Learning and Teaching
Learning in Year 5/6
In 5/6B we have been very busy in English, learning about mythology stories alongside our STEM topic of Space.
In English we have been writing our own versions of constellation mythology stories. Shared here is a great example by Sebastian, telling a story about the constellation Orion. He has retold his version of the story using vocabulary appropriate for a mythological narrative, including names of other constellations as well as following the story style of mythological tales.
by Sebastian
In addition to locating star constellations and learning about their backstories during STEM, we have been finding out about the stars and planets that make up the constellations, where we find them, and how we locate them. Maxwell has created an amazing poster to inform people about the constellation Cancer.
by Maxwell
BEBRAS CHALLENGE Years 3-6
Round 1: Tuesday, 23 April - Thursday, 9 May
Round 2: Tuesday, 8 - Thursday, 24 October
Bebras is an international initiative aiming to engage students in computational thinking and problem solving skills, in a fun and interactive environment.
The Bebras international community has now grown to include 60 countries with over 2.9 million students participating worldwide! Bebras Australia began in 2014 and was delivered by CSIRO until 2023. The Australian Maths Trust is delivering the Bebras Challenge in 2024 free of charge for Australian schools.
St. John’s School first began participating in Bebras in 2015.
This year students in Years 3-6 will once again participate in Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge.
The students will be involved in the online challenge in a 45 minute (Years 5 & 6) or a
60 minute (Years 3 & 4) session at school. Students will need a completed consent form on PAM to participate in the challenge, so please keep an eye on this in the coming week.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Anna Hendy or Mel Kerwin.
ahendy@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
mkerwin@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Maths in Year 1 and 2
Over the last few weeks, we have had a big focus on Counting and Place Value. We have been learning to identify, represent, compare and order numbers using a range of resources and concrete materials such as dice, playing cards, base ten blocks, mini whiteboards and place value charts, to help deepen our understanding of numbers.
We have also been trialling some new evidence-based resources and high-impact teaching strategies in our classrooms, to ensure that all students have the opportunity to fully participate in every maths lesson. The students have especially loved writing numbers on their Number Rolls. We have seen a great improvement in their results and in their engagement in all maths lessons.
