Spotlight on Learning

Early Stage 1

Writing: 

This term in Kindergarten, our young learners have been actively developing their recount-writing. They've been learning to include crucial details like the "who, when, and where" in their narratives while also reinforcing fundamental writing skills, such as correctly using capital letters, sounding out words phonetically, implementing finger spaces for readability, and incorporating punctuation marks. 

Students have been on a captivating journey through a diverse range of texts, deepening their understanding of how words can carry different meanings in various contexts. For instance, they recently delved into the enchanting book ‘It's a Miroocool’ by Christine Harris where they discovered Audrey's heartwarming letter to a tooth fairy. This book's relevance was particularly evident as many of our Kindergarten students have been losing their teeth at the moment, making the text a meaningful and engaging choice. 

Mathematics:

Kindergarten have been learning about addition and subtraction over the past few weeks. Our students have enjoyed learning about these mathematical concepts through real-world scenarios that capture how addition and subtraction can be used as tools. We have explored combining groups of objects using hands-on resources so that students can visually see how addition works and experiment themselves with calculating a total between groups. It has been wonderful to see Kindergarten connect their counting and subitising skills and build on their prior learning. We have been playing lots of fun games to develop our fluency and number fact skills.

Students have practiced calculating change using money while learning about subtraction. Exchanging money is a great context that allows our students to tie their learning to the real world and incorporates both addition and subtraction skills. The students have really enjoyed being both a vendor and buyer, using paper money and toy food items to practice purchasing and calculating change. We hope these newfound skills will be put to good use at the canteen and at the shops!

Miss Raj & Mr Widjaja - Kindergarten Teachers

Stage 2

The start to Term 4 has been very busy for students in 4B, as we have just finished our check-in assessments and are starting to prepare for year 5 next year. 

In English, we have just finished our persuasive writing unit and are moving onto poetry. Over the next few weeks, students will be exploring various types of poems, such as haikus, limericks, and cinquains. We have already begun working on our haiku poems, focusing on the short and unique syllable structure of the poem. As a class, students brainstormed and created a haiku on the topic of Winter, before choosing their own topics. Students thoroughly enjoyed crafting their own haiku poems and are looking forward to the next type of poem to create. 

In history this term, students are exploring different celebrations and commemorations around the world. Students in 4B are investigating one celebration or commemoration that they are not familiar with and are creating an online book about the event, concentrating on what the event is, where it occurs, why it happens and any interesting facts about it. Students are enjoying researching their chosen celebration / commemoration and presenting the information they have gathered in a new format.

Miss Betty – 4B Classroom Teacher

Stage 3

The Past Few Weeks in K-6P Support Class 

Being almost to the middle of our last term, we’ve been checking if the goals we set ourselves have proven achievable.

K-6 students range from learning basic sight words and writing simple sentences to being able to make generalisations and acquiring advanced literacy skills. 

Frequent, purposeful writing is a natural part of our daily routine, as is reading. Each day there are many different reasons and opportunities to read and write. 

This term we have a focus on poetry. Besides learning about the most common poetic forms and devices, we have enjoyed listening to and reading a wide variety of poetry, from A.A. Milne to Banjo Paterson, Edward Lear and many others, as well as writing poetry ourselves.

We’re having fun this term measuring and learning more about angles. Some have drawn angles or identified where they see angles around our school, such as doors and clock faces. Higher level learning has helped others learn to explain how the size of unknown angles was calculated. 

We’ve been painting Spring flowers, using a variety of tools, such as spoons, balloons, bubble wrap and steel wool, producing varied but effective results.  

Our days are busy, with all we attempt to cover. We love learning and the feeling of achieving. Importantly, we all feel we’re continuing to make progress. 

Ms Pendergast - K-6P Classroom Teacher