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Students of the Week

Foundation News

Another week down in Foundation and wow what a week it has been! 

As part of our inquiry, we tuned in to Science by activating our prior knowledge. We shared our thinking about what we think a scientist does and the different types of scientists. As communicators, we made our thinking visible by drawing a picture of a scientist. Through our conversations with each other, we discovered that scientists don’t just do experiments or mix things, they can build and design things, they can work with living things such as animals, plants and insects, or explore bones and artefacts. We also discovered that people like doctors and astronauts are also types of scientists. As scientists we looked closely at materials to find out about their properties. We identified how the materials looked and felt and what they could do, for example; stretch, break or absorb water. As researchers, we tested different materials to see what happened when we put them in water. We discovered that the fabric and wood absorbed water, but the plastic, foil and rubber were all waterproof. 

As part of our Discovery Time workshops, we continued to focus on being communicators. We shared our thinking with each other, made sure to look and listen to the person talking and asked questions as we collaborated to sort and label different materials. At the Lego Wall, we collaborated to construct caravan parks, aeroplanes, swimming pools and rocket ships and at the book making station we created story books about our mums. 

As writers we are continuing to write about our weekends, the texts we are reading, STEM, Discovery Time and other learning experiences. Weare learning to write a sentence, and as thinkers, we are focusing on using sight words, using spaces between our words and including full stops at the end of our sentence. Some of us are recording the initial sounds of words and some of us are stretching out words and recording the beginning, middle and end sounds. 

As learners, this week we are exploring the sounds /h/ and /a/ and  the words ‘what’, ‘here’, ‘are’ , ‘after’, ‘and’, ‘little’, ‘one’, ‘on’ and ‘we’. Please continue to assist your child in identifying these sounds, and reading, writing and spelling these words when engaging in literacy learning at home. 

As mathematicians, we have been exploring Measurement. We tuned in to the concept of Length by comparing objects to determine which is longer, shorter, taller or smaller.  We engaged with Mrs Monaghan to create worms of different lengths with playdough. As thinkers, we ordered our worms from shortest to tallest, before using unifix blocks to measure the length of our worms. Please see the Numeracy section of the Learning and Teaching page for some simple measurement tasks to engage in with your child at home. 

Thank you to all the parents who came to the Foundation Information Night. We are excited for the week ahead as those of us in FLW return to our space in the Library. We look forward to being researchers, communicators and collaborators as we engage in lots of new learning! 

Foundation Team

Leanne Wenckowski & Alycia Marsico

Year 1/2

It has been another wonderful week of learning, thinking and being together. Our week started with a moving prayer service commemorating A.N.Z.A.C. Day.

In Discovery Time, we are continuing to learn how to be good communicators by sharing our thoughts, ideas and feelings in a respectful manner. We engaged in construction, exploring 2D shapes, a puppet play, making things using play dough and pipe cleaners, tinkering and measurement.

-“I’ve found some superheroes for the puppet show, Ice, Water and Nature.” Ava

-”We’re engineers, and we’re connecting power to the cross using a light bulb.” Skyler

-”I made a snake monster.  It has teeth, it has muscles, it even has a mohawk.” Chelsea

- "I made a funky earring.  An ear reminds me of half a love heart. This is a separated love heart.” Angelina

-“I love making shapes using triangles. I’ve made a rhombus.” Louis

As readers, we have been identifying verbs and adjectives in narratives and procedural texts.  We read ‘Possum Magic’ and explored the author’s use of alliteration and rhyme. We imagined things that we could do if we were invisible.  We listed the food that made Hush visible and wondered what would happen if she ate a whole lamington instead of a half!  

As writers, we devised lists of  the ingredients that we would need to make a super duper sandwich and discussed the use of commas in a procedure.  In small groups, we participated in shared writing and collaborated on a title, materials required and the steps involved e.g. How to make a paper airplane, How to make a margherita pizza. 

As mathematicians, we are having so much fun sorting, describing and making 2D shapes.  We have been making shapes out of circles, trapeziums and rhombuses. We made new shapes out of other shapes. Our world is full of shapes and we have enjoyed identifying them and making connections with them.  Did you know that the Sydney Opera House is made with chevron shapes? 

As members of a Catholic Faith community, we continue to unpack the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through scripture, prayer, Meditation and song. 

In Shared Inquiry, we have begun our new unit ‘Mix It Up’.

