What's happening in our learning spaces?
Students of the Week
| CLASS | NAME | REASON |
| FLW | Hannah Fairbanks | For being a wonderful collaborator during Discovery Learning. You show others how to share resources and how to be a respectful listener to other student’s ideas. Well Done Hannah! |
| FAM | Thomas Kenely | For demonstrating persistence as a researcher during Discovery Time when finding out about Ladybugs. Amazing effort Thomas! |
| 1/2SC | Dianna Mansour | For being a persistent and open minded communicator who shares her thinking and ensures to listen attentively to others. Magnificent effort, Dianna! |
| 1/2BF | Alexander Mariotti | For being a curious learner during Discovery Time researching Frogs. Well done Alexander! |
| 1/2MD | Zita Mmadike | For demonstrating a conscientious effort to learn. Zita, you always focus on your learning and engage in your work. What a champ!! Keep up the great effort! |
| 3/4MM | Joe Hamwi | For his positive attitude toward improving his learning. Joe always tries his best and acts on feedback given to further develop his skills. Well done Joe. |
| 3/4GT | Penelope La Porta | For using her initiative to ask clarifying questions and for using her curiosity to help in her learning |
| 3/4KD | Olivia Scarmozzino | For the kindness and selflessness you show to others, always working co-operatively and respectfully with all members of 3/4KD. Thank you Olivia! |
| 5/6OS | Chloe Portelli | for showing persistence when faced with challenging tasks and for always being willing to help her peers. Keep up the amazing work Chloe! |
| 5/6VC | Sanjay Culosi-Thiagu | For your positivity & enthusiasm for learning in and out of the classroom. Thankyou Sanjay for being well mannered and offering to help in the classroom. |
| 5/6CF | Dante Surace | For always producing beautifully presented work, writing detailed answers and putting in effort in all areas of the curriculum, including your home learning. Well done Dante, magnificent learning. |
Maths 1/2MD | Louis Pirruccio | For being such a great communicator in our maths session and explaining your placement of the numbers along the number lines. Well done, you sound like a Mathematician! |
Foundation News
It is hard to believe that it is already the end of Term 1! This term has gone by so quickly, and we are so proud of all the learning that has occurred in Foundation AM and Foundation LW. Time definitely flies when you’re having fun!
This week in Foundation, we learnt about shapes! As mathematicians, we were given a variety of different 2D and 3D shapes. We had to sort out the shapes in small groups. We collaborated to sort out our shapes in different ways. Some of us sorted them by colour or shape, while others sorted them into 2D and 3D, or by sides. As thinkers, we justified our thinking by explaining how we sorted out our shapes and then had a go at sorting them out another way. We looked closely at pictures of different shapes in the environment, including traffic cones, cookies, boxes, pieces of pizza, clocks, soccer balls, windows, brick walls and candles, and identified their features. As researchers, we went on a shape hunt within our school to see what 2D and 3D shapes we could find. We discovered square and rectangle shaped windows, bins that were cylinders, circles on our basketball court, hexagons on the wall and diamonds and squares on the carpet. As part of our Discovery Time, we had time and opportunity to make different 2D and 3D shapes using pattern blocks, modelling clay and icypole sticks. We had so much fun investigating different shapes!
As readers, we are continuing to engage in lots of interactive read alouds and shared reading, as well as guided reading groups. As thinkers, we have had time and opportunity to make connections between the stories and our own experiences, identify rhyming words and generate our own rhyming words. During guided reading, we are reading repetitive texts and focusing on pointing to each word as we read, identifying known sight words and using the visuals and initial sounds to solve unfamiliar words. We are focusing on the /n/ and /a/ sounds this week, while continuing to consolidate all of the sight words we have learnt this term, such as was, you, in, my, is, this and me.
As members of a Catholic Faith community, we continued to find out about the season of Easter. As readers, we listened to the story of Holy Thursday where we explored the Last Supper. We used the visualisation strategy to draw our interpretation of the story, then looked closely at an image and made connections to our own illustrations. As curious thinkers, we engaged in a See-Think-Wonder and as communicators, we shared our thinking with each other about some of the things we noticed in the picture and heard in the story, including why they shared a meal together, who the disciples were and what the bread and wine symbolised. We unpacked the key events in the story using the Colourful Semantics cues- Who, What Doing and Where. This week we will tune in to Good Friday as we explore how and why Jesus died.
