Learning and Teaching

LS1 Juniors

The LS1 Juniors have been working hard on their writing this term!

In Clinic 1, students have been busy writing recounts about their holidays. They have enjoyed planning their writing and illustrating their experiences. Students are making great progress with their spelling and are becoming more consistent in using capital letters and full stops. They are also beginning to incorporate time connectives, such as then, next and finally, to help sequence their ideas.

In Clinics 2 and 3, students have been focusing on narrative writing. Clinic 2 students have been working on adding adjectives and conjunctions to improve their sentences and make their stories more interesting. Clinic 3 students have been busy rewriting and improving the complication and resolution of their narratives. Across both clinics, students are developing their use of descriptive language to bring their stories to life.

In Maths, Clinic 1 students have been exploring two-digit numbers by making and representing numbers using bundles of tens and ones. They have been practising representing quantities using words, numerals and materials.

Clinic 2 students have been revising their learning about time, with a particular focus on exploring the duration of events and telling the time to the hour.

Clinic 3 students have been investigating fractions, particularly halves, quarters and eighths. They have explored these concepts through paper folding and have been discovering examples of fractions in their everyday environment.

It has certainly been a busy and productive couple of weeks in LS1, with students continuing to build their skills and confidence across both Literacy and Maths!

Mavis Brownfield

mbrownfield@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

LS1 Junior Team Teacher

MATHEMATICS

MENTAL STRATEGIES – TERM 4 WEEK 1-2 JUNIORS & 1-3 SENIORS

Children have been focusing on the following mental strategies at school. Keep up the great practice that is happening at home.

YEAR LEVEL

STRATEGY and SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICING AT HOME

Foundation

Subitising in the range 1-10

Subitising in the range 1–10 means instantly recognizing the quantity of a small group of items (between 1 and 10) at a glance without counting them one by one.
The two types include:
Perceptual Subitising (1 to about 4–5): The instinctive, immediate ability to "just see" a small number of items (like 3 dots or a standard dice face for 4 or 5) as a whole, without any mental calculation
Conceptual Subitising (5 to 10): The ability to look at a larger quantity (up to 10) and recognize it by seeing it as a combination of smaller, familiar subgroups or patterns (such as seeing 6 as two groups of 3, or 8 as a 5-frame plus 3 more).

Students can practice this at home by looking at collections of objects around the house or in the environment and trying to recognize the quantity without counting. Parents can even use dice, cards, lego, dolls, toy cars/trucks etc and place them in a line or two lines and ask children – how many are there, checking to see if their child responds automatically.

Year 1

Partitions of 6,7,8 and 9

Children practice recording the different combinations of numbers that can be added together to total the numbers 6,7,8 and 9. It is important for children to know these combinations by heart as it helps them with their number fluency.

Year 2

Forward and Backwards number word sequence by 10’s within the range 0 – 1000 starting at any number

Students can practice orally counting forwards or backwards by 10’s starting at any number, between 1-1 000.

E.g. 432, 442, 452, 462 and so on OR 231, 221,211,201 and so on

Year 3

Addition and Subtraction with regrouping

Students use their place value understanding to:

break numbers apart (partition),
adjust values to round numbers (bridging/compensation), or
jump by tens and ones without relying on a paper column algorithm.

Year 4 & 5

Compensation

This mental maths strategy involves temporarily adjusting one number in an equation to make it a "friendly" number (such as a multiple of 10, 50, or 100), and then adjusting the final answer to balance the change. This can be done for both addition and subtraction.

Addition Example: 49 + 29

Make 29 a friendly number by adding 1 to make it 20 (29 + 1 = 30).

Add the adjusted number: (48 + 30 = 78).

Compensate by subtracting the 1 you originally added:

78 - 1 = 77

Subtraction Example: 26 - 9

Round 9 up to 10 - 9 + 1 = 10.

Subtract the friendly number: 26 - 10 = 16.

Compensate by adding back the 1 you extra-subtracted: 16 + 1 = 17

Year 6

Counting forwards and backward by fractions and decimals

Students can practice doing this orally at home.

When counting by fractions identify which fraction you are counting with –halves, third, eights etc. Do this by looking at the denominator, even if the fraction is a mixed numeral. Once this has been identified you can then start counting up with the numerator.

When counting by decimals:

Choose a starting number: Pick a decimal number (e.g., 0.16 or 3.35).

