What's happening?
Foundation
This term has gone by so quickly! By the end of next week, all students will have learned all the letters in the alphabet (wow). We have been so proud of the growth the students have made this term, both socially and academically! We have had such a fun term, from coming to school in our pyjamas, to Grandparents Day, and participating in lots of activities with our buddies.
Literacy: This week, we are reviewing the letters, v, b, h, n, e, qu, z, r, u, y, j, and k. We have been completing lots of activities to support their retrieval of previously learned sounds. Next week, we will be learning all about the letters ‘x’ and ‘w’.
Maths: During our Friday classroom maths sessions, we have begun learning about ‘Location’ and learned new vocabulary such as behind, underneath, in front and, next to.
Next week, we will be beginning ‘Place Value’/Number concepts’ in our maths groups.
Social skills: This week, we explored our final ‘Super Six’ value, Excellence. We are using the word ‘yet’ to encourage students to keep persevering and doing their best. We have had discussions around the idea of it being okay to make mistakes and that is how we learn.
On 2n April we will be participating in a workshop all about friendship. We will be learning all about how to create healthy, feel-good friendships. Please make sure your child brings in a small soft toy on this date (that doesn’t make a noise).
Inquiry: We are learning all about our 5 senses and investigating them through a variety of crafts, a nature walk, and eating popcorn to help us brainstorm what it smells like, tastes like, looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Students have enjoyed sharing their skills with the class and it was a bonus to eat popcorn at school!
We are so excited about what Term 2 will bring and hope that all students have an enjoyable and restful break. It would be helpful to keep reading over the holidays and practicing both the ‘List words’ and ‘Weird words’, to support student confidence into the next term.
Bring on the last week of term!
Grade 1
This is our final update for Term 1. The students have made a great start to the school year and for our final two weeks in Literacy the students will be continuing working on a recount. This involves writing an opening statement and a series of paragraphs that are correctly sequenced and last a conclusion adding their positive thoughts around the event they are recounting.
The spelling focus students are learning about is the spelling of words with the long "ee" sound, which can be spelled in two different ways: "ee" and "ea”. There is no strict rule for when to use "ee" or "ea" in every case, so it’s important to remember that these spelling patterns can sometimes be tricky. At this stage in their learning, we encourage the children to ask an adult or use a reference material, like a word list, to find the correct choice, when they are unsure of which code to use. Over the next two weeks the children will also learn that the code ‘ea’ can make 3 sounds - long /e/ as in eat, short /e/ as in bread and long /a/ as in steak.
To help your child learn these codes at home, keep an eye on homework folders for this fortnight's word study practise page! You can also try looking for these codes in readers, practice listening carefully for the sounds in words and sorting words into groups.
In Maths the students will continue with understanding the process of addition and all the different strategies we can use to add numbers including to partition a number into parts. Followed by looking at collecting Data to finish off the term.
The students had a lovely walk and enjoyed a fabulous play performed at Parkdale Secondary College by the Year 10 Performing Arts students on Tuesday. There were many laughs and thrills watching the characters from Fairy Tales come to life. The students had plenty of questions to ask the Secondary Students at the end of the performance and were all excited when walking through the archway to exit the performance, high fiving the Year 10’s.
We hope you enjoy your holidays and have a restful break; we look forward to seeing you in Term 2.
Grade 2
We wanted to congratulate our Grade 2 students on their terrific behaviour and enthusiasm shown on our two excursions over the last fortnight! Also, a huge thank you to our parent helpers that came along to Moonlit Sanctuary.
Literacy: Students are further developing their recount writing skills, with the goal of describing their experiences written in past tense using time connectives (first, then, next, finally), interesting adjectives, and including their thoughts and feelings. Students have been busy writing recounts about our two excursions to Moonlit Sanctuary and Parkdale Secondary College.
Students have also been learning to apply their knowledge from our ‘Grammar Project’ lessons to complete sentences when provided with "but, because and so" sentence stems and also edit our sentences for boundary punctuation.
During our PhOrMeS/Word Study lessons students have been revising all 5 silent final 'e' rules. Next week we will be reading and spelling words pertaining to the 'ar vs a' pattern.
For reading, we continue fluency pairs for the remainder of the term, where students read to a partner for a set amount of time. Once reading fluency is developed to an automatic/proficient level, readers can focus much less on decoding and more on the comprehension of the texts they read. We have also been exploring some animal fiction and non-fiction whole class books, with the focus being answering literal and inferential comprehension questions.
Maths: We are wrapping up our Subtraction topic! Students have been developing strategies to solve problems as well as exploring the relationship between addition and subtraction, and how they can use addition strategies to help solve subtraction problems.
Inquiry: Habitat diorama construction has begun this week!! It is always such a fun way to finish the term and consolidate students understanding about different habitats and ways animals adapt to their environments.
Wellbeing: This fortnight our wellbeing and social skills focus is on our Super Six Value of Excellence and help seeking activities.
Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud. Optional online extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).
As this will be the final newsletter for Term 1, we’d like to thank our wonderful parents and carers for all your support this term and wish you a lovely holiday break.
Grade 3
Core Knowledge: We are continuing to read a variety of texts exploring the concept of sustainability. As well as building students’ knowledge, we are focusing on developing their ability to identify information within a text, discuss, and answer questions after reading. Students are also building on their teamwork skills by working together to construct a ‘solar oven’ with the purpose of using the sun’s energy to cook ‘s’mores’.
