News from our Classrooms

PREP

The Prep students have had a very busy couple of weeks. Last Monday the firefighters from Pascoe Vale Fire Station returned for their second visit. The students re-visited what was learnt the previous week about safe meeting places if your home happens to catch fire, the importance of working smoke alarms, what number to call in case of an emergency, the differences between good and bad fires, "Get Down Low and Go, Go, Go" and "Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll". Then they were given the opportunity to see the fire truck up close and have a go using a fire hose.

Last Wednesday the Prep students went on an excursion to the Essendon Traffic School. There they were given many opportunities to practise the road safety rules that were explained to them by Lori the educator for the Traffic school. Lori discussed with the students the importance of holding an adult's hand to cross a road, why helmets need to be worn when riding a bike, scooter or skateboard, using designated crossings and obeying traffic signs and lights. Many thanks to the parents and Mrs Turville who accompanied us on the excursion. A great day was enjoyed by everyone.

Just a reminder that if your child is unwell, please keep them home to recover. Also, everyone must have a school hat which needs to be worn at recess and lunchtime beginning today, Monday 3rd September.

The Prep students will be attending their level Mass on Wednesday 5th September at 9:15am. Parents and grandparents are welcome to join us.

Have a great week!

YEAR 1/2

In Inquiry, the 1/2 students have been identifying different types of Health and how their choices influence their wellbeing. They have designed their own spidergrams to explain Health.

In Religion, the students are learning about the importance of human dignity and treating others how they would like to be treated.

In Literacy, the students are finding inferential meaning in texts and comparing and contrasting various stories. They are learning to write persuasive texts.

In Numeracy, the students are focussing on measurement. They are exploring how to measure the “Queen’s bed” in the story book “How Big is a Foot?”. Have a look at our wonderful pictures.

YEAR 3/4

In our Religious Education and Inquiry work, “How can challenges help us grow?”, we are continuing to investigate ways to overcome the challenges we face in our lives. We have been examining scripture to see what Jesus tells us and have found out that as we are made in the image of God, we are wonderfully made. We are able to choose and therefore decide how we will respond to the challenges we face. With a positive, growth mindset we can find a way to overcome obstacles or re-arrange our thinking in order to be the best we can be and achieve great results. We are all looking forward to our Survivor Challenge Day on September 13th, where we will have the opportunity to put our learning into practice.

In Maths, we are working on Fractions and Decimals. The students will investigate different ways to model and represent fractions and how they can locate and compare the size of one fraction with another fraction or whole number. As with all our work in Maths, it is important to identify the ways we use fractions and decimals in our everyday lives. It would be of great benefit to the students if they could measure the ingredients when cooking (½ cup of flour, ¾ cup of sugar etc) or identify the fractional part of the packet that has been eaten or the pizza that has been shared.

In Literacy, we are continuing to follow the Seven Steps to Writing and are now looking at “Show, Don’t Tell” The students are examining ways to engage the reader by describing a character’s feelings and emotions, rather than just telling what they are. For example: “Conor was scared” tells us what he was feeling but “Conor’s tummy started to churn and he was beginning to break out in a cold sweat” gives the reader a much clearer picture and encourages the reader to identify with the character and the events of the story. We are already seeing some amazing writing which really does SHOW what is happening.

YEAR 5/6

The 5/6 students are working hard in all areas of the curriculum.

In Literacy, they have been busy note taking and finding the main idea in written and audio texts. We are moving onto summarising this week. These skills are very important for all areas of the curriculum, in particular when students undertake any form of research. Students need to ensure they get the most important information from texts, find the main idea and put this into their own words in order to gain a deeper understanding, rather than copying and pasting information.

In Writing, students have started note taking about a person who has overcome challenges in their life in order to write an information report about them.

In Maths, the students are working on angles and the various types of triangles and their angles. We are also studying chance and data and conducting experiments to work out the chances of an event occurring.

In Inquiry, the students are discussing resilience and strategies to overcome challenges.

A reminder that next Tuesday night is the 'Wonder of Living' parent/child evening. A note has been sent home about this. Please return the attendance slip at the bottom of the note as soon as possible.