What's happening?
Foundation
We are nearing the end of Foundation, and what a busy final few weeks it has been! The students have been working away and have finished their narratives. They are full of super adjectives, and it has been great to watch them put their creative hats on and enjoy the writing process! We look forward to you reading them at our portfolio presentation. A reminder that this will be on Wednesday, 17th December at 3pm in our Foundation classrooms. It is a lovely chance for you and your child to reflect on the wonderful year they have had in prep! Please let your class teacher know if you are unable to make it, and they will organise their buddy to be there. You are welcome to bring along a small snack you can share with your child as you look through their portfolios together.
Literacy
This week, students have been learning about compound words (e.g. cup + cake = cupcake). Next week, we will wrap up Phormes for the year by exploring the -ing suffix. We have been blown away by the students' focus, determination and willingness to take on every challenge throughout the year!
Maths
Maths groups have now finished for the year. In class, we are focusing on using our school-wide problem-solving strategy, ‘CUBES’, to tackle worded problems. Students will be exploring how to solve problems through direct comparison in a range of topics we have covered this year. These include Measurement and Time. We will also continue to explore Bar Modelling lessons where students will be focusing on the ‘missing part’ in a worded problem.
Excursion
This week, our very eager Preps arrived bright and early on Wednesday morning, ready for our big excursion to the Melbourne Zoo! We had an incredible day exploring, and it was a wonderful opportunity for students to see all the animals they’ve been learning about in Inquiry this term. We spent the day wandering through the different exhibits, spotting all kinds of amazing animals up close. The students were absolutely thrilled to see their favourites in real life, and the beautiful weather made the day even more enjoyable. A huge thank you to all the parents who volunteered on the day. Your support is truly appreciated.
Just a reminder, on Tuesday, the 9th of December, we will have ‘State-wide Transition Day’ Foundation to Grade 6, where students will meet their 2026 teacher!
Thank you to all parents and carers for being so supportive and volunteering throughout the year.
Grade 1
This year has flown by, and we’re sad to see it coming to an end. Last week, the cohort had a fabulous time at the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens. A huge thank you to our wonderful parent helpers for joining us and helping the day run so smoothly!
For our final three weeks in Year 1, students will be writing persuasive pieces. They’ll be learning how to use words to convince others about their ideas or opinions — so look out! In spelling, we are continuing to learn about the Long Spelling Right After a Short Vowel Sound (LSRASVS), focusing on “tch vs ch” over the next two weeks. In handwriting, students are practising the letter Kk and will move on to revising capital letters the following week.
In Maths, students have been revising addition and moving onto subtraction and will continue working on these topics next week. This will be followed by general Maths revision and fun Maths games.
In Wellbeing, our focus this week is on the school value of resilience — an important strength that helps students manage their emotions and mindset through changing situations. Next, we’ll be exploring integrity and reflecting on what we are grateful for.
We’d like to sincerely thank you for your ongoing support this year — from reading in the classroom and at home to helping with the many dress-up days and classroom requests. We wish all our students a smooth and successful transition into Year 2!
Thank you from the Year 1 teaching team.
Grade 2
As this will be our final newsletter for the year, we would like to say a huge thank you to our Grade 2 families for all your support throughout what has been a fabulous year with our cohort. We wish you all the very best for a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break. We are so proud of the wonderful progress our students have made this year and have thoroughly enjoyed teaching them!
Take-Home Readers: We will be collecting all take-home reader books on Friday 12th December. We encourage students to continue reading over the holidays using books from home or by visiting the Parkdale Library.
Homework: Students will bring home their final PhOrMeS homework sheet on Thursday 4th December, which will be due back on Friday 12th December. Optional online extras: Nessy Reading and Spelling and Sunset/Jetpack Maths (Essential Assessment).
Writing: Students have been working hard to publish their narratives, focusing on using adjectives and correct punctuation. Please keep an eye on Seesaw—students will soon post their terrific, published narrative pieces!
PhOrMeS: In PhOrMeS lessons, students have been learning to read and spell words containing the ie and ei codes, such as chief, friend, receipt and receive.
The Grammar Project: Students have been learning to identify and use regular and irregular plurals within sentences.
Maths: By the end of next week, we will complete our Location unit and wrap up Maths groups for the year. In the final week of term, students will enjoy Christmas-themed Maths activities and games within their own class groups.
Inquiry: Students have been comparing school life for grandparents, parents, and themselves, exploring similarities and differences. They have also been learning about what a community is, how we fit into our local community, and what brings people together.
Wellbeing: Through our U R Strong program, students have been revisiting key friendship concepts. Next week, as part of our RRRR (Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships) lessons, students will learn about the difference between safe and unsafe secrets.
Grade 3
As this is our last ‘What’s Happening’ for the year, the Grade 3 team would like to congratulate our wonderful cohort of students for their outstanding effort, behaviour, and achievements this year and thank all our lovely Grade 3 families for your support. We have had a terrific year together!
Core Knowledge: To wrap up our ‘Earth Science’ unit, students have started creating their ‘Landform’ posters using the research they completed at home. They are working to a rubric which covers five different areas and will present their poster to the class once completed.
Writing: Over this term, students have been able to hone their narrative writing skills by identifying features within a range of different narrative texts and then using that learning to try and write their own paragraphs in the same way. Students got the opportunity to demonstrate their skills with a final assessment this week.
