Learning and Teaching
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WRITING IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL
It has been an exciting week in the Juniors with children returning to school and eager to share their news about the school holidays. The Juniors have spent the week writing about their holidays with children exploring the genre of recount writing to retell what they did with their families and friends.
The Foundation students have been focusing on using the prompts of Who? When? Where? and What? to compose a sentence or sentences retelling one key event. The Grade 1 and 2 students have been exploring the text structure of a recount and the different text types we can use when retelling events, for example a letter or an email to a friend.
Not only have students worked through the writing stages of planning, composing, revising and editing their work but they have also had the opportunity to publish their texts for an audience. Students have enjoyed taking on the role of an author and illustrator in writing or typing their text based on the text type chosen and accompanying it with an illustration where appropriate. We look forward to seeing their published work up on display in the Learning Spaces.
MATHEMATICS
Over the last two years the teachers at St Francis de Sales have had the opportunity to work with MACS Learning Consultants, Jan Walker and Mark Mudge, to develop and build on the teaching and learning of Mathematics at SFS.
Part of this Professional Development has enabled the implementation of a whole school approach to the effective teaching of mental and written strategies in Mathematics.
What is a strategy?
- A strategy is the thought process that a student uses to solve a problem.
What is the difference between a written and mental strategy?
-Written strategy:
Computation that involves notating the steps being undertaken to solve the task.
(Wright, R., & Ellemor, C., (2018)
-Mental strategy:
Mental computation is the way of working out the exact answer to a calculation in the head, without resorting to using materials or writing.
(McIntosh, A., De Nardi, E., Swan, P. (2007)
Last year, leaders and teachers worked together to make the explicit teaching and practice of Mental Strategies a priority at SFS with 10 minutes of each day spent focusing on one key strategy over a two-week period. The strategy is taught, practiced and student progress assessed before students move on to the next strategy. Students are introduced to each strategy following a developmental sequence from F-Year 6 in the areas of Addition & Subtraction, Multiplication & Division and Number Word Sequence.
The teaching and practice of each strategy is short and sharp and utilises basic everyday maths equipment, such as dice, cards, counters and other concrete materials/templates which support the development of student’s mental fluency and accuracy.
Every two weeks I will be including in the newsletter the mental strategy that students are focusing on at school and some ways you can support their learning in this area at home.
Joanna Forbes
Learning & Teaching Leader
NAIDOC Week 2023- For Our Elders
NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week is observed on the first Sunday in July. It is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. We celebrated by reading some amazing picture books, written by some amazing Indigenous artists.
Students got the opportunity to observe a variety of Indigenous artefacts. For Aboriginal people the Boomerang is as old as creation and a symbol of the enduring strength of Aboriginal culture.
We immersed ourselves in some amazing art from Aunty Millie Coulthard from Yankunytjatjara Country. A painting showing two sisters (the lizards) and the landscape of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Bungle Bungle landscape. The lizards were a representation of how the land was only healthy when the animals would come out of hiding and live off the land. They were sisters because women were significant and important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people because they are strong and significant in caring for the next generation.
Finally, students got to hold and learn about Nulla Nulla sticks, a traditional tool used to hunt kangaroos. This artifact was something both women and men would use to hunt but only what they needed to have less impact on the country.
Mathematics
For the first two weeks of this term, we are building our strategies around Addition and Subtraction.
We are confident with the ‘jump strategy’ and the ‘split strategy’. Based on this information our new learning this term is around how to use the ‘compensation strategy’. We have been working with partners to support each other to apply these strategies.
We are getting better each time!!
SPORTS NEWS
We would like to welcome back all student and families to Term 3.
With our new Hall open, it promises to be a great term for our PE and Sports Program. Keep your eyes on the newsletter for further details about our sports program.
SENIOR SPORTS
STATE CROSS COUNTRY
We are once again so proud of Andi who represented us at State Cross Country on Thursday and came 2nd!!! A personal best as last year she came in 5th! Well done Andi! An amazing effort as always! Your determination and commitment are amazing. Andi will now represent us at Nationals in August.
DIVISIONAL SPORT FINALS – GIRLS’ SOCCER
Our girls soccer team will represent us at Divisional Finals next Friday. We are very proud of them and wish them all the best!! We can’t wait to hear how they go!!!
FRIDAY SENIOR SPORTS
Our grade 5/6's and 3/4's enjoyed their first training session of the Winter Interschool Sports. Even though it was a windy day, the 5/6's did extremely well in their selected sport.
Giuliana & Lulli
