Foundation

Our 2022 Prep cohort has made a wonderful start to the school year, with students completing an Orientation week before having their first full day on Monday. Everyone is getting to know their teachers and classmates and it has been great to see the students settling into their new routines with the help of their Grade 5/6 Buddies.

This year the Prep homegroup teachers are:

Kookaburras (Prep A) – Abbie
Kangaroos (Prep B) – Joe
Wombats (Prep C) – Lexie

Our Literacy focus this term revolves around setting up the routines for shared, guided and independent reading and writing. The initial letters and sounds we are studying in our Phonics lessons will be s, a and t. Please encourage your child to work on recognising these letters and hearing these sounds at home by practising the chants below:

Seal swim, seals slide - /s/, /s/, /s/.

Ants on apples - /a/, /a/, /a/.

Trotting tigers - /t/, /t/, /t/.

In Numeracy, we are exploring 2D shapes before immersing ourselves in lots of hands-on number activities to develop our counting skills.

Finally, a friendly reminder to all families to please ensure your child has a hat to wear during outdoor play times and that all clothing, lunch boxes and drink bottles are labelled.

We are looking forward to having an excellent year of learning with the 2022 Preps!

Grade 1

Grade 1 Learning Area

The Grade 1 students have really enjoyed settling into their new learning area, getting to know their teachers and seeing their friends. The days we have Developmental Play the students are enjoying playing with new equipment, and cooking in our toy kitchen. The students are very delighted to be back at school and making the most of all the learning. Below are some photos of the students enjoying their time back at school.

We are asking for students that have their whiteboards from 2021 to bring them to school and to remember to bring to school their home reader bag every day.

Thank you from the Grade 1 Team

Grade 2

Hooray, it’s Term 1, 2022 at School!

We in the Year 2 Learning Area are very excited to be working together.

The delightful students, teachers Rosa Pantaleo, Leila Khattar and Luisa Rumberg and

ESO Mary Bantos, have hit the ground running!

In Maths, we created skip counting puzzles using the Chinese Dragon icon and

we look forward sharing more of our work with you, over the year!

Grade 3/4

Week 1 and 2

The grade 3’s and 4’s have begun the year in mathematics looking at sorting and categories. We have used hands-on materials to sort items into different groups based on something they have in common. We used these sorting skills to sort large numbers into groups by looking at the place value of digits.

In our integrated curriculum, we have been learning about Growth Mindset and the power of yet and understanding cyber safety.

Grade 5/6

The students in the 5/6 learning area have settled in well and have been enjoying the routine of the school day. We have done a lot of fun activities, such as the Lunar New Year mini project, The Save The Egg challenge and we are currently working on The Island Project that will be over the next two terms.

In the Lunar New Year project we had to research a topic in groups. Some of the topics were: zodiac signs, myths and legends, red envelopes, Lunar New Year Food, lanterns and the dragon dance. Then we presented our topic to the class and demonstrated our new knowledge in a creative way.

The egg challenge was where we got put into a group and received a real, raw egg. The aim of the challenge was to drop it off the 3/4 outdoor balcony and try and protect the egg from cracking. Each group got 6 stickerbucks (stickers) and had to sketch out a design to help the egg survive. We got to choose from a variety of materials such as sponges, plastic bags, popsicle sticks and string. Then we used the 6 sticker bucks t to buy the materials we needed. Some groups got close to their eggs surviving, but there were lots of cracked, broken eggs! Well done to the groups that succeeded with a great design and construction.

We have also been working on the 20 days of Reading and 20 days of Writing, learning about and practising the skills and stamina to be good readers and writers. Maths has also seen us working on place value and problem solving riddles and tasks.

After lunch each day, we also spend time practising mindfulness and meditation. This sets us up to be ready for the rest of the day. Some words the students have used to describe how this makes them feel are ‘calm’, ‘relaxed’, ‘at peace’ and ‘focussed’. It's been a great way to show the students a holistic approach to learning by nurturing their mind and body.

Millie Hudson (5/6A) and Em.

Merri-bek Mail

Issue 1 · 11 Feb 2022

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