Word Study: Students have been reviewing the morphemes ‘stru’ and ‘struct’, combining them with a variety of prefixes and suffixes, along with when to change ‘y to i’ when adding a suffix. We continue to study specific homophones and a range of ‘weird words’, as well as learning to read and spell words pertaining to the ‘211 Rule’ (please ask your child if they can explain it to you :)
Maths: Over this fortnight, students have been working through the remainder of our ‘Data’ unit, learning to plan, collect, represent and interpret data. Over the last two weeks of term, we will revisit and revise problem-solving strategies using the four operations. We would encourage students to continue building and practising their number skills over the holidays.
Reminders:
Class ‘gift exchange’ items need to be brought to school by Friday 12th December.
Holiday reading: We would strongly encourage all students to continue regular reading over the holidays.
Thanks again for a wonderful year. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday break.
Grade 4
The year is very quickly coming to a close and what a wonderful year it has been! We are capping off the year with an excursion to Braeside Park next Wednesday (10th December) and are extremely grateful to the parents who have volunteered to join us so far. Please contact your classroom teacher if you are interested in helping out on the day - the more, the merrier! The kids are looking forward to our final session of Bike Ed next week. The skills being learnt are hopefully being practised outside of the school grounds! Again, we thank the volunteers for being so incredibly supportive of this program.
Literacy: We are drawing to a close on our study of ‘Wonder’ and the learning and development of the kids can only be described as remarkable. The depth and content we are seeing daily continually amazes us and we are very proud of the learning being achieved. We were also impressed with the growth shown in our Narrative unit with our assessment write on the story prompt “Lost”, where students worked hard to apply figurative language and edit to uplevel their writing.
Numeracy: We are finishing up our Statistics topic at the end of this week. We have focused on translating data into a range of different graphs (e.g. column, dot plot, line graphs), with great success! We will focus on Number and Problem Solving for the remainder of the term.
Inquiry: The students have been working on designing their countries for their group projects, with some very creative ideas developing. They are doing a wonderful job of applying their understanding of the likely climate, vegetation and land features for the location of their countries.
We would like to thank all the Grade 4 students and parents on a wonderful year! We are so proud of their progress and commitment, as well as the joy they bring into the classroom each day.
Grade 5
Leadership During Week 7, students did a fantastic job preparing and presenting themselves as leaders. They spoke confidently about what makes them strong leaders and how they demonstrate the values of the Parkdale Primary School community. Students will find out their respective leadership roles in the final week of the term.
Whole School Transition Day next Tuesday 9th December, is the whole-school transition day. Students will find out who their 2026 classroom teacher will be and which students are in their class. Grade slips for 2026 will be sent home to families on Tuesday afternoon.
Maths
In Maths, students have been exploring timetables and solving problems involving elapsed time and the duration of events. This week, students completed an activity using timetables to see how far they could travel from Parkdale, beginning at 8:45am and returning by 4pm. We had some interesting discoveries, including the realisation that you can't simply turn up to the airport and hop on the next plane!
Students have also begun planning a trip around Australia, visiting each capital city. They are required to keep a budget, calculate flight costs, and choose accommodation and activities in each location.
Writing
Students are excited about becoming Grade 6 buddies in 2026 and have been drafting letters to their buddies. These will be sent out before the start of next year. They have also been typing and publishing their narrative pieces on Seesaw and conferencing with their teachers about their narrative assessment tasks. Literacy Reviews have continued, with a focus on spelling, grammar, punctuation, and dictation, where students listen to a passage, write it down, and check for correct punctuation.
Reading
In Reading, students are nearing the end of this term's text, A Long Walk to Water. Recent lessons have focused on comparing and contrasting Salva’s life in Sudan with his life in Rochester, New York. Over the coming week, we will complete the text, and students will complete their final comprehension assessment for the year.
Inquiry
Students have been exploring itineraries and flight planning over the last few sessions. Their task involved finding flights to their chosen country, identifying flight times and layovers, and calculating elapsed time, including changes due to early or late departures. They have also been working within a budget to plan their trip, including flights, accommodation, food, and activities. Students will present their country projects at our Travel Expo during the last week of school.
Reminders:
- Bounce Excursion: Thursday 18th December 9 - 12 pm
- Last Day Dismissal 1:30 pm (Assembly Prior)
Grade 6
Literacy
The Grade 6’s are nearing the end of their novel study on Rivet Boy. They have enjoyed reading a story about facing your fears, courage, adversity, and responsibility, all set around the true story of the building of the famous Forth Bridge in 1800’s Scotland.
Writing
Our narrative focus has come to a close, with the students writing some extremely impressive and engaging narratives over the past few weeks. They have also completed their post-assessment this week based on this picture prompt.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, the students have been working on a partner project to plan a one-month Australian or World holiday. The criteria include visiting at least 7 states or 10 countries, airfares, accommodation, car hire and deciding on which attractions or events they will go to. Their financial maths skills will come into play through balancing expenses and finding deals based on value for money. The students put this together through a PowerPoint or Word presentation.
Inquiry
Everyone is very excited about the upcoming Market Day. They have been busy manufacturing their products and will be designing their stalls. Market Day will take place on Monday, the 15th of December. The grade 3’s and 2’s will be the lucky customers on the day.
We can’t believe another year has flown by. The Grade 6 cohort has been an amazing group of students, and we are extremely proud of their countless achievements throughout the year. Their success across the curriculum has been impressive. From the classroom to the sporting arena to the stage, to name a few. The Grade 6 team would like to thank all the students for making this year a joy to share with them. To the parents, we couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for all your support throughout the year in the many different forms that it takes.
We hope you all enjoy your Christmas and New Year break and wish you and your children all the best for the secondary school years to come.