What's happening?
Foundation
The students have returned to school nice and refreshed after their extra-long weekend (which the children deserved after a busy week of assessment last week). The teachers have enjoyed hearing about their fun adventures through their weekend writing.
In writing, the students have been working hard on their narratives and have begun writing their very own stories. The children will need to include an animal for their character, a setting, a problem and a solution. We have been so impressed with their work and understanding so far and know they are going to do a wonderful job.
In maths, the students will be finishing their unit on subtraction this week and we have been very impressed with their growth on the topic. Next week we will be learning shape, in our classrooms.
A reminder that swimming starts next week. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to assist, we really appreciate your help. Please ensure if you are coming to help that you have a valid WWCC and you have shown your child’s teacher prior to the swimming sessions.
Grade 1
Week 5 has come along quickly and we hope you all had a lovely Cup Day.
This week in Literacy the students have been using descriptive language to detail a story about a caterpillar’s life, as it changes into a butterfly. We will continue writing Narratives, with a new story prompt about waking up with butterfly wings! We are also learning the oa/oe vowel team and reviewing all of our Red Flag Words.
In Maths the students will be finishing off 2D/3D shapes this week and moving onto Data and graphs in classrooms next week.
We had an exciting event this week with our Bug Incursion on Thursday. The children got to look at monarch butterflies up close and even watch them feed on nectar with their long proboscis’.
We also are looking forward to swimming next week. A note was sent via compass on Wednesday. We hope you have had a chance to carefully read the information and should you have any questions or concerns around swimming to please speak to your teacher or email them.
Thank you for your speedy response to our upcoming Virtual Reality incursion. If you have not already done so, please consent and pay via Compass before Tuesday 19th November.
Here are some photos from 3D work.
3D shapes made from Play-dough, also using toothpicks and playdough to make a 3D shape.
Grade 2
We hope all our Grade 2 families had a great Melbourne Cup day on Tuesday!
As part of our ‘Core Knowledge’ reading unit, we have been engaging in the text ‘The Wind in the Willows’, by building vocabulary, comprehension and predicting skills. Students have continued to develop their understanding of narrative structure and features, exploring a range of terrific mentor texts, and transforming their own ideas into stories. Students are doing a fabulous job of trying to include a range of time order words and phrases (all of a sudden, a few seconds later, meanwhile, later) and interesting adjectives to add detail and description to their narratives.
In Maths, students have been building their understanding of time, focusing on telling the time, months and seasons, and using a calendar. As always, opportunities to explore these concepts in everyday situations at home will be a great way to consolidate and build on your child’s knowledge. A little reminder that your child may move between teachers for Maths depending on their assessment results for each topic. This ensures they are working in a group that best fits their needs for each topic.
We are looking forward to our dress up incursion ‘The Past In Your Class’ next Wednesday 13th November where the governess from Rippon Lea Estate will be visiting and showing us what learning was like in the past. Students will also participate in some olden day games such as skipping, quoits and nib and ink writing. We are looking forward to seeing some fabulous dress ups!
Our wellbeing focus this fortnight is on empathy, emotional literacy along with resilience, rights and respectful relationships.
Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud, sound pack practise and ‘Red Flag Word’ spelling. If students are reading other books from home, in addition to the coloured levelled readers, we’d love if these could also be recorded in reading logs please.
Grade 3
Novel Study: We are coming towards the end of our class novel, ‘Storm Boy’. Students have been listening to several pages each lesson and participating in discussions and written responses to build and demonstrate comprehension. They have also been developing skills such as writing summary sentences and paragraphs about the main ideas within the text, and using new tier two vocabulary.
Core Knowledge: For our ‘Earth Science’ inquiry unit this fortnight, students continue to learn about Earth’s moving crust and how Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural and human activity. The big question we are exploring this week is, ‘How can things that happen on Earth change the land?’.
Writing: As part of our narrative writing unit, students have been learning more about text structure, sentence-level writing, and using tier two vocabulary to enhance their writing. Last week, we focused on building their skills with writing a resolution paragraph and conclusion paragraph. This week, students have been given a new writing prompt in which they can apply their knowledge and skills gained over the last fortnight. All students will be given individual feedback, and we will set some goals for the remainder of the unit.
Word Study: Students have been reviewing the Latin base ‘port’, the homophones ‘accept’ and ‘except’, as well as some ‘weird word’ reading and spelling. This week, we are also learning more about the Greek morpheme ‘bi/bio’.
Maths: We completed our ‘Time’ topic last week. Understanding how to read the time to the quarter hour, 5-minute intervals and nearest minute can be a difficult concept for many students, and we’d encourage students to continue building their understanding of time and reading both digital and analogue clocks, further at home.
This week, we will begin our ‘Money’ topic. Students will be counting money to make different amounts and calculating change.
