Student Learning
Grades 1 & 2
Grade 2 have been enjoying playing strategic maths games together.
15 sticks is a fun game you might like to play at home. Line up 15 sticks and take it in turns to take 1, 2 or 3 sticks at a time. The winner is the person who takes the last stick. Can you work out the strategy?
Grade 2 has been busy learning how to measure using informal and formal units.
Grade 3&4
Grade 3 and 4 students have been reading with their ‘Fluency Friend’ each day to improve their reading fluency. One student reads aloud while the other listens and provides support as needed. The roles are then reversed, with each student taking turns as a reader and a listener.
In the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden
The Grade 3s have also been busy in our kitchen garden with Kelly. We have been de-heading flowers, weeding, and picking all the cherry tomatoes in readiness to dig up the plants and prepare the garden beds for new plants.
Grades 5&6
In Grade 5/6, our focus on literacy has been the use of figurative language. We have learnt to use similes, metaphors and personification in our writing to create a mental image for our audiences. We chose setting images that evoked our 5 senses so that we could describe them vividly and in great depth and detail. Congratulations Grade 5/6!
STEM
Our STEM program is gaining momentum, and it's fantastic to witness students embracing challenges and fostering a growth mindset.
In Foundation classes, students are currently exploring the properties of materials and categorising them based on these characteristics. This exploration sets the groundwork for their upcoming project: designing and crafting their own hats.
For Years 1 and 2, introductory coding sessions featuring our Dash robots are underway. Throughout their unit of work, students will learn the intricacies of sequencing events, adjusting parameters, implementing loops, and sequencing conditional events. Collaborating in groups, they will design accessories for the robots to address everyday problems and write the corresponding code.
Meanwhile, Years 3 and 4 completed a mini-unit focused on understanding the design thinking process. They designed paper planes for maximum flight distance, refining their designs through a continuous improvement cycle. This approach will now be applied to the design and construction of rubber band-powered cars.
Years 5 and 6 also engaged in a mini-unit to grasp the design thinking process. They created towers using spaghetti and marshmallows that can support the weight of a marshmallow. Utilising the design process, they enhanced the height, strength, and stability of their structures. Now, they will apply this process to bring their own superheroes to life through 3D printing.
Paul Todd
STEM Teacher
Performing Arts
Foundation Open Music Classroom -
This will be held on Friday 19th April
There is no cost to attend, however, all visitors must register their attendance by Tuesday 16th April using the following link. https://forms.gle/Ni84E7jFeoYf6tTp8
9:35 – 10:10 Foundation H
10:20 – 10:55 Foundation G
11:05 – 12:20 Foundation W
Grade 1&2 Open Music Classroom
This will be held on Monday 22nd April. There is no cost to attend, however, all visitors must register their attendance by Thursday 18th April using the following link. https://forms.gle/Ni84E7jFeoYf6tTp8
9:35 – 10:10 1B
10:20 – 10:55 1GD
11:05 – 12:20 2LS
12:30 – 1:05 2S
2:05 – 2:40 2D
LOTE
Foundation – “Konnichiwa! Asobimasho!” (Hello! Let’s play!) It’s their favourite song which includes counting 1,2,3,4,5!(ichi, ni, san, shi, go)
The children perform tricky moves as they sing along to the song, such as crossing and holding friends’ hands.
Grades 3/4 – Designing own autograph in Japanese after listening to Taylor Swift speaking Japanese and role-playing as her.
The children are learning and practising more questions and expressions by chanting them along to a rock beat!
Gade 5/6’s have been making Nengajos. These are traditional postcards sent to celebrate the New Year in Japan. This year celebrates the year of the dragon. There are many Nengajos on the window of the Japanese room if you would like to see more of their beautiful postcards.
We also received a Nengajo from Minori Sensei, last year’s intern.
VISUAL ART
All of the students have been using different media and processes to create beautiful self-portraits.
The Grade 3/4 group used colourful foam sheets to make a collage of their face. They used pencils to press details into the foam. But the greatest fun began when they rolled over the raised foam pictures with paint and lifted a print! This type of picture is called a collagraph, meaning a picture made from a collage.
The Foundation students used lots of colours to paint striped backgrounds. They demonstrated amazing skills with scissors to cut around their self-portrait drawings, which they pasted to the backgrounds.
