Students are settling into Term 1 amazingly well, and it has been fantastic to see. Familiarity with routines has enabled classes to jump into learning, with a focus on developing our skills in working together.

Curriculum focus

In Mathematics, we have been focusing on developing a positive attitude towards maths. Students are learning about positive mindsets, including building resilience through problem-solving tasks that spark their curiosity! Building an understanding of place value, and the value of digits in a number is also a strong focus this term. We encourage families to play games that involve maths, and to talk to your children at home about how we see and use maths in the real world.

Here are some things the students had to say about problem-solving tasks:

“It was challenging but really fun” Pip Lanz-Forstner

“I liked problem solving because it was hard but fun like a game” Pepi Francois

“Problem solvings tasks are very easy for me because I have a good understanding of numbers” Joel Bish

“It was fun to figure out the problems and I like that it was challenging me” Louie Nicholson

“It was really fun but kind of hard because there was two answers that seemed correct” Violette Harmer

Here’s a game we played in class. Please encourage your children to teach you how to play!

Sushi Go Number!

A game for 2+ players. This is a bit like the game Sushi Go party.

Instructions

The dealer hands everyone 4 or 5 playing cards (depending on the size of the number you want them to make), after having removed all picture cards.
Players keep their cards hidden from the group.
All players choose one card from their hand and place it, face down, in front of them.
All their remaining cards must then be passed to the player on their left around the circle.
Players repeat steps 3 and 4 until all cards are down in front of the players.
Then players work to arrange their cards to create the largest (or smallest) number they can. Players then reveal their number to the group by placing cards down face up in the order they choose. Encourage players to say their number aloud to practise reading large numbers!
The person with the largest (or smallest) number wins, depending on the aim of the game chosen at the start.
The winner takes the cards from all the players and places them in a separate pile.
Repeat this process until the deck runs out. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end of the game.

In Writing, we are recapping the Writer’s Workshop Process as we explore writing narratives. We have experimented with onomatopoeia as an engaging way to start our stories and are revising to check if our writing makes sense.

In Reading, we are revisiting the skills of summarising and asking questions. We are using a range of rich picture books and information texts to support our learning.

In Unit Focus, we began our First Contact Unit by reviewing our understanding of what respecting Country means and learning about how Indigenous People lived on this land for thousands of years before us. We will be using the book “Young Dark Emu” by Bruce Pascoe as a key text for this learning area.

Photos show the 3/4 classes across at Henderson Park, listening to nature and thinking about respect for Country. Additional photos show some “mystery number” Maths problems that students have been creating themselves.

Mindful Movement