Student Learning Snapshots

PREP SNAPSHOT 

Hi Prep families, 

What an amazing start to Term 3! We all had a great time with our 100 days of school celebration. 

In Literacy, we have been learning the difference between a question and a statement. Students have also been introduced to letter names. Each morning we now look at each letter and identify its common sound, and its name. Students are now practising to read and write words with 4 sounds in them (e.g. flop, drop, camp). 

In Maths, students have begun investigating measurement. We have looked at the words ‘short’, ‘shorter’, ‘tall’, ‘taller’, ‘long’ and ‘longer’. Students have been using these new learned words to describe and compare objects around them. We have also been practising to look at a collection of items up to 10, and identify how many items there are without counting them. Students have additionally continued to identify numerals, build models and compare numbers up to 20. 

Thankyou, 

Prep team. 

Week 4 and 5 

Hi Prep families, 

In Literacy, we have been learning about the conjunction because. Students have been using sentence starters in their writing to use the word because in a sentence. We have continued practising to read and write words with 4 sounds in them (e.g. flop, drop, camp). 

In Maths, students have begun investigating mass. We have looked at the words ‘heavy’, ‘light’, ‘large mass’ and ‘small mass’. Students have been using these new learned words to describe and compare objects around them. We have also continued practising to look at a collection of items up to 10, and identify how many items there are without counting them. 

Prep students have begun a new Inquiry unit about rockpools. Students have been looking at texts about rockpools, identifying facts about rockpools, and answering questions about the information they have read. 

Reminders:

• Book week dress up parade on Friday August 23rd. 
• Our rock pool excursion is on Thursday September 5th. Consent and payment is due by August 30th. 

Thankyou, 

Prep team. 

YEAR 1/2 SNAPSHOT 

Weeks 2 and 3

Hi 1/2 Families

Term 2 ended with great excitement when we enjoyed watching “The Little Mermaid” at GPAC, performing on stage ourselves at the concert and dancing at the disco. Term 3 has also started with much excitement with our visit to Geelong Ninjas to complete obstacle courses. We have also been very busy in the classrooms.

In Literacy, we have been learning about procedural texts and have read “How to make pancakes” and “How to grow a sunflower”. We recognised that a procedural text must include an equipment, or ingredients list and a method that must have the steps in the correct order. We have also been adding details to our sentences with adverbs. Adverbs are the ‘how’ in our sentences. For example, Pour the mixture into the frypan ‘carefully’. We can identify some adverbs by the -ly suffix.

In Maths, we have been learning different strategies to help add and subtract. Students have used; drawing, numberlines, tens frames, base ten blocks, counting on and counting backwards. We have also had fun practising our adding and subtracting skills while playing the games Totality and Strike it out.

With the Olympics currently on in Paris we have begun to learn more about them in our Knowledge Unit. We discovered the mascots for the Paris Olympics, Phryge, and the Australian Olympic team, BK and the Australian Paralympic team, Lizzie. We even created our own mascots for Hamlyn Banks Primary School. We also learnt about the Olympic torch and were very excited to have the opportunity to see one up close and even hold it thanks to the Miller family. The students have also been learning about the Paralympics and enjoyed listening to Martyn Dunn speak about playing tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics.

This term we will have our Book Week dress up parade and swimming lessons among other events so please look out for the updates on Compass.

Thank you,

Year 1/2 Team

Weeks 4 and 5 

Hi 1/2 Families

It’s Week 5 and the weather is warming up and it’s beginning to feel like Spring could be on its way. It has been great to connect this with our new Knowledge unit of Life Cycles. This week we have been looking specifically at flowering plants. The students have learnt about what plants need to grow,, pollination and the importance of bees. On Monday for our Science Week afternoon the students enjoyed putting some of this knowledge into practice when they were able to plant seeds of  a flowering plant and go on a scavenger hunt in the yard.

This week in Literacy we have been reading a narrative, “Amira’s Suitcase”, an explanation text “How Do Plants Grow“ and re-reading the procedural text “How to Grow a Sunflower” to identify the needs of a plant and link to our new Knowledge topic. We have also been learning about time connectives and how words such as later, after and yesterday, can help us sequence events in our writing.

