Grades 4-6

Parent info day

On Wednesday 16th March, families are invited to come into the school for the last hour of the day (2:30-3:20pm) to see your child's classroom.

Students will be working in their Maths Builders group rotations during this time. Following this, there will be an information session from 3:35-4:00pm held in the 4-6A classroom (Jose's classroom). Afterwards, our curriculum leadership team will be providing an opportunity for parents to learn about our refined literacy model and the ways to support students at home. This will provide clarity for our families around how we are teaching reading at Newlands Primary School.

Students can be on school grounds but note that staff will not be on duty in these areas after 3:45pm, therefore no school staff will be supervising.

Literacy

We have continued with our reciprocal teaching and the different roles for students: Clarifier, Questioner, Summariser... as well as working on inferring and predicting. Students have created a wish list and used that to begin the process of writing (prewriting and drafting). We have been growing our learner skills by using dictionaries and the Frayer Model to discover and record new words. We had fun creating the profile of a mascot (Bruno Felipe and Joe) to practice the use of first and third-person as well as new vocabulary.

During The Code, we have finished our four week cycle of typing, where we learnt the position of the hands, technique, location of main keys and use of fingers. We are now transitioning into our handwriting skills, exploring different suffixes in Spanish and word families, as well as having fun exploring different homophones in English.

Mathematics

The focus of Maths Builders so far this year has centered upon place value, interpreting data, and exploring different units of measurement. Through collaborative tasks which focus on problem-solving and open-ended questioning, the students have been exploring different ways to model numbers, working with equivalences in fractions and decimals; analysing data and creating graphs. In measurement and geometry, students have been consolidating their understandings of volume, capacity and mass.

Inquiry

Students have been analysing different information sources and finding out ways to discover if the source was reliable and valid. We have been viewing videos, reading blogs and checking council websites. Students are beginning to take notes of relevant information, share their findings and provide evidence of their learning.

Camp

Beach Camp is happening in two weeks´ time and excitement is growing among our 456 students! While this is an amazing and nurturing opportunity to share time with friends and teachers in a different context, we know that spending a few days away from home (first time for some!) can be a challenging experience and create a lot of mixed feelings. We are engaging in discussions around camp during Circle Time, delving into feelings that students usually experience while at camp. Sneak peek of the camp facilities!

We will continue to encourage these sharing moments prior to camp to ensure we set our children for success so they can make the most of this amazing experience! We have also created a Box of Worries for students to write down their questions, fears, wonderings around camp.

Grade 5/6 answering our year 4´s questions and wonderings around camp.

WHAT TO BRING::

Lunch and snacks for the first day
Sleeping bag
Fitted Sheet (single bed)
Pillow & slip
Toiletries
Towel
Plastic bags for dirty clothes/shoes
Pyjamas
Shirts
Shorts
Long pants
Jumpers
T-shirts

Bathers & rash vest (if you do not have a rash vest, we will provide one)
Socks and jocks
Waterproof Jacket
Enclosed toe walking shoes/runners
Water shoes
Drink bottle for day activities
Day pack for activities
Sun hat
Sunscreen/Insect repellent
Pencils
Paper
Torch

WHAT NOT TO BRING:

Best clothes
Valuable items
Jewellery
Technology (phones/tablets/smartwatches)
Money

Interschool sports

Two games down! We have already played at Moreland PS and St. Fidelis. We have seen how the students are Newlands bring the school values when outside school. All students are eager to learn, improve and meet other students from the wider community. Interschool sport is a great opportunity to develop skills through a program of competitive experiences while promoting teamwork and good sportsmanship.

The Sports Captains have been taking great care of organising the materials and have already prepared a speech to deliver when the games at Newlands conclude.

We are looking forward to more games with other schools. Timetable below.