Writing: This fortnight, we wrap up our focus on the persuasive writing genre, with a ‘post-assessment’ writing task next week to measure student progress. We have looked at structure and language features, as well as brainstormed multiple arguments, selecting the strongest three to support their opinion before writing their persuasive text. In our grammar and syntax lessons, we have worked on using apostrophes with contractions and sentence writing.
Word Study: We have been reviewing the ti, ci and si codes when adding a suffix, investigating words with the /x/ sound, and words with silent letters. Students have also been reading and spelling a range of homophones and ‘weird words’.
Maths: This fortnight, we have been busy with our ‘Multiplication’ topic. Students have been representing problems using number sentences, diagrams and arrays, and using a variety of calculation strategies to solve. Students can consolidate their learning further at home by using learned strategies to solve ‘everyday’ multiplication situations, along with practising facts/times tables.
Wellbeing/Values: Our whole school focus this fortnight has been on our Super Six Values of ‘Cooperation and Excellence’. Next week, students will participate in a workshop at school, run by UR STRONG. The workshop will cover learning the facts of friendship, qualities of a green zone friendship, using a friendometer. Grades 3 and 4 will extend into red zone friendships and learning the difference between friendship fires and mean on purpose moments. They will also look at Quick Comebacks.
Homework: Please encourage your child to read daily and help them to record this in their diary (parent to sign at the end of the week). Diaries are checked by their classroom teacher every Friday and house points are given.
Grade 4
We are getting very close to the end of term! This term has been jam packed full of fun and exciting new learning opportunities for our Grade 4s.
Last week we enjoyed our harmony day celebrations were we embraced all our differences and cultures.
Literacy: Our Information Report writing is well on the way and students are working towards having fully structured paragraphs, interesting introductions and a good deal of tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. Grade 4’s are loving our inquiry unit of ‘Into the Unknown’ where we are delving deep into our history of Australia and how our society was formed, what happened when the convicts came to Australia and the cheeky ones who tried to escape! Students will continue to either borrow a book from school or read a book from home for their daily reading.
Numeracy: Our new topic of fractions has started this week with a great deal of conversations about parts of a whole, fractions represented on number lines and shown through visual representations. We still encourage students to continue working at home on their multiplication and division facts.
Reminders: Please ensure your child is bringing their diary with them each day, and recording their reading each night. Students should be dressing according to the weather, keeping in mind that classrooms must have windows or doors open for air circulation.
Grade 5
Our first term of Grade 5 has flown by and we continue to be impressed with the students and how they display our School Values each and every day!
Maths: This is the final week of our topic of Multiplication & Division. For the final week of Term we will review any misconceptions and past topics.
Writing: Students have been learning about writing a persuasive letter. We have linked this to our Inquiry topic so are focusing on Renewable and Non Renewable Energy Sources. We are learning to include a variety of persuasive techniques in each of our paragraphs to convince the reader of our argument. Students will finish and publish a piece by the end of term.
Reading: In reading, we have been focusing on energy, matter and ecosystems over the course of the term. During these lessons, there has been a specific focus on vocabulary retrieval, comprehension questions and fluency readings in response to a variety of non-fiction texts. Students have been answering deep questions on inferring, predicting, clarifying, summarising and questioning.
Inquiry: Our Inquiry unit has been a busy one this term! It has been full of interactive experiments which have displayed students’ cooperation and critical thinking skills. The students were excited to complete their experiments this week. They are now writing up their results and conclusions. A published copy of their experiment using the Scientific Method format will be uploaded to SeeSaw by the end of Term.
Reminders:
Our first Camp form was sent home last week - asking for volunteers and permission for a PG movie and pain medication if needed. Please ensure you complete and send in ASAP.
Term Reflections (Learner Agency) will be published by the end of term. Students are drafting their answers and will respond in video form via SeeSaw.
Our Beach Program is next Thursday. Please ensure your child has their bathers on under school uniform and sunscreen has been applied. We will also have some bottles of sunscreen for use during the day. They will need a rash top/t-shirt for sun protection, towel, school hat, spare underwear, snack, lunch and a water bottle. Please ensure Ventolin and spacers are in their backpacks. Medications kept in the First Aid room (e.g. Epipens) will be collected by class teachers.
Grade 6
Literacy: The Grade 6 students continued their novel study of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. They have been working on summarising the significant events that transpire during the book and expressing their opinions based on this. A big focus has been providing evidence from the text about relationships between the characters.
Writing: The Grade 6 students kickstarted their writing block by looking at a persuasive text based on Scotland. The aim of this text was to persuade the reader to visit Scotland. The students then had to choose their own country to research and write a persuasive text on. A challenge was set for the students to include verbs of high modality throughout their writing. For the remainder of the term the students will write a persuasive essay on a world dilemma.
Mathematics: Over the past two weeks, the students have focused on the measurement concept of area. The students have established the formula for the area of a rectangle, triangle, quadrilateral and circle and have used it to solve practical problems.
Inquiry: The Grade 6 classes have been working on their ‘Political Party’ theme covering our nation’s system of government, democracy and the constitution. The students have delved deeper into understanding how bills are introduced and laws are made in federal parliament.
Interschool Sport: Last week, Grade 6 concluded their Summer Interschool Sports program with Parktone Primary. Throughout this term, all students displayed ‘sportsmanship’ and were wonderful representatives of Parkdale Primary School.
Term Dates and Events: A reminder that the Beach Program is on Wednesday 2nd April. Please make sure you have provided consent on Compass. Please check Compass for further information regarding Term 2 dates and events relating to Grade 6 students.