PREP

We have been working so hard this term and cannot wait to share all our hard work with our special people at our open classrooms tomorrow morning. Please feel free to pop in and see us from 9:30 to see all our hard work and also play some fun learning games with us! At around 10 o’clock we will begin our normal classroom routine and you are welcome to head to the Biggest Morning Tea for a gold coin donation.

We have continued all our Little Learners Love Literacy learning and have even met our stage 3 characters - Queenie quail, Roxy rabbit, Yasmin yak, Eddy elephant and Zoe zebra. In Numeracy we are wrapping up our learning about subtraction. This has paired so well with our previous learning about addition.

Next Friday June 7th we are excited for you to join us in our very first Prep prayer gathering. We will begin at 9am but we please ask that children arrive at school around 8:45 so that we are able to head over to the church together and get organised beforehand. We can’t wait to pray with you all!

Here is what some of our Prep friends have been enjoying this week;

“I like learning about Little Learners and playing on the monkey bars” - Belle Hitchings

“I have loved learning about Little Learners and playing on the slide!” - Jany Gerich

“I like learning about everything at school! Outside I like playing on the slide!”- Ezra Foster

“I like doing things at school” - Rosie Lidgerwood

Gemma Blake gblake@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Meg Knight mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1/2

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. In class this week we have explored many aspects of NRW and as a school we walked a lap of the gardens to show our support. The National Reconciliation Week theme for 2024, Now More Than Ever, is a reminder to all of us that no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will, and must, continue. This week we have also been busy in class completing assessments and preparing for our big day on Friday.

On Friday Morning our Year 1 students will be sharing their Prayer Gathering 'Love' and we would love to see you there if possible. It will be at 9am in St Mary's church.

To follow, parents and friends are invited back to school for our open classrooms. We can't wait to show you all of the amazing things we have been working on at school this Semester. Classrooms will be open between 9:30 and 10:00am.

After the open classrooms, friends and family are encouraged to attend our Biggest Morning Tea held in the multipurpose area between 10 and 11am. Cash donations for the Cancer Council will be appreciated.

The fun on Friday continues with the final of St Mary's Got Talent in the middle session of the day! We have noticed a lot of students bringing trading cards to school. While we acknowledge that in order to complete sets of their cards, students need to trade, we are asking students to please trade in their own time and not at school. It is just too difficult for us as staff to keep an eye on what is fair or unfair in this situation. We would like to congratulate Ardy and his family on the safe arrival of his little sister Margy! We wish them all the best during this special time.

I asked our Year 2 finalists how they were feeling in the lead up to the talent show:

"I can't wait for the St Mary's Got Talent final, I am starting to feel nervous, but it will be fun. I have done this lots before" - Isabela

"I can't believe we got picked for the final. I am feeling really confident." - Kariss

Important Dates To Remember:

JUNE 2024

Monday 10th King's Birthday Holiday

Tuesday 25th Learning Conversations

Wednesday 26th Learning Conversations

Thursday 27th Andrew Chinn

Friday 28th PJ's Day and Fun Food Day

Friday 28th Last day Term 2, 2.15pm finish

Judy Carr jcarr@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Jodie Hassett jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Paula Parish pparish@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Emma Roberts eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt O'Dowd modowd@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Amanda Delorenzo mdelorenzo@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 3/4

It has been a busy few weeks in the 3/4 classrooms. We extend our congratulations to Fr. Michael on his Golden Jubilee. We are so grateful to have such a wonderful, caring person involved in our school community.

This week we recognise National Reconciliation Week. On Monday, students wore colours of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags and we walked a lap of the Botanical Gardens in support of NRW. In the classroom, students followed up with an understanding of the history behind why we celebrate National Reconciliation Week. We learnt about National Sorry Day, The 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.

Here are a few thoughts from our students:

‘Recognising Indigenous Australians and saying sorry for events that happened in the past and learning about the theme of ‘Now more than ever’’ -Hamish B

‘I enjoyed learning about Eddie Mabo, Sorry Day and all the other reasons we celebrate National Reconciliation Week’ -Elouise L

‘It’s a chance to say sorry to Indigenous Australians and to learn about the history of why we recognise National Reconciliation Week’ -Louisa R

Some important dates to keep in mind:

31st May: Open classrooms, Biggest Morning Tea and St. Mary’s Got Talent

10th June: King’s Birthday Holiday

25th/26th June: Learning Conversations

Elissa Rodger erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Deb Holland dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Liza Alexander lalexander@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Kascha Blair kblair@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt Absalom mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5/6

Written By Alex Brauer, Freya Baum and Ted Darcy with help from Tabitha Roberts

MATHS

This week we have been doing some new learning in division, you may know it as bus stop division, we’ve also been learning about division with decimals and fractions as a remainder. We will be finishing up this week and then starting Location and Transformation.

In Grade 5 they have been learning about Location and Transformations, looking at grid references and following directions for where to go. They will be finishing up this week.

LITERACY

In Literacy we've been writing biographies, we got to choose an inspirational person we wanted to research. We are learning how to get references, use note taking to get some information recorded from websites and jotting them down in our books, in our own words.

In Grade 5 they have been learning about poetry and practising their reading in fluency pairs. They are still reading War Horse and looking at the vocabulary and comprehension at the end of the chapter.

THE GOOD VILLAGE

We have been doing a good village project. There was an olympic race walker named Rhydian Cowley who set us a challenge of making an athletes village for the Colac community that we would use to be healthy, fit, and happy. Here is Alex’s example.

INQUIRY

In Inquiry we have been learning about Australian history. We got to choose a topic we wanted to write about, for example what would life have been like for the First Fleet when arriving or how was life in the Eureka Stockade?

RELIGION

In Religion we are learning about Heritage, we read Peter's declaration about Jesus and discussed how Jesus said Peter was the rock he wanted to build his church on. We thought about what it means to be a reliable person others can count on.

Jade LoRicco jloricco@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Rachel Downard rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Leah Martin lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Dan Cannon dcannon@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Maegen Potter mpotter@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Miscellanous