School News
Prep
Welcome to Term 4! There is a buzz in the air this term; the weather is getting warmer, Christmas is coming soon and the students are getting closer to finishing their first year of school.
On Friday last week, the students attended Quantum which is located within Charles La Trobe P-12 College in Macleod West. This meant it had classrooms and resources ready to go, so the students could complete their scientific investigations.
The purpose of the day was for the students to explore the five senses - sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch.
The students explored hearing by first learning about the parts of an ear - the inner ear, the outer ear and the ear drum. They made their very own ear comprising of the different parts they learnt about.
They then explored smell and taste by learning about scent receptors and how they land in our nose. They smelt various scents and described what they were. With taste, they learnt that there are 4 main flavour profiles we can taste - bitter, sweet, salty and sour. They got to taste 4 different flavours and work out what flavour profile they fell into.
The students then explored sight and hearing and the connection they make with one another. They learnt that if someone loses their sight, their other senses are amplified to make up for it. The students got into pairs with one of them blindfolded, and with a partner they gave verbal instructions for the blindfolded student to put together a picture puzzle using shapes using only 'touch' and 'hearing'. They had to ensure they used clear instructions and language so their partner could understand.
The students and teachers all had a wonderful day, and everyone was still buzzing with excitement on the long bus ride home!
We are looking forward to another fabulous term of learning ahead!
The Prep Team
Allie Harrison, Kayla Hartrick, Laina Brebner & Elyce Munnecke
Grade 1 & 2
Welcome to Term 4!
We are amazed at how much our students have grown over the holidays. It has been a true joy to see them reconnect so quickly and embrace their learning with so much enthusiasm. Our students are eager, curious, and fully prepared to take on all the wonderful opportunities this term has to offer.
Our students are thoroughly enjoying our Author Study focus. So far, we have immersed ourselves in the wonderful works of Peter H. Reynolds and the fabulous Mem Fox. Our students are consolidating their ability to identify their favourite authors and texts and explain their reasons for these choices. Peter and Mem are equally popular among our Year 1 and 2 cohort. A superb effort by our avid readers!
Our writing has kicked off to a brilliant start! Our young authors are immersing themselves in all things persuasive, developing their ability to identify topics that matter to them and why. We’ve been inspired by their topics and the issues they’ve chosen to write about. It has been a delight to see our students explore persuasive devices like emotive language to bring their writing to life. They have a deeper understanding of the power and impact that words can have.
In Maths, our Year 1 and 2 students have been asking questions, collecting data, and using drawings or objects to display their findings. They have enjoyed creating pictographs and column graphs to help organise and compare the information they’ve gathered. It’s been wonderful to see our young mathematicians work hard to show how data is used in everyday life!
Our Year 1 students are loving their new Investigation spaces, with pom-pom making, helicopters, and the aquarium stations being firm favourites. In Year 2 our students are honing their creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Students are exploring ‘thinking outside of the square’ as they prepare to design, create and find a purpose for their very own Robot Buddies.
In Wellbeing, our students have explored turn-taking - what it looks, feels, and sounds like. We have been practising this skill through cooperative play. We have also investigated and discussed the meaning of ‘strength,’ identifying the unique strengths that we all have. We explored how we can show and share these values with others.
The Level 1/2 Team
Llinos Poole, Sally Newton, Tim Huntington, Emma Wright and Veronica Paps
Grade 3 & 4
Welcome back to Term 4! It's been great to see students settling back into routines and reconnecting with their peers after the break. They have enthusiastically embraced their learning over the last two weeks and it has been wonderful to see the positivity they have returned with.
Ned Kelly has been a focus of our Writing lessons lately. Using the picture story book, Ned Kelly and the Green Sash, we have been looking at different perspectives around whether he was a hero or villain. Students have looked at powerful language used throughout the book and brainstormed reasons for each argument about him, before forming their own opinion. Reading has also linked to authors' points of view on certain topics and how arguments are used to persuade. Students will eventually be writing a persuasive speech on why they believe Ned Kelly was a hero or criminal.
Our maths focus has continued from last term as we investigate chance and probability. This week we have looked at spinners, including the chance of landing on certain sections and the probability of this as a fraction.
Students are very excited at the prospect of making stop-motion animations this term in Inquiry. Last week they enjoyed making basic flip animations on notepads and PowerPoint, before learning more about terminology and modes of storytelling this week.
Our Science unit has revolved around Earth, the Sun and Moon over the past fortnight. Students have learnt about the position of these in space and how this affects day and night for us. There have been some robust discussions and students' interest has most definitely been piqued!
The Level 3/4 Team
Hayley Peirce, Sarah Jones, Damien Smith, Renée Barnden & Brent Smith
Grade 5 & 6
Welcome back to Term 4! This is such an exciting time in senior school as we have so many events on the calendar. If you missed our Feed Forward that was posted in Compass last week, it might be a good idea to go back and take a look - we listed lots of special dates for your diary that are coming up this term.
Over the past two weeks, senior students have dived into new learning in all areas of the curriculum. Here is what we have been up to:
In reading we have not only began our new class novel 'Blueback' but we have also been taking a look at what authors do to develop relationships between their characters, but also between the reader and the character. Students have been comparing and contrasting texts and we have loved looking at some beloved children's books by author Alison Lester (such as Noni the Pony, Imagine and The Magic Beach).
In writing we are revisiting persuasive writing and have begun by learning about objective vs. subjective language as well as modality. We have just started to investigate ways that sizzling starts can be used and test some of these in our writing. This persuasive writing unit will certainly come in handy for those students who are wanting to apply for a leadership position later this term.
Talking about that... during our upcoming wellbeing sessions, we are going to be separating into year groups. This will allow the year 5 students to explore leadership qualities and speech writing while the year 6 students complete some targeted transition sessions. Year 6s are going to be exploring the use of class timetables (hopefully with some real examples from the local high schools), maps, personal organisation and strategies to cope with change and stress. These sessions are a good opportunity for your child to bring up any worries they may have so please encourage them to do so.
Maths lessons this fortnight have been all about chance games. We have been using cards, dice, spinners and coins to conduct experiments and record the data in a variety of ways. Take a look at the cards below if you wish to know what these curriculum outcomes look like and what you might be able to do at home to support your child's learning:
Science lessons have been around our new topic of exploration 'Earth and Space'. We know that students have explored this topic previously however, this time students are going to be researching a planet of their choice and designing a vehicle/habitat for humans to survive on the planet.
The Level 5/6 Team
Megan Pepprell, Alarna Creed, Sam Younes, Mykaela Oakley, Brendan Van Haaster, and Ashleigh Wilson.