Teaching and Learning Areas

Foundation

It has been a busy start to Term 3 for the Foundation students. We have had visits from a doctor (thank you, Tori!), a St John’s Ambulance volunteer and the firefighters. A highlight was a very special performance of ‘Let it Go’, performed by Sophie, a theatre actress who has performed in many famous musicals! During these visits the students have had opportunities to ask questions relating to the different tools, uniforms, workplaces and tasks that these different jobs encompass. They have been putting this new-found knowledge into mini booklets that they will take home at the end of term.

We have also had visits from our local kindergartens during Developmental Play. It’s been wonderful welcoming some younger siblings into our learning spaces.

Learning in Literacy this term will focus predominantly on narratives. We have begun our Pamela Allen author study and the students have already done a great job identifying the different language features that she uses throughout her texts, including rhyme, repetition, dialogue and onomatopoeia. In Writing, they have worked on incorporating these same elements into their own writing whilst practising the basic skills of sounding out words, leaving finger gaps and beginning and ending sentences with capital letters and full stops. Please continue to practise reading and writing with your children at home regularly. 

In Maths we have been working on skip counting patterns and will shortly revise some of the measurement, geometry and data concepts we explored earlier in the year. Following this, we will explore the concept of sharing. Please continue to encourage your child to use number skills at home regularly, including counting, adding and subtracting. 

Thank you to all families for making our 100 Days of Prep celebrations such a success. The students’ costumes looked fantastic!

Finally, a big thank you to Narelle for organising the wonderful tea-towels! The response has been excellent and we’re looking forward to seeing the finished product! 

We hope your child is excited for another term of learning. Please see your child’s teacher should you have any questions over the coming weeks.

Lexie, Joe and Arwen.

Grade 1/2

Welcome Back to Term 3!

Welcome back to Term 3! It’s wonderful to see everyone again, even though the start of the term has been challenging with many winter illnesses going around. We appreciate everyone's resilience and are excited for the term ahead.

Prepare for Wet Weather

With the playground being frequently wet, it's helpful for students to have spare pants and socks in their bags. This ensures they stay comfortable and dry throughout the day, ready for all their activities.

Diving into Fractions

We've started an exciting new unit on fractions! Students are exploring halves, quarters, and thirds using shapes, food, collections of objects, and numbers. You can support their learning at home with cooking activities that involve measuring ingredients. It's a fun and practical way for them to understand fractions better.

Exploring Geography

Our new Integrated Curriculum unit on Geography has kicked off with great enthusiasm. Students are learning about what makes a suburb functional, including the importance of public transport, shops, libraries, and pools. You can support this learning at home by discussing directions and your home address with your child. Many students have discovered they don’t know their address or how to describe their journey to and from school, so this is a valuable learning opportunity.

Here’s to a fantastic Term 3 filled with learning and growth!

Grade 3/4

Hi Grade 3/4 Grown Ups! 

Wow, it’s week 3 already - we’ve certainly hit the ground running in Grade 3/4! This term we have welcomed Marisa Vecchio into the teaching team who is teaching 3/4A along with Daisy. As you might remember, Lina Ventura is on very well deserved long service leave and will be back in Term 4. 

We have a number of exciting events coming up soon. 

• Andy Griffiths Webinar (Thursday 8th of August, 10-11am)

Bestselling author Andy Griffiths will be attending an online webinar with schools across the state to discuss his brand new book Adventures Unlimited: The Land Of Lost Things!, the first book in his hilarious, action-packed new adventure series.

• Whole School Dance Workshop (Friday 9th August)

The allocated time for Grade 3/4 to take part in the dance workshop will be from approximately 10:20-11am. Don’t forget to wear comfy shoes!

• Book Week (Week 6)

Our Book Week Parade is on Monday 19th August! Throughout the week,

we’ll celebrate the joy of reading with a variety of fun and engaging activities. This year’s theme is “Reading is Magic”.

Here’s what we’ve been working on:

In Reading so far this term, students have been participating in ‘literature circles’. Similar to a book club, students are grouped based on their chosen book, and are encouraged to have in-depth discussions about what they are reading with their peers. They each take on a different role each session - for example, ‘Sublime Summariser’ or ‘Vocabulary Villain’ - and complete activities based on that role. At home, grown ups can ask their children about the books they are reading in their literature circles. 