This week in our Discovery Time Workshops, we were very busy collaborating with each other to design, build, write, explore, create and solve problems. As builders, we continued to focus on sharing, taking turns and working and learning respectfully with each other as we designed and created pet shops, rocket ships, cupboards and motorbike houses with boxes. We engaged with a buddy to create lava filled volcanoes, the Earth and rooms inside houses with LEGO, but first we made sure to talk to our buddy and come up with a plan, because that’s what good collaborators do. We also came up with a plan in our groups when using cups and round boards to build something. As thinkers, we decided to make different cakes, cookies, pizzas and sculptures, which we turned into cake, candy and sculpture shops. As writers, we made signs for our shop and price tags for our food. As curious researchers and scientists, we investigated different insects by looking closely at them. We read books and looked at pictures to help us gather more information, and shared all of our new discoveries with each other. We learnt that ladybugs only live for up to two years, and that most spiders have six or eight eyes! We played with different sensory bags and as collaborators, shared our thinking with each other. As communicators, we engaged in conversation about how the different bags felt, smelt and looked. Some were squishy and soft, others were slimy, watery and bumpy. We noticed that they were different colours and had different things inside, such as rice, glitter and letter blocks. This week, we decided to learn with an open mind, try new things and consider different ideas!
Thank you for all of your support this term. We wish you all a safe and happy Easter break, and look forward to seeing you back at school for Term 2 on Monday, 19th April.
Leanne Wenckowski and Alycia Marsico
Foundation Team
Year 1/2
We can’t believe the first term of 2021 is almost over! We have grown so much as learners!
As readers and writers, we are experts at identifying the difference between a fiction and non-fiction text. We know non-fiction texts have a contents page, glossary, index, facts and photos with captions. We are enjoying writing our non-fiction texts on an animal that interests us.
As mathematicians, we have continued to explore Place Value. We focussed on ordering 2 and 3 digit numbers and placing them on a number line. As communicators, we continue to share and explain our thinking with each other.
As part of our Discovery Time Workshops, we continued to collaborate with each other as we constructed houses, rockets and castles using boxes and masking tape. As researchers, we continued to investigate different animals. We were curious about platypus’ and echidnas. As mathematicians, we explored the balance scale and measuring tapes, and collaborated to learn how to use these.
As members of a Catholic faith community, we have been exploring the Easter stories. We have been listening to and reading scripture passages about Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday & Good Friday.
As communicators, we shared our thinking with each other about what was happening in the Palm Sunday story. We noticed that the people in Jerusalem were laying down palms, Jesus was riding on a donkey, the crowd was cheering and saying ‘Hosanna’ as Jesus rode past. This week we will continue to explore Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
Year 1/2 Team
Stefanie Carriera, Belinda Filippone & Maria Delaney
Year 3/4
This final week is mostly focused around Holy Week and Inquiry.
Our inquiry takes us to Coburg Lake where students will gather data about the geographical features and land use in the Park area. Students will use their map to record features of the landscape for use in creating their own 3D version of the way land is used. The collection of data also links to our Mathematics topic of Statistics.
For Holy Week students are examining the main events of holy week to present their own understanding of the events and their meaning.
On Friday night we had most students feature in the Running of the Colours, or for the less poetic, the colour fun run. Well to Fernando Hazouri who managed to cover me in orange on the night.
Year 3/4 team
Mark Mac Gregor, Katarina Davidson and Graham Troy
Year 5/6
What an exciting and eventful term we have had in Year 5/6. The students should be very proud of all they have achieved. We look forward to a fantastic last week before holidays.
In Literacy, the students have been using the writing skill, TEEL, to structure their paragraphs and have been writing about a range of different topics. The students will now use this skill to write a short piece of writing. In reading, the students have been identifying the main idea and supporting details in a text. The students have been using their critical thinking skills to explore these texts in detail and recognise the most crucial points.
In Numeracy, the students have been exploring repeating and growing patterns and identifying the algebraic rule. They have been using lots of different hands on resources to create patterns to create their own rules for their peers to solve. The students have also been learning about sample space in chance and probability, and how we can represent this in different ways.
In Religion, the students explored the Stations of the Cross. Each student chose a station that they connected with and explained this in detail. They have also drawn their own artistic interpretation of the station they chose.
In Inquiry, the students have created a poster about Australia’s connection to another country. Each student utilised their learning assets when completing this task through their use of collaboration and communication with their partner. The students have also been working hard on being good researchers as they have had to find lots of information on the imports, exports and relationship between the country of their choice and Australia.
A special thank you to the Year 6 students for their attendance at the Buddy Mass on Palm Sunday. It was lovely to see the students interacting with their buddies and sharing the promises they have made to support and guide their foundation buddy this year. We are once again impressed with the maturity and kindness displayed by our Year 6 students. They are proving to be fantastic role models for our school community.
We would also like to congratulate those students who participated in the “Colour Fun Run” last Friday. It was great to see the students' excitement and school spirit at the event. Well done to everyone involved!
The Year 5/6 teachers would like to thank all the students for their hard work this term. They have begun the year with enthusiasm and we are very much looking forward to what we can achieve together throughout the rest of the year. We would like to wish all students and families a very happy and safe Easter and holiday break.
Olivia Sargent, Michelle Casamento, Tania Fragopoulos and Viviana Clarke.
Year 5/6 Team