In Maths, the students have been learning to use the vertical algorithm to add and subtract numbers with 2 or more digits. They have also begun to look at multiplication and division.

Don’t forget the Book Week Parade on Friday the 23rd of August. We look forward to seeing all our students dressed up as a character from a book or in the theme of “Reading is Magic”. And while everyone is thinking about reading, it has been great to see so many students reading at home. Please remind your student to return their readers so they can bring home new ones. Also, don’t forget that Tuesday is our library day with students able to borrow up to 2 books.

Thank you from the Year 1/2  Team.

YEAR 3/4 SNAPSHOT 

Hello 3/4 Families,

We hope you are all having a lovely week. We are so proud of the way our students conducted their Student Led Conferences. 3/4 Teachers witnessed the amazing confidence of students sharing their learning with their families. Our students shared their reading goals and demonstrated practising their goal with such enthusiasm. It was also fantastic to hear students explaining compound sentences and division strategies. We hope you enjoyed the night just as much as we did!

Last week in Literacy, students consolidated their learning of compound sentences. We use the acronym FANBOYS to remember all the conjunctions we can use to join two simple sentences. As we have been learning about the Olympics, we used our knowledge to write compound sentences about Ahmed Kelly and Cathy Freeman. Year 3 and Year 4 students read about these two athletes and discussed their achievements in both sport and life. We learned to discern key information from ‘nice to know’ so that we could write sentences that contained relevant information.

In Maths, we continued our learning of addition and subtraction by applying this knowledge to measuring the length of objects. We have been using strategies such as bar models and number lines to record our understanding. A particular strategy we have practised is to use number bonds to 10 to support us to add and subtract two digit numbers. 

Year 3 and 4 students have also begun to build automaticity in their number sense (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). We have begun timing ourselves and trying to complete more answers correctly each day. We started with addition and will build towards subtraction next. One thing you can do at home is to practise the website Hit the Button which was shown at Student Led Conferences.

We are also excited to start our new unit of learning about habitats. Mr L became Pilot Maverick for the morning and took passengers in 3A on a first class trip around the world.

We look forward to sharing more students of the week soon.

3/4 Teachers.

YEAR 5/6 SNAPSHOT 

Week 2 and 3

What an outstanding start to Term 3 it has been for our senior school! The 5/6 team has hit the ground running diving straight into our Olympic unit, looking into the values, excellence and achievements our Olympian and Paralympians have sought, as well as investigating some well known individuals and their impact on different sports in Australia. We are learning more about the values and traditions of Olympic participants so we can more accurately celebrate (or commiserate) while watching their Olympic journey. Researching information about Chloe Covell, Dylan Allcot and Patty Mills has given  the students a range of different insights into pathways and outcomes for athletes from all sorts of different backgrounds!

The 5/6 squad have also been investigating persuasive texts. More than just arguing, we have been deciphering the purpose and format of different persuasive techniques to enhance our persuasive capabilities. This has been an excellent focus for our learning as we debate the importance of different learning areas, as well as justify our stance on different Olympic sports and their inclusion, or lack thereof! This unit will continue, as we complete our written texts and begin to include more oral language aspects into our writing, which can be eventually used to enhance our debating skills. 

Casting our eyes forward, you may have noticed we have been sending out notices around the upcoming Week 9 camp. Please ensure you have filled out all the necessary forms (including medication forms) on Compass before the 9th. Any types of medication (from allergies to asthma to melatonin) require a medical form which can be obtained from your classroom teacher or be emailed directly. We are all very excited, and the sooner these are all returned the more prepared we will all be to start having conversations around itineraries and packing lists and oh so much more. Please contact the office if you are having any issues finding or filling these forms in!

We also wish our District Athletics team every success in their respective events! On August the 9th they will be heading off to represent our school and will certainly do us proud. Go Hamlyn Banks!

Week 4 and 5 

As we forge our way deeper into Term 3, we have begun our new Knowledge Unit investigating the importance of structural and behavioural adaptations plants and animals undergo to ensure survival. We have made a good start to this unit, investigating the different features of camels, giraffes, penguins and more! We have extended this new learning to include the way animals interact with plants, covering how bees and flowers co-exist to benefit each other's survival. This was brought to a point during our outstanding SCIENCE WEEK launch, where we able to welcome in families to engage with our learning, plant some flowers and go on a nature scavenger hunt! 