In Writing, students are revising narratives, with a large focus on the structure of a story, upleveling their description of characters, settings and events, as well as using figurative language and dialogue to help engage the reader. We have discussed using onomatopoeia, similes and metaphors, imagery, and other descriptive language techniques to describe the orientation in a way that hooks the reader. Students also looked at brainstorming the inside and outside traits of a character (such as appearance and personality) and learnt how to use noun groups to ‘uplevel’ their character descriptions e.g. ‘the dog’ becomes ‘the large hairy dog’. Additionally, we discussed using adverbs to ‘add to the verb’ and help describe how a character moves or talks e.g. talks ‘grumpily’ or walks ‘menacingly’.

In Maths, students started the term by strengthening their understanding of time, and looked at the Wurundjeri seasonal calendar and seasonal signs, as well as English calendars. They found important dates on, and solved problems using calendars. They also practised telling the time and solving time problems. We are currently in the middle of our unit on multiplication, and so far students have learned about mental strategies for multiplying by 0 up to 10. Students also have deepened their understanding of multiplication through participating in open ended tasks exploring the area of 2D shapes. At home, grown ups can ask students about mental strategies they have learned, and help students practise multiplying by 2, 3, 5, and 10 (for Year 3s) and multiplying up to 10 x 10 for Year 4s. 

We loved seeing all the Explorers projects at the end of last term - there were some very creative and well-spoken presentations! Very soon, we will begin our ‘War on Waste’ unit for Integrated Curriculum project which will carry over until Term 4. This is a great opportunity for families to have discussions about how to recycle and be environmentally conscious at home.

Some lovely news is that four new leaf insects have hatched since the start of the term. The 3/4B Living Things monitors did an excellent job handing their knowledge over to the 3/4C students, who are now diligently caring for the insects. This week they facilitated a democratic voting process to select names for the new nymphs - Slushie, Fudge, and Cocoa. All the stick insects in the ¾ area seem to have a theme to their names!

We wish all of you a wonderful end to Warin (the cool, wet Wurundjeri season), and a healthy season of growth and warming as we move towards Guling (the Wurundjeri season of wattle and orchid blooming)! 

Warm wishes from the 3/4 teaching team,

Daisy, Marisa, Keerththana, Stefanie, Elena, Jennah, and Thomas   

Grade  5/6

We have had a great start to Term 3 in the 5/6 learning area. Jumping off into an Olympics mini project, students are researching and creating a final piece on a country competing in the 2024 Olympics. Students will choose how to present their learning towards the middle of the term once they have completed their Discovery phase of learning.

The 5/6 students also went to Scienceworks this week! There, they explored the future of science and technology including space travel, compared their physical abilities to those of Olympians. Additionally, students watched a show in the planetarium all about the storytelling traditions of the Boorong People in North-West Victoria. Through which, students connected ideas of European constellation storytelling, with our First Nations Peoples’ oral traditions. We all learnt a lot and had a fantastic day. Please find attached some student recounts and photos from the day.

In Maths, the students have been learning efficient strategies for multiplication and division and connecting the two concepts including doing sums involving 3+ digits. In Literacy, students have been exploring biographical writing including writing an autobiography about their own lives and biographies on people of their choosing.

We celebrated International Friendship day on Tuesday the 31st July. In classes, we discussed what makes a good friend, how it feels to be a good friend and what are the qualities of a good friend. Later this week, as a part of our Community Engagement Project, some Grade 5 boys will be heading to a local nursing home. 

As a reminder, next Wednesday 7th August, a group of 3/4 and 5/6 students will be heading to the Athletics Day Carnival. Good luck for all those competing!

Hope everyone is keeping well and warm!

5/6 team

Spanish

Hola comunidad de Merri-bek PS!

I am thrilled to share some wonderful news with you today.

Thanks to the Department of Education's Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series, we had the opportunity to host the “Building Language Leaders” event at our school. The purpose of this event was to empower senior students, particularly those with an interest in languages, to become leaders and use their skills to enrich the learning experience of younger students.

We were all greatly impressed by how well our exceptional learners managed this event. They demonstrated not only their proficiency in learning Spanish but also their leadership skills and commitment to helping others thrive.

After the event concluded, our students pledged to spread their passion for learning languages throughout their school and communities. This means they will soon start taking concrete actions to make this happen.

Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to our brilliant learners for representing our school so well. You have been exemplary role models, inspiring other students in their language learning journey. I am confident that with your help, everyone in our school community will be encouraged to continue or begin learning Spanish. Keep up the fantastic work! I feel so proud of you! ¡Felicitaciones!

Warm regards,

Danilo Soto

Language Specialist