Classroom Happenings
F/1 CLASSROOM
Exciting progress is happening in our F/1 classroom!
Our Foundation students have been learning their very first digraphs, including ff, ll, ss and ck, and are learning to use them when spelling words with short vowel sounds. They are putting all their growing knowledge to work when writing sentences, sounding out words, writing tricky words, and remembering capital letters and full stops. Their confidence as writers is really starting to shine!
Meanwhile, our Year 1 students are diving even deeper into the spelling code! They have been tackling some trickier spelling patterns, including au/aw, as well as learning that ce can make the /s/ sound and ge can make the /j/ sound. It is wonderful to see this growing knowledge flowing into both their reading and writing.
Year 1 have also been on a mission to improve their tricky word spelling scores. They regularly revisit words they haven't quite mastered yet and love seeing their scores climb as they learn more words. The excitement when they beat their previous score is pretty special!
We had a wonderful time celebrating Book Week and a highlight was reading The Day the Crayons Quit. Inspired by the story, the students wer e challenged to forget the usual colour rules and let their imaginations take over. Why can’t a whale be purple and live in the sky? Who says the sun has to be yellow? The result was a collection of wonderfully weird, colourful and creative artwork. Have a look at some of their creations below!
As part of our ‘Bullying, No Way!’ Week, F/1 took part in a special Smile Challenge. We talked about how even the smallest act of kindness can have a big impact on someone else. Something as simple as a smile can help someone feel happier, welcomed and included. The students were challenged to share smiles with others in the playground and see if they could create a ripple effect. We are happy to report that F/1 spotted MANY smiles being passed around the playground! A lovely reminder that a little kindness can go a long way.
Mrs Nagy
Foundation/Year 1 Teacher
2/3 CLASSROOM
2/3 Classroom Update
Wow! This term is flying by so quickly! It has been a very busy and exciting time in 2/3, with students working hard and enthusiastically across all areas of their learning.
Literacy
We have been learning how to write information texts, using our class novel Storm Boy and the Coorong National Park as inspiration. Students have been developing their ability to gather information, organise ideas and write informative pieces that teach the reader about a topic.
We have also been busy exploring some interesting spelling and language concepts, including contractions and the schwa sound. Students have enjoyed discovering how words can change and how sounds can sometimes be tricky to hear or identify!
Geography
In Geography, we have been exploring weather, seasons and seasonal changes in Corryong. We have also been learning about an Aboriginal seasonal calendar and discovered that, rather than having four seasons, some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples recognise six distinct seasons.
Students learned that Indigenous seasonal calendars are based on carefully observing changes in Country, including changes in weather, plants, animals and other natural features, rather than simply following set dates on a calendar. This has been a wonderful opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of the connection between people, Country and Place.
Maths
We have recently finished our learning about 2D and 3D shapes and have now moved into a very exciting (and short!) unit on angles.
Students have been learning to identify and classify different types of angles, including:
- Acute angles – less than 90°
- Right angles – exactly 90°
- Obtuse angles – more than 90° but less than 180°
- Straight angles – exactly 180°
- Reflex angles – more than 180° but less than 360°
- Full turns – exactly 360°
We have been learning how to find and classify angles within different shapes and, importantly, how all angles can be compared to a right angle to help us determine their size.
This has been a wonderful, hands-on unit, and the students have had a fantastic time becoming “angle detectives” around our classroom! We have been discovering angles everywhere: in our furniture, books, windows, doors, classroom displays and even in the things we use every day.
It has been wonderful to see the students becoming increasingly confident in using mathematical language to describe and compare the angles they find.
We are looking forward to continuing our learning and making the most of the weeks ahead!
Mrs Stephens
Year 2/3 Teacher
4/5/6 CLASSROOM
We're already past the halfway point of Term 3, and what a busy and exciting Term it has been in our Grade 4/5/6 classroom!
One of the big highlights was Book Week, which was a wonderful chance for our students to celebrate their love of reading and books. We kicked things off with our Story Night, with students and families coming along to school in their pyjamas, cosied up with soft toys and blankets, and settled in for a bedtime story. It was such a lovely, relaxed evening and it was wonderful to see so many families come along to share it with us.
Our Book Week parade was a great way to conclude book week, and our Grade 4/5/6 students had some absolutely incredible costumes! Dressing up as some of their favourite book characters, they really put their all into creating wonderful designs, as I'm sure you can see.
SEL
In SEL, we have been finishing our unit on Help-Seeking. Over the past few weeks, students have been building an important set of skills for knowing when and how to ask for help. We started by looking at the difference between problems we can solve on our own and problems where it is a good idea to reach out to someone else. From there, we talked about the trust and courage it takes to actually ask for help and worked on recognising the people and services we can turn to when we need them, whether that is a family member, a teacher, another staff member or a helpline.
Students also practised how to communicate clearly when they are asking for support and spent time thinking about all the ways they already help others in their own lives. It has been a really valuable unit for building confidence, empathy and a supportive classroom community.
Reading & Writing
In Reading & Writing, we are almost finished reading Nevermoor, and it has been great to see the students so caught up in the story as we head towards the end. Alongside our reading, students are about halfway through writing their own fantasy narratives, and they have developed some amazing fantasy worlds for their stories.
To help bring these worlds to life, students have now started designing and drawing their settings, which gives them a chance to picture their world clearly before they finish writing. It has been wonderful to see how much creativity and thought they have put into their stories!
Miss Meares
Year 4/5/6 Teacher