Classroom News 

PREP

What a busy two weeks we have had in our Prep space. 

We were so happy to be back with all of our friends after a two week break. We loved sharing what we did in the holidays and even had the opportunity to write and draw all about it. 

For our Little Learners Love Literacy program, we have jumped into stage 2. We are learning the common sounds “o, l, n, g, h, v, b, d” and have been looking at blending these sounds to make words. 

This week our sentence has been a fun one “Tim is on his van and hit a big tin. Tim is sad!”. We focused on our two new heart/common words “a” and “is”. We were very excited to see an exclamation mark in this sentence, as we are learning that this means we have to read with expression. 

We started our learning of Colourful Semantics during writing in week 1 with “who?” and this week we did “what doing?”. For example, “Shrek is jumping”, “Mr Mahoney is dancing”. We are very excited to build on this every week as we continue to learn so many new skills. 

In numeracy, we started our unit of addition. We are learning to add two groups together to see how many we have altogether. We have done this by using lots of different concrete materials and engaging activities. 

During nature play this week, we have been very busy building things and creating games. This is a great way to engage in social play, learn and apply social learning strategies and develop gross motor skills, and of course have lots of fun. 

This week in GEM time we explored feelings. We named feelings and demonstrated what these look like and what things can make us feel this way. We also explored how we can tell how someone is feeling and we know we can do this by looking at their body and face, before we ask. 

We look forward to our week 3 in Prep. 

Gemma Blake    gblake@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Dani Conheady   dconheady@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1/2

Welcome Back! It has been such a wonderful start to Term 2!

Last week we began our Term by finishing the Easter story at our whole school prayer gathering 'Alleluia Day'. We then moved to the courts to create a coin trail, made by all our donations to Caritas. Each class then discussed the importance of ANZAC Day. 

For this Term in Inquiry, our topic is Time Machine Adventure. We will be going back in time to look at technologies and toys from the past. In Religion our topic is Participation. We will be taking a closer look at Baptism and Confirmation.

This week we have begun writing persuasive texts and have been focusing on giving reasons to support our point of view. The children have really enjoyed debating their opinions. 

Matt's Year 2 class will be leading our whole school prayer gathering tomorrow. All families are welcome to attend. It begins at 9am. 

Kascha Popping    kpopping@smcolac.catholic.edu.au    

Leah Martin            lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Miriam Collins       mcollins@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt Absalom        mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au    

Emma Roberts       eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au  

Kerryn Williams     kwilliams@smcolac.cathlolic.edu.au

GRADE 3/4

We are well on the way with Term 2 and we have settled back into our routines for the term! 

A massive thank-you to all the students for their participation and enthusiasm while we were away on camp. Everyone had a great time with lots of memories made. 

This term we have been getting into some new topics for our units. In Literacy we have been completing a book study on a book called ‘The Little Turtle and the Sea’. In writing we have begun Narrative writing. We have looked at an Orientation and how to add rich descriptions to our writing through using our 5 senses.  

This week we completed a short unit on Location and Transformation, looking at symmetry and maps including scale, compass points and legends. 

In our Religion unit we have begun looking at our identities - what makes me, me? This links closely with our Inquiry unit looking at our identities and our emotions. Why not have a chat with your child about what they have learnt about their identities and emotions?

Reminders 

15th May - School closure day

12th June - King’s Birthday Public Holiday

Elissa Rodger      erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au      

Deb Holland         dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Lauren Ryan         lryan@smcolac.catholic.edu.au     

Meg Knight          mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Judy Carr               jcarr@smcolac.catholic.edu

Jodie Hassett      jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5/6

Welcome back to Term 2! With this term being a short one there’s a lot on and we have certainly hit the ground running in Grade 5/6!

Hopefully the Grade 5s are enjoying their camp at Campaspe Downs, near Kyneton. We look forward to hearing all of their adventures and fun stories from camp next week back at school. 

In Literacy time, we have started a Rod Clement author study for the 1st 4 weeks of Term. Children will explore 4 Rod Clement stories (‘Grandad’s Teeth’, ‘Edward the Emu’, ‘Olga the Brolga’ and ‘Feather’s for Phoebe’) and practise their reading skills including investigating vocabulary in the texts, summarising, completing a reading response and comparing the texts to each other. During Writing time both Grades 5 and 6 are continuing to look at Narrative texts and are using Narrative prompts for our Big Writes each week. 

In Maths time, students are investigating decimals. They have been practising skills including reading and writing decimal numbers, modelling decimal numbers using visual representations, comparing decimals etc. We will soon be starting Multiplication and Division which will be a good time to hit some Times Tables practice at home - always helpful!

Our R.E. unit this term is ‘Gratitude’. Students have started exploring what this means and have looked at ‘The Beatitudes’ story in Matthew’s gospel. A reminder that Jade’s grade have their Prayer Gathering next week for Mother’s Day. 

In Inquiry we are also beginning our unit, ‘Calling Australia Home’ where we will start to investigate immigration in Australia. 

Have a great week/weekend everyone!

Rachel Downard     rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Paula Parish              pparish@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Jade LoRicco            jloricco@smcolac.catholic.edu.au 

Dan Cannon             dcannon@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Susie Scott               sscott@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Maegen Potter        mpotter@smcolac.catholic.edu.au.