The Golden Sun Newsletter

Apollo Community Report 

Term 3

We would like to say a big welcome back to all our families of the Apollo community. We all hope you had an enjoyable break with your children full of fun and exciting activities spent together. The teachers and students are well rested and ready for another fun filled term. Our students have started off the term extremely well and we are very excited for our learning journey together. We look forward to celebrating all our successes, achievements, and learnings with you throughout the term. 

 

Apollo Community Teachers: 

  • 34 E-Madelaine
  • 34 F-Michelle / Carla - Wednesday 
  • 34 G- Fanny Monday/ Thursday Friday Steph - Tuesday/ Wednesday 
  • 34 H- Donna Sacco
  • 34 I- Linda Starr

We would like to welcome Madelaine Nelson to grade 34E and Michelle Hildebrand to 34F.

 

Reading:

Making Connections, Inferring, Analysing non-fiction text and Synthesising. 

In Reading, in term 3 the Apollo community will be focusing on three key skills: Making Connections, Inferring, Synthesising and revision on Analysing a non-fiction text.  Students will learn about making connections during reading. Making Connections is important for readers to make connections as they read. Making connections simply means noticing how what they know or what they’ve learned in other places fits with what they are reading. Any time someone reads a text they use background knowledge (what they already know about the topic or situation). When readers make connections, they can empathize or identify with characters in stories. Another part of making connections is to relate books with their own lives, with other books, and with the larger world. As readers read more and more, they can gather more information and a greater understanding about the world leading them to make even more powerful connections. Furthermore, students have been practising their fluency to enhance their speed, accuracy, and expression.

 

The Focus will be Beyond the Text using Fountas and Pinnell, the green section on our wheel.

 

The One and Only Ivan: Movie- Apollo watched this movie with parent consent on the last day of term 2. Students enjoyed the movie and made many connections to the book. 

The book: The One and Only Ivan: Apollo are continuing to read this book in term 3. 

 

Writing

During this month the students have been learning about different types of poetry such as Acrostic, Cinquain, Diamante and Shape/Concrete poems, and what they need to know to be able to write them. We learnt that poets use nouns, verbs and adjectives. The topics they have been writing about align with our inquiry topic “Day and Night” and include poems about the seasons, the sun, earth and the moon.

 

Students worked in groups to brainstorm vocabulary and ideas and then wrote their poems. Students then published their poems and each mentor group made their own poetry book. 

 

Numeracy

Multiplication and Division Week 1-5 

In term 3, Apollo students have been working towards further developing their knowledge and skills in multiplication and division. Students have focused on repeated addition as another way of thinking about multiplication.

For example: Repeated addition is also known as multiplication. This is because both the methods, although different, give the same answer. For example, if 3 is repeated four times we can either solve it as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12 OR we can solve it as 4 times 3 = 4 ✕ 3 = 12. 

 

Arrays

An array is a way to represent multiplication and division using rows and columns. Rows represent the number of groups. Columns represent the number in each group or the size of each group.

Fact Flowers 

Fact family: It is a set of four related multiplication and division facts that use the same three numbers. For example: The fact family for 3, 8 and 24 is a set of four multiplication and division facts. Two are multiplication facts, whereas the other two are division facts.

 

Inquiry

Term 2: Force and Motion

Marble Run Designs

Our Term 2 Inquiry Unit is ‘What makes things move? Push and pull.’ This unit is an inquiry into exploring ways that objects move on land, through water and in the air. Exploring how different strengths of pushes 

and pulls affect the movement of objects. Here are some photos of the Apollo students' designs.

Term 3: Day and Night

Inquiry has started in term 3 with a huge interest in our topic, Are We Standing on Earth? Students have begun investigating the relationships between the Sun, Earth, and Moon by making a functional model. The students enjoyed using their model to support their understanding of the movement of the Sun, Earth and Moon. 

 

Friendly Reminders & Important Dates:

 

Please remember: 

  • It is important to have a water bottle each day that is labelled. 
  • Please ensure your children are attending school as “It is not ok to be away”. 
  • Students complete 15-20 mins of reading as AHPS homework, and it should be recorded in their school diaries. The diary should be returned to school either daily or weekly for their teacher to sign. 
  • Brain food is fruit or vegetable snacks that children may eat in class. It is important to include this as an additional snack in their lunch box.
  • Students are strongly encouraged to bring along their personal iPad as they will be using their device for research for our inquiry and writing topics. We will also be accessing Epic during reading sessions. 
  • Students are encouraged to bring gel pens or coloured pens to school, to be used for their reflective journal.

 

Much appreciated, the Apollo Community.