From the Classroom

News from 5/6

The grade 5s and 6s have had a great start to Term 4. We are excited to welcome David Kight as the new classroom teacher for 5/6A and Caroline Bowen who will be teaching 5/6B on Thursdays and Fridays. 

In English, we are focused on building context for our upcoming camp to Sovereign Hill. We have been exploring Australia's colonial past and have begun to investigate the discovery of gold and the subsequent gold rush as antecedents of federation and democracy in Australia. 

In Mathematics we have been exploring Patterns and Algebra. Students have been looking at the principle of equivalence and using this to find unknown values in number sentences i.e. x + 7 = 5 x 2 and continuing number sequences and patterns both simple (+2) 3, 5, 7, 9… more complex (Fibonacci sequence) 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 … Over the coming weeks we will begin exploring Location (cartesian coordinates) and Transformation.

What's happening in 3/4

There has been lots of learning happening in the 3/4 unit!

In English, students have been enjoying our class novel; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As the book is set in 1940, students have been very interested in certain words that are uncommon in modern day language. 

In Literacy, students are continuing to learn about prefixes and suffixes and how we can add and/or change the meaning to base words. 

In Maths, students have been counting by fractions, exploring equivalent fractions and deciding where fractions belong on a number line. Over the next week, during our mapping lessons, students will create their own 'fun run', creating a map and writing directions. We look forward to completing some of these runs throughout the term.

Thank you,

Pippa Davis, Sheena Cronin and Victoria Sumskas 

The Adventures of 1/2s

We have had a wonderful start to term 4! 

Mathematics and Fractions:

In our mathematics classes the past 2 weeks, we've been focusing on fractions and building a strong foundation in understanding parts of a whole. We began with a hands-on approach, using shapes and manipulatives to explore concepts related to fractions. The students learned about halves, quarters, and eighths by dividing shapes into equal parts. They had the opportunity to physically manipulate objects to understand how these fractions work in the real world. We even had a go at making fractional pizzas!

English and Persuasive Writing: In our English lessons, we have been diving into persuasive writing, and we've used two delightful books as the focal points for our discussions and writing pieces. The first book, "Don't Squash That Ant!" by Elizabeth Peterson, sparked some engaging conversations about empathy and understanding the perspectives of others, even the tiniest creatures among us. We explored the reasons why one should or should not squash ants and crafted persuasive arguments to support our viewpoints. 

The second book, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems, led us into the world of persuasive writing from a different angle. We discussed the comical yet thought-provoking reasons why the pigeon should or should not be allowed to drive the bus. Our students demonstrated creativity and critical thinking as they constructed their arguments and presented them to the class. They even had a go at coming up with their own silly and fun reasons why the pigeon shouldn't do things.

Looking forward to a wonderful final Term

From the 1/2 Team!

Fantastic Foundation

The Foundation students have made a fantastic start to Term 4 and are enjoying lots of our activities that link to our Inquiry unit. They have been writing a story with their buddies, this week created puppets and are excited to be performing to their peers next week.

In English, students have been enjoyed reading books that have opinions, with us focussing on "I'll never not ever eat a tomato." by Lauren Child. They are working towards writing their own opinion on foods and giving reasons why. In the coming weeks we will be practising this skill more with students by exploring engaging picture books. 

In Literacy, students are continuing to learn their initial code and are consolidating their knowledge on identifying letters and their initial sounds. Our focus in fluency this week has been reading and pausing at the full stop, as opposed to reading to the end of the line of text. 

In Maths, Foundation students have just finished their work on adding to 10. They were able to have hands on activities with counters, beans and unifix to represent addition sums to equal ten. To give students a rest from addition we are revising 2D shapes and their properties. In the coming weeks we will return to our focus of addition and subtraction to ensure students develop strong skills in these areas.

In Inquiry, we have been practising finding the beat or pulse in music and participating in music appreciation. Students have learnt how to sit quietly and try to identify instruments and voice in music. As part of our drama and dance, we have been creating mimes and performing these to our classmates and are learning a dance to 'Count on Me' by Bruno Mars.

Science

News from the Art Room

The Zart Student Art Prize for 2023 is now open for entries. Simply create a postcard-sized artwork of your choice and enter. Every artwork will be exhibited in the Zart Student Gallery and will be in the draw to win a $100 voucher for you and our school. There are 56 prizes to be won! For all the entry details visit the Zart Art website HERE or you can download the flyer below.

Enter today to have your artwork on display and be in the draw to win! 

Entries open 2nd October and close 1st December 2023.