AND the winning house will have their house engraved on the AHPS Shield.

If you have any questions, please see Pepe or Steph (PE Teachers).

PJ Day - 30 May 2025

Staff and students are encouraged to wear their PJ's, onesies, dressing gowns, oodies, & slippers on Friday 30th May to celebrate the beginning of winter.

Please make sure to wear or bring along a pair of runners/shoes to wear outside during recess & lunch if you are wearing slippers on the day.

Year 5 Swimming

Tuesday, 10 June - Friday 13 June

Through this intensive program, children learn basic forms of water safety and the use of fundamental movement skills through swimming lessons conducted by qualified swimming instructors.

This program is fully funded by the school. There is no cost to parents. This includes student swimming entry, swimming lessons and bus transport to and from school.

Please confirm your child's attendance via Compass. You are also required to fill out the following form about your child's swimming ability https://surveys.hume.vic.gov.au/s3/Splash-Student-Ability-Form-new

Each day of the program, students should wear their swimsuits underneath their school uniform and bring a towel and underwear in a plastic bag. Please ensure all items of clothing are named.