A big THANK YOU to all the families who were able to make it along or discuss the learning they were able to undertake to launch our Science Week festivities! Make sure you keep looking after your pot plants!

Next week is Book Week, celebrating the theme of ‘Reading is Magic’. This will be celebrated by enjoying all things reading related, culminating in our Book Week parade on Friday morning (23/8). We look forward to seeing all of the fantastic outfits and costumes, and connecting them all with amazing literature. Keep an eye out for all the amazing staff costumes also… no hints!

Another call out for all of our Year 5/6 campers to ensure you have filled out any required medical forms and returned them to the office or your classroom teacher. These are required for any form of medicine that is taken, from asthma to hayfever medication. Your classroom teacher will have spare forms if you need, so just ask and we shall provide! These plans can also be updated at the office for school use.

One last THANK YOU to all the students who were able to run their ‘Student Led Conferences’ with great confidence and enthusiasm. They were able to show off their mental computation skills when demonstrating the ‘Race to 0’ game, share our reading routines including our paired fluencies, and more! Well done to everyone for sharing both what and how we learn at Hamlyn Banks.

SPECIALIST 

Performing Arts

This term, we have started off our learning by jumping straight into a unit of work all about the Olympics. It has been great to see the students of HBPS get into the Olympic spirit in these sessions as we discuss different aspects of the Olympics such as national anthems, games history and various events.

Our junior students have enjoyed learning about the national anthems used at the Olympics. We have watched Olympic highlights and medal ceremonies which show athletes singing along to their anthem after winning a medal. We have discussed our own national anthem ‘Advance Australia Fair’ and have learned to play the melody to this song on glockenspiels.

Grade 3/4 students have also enjoyed learning about national anthems at the Olympics. In the first weeks of Term 3 we discussed the lyrics to Advance Australia Fair and held great conversations about why this song is so special to us as Australians. Students have also enjoyed using the Olympics theme during drama games, such as ‘Olympic Events’ charades. This week we have been ‘Breaking’ in class, with students competing in a fun series of dance battles against each other.

Our senior students have also been working within the Olympics theme at the beginning of term. Students have analysed the lyrics and symbology used in Advance Australia Fair and have participated in great conversations about the feelings which national anthems evoke. In addition to learning the melody to Advance Australia Fair on glockenspiels, Grade 5/6 students have also learned how to play our anthem on ukulele and keyboards. This week we have also  enjoyed trying out ‘Breaking’, with each class competing to find a class champion!

Visual Arts

In Visual Arts, we continue to provide a rich and thriving arts program. This term we aim to provide an Indigenous Arts unit that celebrates culture, knowledge and experience of our First Nations peoples with all our students. Firstly, thank you to our Mob morning tea group who took the time to come into the art room and provided us with the knowledge to start this unit. We also have an amazing visual arts teacher with us this term. Mrs Kim Young comes with a great source of knowledge and experience in this area and will work  alongside myself (Mrs Amelia Jolly) to bring this unit to life. 

We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country and recognise the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities such as ours and the wonderful works of art. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past, present and emerging.

Our students have focused on creating art that is inspired by Indigenous Culture through storytelling using symbols and traditional colours. They have looked at both past (traditional) and present (contemporary) Indigenous artists artworks and how they have created art to tell their stories.

As a whole school we are creating our own Indigenous Tree in the art room.  This tree is a source of knowledge, community, strength and growth. As we continue our journey through the unit we will add to our tree symbols, language and more so that we can use this as a resource as we grow in our understanding of culture. The first part of our tree is complete with each student creating an indigenous inspired circle design that tells their story. A huge thank you to Tesha, our wonderful parent helper, who helped put this together. She continues her brilliant display of our students artworks. Thank you to the amazing ES who also helped with cutting and laminating the circles so we could start our tree growing.

Last week of term we will be celebrating our journey  with a whole school Indigenous Art Installation in the art room - more information to come!!! 

Please save the date - Friday 20th of September - Art Room - Indigenous Art Installation showcasing all our students artwork to represent country.

Now check out these amazing photos of the work we have created so far in our art room for the Indigenous art unit!