PLC News
Professional Learning Community Foundation (Preps)
Professional Learning Community 1 (Grade 1)
Grade 1 students are in the full swing of learning having recently enjoyed our Monday excursion to Lake Wendouree as part of our PBL unit of Earth’s resources. Writing has ramped up over the past week with our Writers' Festival pieces on Australian food taking shape in preparation for Friday. The buzz and excitement has been lifted due to the wonderful and amazing student created decorations adding the visual element to the festivities. It has been pleasing to see a lot of enjoyment and chatter from students about their experiences with place value tasks in Numeracy, cooking and food preparation in kitchen, and genre analysis within Reading. Just a reminder to keep on the lookout for events with Grade 1 swimming fast approaching and P-2 athletics on Wednesday.
From the PLC1 Team
Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2)
Reading – We have explored Non-Fictions texts, unpacking gerne text features and how different Non-Fiction texts are organised. Students have searched and located different features and identified how they help us to gain a better understanding of what we read.
Writing... Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! – students have worked tirelessly to publish their Writers' Festival piece description, in readiness for Friday. The effort, pride and dedication has been on full display. All students are excited to showcase their Writing/Artwork to their families and the wider school community.
Numeracy – In Numeracy students have been concentrating on 2D shape transformations. We have explored the concept of flip, slide, turn and rotations when moving a shape from a start to end point.
PLC2 Sleepover – on behalf of all the staff, we would like to thank all our families and carers for their support with setting up our students for what was a fantastic Sleepover! Students thoroughly enjoyed a range of activities, some delicious food and very peaceful sleep. An amazing two days, shared by all.
Professional Learning Community 3 (Grade 3)
Writers’ Festival is nearly here and what a fantastic job the Grade 3 students have been doing! They have learned so much about the Daintree Rainforest and have written such beautiful descriptions about what they imagine they can see, feel and hear as though they were there. The official launch of the students' work is this coming Friday, so please be sure at some stage either on the day or afterwards to come see your child’s writing to help celebrate their successes. All students have done a wonderful job and should be so proud of their efforts – amazing work!
Assessment weeks are nearly approaching and is an important time for teachers to collect data on student progress to write and finalise student report writing. This is a very important time to gauge the growth of student learning and it is vital that students attend school regularly, especially during this time.
This week in Literacy students have been learning to infer when reading a text. The students have been using clues in the text to discover what is not directly stated to answer questions. In Writing students are finalising their Writers’ Festival piece so that they are presented in their neatest handwriting. In Numeracy, students have been using their multiplication and problem-solving strategies to work out the area of certain shapes.
Have a great week!
PLC3 Teachers.
Professional Learning Community 4 (Grade 4)
This week in Grade 4 we are getting excited for our deadly and dangerous animals to come alive for Writers' Festival this year!
In Writing, we are persuading our audience by writing an exposition about why our deadly and dangerous animals aren't so bad and that we really are good guys. We are continuing to work on our powerful writing strategies and wonderful ideas to ensure that our voices are heard. Don't forget to come along to our Writers' Festival on Friday in the Grade 2 hallway to see our wonderful pieces that we wrote last week. Here's a sneak peak.
Last week in Reading we were working on critiquing poems and asking ourselves what makes them enjoyable. We are continuing to enhance our critiquing skills and writing book reports on our favourite book!
In Numeracy, we are learning about time! We need to use our fraction knowledge that we worked on last week to help us understand quarters of an hour. It's tricky work but we are getting better at understanding digital and analogue clocks.
Why should you never trust clocks? It's usually second-hand information!
Professional Learning Community 5 (Grade 5)
Dear Parents/ carers
Over the past few weeks, the whole school has been getting ready for the Writers’ Festival. The Year 5 students have been working extremely hard to produce an amazing piece of writing to display. As well as our writing, we have also been making Australian art pieces for our display that look incredible. The Writers’ Festival is this Friday 27th of October. We hope to see you there!
In Numeracy, we have been learning about volume, capacity and chance. The Year 5s have immersed themselves in some great ‘challenging tasks’ which have showcased their understanding of various strategies they can use to solve a problem.
In Reading, we have been focusing on SQ3R (Skim, question, read, re-read, re-check) through reading some interesting articles. This is a great skill to master that allows students to successfully search for specific information.
Last week, Mr Phillips spoke to the Year 5 cohort about the school leaderships positions for 2024. It was nice to see some of the students really excited to have the opportunity to apply for a leadership role next year. Just a reminder that the applications must be handed in this Friday at the latest. Good luck to those applying!
Another exciting event that is coming up, is The Colour Run. This amazing event is on the 15th December. Well done to those students who has raised money!
Overall, the Year 5s have done an excellent job over the past few week, we are very proud! Keep up the good work!
Professional Learning Community 6 (Grade 6)
Dear Grade 6 Families,
We hope this message finds you well as we dive into the fourth week of the term. With a bit more warmer weather around the corner, we're excited about the prospect of enjoying a bit of sunshine. As you may know, we've been hard at work on our Writers' Festival pieces, and we can't wait to share the creative endeavours of the students with all of you this upcoming Friday.
In our Reading, we've been immersing ourselves in texts that revolve around the themes of our Writers' Festival. This includes exploring Jackie French's enlightening Natural Disaster series, allowing us to delve into the intricacies of writer's craft. We're also deepening our understanding of texts as we collectively embark on the journey through Gary Crew's thrilling book, "The Watertower."
Our focus in Writing has been on honing our skills in crafting vivid and evocative descriptive pieces, all in preparation for our Writers' Festival. The topics our students are passionately working on are "Flood" for 6A and 6B, and "Fire" for 6C and 6D. The creativity and dedication our young authors are displaying is truly remarkable and the effort that the students have put into their writing is something to be celebrated by all.
In Numeracy, we've been exploring the world of chance and probability. The students have had the opportunity to run their very own chance experiments, giving them a hands-on understanding of these mathematical concepts.
Our Project Based Learning journey has taken us into the captivating area of Earth Sciences. We're delving deep into the details of earthquakes, tectonic plates, and Earth's geological makeup. It's an exciting and enlightening journey that our students are thoroughly enjoying.
We would like to extend a warm invitation to all members of our school community to join us on Friday to witness the amazing writing pieces our students have created. The teachers are exceptionally proud of their efforts, and we're eager to share their achievements with you. Additionally, we want to express our gratitude to the families who have been actively fundraising for our school colour run. Your generous support is invaluable in helping us upgrade our school facilities.
Thank you for your continued support in our students' learning journey. We look forward to seeing you on Friday and witnessing the fantastic progress our Grade 6 students have made.
Grade 6 Team