Junior School

Prep

We are now halfway through the term and our Preppies are doing a fantastic job settling into school life and learning new routines. It has been wonderful to see their confidence continue to grow each week.

Students have been thoroughly enjoying our weekly Show and Tell sessions. They have done an excellent job bringing in unique and interesting items and speaking about them in front of the class. It has been great to see students becoming more confident sharing their ideas and listening respectfully to others.

We have also loved our weekly Buddy Time with our Year 6 buddies. Last week students created some amazing giant chalk artworks outside, and this week they enjoyed a paper plane competition together. Congratulations to Rory and Harry, and Will and Jaxx, whose planes flew the furthest!

In Mathematics, students have been exploring different numbers through a range of hands-on activities. They have made veggie faces, played number matching games, and enjoyed practising their counting and number recognition through fun dice games.

In Science, we are learning about living things and their features. Students have been exploring their five senses to observe and describe different features around them. This week we investigated plants we can eat, using our senses of smell, touch, sight and even taste! Students learned about different types of plants such as roots, fruits, stems and leaves.

Finally, our Preps participated in their very first Athletics Carnival yesterday! From all reports, they did an amazing job. Students looked fantastic dressed in their house colours and showed wonderful sportsmanship, cheering on and encouraging one another throughout the day.

Well done, Prep G – I am so proud of the way you are learning, growing and supporting each other!

Alissa Griffin

Prep Teacher

Year 1

In Christian Studies, we have been learning about God's amazing creation. Genesis 1:1 is stored in our hearts and minds, and we also know Psalm 24:1 which reminds us that 'The earth is the Lord's and everything in it'. We used coloured paper, textas, craft supplies and nature to do a bit of creating ourselves. We made a habitat for a chosen animal including all things that it needed to thrive, decorated a special party hat to celebrate God's amazing world, planted bean seeds in our 'Sprout Houses' and placed them on the window to receive sunshine and generate moisture.

A highlight of last week was hosting the Possum Kinder group on Tuesday. We were able to share with them our celebration of God's creation and enjoyed listening to them sing for us. Our classroom was bursting with joy and enthusiasm as everyone engaged in conversation and creativity, making beautiful pictures of flowers together. All too soon, our time together came to an end and we reluctantly said goodbye to our Kinder friends.

Lyndell Tucker

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

In Year 2 Humanities this week we looked at all the different ways we can communicate with people. Students wrote about their favourite ways to share information and the people that they enjoy sharing information with. We were also excited to have our first session with Year 4 buddies on Monday!

Thank you Mrs O'Brien and Year 4 students for visiting our classroom and for helping the Year 2's with their Google Slides presentation. I was so heartened walking around the classroom and listening to the conversations, there are really some budding teachers in our Year 4 group!

We are learning new and exciting ways to practice spelling and find digraphs and trigraphs in our school. Year 2 students took part in a scavenger hunt outside, searching for different letter sounds and working with a partner to find objects that matched. Well done Year 2 for working so cooperatively!

Emily Hunter

Year 2 Teacher

Year 3

It has been a busy and engaging time in Year 3 as we continue building strong foundations across our learning areas.

In Numeracy, we have been exploring place value in a very hands-on way. Students worked together to build large numbers using MAB blocks, constructing towers of ones, tens and hundreds to deepen their understanding of how our number system works. We also had great fun learning a game called “Home Run Baseball”, where students practised adding and subtracting 1s, 10s and 100s as they moved around the bases. Another favourite has been a challenging counting game called “Snail Trail”, which helps our very fast counters slow down and think carefully about patterns when counting by 10s, 100s and even 1000s.

In Science, we have been revising and extending our understanding of living and non-living things. We began with a walk outside around the school grounds to observe and collect examples of things that might fit into each category. This led us to learn about MRS GREN, the set of characteristics scientists use to determine whether something is living. Students discovered that living things show Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion and Nutrition.

One afternoon the class became “MRS GREN Detectives.” In our story, the world had fallen into chaos and we needed to become scientists to help restore order! Students investigated different objects and organisms, carefully looking for evidence to determine whether they were living or non-living. Through this activity we learned that scientists must use evidence and careful observation to support their conclusions.

We also began exploring the idea of classification. To prepare for learning how scientists classify animals and plants, the students took part in a very enjoyable activity using a large collection of different lollies. Working in groups, they had to decide how to sort and classify the lollies according to their characteristics. It was fascinating to see the different ways students approached this challenge and it helped them understand how scientists organise living things into groups based on shared features.

It has been wonderful to see the students showing curiosity, teamwork and growing confidence as young mathematicians and scientists.

Ang Hales

Year 3 Teacher

Year 4

Year 4 have had a great fortnight of learning. We have been working on equal and unequal equations. Everyone has been working very hard to improve their numeracy skills and their hard work is paying off.

I’m also very proud of everyone that attended the Athletics Carnival. Our grade displayed wonderful behaviour and sportsmanship. It was awesome to see children achieving great results and cheering each other on. Well done!

Naomi O'Brien

Year 4 Teacher

Year 5

Year 5 had an awesome day at the Junior School Athletics Carnival on Thursday this week. As you can see in the photos below, we all tried our best and represented our houses really well.

Coral Robertson

Year 5 Teacher

AUSLAN

Everyone has made an amazing start to AUSLAN this year. Prep to Year 2 have learnt basic greetings, school signs and most of the farm animals. The Year 1s and 2s are also now beginning to master fingerling the alphabet, while Year 3 to 6 have learnt all this plus many more advanced school signs and the whole alphabet.

Everyone is picking up the signing very quickly and making great progress. It is very exciting to see these beginning to translate into school life and being practiced in the classroom.

Here is a link to some signs to practice at home if your child wishes to.

Naomi O'Brien

AUSLAN Teacher