Reminder of upcoming events (please complete/return relevant documents):
- Swimming – Week 6
- Camp – Week 7
We have been encouraging students to try a sleepover at a friend’s house (if they have not done this before/often), to help prepare them for camp.
Homework: As part of our core knowledge topic, students have been assigned a project over the next few weeks, to research a natural landform. They have been given a hard copy of the template that appears on Seesaw, on which they can record their information. Students will then use their research to create a poster in class and present in class over weeks 8-9. If they require any photos printed out for their poster, they should bring them in with their completed research sheet by the beginning of week 8.
Students should also continue their regular home reading, record in diary, get it signed by a grown up, and bring it to school every Friday. Thanks for your ongoing support with this.
Grade 4
We hope everyone had a lovely long weekend and is feeling well rested, ready to continue the remainder of Term 4. It is hard to believe it is Week 5 already! A reminder that Bike Ed starts next week on Friday (week 6).
Literacy: Our Wonder study has continued and the kids are delving deeply into the book, being exposed to some complex topics such as genetics and identifying various perspectives. We are continuing to see the students strengthen their ability to use evidence from the book to support their responses. Our class narratives are coming along well with stories reaching their climax and resolutions being developed.
Numeracy: The Time unit has come to an end and we saw some very pleasing results across the cohort. We are now looking into Data and how different data can be represented. The lessons have been designed to replicate real life situations, and hopefully will be a bit of fun!
Inquiry: Our study of “Our Island Home and Beyond” has continued with exploration into the similarities and differences of vegetation in Africa and Australia, as well as the animal species in South America and Australia and the factors that affect this diversity. Next week we are looking forward to our African Drumming Incursion next Thursday, which will be a great cultural experience!
Grade 5
It’s been another fantastic couple of weeks for the Grade 5 cohort and the teachers wish to congratulate all our wonderful students for their excellent behaviour and effort inside and outside of the classroom.
Reading: All grades are continuing to delve into our mentor text ‘A Long Walk to Water’, by learning about the geography and history of Sudan, the risk of drinking dirty water and the harsh conditions of the Akobo desert. Students continue to respond to meaningful questions by providing in-depth and detailed answers with a focus on including evidence from the text.
Writing: Our students have thoroughly enjoyed planning and drafting a narrative with a partner based on a range of imaginative prompts that pairs could choose from. Students have learned more about the structure and features of narratives as well as how to include dialogue and simple, compound, and complex sentences.
Maths: Location and Transformation continues to be the focus of all maths groups until our post-assessment on Tuesday Week 6. Groups have explored a range of transformations that can occur to a shape, grid coordinates and working with a cartesian plane.
Inquiry (Travel Expo): Travel Expo groups have been working diligently to complete the different sections of their project booklets. In the last couple of weeks, students have written information reports about a landmark from their selected country and are now working on describing the geographic features of their country during our mapping section. We look forward to booklets being completed in the coming weeks and groups planning their stall for the Travel Expo, which will occur at the end of term.
Just a reminder that the 2025 Grade 6 leadership process is underway with students having planned and drafted their speeches. Next week students will be publishing and practising their speeches in class. The students have worked so hard on celebrating their own character traits and celebrating themselves as future leaders.
Grade 6
Last week the students voted on a design for their graduation t-shirts. We had many amazing entries, showcasing some very talented artists in Grade 6. Congratulations to Laila in 6U for her fantastic design, which will feature on the t-shirts at our graduation ceremony.
Literacy: Our reading and study of the novel Rivet Boy continues. We are studying the themes and meaning behind the writing throughout the different chapters. We have revisited juxtaposition; a literary technique for the placement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side by side for a particular purpose to highlight contrast or for rhetorical effect.
We have looked at how it can be used by the author, as well as practicing writing sentences which incorporate juxtaposition. The students are also practicing the use of conjunctions, but, so and because in their sentence writing linked to the book.
Writing: The grade 6 students have been learning about narrative structure through lessons that focus on each section of narratives. The students have all had a go at writing several introductions / orientations based on a variety of visual prompts. They have also developed their understanding of how to use dialogue in their stories and how adding nonverbal details can enhance the writing. Another area of study is the correct use and consistency of tense in narratives.
Mathematics: In Mathematics, students have started our Patterns and Algebra topic. We have revisited the correct use of order of operations (BODMAS / BIDMAS). The students are also learning about pronumerals, variables, expressions and equations. How to create algebraic expressions and evaluate them has also been an area of learning.
Inquiry: Students have been working on developing their own individual business and product which they will present and pitch to their market day group at the end of week 5. This will include a prototype or sample of their product and a marketing pitch.
Interschool Sport: Interschool sport has been a busy part of our schedule so far this term. We still have our Lacrosse Gala Day on Friday 8th November. Another rugby day may be scheduled; however this is still to be confirmed.