From the Classroom

News from 5/6

Digital Learning 

Our trial of G-Suite and Google Classrooms is now in full swing and students seem to be enjoying both the novelty and the access to self-paced learning these technologies afford. Students are able to log-in from home and should have asynchronous access to ALL learning materials. 

Homework 

A number of students have begun submitting homework assignments and it has been wonderful to see their enthusiasm for these tasks. As discussed in our last update, completing homework is encouraged but not mandatory. Homework should aim to develop 'intrinsically motivated learners' and see students build healthy relationships with 'learning at home'. 

In addition to daily reading and the homework grid, students have, this week, been introduced to Khan Academy, a self-paced Numeracy program with a focus on ‘mastery learning'. 

Additional information can be found here:

https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-for-educators/resources/parents-mentors-1  

Reminder:  Students are encouraged to spend approximately 1-hour completing homework each week.

English

Students have just completed their persuasive letters to the Minister for Environment discussing Australia's use of non-renewable energy sources. These letters are accessible via Google Classroom and if you have not already done so, I encourage you to log in and have a look at your child's work. Our next project is to write a letter to the incoming Principal. 

Maths 

For the past few weeks our Numeracy focus has been on Volume and Capacity. Students have been exploring these concepts through the Khan Academy platform (discussed above), masterclasses and a variety of hands-on tasks such as exploring Archimedes principle of displacement. 

What's happening in 3/4

Students in 34 continue to work on the four operations and using efficient strategies to solve problems. Our new focus will be on money and financial maths, where students will solve problems involving purchases and the calculation of change.

In Literacy, we delve deeper into our class Novel, Nim's Island and find out more about Nim, Jack and Alex. Students are continuing to write persuasive texts and to state their opinion and argue their points to peers.

As part of our Inquiry Unit, the 34 students went to Healesville Sanctuary. We watched a Bird Show, saw a lot of amazing wildlife and found out more about lifecycles of the animals at the sanctuary. Everyone had an excellent time!

Some of our Year 4 students visited Community Kids childcare on Wednesday and really enjoyed reading to the Kindergarten children. They are looking forward to future visits throughout the rest of the term!

The Adventures of 1/2s

Science Works excursion - We are thrilled to share with you the exciting experience we had during our recent excursion to Science Works! Our grade 1/2 class had a blast exploring the wonders of science, and one highlight was our engaging session in the Lightning Room. Here, we delved into the fascinating world of weather, learning all about its changes and how it affects our daily lives. The highlight of the day was witnessing a live lightning demonstration, where the children's eyes lit up with wonder as they saw the powerful force of nature up close. It was a fantastic opportunity for our young scientists to deepen their understanding of the natural world and how different types of weather we experience is created.

Maths - Over the past two weeks we have been exploring patterns! The students have been actively engaged in identifying, decreasing, and increasing patterns, as well as spotting patterns in numbers, a few even stretched themselves and started identifying patterns in multiplication. Through various interactive and fun activities, we helped them understand how patterns change and how they can apply this knowledge to problem-solving. Additionally, we introduced skip counting from different starting points, making it an enjoyable learning experience with games and manipulatives, that the students absolutely loved! It's been so great to witness their enthusiasm and growth in mathematical thinking. This week we started introducing the students to multiplication and the language associated with it such as groups of, times and multiply. Creating visual representations students are starting to understand and make connections between multiply and divide. 

English - We have continued to delve into creating and making procedural texts in writing. As part of our reading comprehension activities, the students have been actively engaged with the texts we have read, such as 'How to wash a woolly mammoth'. The students identified key details, and learnt about the importance of using bossy verbs to add clarity and excitement to their writing. We've been encouraging them to take their understanding of procedural texts to the next level by editing their work, adding creative and interesting details to make their writing truly stand out. It's heart warming to see how their enthusiasm for reading and writing has grown, and we are proud of their progress in mastering these essential language skills.

Fantastic Foundation

A huge congratulations to our Foundation students who reached a milestone of 100 days of being at school on the 27th July!  They celebrated being '100 days brighter' in a number of ways across the day, by dressing brightly, wearing a 100 days crown and enjoying engaging in a variety of activities linked to the number 100! 

Foundation has had great fun exploring addition and subtraction through hands on materials and nursery rhymes. We have looked at the skill of 'counting back' in subtraction and 'counting on' in addition in the lead up to number lines. Students had their animal counter 'walk the plank' to count forward for addition and read the book "Ten Red Apples" for subtraction.

In Literacy, we are continuing to explore poetry and rhyming words. This week students have been learning how to voice their opinion on texts by saying "I like... because..". We have read a series of books "Oi Frog" by Kes Gray and Jim Field. They have enjoyed making their very own book with rhymes like 'Hey didn't you know, giraffe's sit on rafts?".

Indonesian news

I am very proud to announce that we had six students receive awards at Sayembara Lisan, the Indonesian State Finals. 

Bu Devathas, the Indonesian teacher from Heathmont College and the Eastern Region Co-ordinator, came to assembly last week to present all our finalists with their certificates.

Level 1(Grade 1 and 2 students)

Mabel C received third place.

Angus B received a Highly Commended Award.

Level 2 (Grade 3 and 4 students)

Hannah D receives first place.

Level 3 (Grade 5 and 6 students)

Willow J-B received first place.

Brandon P received second place.

Zoe N received third place.

The Awards Night will be held at Melbourne High School at the Memorial Hall on Friday 11th of August. It will be opened by the Victorian Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia, Bapak Kuncoro Giri Waseso.

It is such a fantastic achievement for our school to receive so many awards. Bagus!

Terima kasih,

Bu Dowling