Learning and Teaching
Maths Learning At St John's
Maths News - Welcome back to Term 3!
Walking around the school, I have spotted some great hands-on learning in classrooms during Maths lessons to help support students’ understanding of maths concepts.
In Year 1/2, students have been learning about multiplication and division. Students have been learning how to double and halve numbers and the importance of equal grouping. Students have also been focusing on repeated addition and how this skill helps them to construct arrays. Students first focused on using skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s to create arrays using natural objects - such as flowers, rocks, bark or leaves. They then turned their knowledge of skip counting into repeated addition to create arrays. Students paired up to create an array using chalk on the court and write the matching repeated addition number sentence.
In Year 3/4, students have been learning to represent the multiplication and division of two-digit numbers using concrete materials, both with and without regrouping. Using these materials has helped students deepen their understanding of the concepts by making the mathematical processes more visible and easier to explain.
What’s been happening in Year 3/4?
In English, we have been exploring the structure and features of short poems. As part of our learning, we have focused on literary devices such as similes, personification and rhyming words.
Using Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti as our inspiration, the students were guided to write their own four-line stanzas following the poem's rhyme pattern (A, B, C, A). They used their creativity to incorporate the poetic techniques we have been learning.
Ask your child to share their poem with you and tell you about the writing process—we're sure they'll be proud of their creative work! Here are some examples of our wonderful poems.
Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
STEM
This term in STEM, we are focusing on Physical Science - Heating Up!
During our lesson, students identified sources of heat and investigated ways heat is transferred from its source to an object. Students worked in groups to sort out cards under the headings conduction, convection and radiation.
We are so proud of all of our wonderful students and we are looking forward to another wonderful term of learning!
Anna Hendy - Maths Leader and 3/4B Teacher
ahendy@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Nicole Webb - Literacy Leader and 3/4B Teacher
nwebb@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Sebastian Vandenberg - 3/4A Teacher