Primary News
Primary Art - Grade 2/3M Cherry Blossom Scrolls
Many countries in the northern hemisphere are currently celebrating spring, and with it, the arrival of the cherry blossoms. Grade 2/3M students learnt about ‘Hanami’, the Japanese festival celebrating the arrival of the cherry blossoms. They also viewed and responded to art from other countries, containing cherry blossoms. After learning about analogous colours, they painted and decorated their own cherry blossom scroll. Yuan helped us to write our names in Chinese characters.
Mrs McAleer - Primary Art Teacher
Prep L have had so much fun this term and learned so many new and exciting things.
We loved receiving our Magic word certificates at assembly. We have all been working so hard to learn our words and it’s so exciting when we see them in our books, we even have a go writing them.
The swimming program has been a lot of fun too, whether at school or at the pool we have been learning all about being safe around all types of water.
We were also lucky enough to participate in Storyville an online interactive forum where an Australian Actor reads us some books by Australian Authors. It’s all online so we even get to ask the Actor questions about the book. It was a lot of fun!
We can’t believe how much we have learned this Term, we are looking forward to Term 2 to see what new and exciting things are in store.
Ms Levy - Class Teacher
Wow! Term 1 is almost over and our students have engaged in many exciting activities and have made amazing progress.
Many of our Prep students know all the letters of the alphabet and their matching sounds. They’ve been writing interesting sentences and have started to read simple books, independently. Our Grade Ones are being very creative in their story writing!
At our Twilight Sports, students came dressed in House colours and participated eagerly.
Our Swimming Program was fun for all, especially those who got on the bus and went to the Monash Aquatic Centre for eight swimming lessons.
Thank you parents and carers for getting swimming bags organised, and our students have done a great job getting dressed into uniforms, after swimming. We’re looking forward to Term 2 and your continued support.
Mrs Abraham - Class Teacher
This month in Science, we now know that there are special names for the parts of the water cycle.
We have also been learning about where our fresh water comes from.
In Integrated Studies, we have learning how important it is for our health now and for the future, to make better snacks choices and by trying a variety different colours of fruits and vegetables.
In Reading Groups, we had a go at reading a play in front of the class. The children were then able to view the video to see and hear themselves in the play.
In Writing, we have tried to write our own Folk Tales with a beginning, middle and end.
In Maths, we have practised counting by 10s, 5s and 2s as well as the value of 2 digit and 3 digit numbers.
For the last 2 weeks, students have been busy learning Water Safety either at the pool or at school.
The highlight of the swimming program on their last day is in the wave pool!
Mrs Lilburne -Class Teacher
It has been a busy Term in the Grade 2/3 M room. We have had some swimmers and some students staying at school to learn about water safety. We have elected our Junior School Council representatives, who will report important requests for change and improvements back to the School Council. Chan Yoon and Chantelle Doleman are very excited to take on the role.
Students have been working hard in Integrated Studies to recognise the attributes of a ‘Well Being’. We have discussed the importance of eating well, (lunch box audits helped us to recognise everyday foods and sometimes foods) getting enough sleep and exercising daily. We have been meditating after lunch for 5minutes to calm our mind.
Also, part of this topic involves getting along with others, feeling valued as a team member and discussing strategies for coping with anger. We concluded the topic with a balloon tower challenge which was extreme fun for everyone. Groups of students were given 15 balloons and sticky tape. They had to work together to build the tallest tower. It was interesting to watch and later discuss the strategies used. Check out the photos!
In Science we have been learning about night and day and how shadows are made by the sun and the position of the Earth. We investigated how our shadows would move and why throughout the day. We also made a sundial and recorded the time at different intervals throughout the day. We all thought it would be fun to use the sun and a sundial to work out the time of the day before clocks were invented. Loads of fabulous discussions and learning.
Happy Holidays everyone, see you all safe and well next Term.
Mrs McPhie - Class teacher
It has been a fun filled end to term one in grade 4/5B. Students who participated in the Swimming Program had a great time learning new skills and developing their confidence in the water. Back at school, the Non-Swimmers program gave students the opportunity to learn about water safety at home and around pools, lakes and in the ocean.
College Athletics Carnival was definitely a high light this month. Students participated enthusiastically, giving many events a go and celebrating their successes. Grade 5’s also had the opportunity to participate in their first Gala Day once again being outstanding ambassadors for our school with their team spirit and good sportsmanship.
Ms Bishop - Class Teacher
This term has gone incredibly quickly! The children of 3/4N have been as busy as bees working on their narratives in writing. Andrej wrote a very creative story about a very hungry elephant and had the chance to read his story out at assembly. It was great to see so many students in our grade participate in the swimming program at the Waverley Swimming pool. Students learnt swimming skills as well as water safety skills. They had to wear old clothes to practise what to do if they were to accidentally fall into a swimming pool/lake/dam etc and then the final day was a day of fun in the wave pool!