Choose a step size: Decide how much to subtract each time (e.g., 0.01 for hundredths or 0.1 for tenths).

Subtract sequentially: Take away the step size from each new number to create a descending sequence.

Joanna Forbes

jforbes@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

Learning and Teaching Leader

Visual Art News

HOLT Annual Christmas Card Competition Update & More!

Thank you to the students and their parents for their interest, enthusiasm and effort with entering the Holt Annual Christmas Card Competition. It was a pleasure to receive a great response to this competition and see the interest and great designs the students created to share the spirit of Christmas artistically through their original Christmas cards this year. MP Cassandra Fernando’s staff are gladly collecting the entries today and results of this competition will be announced as soon as we are notified.

Images above of the many entries sent.

Special thanks to our families who expressed interest and sent art pieces to be showcased at our upcoming Art Show. We are blessed and grateful to have such great talent in our SFS community and look forward to sharing it very soon!

Until then, keep on making the spark in your art grow!

Melissa Junkeer

mjunkeer@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

Visual Arts Teacher

SENIOR SPORTS

Today, our Basketball Girls Team competed in the Divisional playoffs. They secured the top position at the District Level, which allowed them to advance to the Divisional playoffs. It was a lengthy day characterised by a Round Robin format, during which they played at least four games. By the end of the day, everyone was fatigued but immensely pleased to have participated. Congratulations to the girls for reaching this level of competition.

Additionally, in a round robin format our Volleyball A Team participated in the Divisional play offs at the Casey Stadium. They engaged in fair and fierce competition over their four games. I was thrilled with their excellent level of sportsmanship, the students deserve to be congratulated for making it this far in the competition.

Congratulations to our Senior Teachers for the continued support in the Physical Education program and Interschool Sport Program.

Lulli Barbakos

Physical Education Teacher

Senior Sports Coordinator

lbarbakos@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

WHOLE SCHOOL EXTRA CURRICULAR EVENTS

TERM 4 SWIMMING

Swimming has begun!! Thanks to all the parents that ensured their child was prepared for their swimming lesson. It made the office ladies job much easier. Thank you also to parents who assisted in the Junior changerooms. Please remember that only the parents I have organised will be allowed to enter and assist in the changerooms.

Swimming timetables have been uploaded onto the nForma permission form as an attachment. Please print it off and ensure you have it available at home.

Next week’s swimming lessons are:

Monday – LS1 Seniors, LS1 Juniors and LS3 Juniors
Tuesday – LS3 Seniors, LS2 Seniors and LS2 Juniors

Students will need to wear their bathers under their uniform (either summer or sports whichever is easier for them to change in and out of) and bring a bag with their towel, undergarments and thongs. Could we please ask parents to ensure all items taken to swimming are clearly labelled with your child’s name including their uniform. It’s extremely hard to work out who clothes belong to, when found, if student names are not on them.

Students will put their thongs on before leaving for swimming to make changing easier. They will then put their shoes back on once they return to school. Goggles are optional.

Please ensure your child is prepared for their swimming lesson so our office staff do not need to use their valuable time ringing parents and asking them to bring swimming gear.

Parents please note you are welcome to attend Casey Race to view your child’s lesson but photographs and videos are not allowed and only parents who have been contacted by me, are able to assist in the junior change rooms.

A reminder to parents that swimming is an important part of the PE curriculum and all students are expected to attend. It’s imperative that students know how to keep themselves safe around water. If there is a medical reason your child cannot attend a session, they will then remain at school in another Learning Space.

Any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Giuliana

Extra-Curricular Coordinator

gfaiola@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

LS1 and LS2 Action Teams – Garden Bed Collaboration

Our senior students from the LS1 and LS2 Action Teams have been working collaboratively to plant a beautiful variety of flowers in our new garden beds, located outside the school hall overlooking the oval.

Through this hands-on experience, students are developing a greater understanding of the importance of caring for our environment and maintaining our school gardens. In the coming weeks, students will take responsibility for regularly watering and caring for the newly planted flowers, helping them to grow and flourish.

What a wonderful team effort! We are incredibly proud of our students for their enthusiasm, teamwork and commitment to making our school grounds even more beautiful. A big thank you to everyone involved for helping to create a welcoming and vibrant outdoor space for our school community to enjoy.

Rita Karamalis

rkaramalis@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

LS1 Junior team teacher