Professional Learning Community Foundation (Preps)

Hi PLCF Families,

As we are entering the second week of assessing students the Prep teachers could not be happier with the skills and knowledge our students are demonstrating. We are seeing some wonderful growth but most importantly, some wonderful students giving everything a 'red hot go'.

As the weather continues to cool down, we continue to remind families to check their children's jumpers, jackets, beanies etc. for names. The weather outside is cold but the classrooms are warm, so jumpers are coming on and off regularly - unnamed items are very difficult to return to their correct owner and often end up in Lost Property.

This week in PBL we are looking forward to making our robots - a big THANK YOU to all families who bought in their empty cereal boxes, paper towel rolls and other empty boxes for us to use. We can't wait to show you the finished products.

We hope you all have a great week.

The PLCF team.

Professional Learning Community 1 (Grade 1 )

The last couple of weeks have been super busy in grade 1, with students showing their teachers how much they have learnt so far this year during assessment weeks! We are proud of what students have achieved and can’t wait to continue to watch them grow throughout the remainder of the year.

Stomp, chomp, roar, we have been writing about dinosaurs! We have had some amazing dinosaur stories and descriptions written this term, some students even tried to convince their teachers that they should be allowed a pet dinosaur. Students have been prasticing using full stops, capital letters and many different figurative language strategies in their writing pieces. Next week we will be exploring start exploring a new topic and are excited to see what the students come up with.

In Reading we have been practising summarising texts. When reading at home each night, students could practise this by explaining to someone what happened at the beginning, middle and end.

A couple of reminders for all grade 1 families…

TOYS – we have had lots of toys at school lately. We encourage students to leave toys at home as they often become lost or broken.
READING- Students should be reading every night at home and filling this in their reading diary. Students who do not read be required to go to reading club the following day.
LOST PROPERTY - We are still finding lots of jumpers without names on them. Please make sure that all belongings are named so they get returned if lost.

We are looking forward to an awesome second half of term 2.

PLC 1 Team

Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2 )

Over the past few weeks, PLC 2 has been buzzing! We have continued to work on our writing skills by completing our exposition on Why Bugs are So Important? with students demonstrating some wonderful writing skills and some wonderful figurative language within their texts. In Reading, using Wombat Stew, the students were able to name all characteristics of a narrative, these being Characters, Setting, Problem, Important Events, Solution and Ending. In Maths, we have continued to work on our Addition and Subtraction skills, and it is great to see the students having so much fun playing hands on games within the classroom such as Strike It Out, and Numero, as well as showing their numeracy thinking with Think Boards and Number Boxes.

All PLC 2 teachers would like to say a huuuuuggggeee well done to the students for doing such a great job during our first Assessment Week this week. Students have been working on some great reading, writing and maths activities while the teachers are completing assessments with the students. Some activities the students have been working on in the classroom are Colour by Numbers, Place Value Cut and Paste, Boggle, Wordsearches, Roll-a-Story, and many more. Teachers will also be completing assessments this week and we hope the students can continue their great work ethic within the classrooms.

Have a great week! All the best.

PLC 2

Professional Learning Community 3 (Grades 3)

PLC 3 News

This week we have begun our assessments in preparation for report writing. Students will take part in a range of assessments including some online and some working one on one with the teacher. It is a busy but rewarding time as we see the growth students have made.

We have been learning about how to give specific and useful feedback to each other and it has been interesting to watch students develop this skill and be more reflective about their own growth. We have used the acronym BAG to help us. B is for Begin with a positive. A stands for Ask questions and G stands for Give targeted feedback. We hope to use ‘peer to peer’ feedback in all learning areas as our skills develop.

Can I remind parents and caregivers to please monitor home reading? Students should read for about 20 minutes each night and write a comment in their reading diary. If you could then sign the diary to confirm it has been completed, that would be much appreciated.

Don’t forget to return the camp note with details about whether your child is attending and how you would like to pay for it, if you have not done so already.

Have a great week.

Professional Learning Community 4 (Grades 4)

Arriving at the beautiful Cave Hill Creek camp we were greeted by Darren who explained all about the camp and telling us about the main rule to HAVE FUN. After finding our beds and settling into our cabins it was time to put on out winter warmest and get straight into our first activity. Every group got to complete 6 activities over the 3 days including canoeing, archery, low ropes, map reading, scavenger hunt, and bouldering. At the end of a very cold and wet day one it was time to get warm by the open fire and compete in a trivia night run by Mr C. Highlight of the trivia night has to be each table trying to earn bonus points by sending one of each table up to dance to Gangnam Style; some great dance moves by each student.

Day 2 brought with it some much nicer weather and activities continued in their groups. That night was a bush walk and sing along around the camp fire. Mr Senior got on the guitar and led us all singing Waltzing Matilda, Old Town Road and She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain. All students and teachers got involved and had so much fun. Final day started by everyone sadly packing up their cabins and making way for the next school booked in. One final activity in groups and then all groups competed in a hut building competition with some great looking shelters being made by everyone. After our final lunch it was time to say goodbye to all the friendly staff, get one last group photo, put bags on the bus and head back to school. What a great experience everyone had and we all definitely had FUN!! Thank you to everyone that made grade 4 camp and experience to remember!

CAMP LOST PROPERTY!

There is lots of lost property left over from camp located outside of the classrooms. If you think your student may have lost something please come by and have a look after school has finished.

Upon arriving back to school we have commenced a busy two weeks of assessment. This is a great opportunity for students to showcase the learning they have had across the term. A reminder for them to all have a good night’s sleep every night, but especially over the next two weeks.

PHOTOS FROM CAMP

Professional Learning Community 5 (Grades 5)

This week PLC 5 have begun our two-week block of assessments. Students are working hard to apply their knowledge across a variety of Literacy and Numeracy tests independently and with their teachers.

In the time that students are not completing an assessment, they will be working on their Project Based Learning project about Solids, Liquids and Gases. Students have the choice of how they will present their knowledge to answer an inquiry question of “What is a state of matter and what are it’s observable properties?” The presentation methods of choice are; a poster, a diorama or media/interview. We are looking forward to seeing how students demonstrate their knowledge about their Science topic for this term.

A reminder from the teachers of PLC 5 that students need to be wearing a school jumper before they choose to wear a jacket or coat outside in the yard. A casual jacket does not replace a school jumper in the instance of being cold outside, we ask students wear a school jumper first and then if they are still cold outside, a jacket or coat overtop is fine. We also ask that students do not wear their coat/jacket inside the classroom.

Have a wonderful week!

Professional Learning Community 6 (Grades 6)

What absolute stars we have in PLC 6! Each and every student has been trying their hardest to demonstrate an incredible understanding of all Reading, Numeracy and Spelling assessments that we have been completing for the past week and a half.

Last Wednesday we took a large group of Grade 6s to the Marty Busch Reserve in Sebastopol for the Interschool Winter Sports Competition. We could not have been more proud of how every Delacombe student represented our school, and for the incredible effort and sportsmanship that they displayed- well done to each and every one of you!

We would like to make our families aware that our Grade 6 Graduation fundraiser Movie Night has been moved until Friday 18th June (Week 9). The information flyer is attached to this Newsletter, but please get on board and support your students by promoting our event with your friends and families- and purchase yourselves some tickets for what is sure to be a FANTASTIC night!

Finally, please make sure that your students are arriving dressed appropriately for the colder weather. Winter uniform is definitely required at this stage of the year! Jackets are fine to be warn outside, however students must also be wearing a school jumper underneath.

Have a fantastic remainder of the week!

Respect the Badge Winners