Magnify

Term 3 Week 6

Magnify Around the Classrooms

#magnifysandhurst

Foundation

The Preps have been learning the ‘long e’, /ee/ and /z/, /zz/ sounds and linking these sounds to their letters.  They have been revising the /sh/ and /qu/ sounds as well as practising handwriting ‘qu.’ Grade Preps have been reading non-words and using sound boxes to spell words.  In writing, they have been ordering sentence parts and learning about ‘What’ subjects.  Next week the children will be introduced to the /ch/ sound and will learn about writing a report.  They are reading Farmer John’s Tractor by Sally Sutton. 

Gr 1

Grade Ones have been learning about bossy ‘e’ split digraphs and the /aw/ (claw), /au/ (autumn) sound.  They are reading together and using sound boxes to spell words with the /aw/ /au/ sound.  Grade Ones continue to revise their learnt tricky words.  Their storybook is The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers. The children enjoyed seeing their teachers dress up as characters from this book for our Book Week Parade last Friday. 

Gr 2

Grade Twos have been busy listening to and recording sounds in words.  Some children have been focusing on contractions and the use of the apostrophe in words to replace one or more letters when two separate words come together.  For example, in ‘Do not,’ the apostrophe replaces the letter ‘o’ in ‘not’ to form the new word, don’t.  This week some of the Grade Two children have been learning about the letters ‘l’ and ‘e’ that come at the end of a word (le).  Their focus words have had a consonant before the ‘l’ ‘e’  eg. wrestle, gentle, simple, little, waddle, battle, juggle.  Grade Two’s are reading the story book, The Day the Crayons Came Home by Oliver Jeffers.  The children and teachers are loving the humour in this story, and the children have been choosing their favourite crayon character and explaining why they like that one the best.  The Grade Two lessons on inferring have continued this past fortnight.

Foundation

Grade Preps are focusing on the topics of Mass and Capacity.  They are predicting and checking mass, identifying the attribute of capacity, directly comparing capacity, and comparing capacity by pouring the same amount.  Next week the Prep children will be focusing on the topic of ‘Sharing.’ 

Gr 1 

Grade Ones have been focusing on the measurement topic of length.  They are using informal units to measure the length of different objects and are then comparing and sorting different lengths.  Grade Ones have been practising their number fluency.

Gr 2

Grade Twos have been focusing on multiplication and division.  They have been learning how to share a collection evenly between a given number of groups, and this week have learnt about remainders.  The multiplication aspect of their lessons has had them creating different groups and calculating their total.  Grade Twos have also been practising their number fluency.

Gr 3 and 4

In Literacy, students are reading the new book The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, which follows Roz, a robot who is stranded on a wild island after a shipwreck. At first, the animals fear her, but Roz learns to adapt and becomes part of their community. She develops friendships and raises a young gosling named Brightbill, learning about love, empathy, cooperation, and survival. When her creators return for her, Roz must choose between her original purpose and the family she has built. The story explores identity, belonging, friendship, technology, and the relationship between humans and nature.  Over the next four weeks, students will learn what persuasive writing is, explore its key features, and develop an understanding of the structure and format required to write an effective persuasive text. By using The Wild Robot as a guide for persuasive writing helps ground students' arguments in powerful, universal themes like cooperation, empathy, and environmental responsibility.  

In Maths, students have been developing their knowledge of equivalent fractions, learning to name, identify and describe two-dimensional shapes and learning to solve ‘times as many’ division problems. 

In Science, students are learning to identify everyday examples of changes of state, explain what reversibility means in real life examples of solids and liquids, the conditions required for reversibility to occur and identify uses of changing states and reversibility in people’s jobs.

Gr 5 and 6

In Maths, the Grade 5 students have been learning about fractions, and in particular adding and subtracting fractions and finding equivalent fractions. 

The Grade 6 students have been learning about decimals. In particular, we have been looking at rounding decimals and multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 100. 

In English, the Grade 5 students have continued reading their book called ‘Tom Appleby Convict Boy’. This book is a compelling historical fiction novel set in 18th-century England and Australia. The story follows the life of young Tom Appleby, a poor and orphaned boy living in London during the time when children faced dire circumstances. When Tom steals some money and a handkerchief, he is caught and sentenced to transportation, along with other convicts, to the distant shores of Australia.  

During this unit, the Grade 5’s will be focusing on writing an information report about ‘Convict Settlement in Australia’.  

Our Grade 6 students have finished reading our novel ‘Once’ this week and have completed their information report about Poland. The students really enjoyed this book and topic! 

This week, we will be moving onto our new book called ‘Can you see me?’. This book follows the story of Tally, an 11-year-old girl with autism who is navigating the challenging landscape of starting high school. Tally faces numerous obstacles as she tries to fit in, make friends, and communicate her thoughts and feelings to those around her. The novel beautifully explores the world through Tally's unique perspective, shedding light on the daily struggles and triumphs of a young girl with autism. As Tally learns to cope with her differences and embrace her own voice, Can You See Me? delivers a powerful message of understanding, acceptance, and the importance of empathy in our society.  

During this unit, students will be writing a persuasive letter. 

In Science, The Grade 5’s are studying ‘Plant Survival’ and the Grade 6’s have started a new topic this term all about ‘Habitats’.

During humanities, the Grade 5’s have continued their unit called ‘Changing Communities’ and the Grade 6’s have started a new unit all about ‘Federation’.