Apollo Community Report 

Welcome to the 3/4 Apollo Community for 2022

The students in Apollo Community have started this Year showing the four values of our School, Caring for Learning, Caring for Yourself, Caring for Others and Caring for School. We are all excited to see the learning that will continue to take place in 2022.

Literacy

Reading

In Reading, 3/4 Apollo has been busy establishing how to be effective readers and build up a Reading Community. We have been learning how to pick a Just Right Book and Just Right Spot and develop our Reading Goals in individual conferences . The genre we are focusing on is Fiction. Students have responded to texts by predicting and making connections with events and characters .

Our Home Reading program will commence shortly. Students will be required to borrow good fit texts (texts that students can read comfortably and independently) and read these at home each day. We require students to keep a log of their reading, return their books to school daily and engage in reading and discussions with family members. We would also like parents to sign their child’s record book. 

Writing

In Writing, we have discussed what it means to be a Community of Writers, with students understanding the expectations we have for their best work. Students now know the importance of the Writing Process. They aware of the steps to produce a quality piece of work including-brainstorming, planning, drafting, conferencing, editing, and publishing. These steps are a continuous process for students to plan and create writing pieces for the different genres in Writing: Narrative, Persuasive, Informative and Procedural. 

Students have analysed the structure and the features of narratives and are currently writing their own narratives. They have used mentor texts, and have been working on language conventions (spelling, sentences construction, word usage and punctuation). 

Speaking and Listening

Apollo students have been learning about active listening and speaking with clarity. They are aware of the need to look at the speaker and listen with their whole body. If they wish to contribute to a discussion, they know to take turns. 

We encourage you to engage in discussions with your child at home about their reading and their school day. Encourage him/her to speak using full sentences. Here are some sentence starters they can use:

Today at school I enjoyed… because…

I was proud that I was able to… at school today.

A strategy I used to read unfamiliar words 

I was able to include imagery devices in my writing today to engage the reader. I used…

A strategy I used in Maths today was…

I learnt to…

I found…challenging 

Maths

In Maths, we have been focusing on Place Value. Students are learning to recognise, model and order numbers to at least 10 00 and place four-digit numbers and beyond. They can place a number line with regard for scale. They partition and re-arrange to show the value of a number in more than one way. The Icarus community have been focusing on ‘show me another way’ by renaming 10 hundred to make 1 thousand. They can record the number and rename the digit values to tens of thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. Students can explain that a number such as 4005 has 40 hundred and 5 ones or 400 tens 5 ones. Students can read, write, compare, order and sequence 3-, 4-, and 5-digit numbers and beyond. Students have been counting on and back by twos, fives, tens, hundreds, and thousands to consolidate understanding of place value.

Inquiry

In Inquiry this term, students are exploring the question ‘How do I fit into the Digital World?’. Throughout this unit, students will be learning about their digital footprint and ways they can protect themselves online. Students are also learning about being respectful online and what to do if they see something they do not like whilst online. 

Parents are encourage to talk to their children about being Cyber Safe and ensure that they monitor their child when using devices. More information on this can be found at:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/parentcyber.aspx

SEL

In Social and Emotional Learning, students have begun learning about the difference between a fixed and a growth mindsets and how successful learning use a growth mindset. Students are learning about mindfulness and how it can be used to regulate their emotions. Furthermore, students are learning about our school values and how we can show these.

 Friendly Reminders

• Please ensure that your child brings a labelled water bottle to school each day. 
• Aim to get your child to school on time, every morning to ensure that they don’t miss valuable learning time. The students can come inside their classroom at 8.40 and class begins at 8.50. Students should not be in the Portables Area including the deck before 8.40.
• Ensure your child reads every night, records their book in their log and returns their log and book to school each day. 
• Please check Compass notifications regularly to stay informed. 
• If you would like to speak to your child’s teacher, please call the school to organise an appropriate time.
• This Term is a hat term do students are required to wear a hat when playing outdoors at recess and lunch and when participating in Intraschool Sports practice on Tuesday afternoons.