Ulysses Community Report

Term 4, 2022

Dear Ulysses Families,

It has been another marvellous start to the term full of amazing learning within the Ulysses Community. Our students have been busily working on their Reading, Writing, Maths, Inquiry and S.E.L. skills. The students have produced some phenomenal work to demonstrate their understanding of these topics and should be proud of their efforts.

Our Learning

Reading

In Reading, we have been learning to make connections with the text. We read the book,” Tiddalick the Frog.” and students were able to make text to self connections. Students explored narrative texts from the to understand the purpose and structure of a fiction text. They learnt about using 5Ws to identify character, setting, problem and resolution in a narrative text. Students got the opportunity to describe the characters and the setting using adjectives and synonyms.

The Ulysses community has continued to work on reading ‘just right’ books from the community library, whilst building our reading stamina. They worked in small groups for guided reading.

Writing

In Term 4, the students in the Ulysses community have been working on writing a narrative text. We were learning about the structure and language features used to write a narrative text. We also were learning about how to use adjectives and noun phrases to make writing more interesting. The students had the opportunity to plan, draft, edit, revise and publish their narrative stories. They enjoyed creating illustrations for their narrative text.

Maths

In Maths this term we had a start of learning about money. The students were learning about the shape and size of the Australian coins, and what each side of the coin represented. They also learned to recognise the value of the coins and the fact that the size of the coin does not determine the value.

The next topic in maths is fractions. The students are investigating what is a fraction, what are halves, quarters and eights. They also are using paper and other materials to demonstrate half, quarter, eights and other fractions. For example, the students had an investigative rich task where they had to use playdough to make a donut and they had to use their knowledge of fractions to cut the donut in eight equal parts but only making three cuts. This task is designed to engage and develop students’ thinking skills, where it challenges them to learn by trial and error as well as using prior knowledge of fractions. So, parents, here is this challenge for you too! Can you solve it? Ask your child to show you at home how they solved the problem!

Inquiry

In Inquiry, the Ulysses Community have been investigating their own history and that of their own family. Students answered the following questions: ‘Is my family responsible for who I am?’. They engaged in stories of their own and their peers’ cultures and discussed their place in the world. Students took part in an excursion to the Melbourne Museum where they participated in the program ‘My Grandma’s Toybox’ where they were able to develop their knowledge and understanding of how things have developed and changed over time. The Museum was such a fun and amazing experience full of fantastic learning and collaboration.

Social and Emotional Learning

In Social Emotional Learning, the Ulysses Community explored gender and identity. Students reflected on their identity: likes, dislikes, strengths and developed an awareness of positive and negative gender norms. Students were able to challenge negative gender norms, as well as develop an appreciation of difference. Students played a variety of games with a strong focus on including everyone. Students took part in an enriching discussion about the importance of including everyone no matter their gender.

Some housekeeping:

Making sure students arrive at school on time… as it is cool to be in school - on time
Bring your hat to school as we remind students: “No hat, no play” !
If you have any toys from when you were a child or even relatives years ago we would love to have them brought in to discuss and explore how times have changed over the years