What's happening in our learning spaces? 

,for STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

FOUNDATION

We have had some exciting and fun learning experiences this past week with our first Discovery Time and using a fun language experience to help us learn how to write! 

As Curious Thinkers, we engaged in Discovery Time on Monday. We had time and opportunity to explore a range of different stations such as playdough, dinosaurs, construction, book making, tinkering and a tea party set up. Our focus assets this Term are being a Collaborator and Communicator. Our first thoughts about what we thought about these assets were: to work like a team, speak appropriately and listen to what others are communicating or suggesting. We used this time to spend a few moments at each station to see what interested us the most. Some of us experimented with letter stencils to write our names and form patterns at our book making station. The cafe was very busy with baristas making coffee and tea, menus being created and even fine dining with Mrs Wenckowski sipping her numerous cups of tea. We are looking forward to seeing what Discovery brings this week. It will be more focused on the students selecting a station each Discovery Time so that over the coming weeks, everyone will explore every station. 

As Writers, we engaged in a fun language experience session on Tuesday. Bubbles filled the Saunders Yard as we waved our bubble wands to create lots and lots of bubbles. We noticed that bubbles are round and colourful like a rainbow. They float, they fly, they pop and bubbles just make us feel happy. After this experience, we drew a picture of the bubbles and what we thought they did and what they looked like. Some of us attempted to identify the initial sounds of words we wished to write. We’ve been using our cued articulation signs to help us identify letter sounds when writing. We can’t wait to learn more about how to write and sound out our words. 

If you would like to listen to our ‘cued articulation song’ at home, please see the link below: 

This week is our last Wednesday Rest Day, we are looking forward to having everyone at school every day from Monday 27th February. If you haven’t already done so, please bring a library bag into school before Wednesday the 1st of March so that we can borrow books. 

Have a great week. 

Leanne Wenckowski and Alex Phillips

Foundation Team

YEAR 1/2

It has been another great week in 1/2, with lots of opportunities to be thinkers, researchers, communicators, collaborators and self-managers. 

As part of our mindfulness and wellbeing program, we began the week with a focus on being self-managers. We explored the Catastrophe Scale, a measurement system that helps put our problems and feelings into perspective. As thinkers and collaborators, we worked in small groups to identify different types of problems for each part of the scale, how serious they are and ways we can manage them, and placed these on our own scales. We also continued to engage in mindfulness daily, such as yoga, meditation, breathing exercises and mindfulness colouring. 

As writers, we began exploring how to write recounts and reflections about experiences we have engaged in. We focused on writing about the events in order, using past tense verbs and using sequencing words. We also wrote our very own class book about ourselves, where the focus was on generating ideas, punctuation and sentence structure. We wrote facts about ourselves, including our age, family, where we live and things we like and dislike. As writers, we made sure to use capital letters for the start of a sentence and for names of people and places, and full stops for the end of a sentence. Some of us also looked at using conjunctions to generate compound sentences. 

We will continue to do this over the coming weeks, as we engage in various writing opportunities about our weekends, specialist learning, Discovery Time, Mass and other experiences, such as making pancakes. 

As mathematicians, we tuned in to the concept of Place Value. As researchers, we are exploring how to read and write two and three-digit numbers. Some of us used unifix and bundling sticks to make them. This week we will look at how we can make and represent these numbers using our knowledge of place value, and identify the value of each digit. 

As part of your child's home learning, please continue to count with them as often as possible. Grade 1s are expected to count forwards from 0 to 120, and back, and skip count forwards and backwards by 2s, 5s and 10s from 0. Grade 2s are expected to count forwards and backwards by 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s from any starting point. 

We look forward to the week ahead, when we will be fortunate enough to begin Discovery Time, make pancakes for Shrove Tuesday and attend Ash Wednesday Mass! 

1/2 Team, 

Alycia Marsico, Vania Sparano and Vicky Karalis 

Year 3/4

The Year 3/4 students have had a busy week setting goals and managing their independent learning. 

As members of a Catholic learning community,  the 3/4 learning group gathered and identified the symbols and prayers they believe are important to have in our shared prayer space. Together we were able to set up our prayer space which we will continue to add to throughout the year. We have been finding out about the four types of prayer and students had the time and opportunity to create their own morning prayer.

As readers, we have been finding out about the learning asset of being a Self-Manager. We have engaged in building our reading stamina within our learning spaces, and we have done this by setting personal goals as a reader. Throughout our reading learning opportunities, students will be focusing on their personal goals as a reader and reflecting on the progress of their goals.

Within our mathematical thinking, we have been learning about using formal units of measurement and how we can use the data collected to create graphs. We have collected data about our birthdays, favourite ice cream flavours and heights. 

Have a lovely week!

Year 3/4 Teachers

Belinda Panzarino & Bianka Zorzut

YEAR 5/6

Another great week in 5/6 last week! 

In Literacy, the students have explored the text ‘Stolen Girl’ about a young Aboriginal girl taken from her home and family. We explored the concept of ‘home’ and how it differs from a house. The students generated amazing discussions about what they think a home is, and what makes us feel at home and provided examples of their own idea of home. The text provided us with the opportunity to learn more about The Stolen Generation and discussed the apology from the Government (Kevin Rudd) on the anniversary of February 13th. 

As well as exploring more about some of the struggles Indigenous Australians have faced, the students have been unpacking ‘Acknowledgments of Country’ and have been tasked with creating their own class acknowledgement of country. It has been a wonderful learning experience for us all to reflect on the land we live on/in, the history of the original custodians of our land, the Wurundjeri people, and just how important it is to thank them for all they have done in protecting and nurturing the land we call home. 

In Numeracy, the students have continued to explore the place value system. We have engaged in a range of activities and games that explore rounding, renaming and ordering. Students will continue developing their understanding of the place value system and decimal numbers which will then help them in all other areas of the mathematics curriculum. 

In Inquiry, we have begun to explore our big question “What do we believe?” The 5/6 teachers brought in a range of items from different cultural groups. Students roamed the SLA and wrote down what they knew about those cultures and questions they wanted to explore. It was a fantastic cultural immersive experience for the students to begin our new unit! 

The 5/6 students are eagerly awaiting their first match in our inter-school sports competition coming up this Friday. Each child has been practising the sport of their choice, Bat Tennis, Softball or Basketball and have demonstrated excellent teamwork skills. We would like to wish all students playing in the competition this week against AIA! Go, St Fidelis!!

Have a fantastic week, 

5/6 Teachers, 

Olivia Sargent, Graham Troy and Aoife O’Flynn