Middle Learning Community

We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday at the St Joseph’s School Fete. A reminder that the Year 3 performance time is 9:30 am and the Year 4 performance time is 12:00 pm.

CHANGE TO SPORT DAY

Please note that students in the MLC will participate in sport now on a Tuesday with the MLC teachers. The other sport day with Miss Ryan will remain the same.

Year 3: Tuesday (with MLC teachers) and Friday (with Miss Ryan)
Year 4: Tuesday (with MLC teachers) and Thursday (with Miss Ryan)

Year 3

This week we had two very special visitors pop by. Mrs. Dovey and her new baby, William, came to visit and it was the biggest surprise for the students. They loved being able to tell Mrs. Dovey what they have learnt and what is new about Year 3, as well as, asking Mrs. Dovey lots of questions about William.

In Literacy, we are still reading our class novel, Matilda, and are now writing a persuasive text with the topic “Books are more powerful than screens”. This topic has enabled great conversations amongst the students justifying their opinion.

We are nearly finished our first Addition & Subtraction unit for this year and will be moving onto ‘Time’ next. A way to support this new concept at home;

Asking your child to tell the time on an Analog clock
Engage in discussions comparing the duration of different activities. Eg: “What would take longer brushing your teeth or eating dinner?”.
Talking about Time vocabulary such as; seconds, minutes, hours, days etc.

During our RRRR lessons, the students have been learning a lot about ‘Kindness’, and how the smallest act of kindness can cause a ripple effect. This week we started our ‘Shout Out’ box, where students (& teachers) can give a shout out to someone else by writing it on a piece of paper and popping it in the box. We then aim to read a few out each day. On Thursday, Mrs. Florance asked the students to decorate a heart and write words or actions that represent kindness to them. Then the students had to alternate between scrunching their heart when Mrs. Florance read out situations where unkind words are being said and then trying to smooth their hearts when kind words are being said. This visual helped the students to understand that even though we may say sorry, our words can still have an impact on others. We are so proud of how the students have been responding to these lessons.

We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Fete.

Year 4

In Literacy, we have completed our first novel, Kensuke’s Kingdom, and have now begun our second novel, Leo and Ralph. This story follows a young boy named Leo and his imaginary friend Ralph, a quirky, short, furry alien. At the start of the novel, Leo and Ralph are inseparable, sharing imaginative adventures and exploring the universe together. However, when Leo’s family moves to a small country town, he must face the difficult task of saying goodbye to Ralph, who represents comfort and friendship during a time of change.

In Spelling, students have been enjoying our spelling program where they have been learning how to spell the long vowel /e/, learning some new tricky words – busy, believe, complete / completely, finally. Changing ‘y’ to ‘i’ suffix and adding suffix ‘s’ or ‘es’ to words ending in ‘y’.

In Math's, we have finished our unit on Time. We have now started our unit on Multiplication and Division where they will be learning how quantities can be shared and grouped into equal groups. We will be starting our Karate Ninja Multiplication Challenge as a way for the students to practice their times tables. They will practice the times tables starting with their 0-1 times table facts and progress to their 12 times tables.

In religion, students are introduced to the period of Lent and Easter as seasons in the Church’s liturgical year and are given the opportunity to explore how the community prepares for Easter through prayer, penance and good work.

Students in Year 4 received a letter from their Pen Pals from the “Piero Angela” Primary School in Bellinzago Novarese. It was wonderful to see the students’ excitement as they read their letters and began to learn more about their Pen Pals. They are now writing their responses and sharing a little about themselves in return.