From the Classroom
News from 5/6
Students and staff in the 5/6 area have been enjoying getting to know each other over the first two weeks of school. It has been fantastic to see how quickly the students have settled back into the school routine and lovely to see how everyone has welcomed the new students in our grades.
The year 5 students have been wonderful with their Foundation buddies. They have had lunch with them over the first few days of school and some students have been playing with with them and keeping an 'eye out' during play times, it is much appreciated by the Marlborough staff!
As NAPLAN is in Week 7 of this term, we will be focusing on Persuasive and Narrative texts. We will also be investigating punctuation, good grammar, interesting vocabulary and sentence structure. In Numeracy, our focus will be the 4 operations. Place Value and deconstructing word problems.
This term, our 5/6 Sports looks a little different. We will practice our sport on Wednesdays at 1:30 and on Friday 15th March, the schools will play against each other. If you would like to help out and coach, please email Sheena Cronin. Last week, your child was sent home with a Code of Conduct contract for them and a parent sign, please make sure it is brought back as soon as possible.
If you have any tissue boxes for the classroom, please feel free to hand them in as your child will receive 5000 house points for each box they bring in.
What's happening in 3/4
We have had such a positive first week back at school with our 3/4 students! It has been wonderful getting to know all of them, seeing them forming new friendships and reuniting with existing ones too. Everyone has jumped straight into our routines seamlessly, showcasing our school values of being respectful, responsible and inclusive beautifully.
This term students will be diving into the magical world of 'Matilda' during our novel study of this Roald Dahl favourite. Alongside this book, we will be revising our spelling codes and rules, reading fluency and handwriting. This book also lends beautifully into our first writing genre, narratives.
In week one, students have immersed themselves in a variety of place value and number games and time activities. One game that resulted in a lot of laughs was 'greedy pig'. We also created collaborative class displays using their birthdays and graphed the data. We will be continuing to develop our place value knowledge and delve deeper into the various elements of time (years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, etc).
Our inquiry topic for this term is Wellbeing and Respectful Relationships, where we will begin by identifying what it means to be ready to learn, and create our own ready to learn plans. Our discussions will involve how we feel at the beginning of each lesson and strategies we can use to support ourselves moving into a feeling or 'zone' to allow us to be ready to learn.
Adventures of 1/2
The 1/2 students have made a terrific start to the school year! All students have settled back well and enjoyed interacting with getting to know you activities and games. We have revised school routines and created our classroom expectations.
Students have had fun finding out each other's likes and dislikes through asking questions, making a tally chart and graphing their findings on a picture graph. We will continue to create interesting survey questions and display the results. This term students will also investigate place value through a variety of games and activities.
This week, students have been busy showing their understanding of a good reader and writer and discussing what each one involves. It's been great to see the effort students are putting into their written work. They have loved seeing their work displayed in the classroom and many kind comments are being made about other classmates' work too.
Fantastic Foundation
What an amazing start to the year our Foundation students have had. They have settled into school well and have been learning the classroom routines and expectations. We were very proud of how they showed respect at their first ever school assembly last week. Well done Foundation!
Over the first few weeks of school our Foundation students are focussing on learning how to be readers and writers in their English lessons. They will be learning how to hold their pencils, how to find all their writing tools and learning how to hold books and turn pages correctly. A big focus for Foundation is learning to identify letters and sounds in their names. Being able to recognise their name helps the students feel important and recognising their classmates’ names helps foster a community. While being able to write or build their name with materials such as beads and magnets supports them in understanding concepts about print. Foundation students will start their phonological awareness program and high frequency words in their literacy lessons.
Our Inquiry topic this term focusses on Wellbeing and Respectful Relationships and students will move through the unit learning skills around making friends, introducing themselves and what respect looks like.
Visual Arts
Welcome back to another wonderful year of creativity in the Art Room. Please remember to return your child's named art smock to their new classroom, so they can be popped in a tub and brought with them to Art each week. Some students have outgrown their smocks, so a simple oversized shirt or t-shirt will suffice. I do have spare smocks to borrow in the meantime.
Calling all artists!
Entries are now open for the 29th Annual Mayoral Art Exhibition held at Maroondah Federation Estate Gallery - a fundraiser in support of the Bone Marrow Donor Institute.
The theme for 2024 is Tangent. Open to all mediums and artists of all ages are encouraged to enter. The Mayoral Acquisition and Ringwood East and Croydon Community Bank Acquisition will be made at the event opening on Thursday 4 April 2024.
Entries close Friday 8 March 2024, 5pm
Jenelle Seregin | Visual Arts
Physical Education
Students have started the year positively , enthusiastically and happily.
We are working on
RESPECT : for all students, all teachers and all PE equipment.
RESPONSIBILTY : for individual students, including bringing of correct footwear andsun safety hats to PE classes.
INCLUSIVITY : sharing of equipment, formation of partners, pairs, groups, teams including all students.
SAFETY : Creating a safe environment for all students for every PE class.
Photos of Team building PE Lesson.
Please note my working days at Malborough PS for Physical Education are
Thursdays and Fridays
Bonny Chisholm /Physical Education.
Indonesian
Selamat Datang Term 1, 2024
It is great to see the enthusiasm shown by our students as they learn not only the language but also learn about the culture of Indonesia. It has been a busy term already, particularly for our new Preps as they settle into new routines at school.
This term the main theme is “keluarga” (families). The junior students are learning new vocabulary through games and songs. Students in the middle and upper school are focusing on basic Indonesian sentence structure and grammar. The students will also develop their language skills through role playing, online activities and putting their language skills into practice. A particular favorite with the older students is playing “congklak”, a traditional Indonesian children’s game.
Words to practise at home:
Bapak – Dad, Ibu – Mum, kakak – older sibling, adik – younger sibling, Kakek – Grandpa, Nenek – Grandma, paman – uncle, bibi – aunty, sepupu – cousin.
If students have access to the internet at home, they might like to explore or revise their vocabulary at the Indonesian section of Languages Online at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/indonesian/indonesian.htm
Terima kasih (Thank- you),
(Bu) Mary-Ellen Dowling
Science
We have had such a fun and positive start to term one in the science room.
Our young scientists in Prep took their first steps of discovery by learning about what a scientist is and what they do. The highlight was when they had the opportunity to unleash their creativity, drawing themselves as scientists – goggles, lab coats, masks, beakers and all!
Moving up the grades, the Grade 1/2 and 3/4 students started exploring the microscopic world, learning about microbes and the various types of bacteria that surround us. They learnt about the importance of handwashing, with the aid of a special 'glitter bug lotion' that revealed 'germs' under UV light. Witnessing the magic of cleanliness through before-and-after handwashing comparisons left our students fascinated and more hygiene-conscious than ever.
Meanwhile, our Grade 5/6 students embarked on their journey into the world of plants with the unit, 'From Little Things Big Things Grow.' From pollination to germination, they learnt new knowledge of plant life cycles and started discovering the diverse flora in and around our school environment.
Looking ahead into term one, our school is gearing up for a holistic exploration of biological sciences throughout the term. The Preps will be distinguishing between living and non-living things, understanding the essentials for survival. In Grade 1/2, a world of minibeasts awaits. Grade 3/4's will be immersing themselves in animal and plant observations, further exploring the living vs. non-living dichotomy. Lastly, the Grade 6 students will deepen their understanding of plants, planting trees at the end of term to enhance our school's biodiversity and plant life.
It's going to be an exciting term for our students. Thank you for your ongoing support as we nurture the curious minds of our budding scientists.
Warm regards,
Jenny Turner
Science teacher.