We viewed 3 different pictures on characters making mixtures and discussed What is different? What is similar? What about…? Is there anything else? Did you notice that?

Students record responses to what the images include 

Eg: He/She is a … and he/she is making …

In the bowl I think it looks like this…

Have a wonderful week and we wish all of our beautiful mothers a relaxing and enjoyable Mothers’ Day. 

Year 1/2 Team 

Stefanie Carriera, Belinda Filippone & Maria Delaney

Year 3/4

What a great start to Term 2 we have had in the 3/4 level! Students have returned to school ready for a big term ahead. Last week was a busy week for our students as the whole school celebrated Anzac Day and St. Fidelis Feast Day. The Year 3/4 students buddied up with the Year 1/2 students and it was so lovely to see the students interacting with each other and having lots of fun together. 

As readers we have continued to explore perspective by looking at different character’s points of view.  We shared the book They all saw a Cat by Brendon Wenzel where with each turn of the page, the reader is given the opportunity to see how the cat is viewed from perspectives – from a bee, to a fox, to a child. We also used the story Silver Buttons by Bob Graham to promote deep thinking amongst our students.  The students enjoyed writing in first person from the different characters’ perspectives as the book Silver Buttons is a story of a single minute worth of happenings to different people over a town. In our Writer’s Workshop we have been exploring persuasive texts, focusing on organising the structure of our writing and discussing word choice. 

As mathematicians, we are continuing to explore a range of effective mental and written addition and subtraction strategies. Over the next few weeks students will experiment with the jump, split and compensation strategies. 

Our Inquiry unit for Term 2 is  a science unit where students will learn about Heat. Beginning this week, as inquirers and researchers, we will investigate the different sources of heat. The students will look at objects, view books, videos and online information, as well as conduct their own experiments to make lots of new discoveries. 

This week the students communicated their learning by showcasing their 3D models of Coburg Lake. As you can see from the photos they not only recreated the man made and natural geographical features of the land but they also designed and included their own features. The students used their critical thinking skills to consider  how the land is used and what they believed is important to people in their local community of Coburg. Here’s a snapshot of what some of our students said:

More  green spaces 

More public facilities like cafes, playgrounds and toilets.

Indigenous vegetation and gardens.

Fenced Dog parks.

Disability Playgrounds and park signs in Braille.

We are amazed at the Year 3/4 student’s learning and are very proud of their persistence, collaboration and creativity!  

In Religion we are beginning to learn about the Eucharist. As members of a Catholic Faith Community, we hope to see our Year 4 students and their families at our Eucharist Family Faith night tonight at 7 pm on Monday the 4th May.

Thank you, 

Year 3/4 team

Mark Mac Gregor, Katarina Davidson and Graham Troy 

Year 5/6

In Year 5/6, the students are to be congratulated on the manner in which they continue to apply themselves to their learning.

In Literacy, the focus has continued to be on analysing persuasive texts in different forms including letters, reviews, advertisements, debates and editorials. We have been looking at the different techniques used to persuade the reader. Students have then had the opportunity to translate this into their writing. Each student is in the process of writing a persuasive text of their personal choice. It has been great to see the students employing persuasive techniques including the use of emotive language, rhetorical questions and solid evidence to support their key arguments.

In Numeracy, the focus has been on Mental Computation and the ability to use efficient mental strategies to answer maths equations. The students have been playing various mental computation games, and are encouraged to play them at home with their families. We encourage the children to practise these skills daily, with the goal that they will use these mental computation skills to automatically answer maths equations efficiently and quickly. This week we begin a Maths unit on addition and subtraction.

The students are continuing to explore our Inquiry ‘ How is energy used and why is it important’? In pairs, students researched the different types of energy and wrote their own definitions in personal scientific glossaries. As part of Home Learning, the children are undertaking an audit of the appliances in their homes and writing their findings on their family’s energy usage and efficiency. At school, the students had the opportunity to audit objects that emit energy and the type of energy used. 

To further explore their understanding of the Inquiry question, the Year 5/6 students are going on an excursion to Scienceworks on Monday, May 17th. Just a reminder that permission slips need to be returned by Friday, May 7th. Also, as stated in the excursion letter, if you are able to assist your child’s teacher on the day, please let her know by this coming Friday. 

Looking forward to another great week of learning.

Tania Fragopoulos, Viv Clarke, Olivia Sargent and Michelle Casamento

Year 5/6 teachers.