Preps

Dear Prep Families,

It is halfway through term and we can’t believe how fast the year has gone.

We had a wonderful day at the Zoo last Friday and would like to thank those parents who came along and were so accomodating when the wet weather hit. The students had a lovely time and showed great interest in finding out about the animals.

In Literacy, students have been engaged in a lot of activities that have exposed them to develop an understanding of the features of non fiction texts. We have continued to work on labelling diagrams and have turned the focus from plants to animals. During reading we have been using texts such as ‘Pig the Pug’ and ‘Too Loud Lily’ to look at sounds in words.

In Maths, we have began a new unit, Money. Students have enjoyed becoming familiar with different Australian coins. We have looked at the different coins and their features as well as which coins are worth more.

In Religion, our focus is still on bible stories from the Old Testament and understanding that these do not include stories about Jesus. We have listened to the story of Noah’s Ark and explored the meaning behind this through various activities.

It has been a busy fortnight and we are all so impressed with the learning that is taking place in the Prep level.

Have a great week.

Amanda, Hayley and Jane.

Juniors

Hello 1/2 Families,

As always it has been another busy week in 1/2.

Literacy

For reading 1/2s have continued to our author study of Giles Andreae and his fabulous Picture Fiction texts. Students have been able to closely recognise Giles Andrae’s language features such as rhyming and alliteration. We have been completing a variety of activities based on each story and its underlying message.

For writing students are beginning to construct their own information reports. We will be focusing on structure, punctuation and improving our skills when spelling topic related words.

Maths

This week we have begun post testing for multiplication and chance. This week we will be able to focus on our new topics of division and data. Students will continue to participate in maths workshops for division.

Religion

As we continue our study on the creation story, we ask all families to bring in a family photo to be used as part of students personal creation books. Students have been working hard over the past couple of weeks to create their own artistic representation of the creation story from Genesis.

Inquiry

As we continue to move forward in the building phase of our inquiry unit, students will continue to explore different habitats and learn about the animals that live there, how they survive and where they might find these habitats around the world. So far each class has visited 2 of the 4 habitats and this week students will visit their 3rd habitat. We would love students to be able to tell you all about the wonderful experiences they have had or what they have learnt during these rotations- some of them get messy!

Reminders;

This week we celebrate Book Week on Wednesday 21st August. We look forward to seeing everyone's wonderful and creative costumes.

On Friday the 23rd of August we will celebrate Pyjama Day, as well as Pasta Day! Yum!

Students will begin the gymnastics component of Triskills this week on Thursday.

If everyone could please bring in a new and unopened bottle of some sort to go towards the bottle store at the fete, that would be very much appreciated. Bottles can be of sauce, soft drink, oil, alcohol and more.

Also we would like to remind all students and families about the importance of bringing their Diary and readers to school everyday. This is an important habit students will need to develop for years to come. If students have not finished their reader it is still expected to be brought to school.

Finally 1/2NT and 1/2B will be hosting Assembly this week. We hope you all can make it.

As always thank you all so much for your continued support

Many thanks,

Naomi, Tracey, Jason, Bethany, Renee, Tania, Michelle and Poppy.

Middles

Hi everybody, and can you believe we are already halfway through Term 3! We welcome Miss Pitcher to the Middle level. Miss Pitcher is a final year ACU Student Teacher, who will be with us for the next 7 weeks completing her teacher training. Please make Miss Pitcher feel welcome when you see her.

Maths - In Maths we are finishing up our units on Chance and Multiplication and Division. The students have worked well in workshops and homeroom sessions and we look forward to seeing growth when it comes time to post test. We are moving on to a Measurement unit in the area of length.

R.E. - The students have enjoyed learning Bible stories from the Old Testament - including Moses and Daniel. Now we are moving on to learning about parables and how Jesus used them to teach his followers about God’s love. We will also learn about the feeding stories from the Bible and link this in with the Eucharist.

We enjoyed celebrating the Feast of the Assumption last Thursday … along with Mr D’s birthday!!

Literacy - In writing the students have been exposed to the style of procedural texts. We have looked at the components of this genre and students have begun writing simple procedures from their own experiences (how to make a ham and cheese sandwich, how to ride a bike, etc.).

Inquiry - the students have shared their ‘Wonderings’ following on from our Immersion sessions on Ecosystems. We have broken into workshop groups around ‘Food chains’ ‘Ecosystems’ and ‘Animal Adaptations’.

Reading dogs - thanks to the hard work from Miss Victoria, we are fortunate enough to Jen and her dog ‘Chelsea’ coming in to our level to listen to reading. Chelsea is a highly trained (well behaved) ‘listening dog’ that helps students by getting them to read out aloud. If you don’t mind your child taking part in the program, please return the permission form that was sent home earlier this week.

It was great to see everyone dressing up at the Book Week Parade … thanks parents, we know it can be a challenge, and the students looked amazing.

Thanks for all your ongoing support,

Tania, Carla, Jarrod, Vicki, Sophia and Molly

Seniors

We would like to congratulate all the students who received the sacrament of Confirmation last weekend. It was a lovely mass and we thank all families for taking the time to attend.

During writing time students have been engaging in lessons with a focus on developing investigation reports. They have been viewing and participating in simple experiments to help guide them in the writing of their investigation. As we continue this unit students will become familiar with the outline for writing an investigation report and demonstrate their understanding.

In inquiry we are now moving into a new topic which focuses on Science and Sustainability. Year 5 and 6 students participated in an excursion to Westgarth cinemas where they viewed the documentary 2040, which hopefully opened their eyes to what our world could potentially look like in the year 2040. We hope this experience will help the students to move through the inquiry process to research and develop an understanding of sustainability.

Have a lovely week,

The Senior Team,

Anne-Marie, Louise, Stephen and Sally

St Mary's School

Issue 13 · 22 Aug 2019

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