Learning Areas

Foundation

To the Foundation students and families- welcome to Term 4!

We have lots planned for this term including:

Merri Creek Walk – Wednesday November 8 (day after Melbourne Cup)
Melbourne Zoo Excursion – Tuesday November 14
Swimming Program

We will be needing parent volunteers for all of the above activities, so please keep your eyes peeled for communication in the coming weeks regarding these events! Many thanks in advance ☺.

Literacy Learning:

This term we will focus on reading and writing persuasive texts and poetry. Please keep reading and writing with your child at home- the progress we have seen over the course of this year has been wonderful!

Maths Learning:

Term 4 units include Place Value, Money, Ordinal Numbers and Flexible Counting. We will also have a revision Addition and Subtraction unit and recap our learning related to Time and Location and Movement. As always, please keep practising reading, writing, making, and ordering numbers with your child at home.

Integrated Learning:

This term we investigate our key question of ‘How do people impact the environment?’ At the end of Term 3 students were given time to brainstorm things they would like to explore as part of this unit. Ideas included:

‘Where does rubbish go when the garbage truck collects it? How does rubbish end up in oceans? What do plants do? What are trees made of? Why do animals get scared of us?’

So far, we have investigated the different types of waste that humans contribute to (landfill, compost, recycling) and the types of waste that have less negative consequences on the environment. With Arwen, the students learnt about worms and their important role in our food waste cycle. Our excursions to Merri Creek and the Melbourne Zoo will allow students to expand their knowledge of how their personal choices impact the environment in positive and negative ways for humans, plants and animals.

A couple of final friendly reminders!

Hats are compulsory in Term 4 - please ensure your child keeps a labelled hat at school.
Library happens once a week – please remind your child to pack their Library bag on their designated day.

We are all looking forward to a fun-filled final term with this wonderful cohort!

Lexie, Joe and Arwen

Grade 1/2

It's wonderful to have our Grade 1 and 2 students back after the holidays! They've returned in high spirits, sharing loads of exciting stories from their breaks.

In Integrated Studies, the students have started learning about recycling and landfills. They’ve discovered that recycling is like giving our old things a new chance to be useful and that landfills are places where our waste goes when it can't be recycled. They’ve made it clear that it’s important to learn about this so we can take good care of our Earth!

In Reading, students have been learning how to share their opinions about the stories they read. They have also explored the features and structure of persuasive texts. This connects to writing, where students are writing their own persuasive pieces trying to convince the audience about a topic.

In Maths, students have been diving into place value. They have been collaborating with others to solve place value problems and play games using their knowledge. Coming up next week, we will be revisiting addition strategies and using these to solve problems.

All the best,

Grade 1/ 2 team

Grade 3/4

Welcome back 3/4 families!

We rounded off last term with Footy Dress Up Day, where the whole school was encouraged to bring a gold coin donation to raise money for improving the Grade 3/4 balcony. This wrapped up our project on Democracy, where students first began by choosing an area in their local (school) community they wanted to improve. The choices were: 1/2 courtyard, plant boxes in the playground, then put their persuasive writing skills in action to campaign for why their balcony improvement design should win.

Students used their learning of how preferential voting works, and held a mock election. They voted and chose the four best designs, which went to Maria for final approval. The winning team’s design is in the works. We raised close to $300! Very impressive.

Term 4 has been off to a terrific start with the launch of a few new units of work. Integrated Curriculum’s new focus is on Geography where we are exploring Australia and its place in the world, before delving into a country study: students will have a choice of researching Madagascar or Brazil. They will explore the question ‘how does climate affect the natural world?’ For each country they will look at climate, vegetation, animals, natural features and resources, while also practising skills such as map interpretation. They will present their findings on their chosen country at the end of the unit.

We also have an upcoming Zoo excursion linked to this unit where students will get an opportunity to see some of the animals that they will be exploring in this unit of work.

In Mathematics, the first week of term was a revision unit where students put their knowledge of the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) to the test and solved worded problems.There was also a focus on measuring temperature, and each morning and afternoon we measured the temperature of our classroom using a thermometer and added it to a graph. We analysed the data to see the temperature trends in different areas of the classroom at different times of the day. This week, we began our main unit of the term: fractions and decimals. Students began by making a fraction wall out of paper strips to see how different fractions can be shown and compared to one whole. This activity led students to see when the denominator is larger, it means the fraction is split into more parts of a whole, rather than getting bigger.

In Reading and Writing, students were introduced to a unit called Exploring the World of Poetry. So far we have looked at various types of poetry including haikus, cinquains, songs and diamante poems. Next week, we will explore Australian poets and their works including Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson. We have been enjoying a wide range of poetry, exploring the structure terminology such as stanzas and line breaks. Students have been writing their own poetry using rhyme schemes (AABB, ABAB, ABCB) and will soon engage in writing free verse poetry that contains figurative language such as onomatopoeia, similes, metaphors, personification and alliteration.

Wishing you an enjoyable term ahead,

the Grade 3/4 team (Elena, Kieran, Jennah, Daniel and Stefanie)

Grade 5/6

Hello lovely 5/6s families,

We hope you have had a restful holiday break. We are excited for a jam-packed term ahead!

In literacy this term, we are exploring a variety of forms of poetry. For the past few weeks, the students have been analysing ballads and the different features of them including that they are a rhyming form of poetry and that they tell a story through the poem. The students have had an opportunity to look at a variety of ballads from authors throughout the decades and analyse the different ways that language is used in them. In writing, the 5/6s have been writing their own ballads that tell a story of a group of people on the goldfields. They have been producing some truly fantastic work and we cannot wait to share it with everyone at home.

PBL this term is continuing on with Australian history. Towards the end of last term, we explored the bushranger history in Australia and some notable bushrangers including the infamous Kelly Gang. Now, we are looking into the goldrush and what life was like on the goldfields including exploring events such as the Eureka Stockade. The students will begin their final mini projects this week where they will be creating a narrative, ballad or portrait based on their knowledge of either bushrangers or the goldrush.

So far in maths this term, we have been looking at chance and probability. More specifically, where and when we use probability in real life and using the language of probability in real life scenarios. The students have been looking at events from impossible all the way to certain. Next week we will begin representing these events numerically in fractions, decimals and percentages.

In non-learning news, we wish Mrs Pepi and Mrs Ventura a speedy recovery and are sending them well wishes. In the meantime, we will welcome lovely Keerththana in 5/6C five days a week and Cam Ball will be stepping into 5/6A on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Coming up this term we have swimming, FunFields and graduation for our fabulous Grade 6s so we are looking forward to a very fun and busy few months ahead.

5/6 Team :)

PE

Division Athletics Carnival

On Wednesday September 6th September, 8 students attended the Inner North Moreland Division Athletics Carnival. Unfortunately no students qualified for the next stage, however everyone should be proud of their efforts.