Meanwhile, students who didn’t go to swimming lessons worked hard at school, learning all about water safety in the home as well as at swimming pools, the beach, lake, rivers, creeks, dams and ponds. They designed water safety posters and created role plays which they filmed using the iPads.
Science has been another highlight this term, with students learning all about Day and Night. We have had fun down on the oval replicating the moon’s rotation of the earth and the earth’s rotation of the sun with our own bodies! We learnt that the moon is a quarter the size of the earth and that 109 earths fit across the width of the sun!
We are looking forward to term 2 after a nice relaxing break! Miss Naylor has enjoyed getting all students on the AFL bandwagon. She has put a magnetic ladder in the classroom, everyone now has a team and it is their homework to watch games on the weekend!
Miss Naylor - Class Teacher
Grade 5W have had a fantastic term 1. In Maths, our focus for the second half of the year has been place value and shape. In Literacy, we have moved away from narratives for the time and have begun developing our skills on writing effective persuasive texts. In Science, we have been focusing on Energy. We have explored how energy is used to make changes in the world. We conducted an experiment where we altered an aluminium can to heat water using the energy from the sun.
We have finished off the term with an extremely busy week. The Athletics Carnival was a great day, all students had fun participating in the events and supporting each other. At parent teacher interviews we enjoyed celebrating and sharing our learning with parents. On Friday we put all our hard work and practise into play when we participated in Gala day. The sports we played were: Netball, AFL, Tee-Ball and Basketball. Hope you all have an enjoyable holiday and I look forward to seeing you all again next term.
Ms Warburton - Class Teacher
What a start to 2019! The students in 6Z have been busy this term: competing in events at the College Swimming and Athletics Carnivals, participating in the Swimming or Water Safety Program, practicing their sports for our first Gala Day and working very hard in the classroom.
In Health, students have explored community resources available to them for health advice and help.
They have also explored the benefits of exercise on people’s health and the greater effects it has on a community.
New Maths groups have begun (Place Value and Shape) and students are busy developing their understanding of a range of concepts, sequenced to build on their existing understandings.
Our focus in writing is persuasive writing. We have learned a pneumonic to help us remember the structural features to include: The Insects Acted Really Cool. (Title. Introduction. Arguments. Rebuttal. Conclusion)
If you ever have any concerns, questions or just want to check in, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I can be contacted via your child’s diary, phone, Compass, or in person.
Ms Zelazo - Class Teacher
It has been a very busy term for students in grade 6E.
Students began the term with learning about Counting and our focus was skip counting from any number, forwards or backwards, by any number. This also involved skip counting using decimal numbers and fractions. During our focus on Time, students were practising telling the time to the minute, calculating elapsed time and reading different timetables. They also learned about the importance of including am and pm references when converting from 24hr time to 12 hour time.
In the last few weeks of term, we have been focussing on Shapes, both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional. Students have been learning about vertices (corners), edges and faces to describe the properties of 3D shapes as well as thinking about the nets that can be used to create the shapes. They have also been learning about how we can join different 2D shapes to create a new shape. Finally we have been learning about Place Value. For some students this might mean learning about ordering numbers from smallest to largest while for others it is about understanding how to represent numbers in expanded form.
In Reading our focus has been on reading fluently, using clues in the text to help solve unfamiliar words, to ensure that we understand what we are reading by monitoring and then correcting misunderstandings and adjusting our reading for different text types. Students have been reading lots of different texts and they have been responding to them in different ways. During the course of the week, students will participate in Guided Reading group sessions, Independent Reading, responding to comprehension questions and large group discussions about texts.
In Writing this term, we initially focussed on narrative writing. We broke the process down with a focus on developing ideas, planning and talking about the structure of narrative texts. We also worked on ensuring that students understand and can use punctuation appropriately in their writing. Once their narratives were complete, students had the opportunity to revise and edit their writing. They were encouraged to use some self-assessment tools to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their writing to help them set goals to help them improve future pieces of writing. We have finished off the term by starting our focus on Persuasive writing. This will continue into next term.
Amongst these core subjects, students have been learning about energy transfer in Science. We are conducting experiments about how the sun transfers heat energy and we will be learning about how electrical energy is transferred. In Integrated Studies students have been focussing on being healthy, both in body and mind. We have been learning about what can make us feel upset and angry, and how to deal with that, as well as learning about meeting daily activity needs.
This term has been a busy one with other activities as well. Early in the term we participated in First Aid training and students learned how to perform CPR. In late February, students participated in the school swimming carnival where they played fun water activities...and some competed in the race events. We have also had the school swimming program, which involved some students going to the Monash Aquatic Centre for lessons and others learning about water safety at school.
Our first Gala day was on Friday. We had students competing in Netball, Basketball, T Ball and AFL. The reports from all sports are that everyone played well and had a great time. We were lucky enough to have two teams come runners up in their games. Congratulations to the girl’s basketball team and the mixed netball team for their wonderful results.
Congratulations to all grade 6 students on a great start to the year. I hope you all have a safe and restful break so that you are ready for a busy term 2
Mrs Elias - Class Teacher