Foundation

What are we learning in Foundation?

The School Wide Key Understanding we are exploring this term is;

Water is precious.

We need to manage water in sustainable ways. The health of water is the health of all living systems.

Our first Big Idea linked to this understanding is;

All living things need water.

We expect this portion of our Inquiry to go for approximately 3 weeks starting in week 4.

We have broken down this Big Idea into four key stages. These stages are;

What is a living thing?
Plants need water to survive.
Animals need water to survive.
Humans need water to survive.

To enhance this portion of our Inquiry, in English we will explore these texts;

Water Water Song from Sesame Street
Be Thankful For Water by Harriet Ziefert
Thank You Rain by Sally Morgan

The English concepts that we will explore through these texts are;

Text Types
Responding to Text

The Maths concepts that we will explore through this Big Idea are;

Subitising
Measurement - Capacity - compare how much something can hold

The main Wellbeing concepts that we are exploring include:

Positive Coping
Personal and Cultural Strengths
Problem Solving

To support your child's learning in English we encourage intentionally reading from varied materials during the week, for example, your child's take-home reader, a magazine, poster advertisements in the community, song lyrics. Questioning the children about what words and pictures they see, and what it reminds them of, provide a great opportunity to engage them in responding to texts.

Here are some simple, practical ways families can support these Math concepts at home:

Supporting Subitising (recognising quantities quickly without counting):

Play quick “how many?” games using everyday items like snacks, toys,or steps—show a small group briefly and ask your child how many they saw.
Use dice, dominoes, or playing cards to help children recognise number patterns without counting each dot.
Point out groups of objects in daily life (e.g. “I see three apples on the table”) to build number recognition.
Try games where you quickly show and hide a number of fingers and ask your child to say how many.

Supporting Capacity (how much something can hold):

Involve your child in everyday activities like cooking, pouring drinks, or filling containers in the bath.
Ask questions like “Which cup holds more?” or “Will this container be enough?” to encourage thinking and predicting.
Provide different containers (cups, bottles, bowls) for water play and explore filling, emptying, and comparing.
Use words such as full, empty, half-full, more, and less during play and daily routines.

These playful, hands-on experiences help children build confidence and understanding in Maths through everyday moments. If you have any questions about this inquiry, or if you have skills, resources, experiences, or talents that could support our exploration of these concepts, please contact your classroom teacher. We also welcome donations of craft supplies or materials. These can be placed in the donation drawers at Stela’s entrance doorway.

We are exploring excursion opportunities that will enhance the children’s learning and deepen their understanding of this Inquiry Cycle.

With kindness,

Foundation Team

Grade 1

The School-Wide Key Understanding we are exploring this term is;

Water is precious. We need to manage water in sustainable ways. The health of water is

the health of all living systems.

In Grade 1, our first Big Idea linked to this understanding is;

Water is precious to us all.

We expect this portion of our Inquiry to last approximately 3 weeks.

We have broken down this Big Idea into four key stages. These stages are;

1. Living things need water to survive.

2. People use water in different ways.

3. Water brings people together.

4. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special connection

to water.

To enhance this portion of our Inquiry, we will explore these texts;

1. Be Thankful for Water: How water sustains our planet By Harriet Ziefert

2. Why Do We Need Water? by Kelley MacAulay

3. Thank You Rain! by Sally Morgan and Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr

The English concepts that we will explore through these texts are

1. Parts of a sentence - understanding that a sentence represents one

idea, exploring the subject and verb in sentences and using this

understanding when writing.

2. Boundary Punctuation - including recognising when capital letters are

used, and using them appropriately when writing. Recognising different

punctuation boundary marks (.!?), when they are used and then using

them appropriately when reading and writing.

The Maths concepts that we will explore through this Big Idea are;

1. Subtraction - exploring a range of strategies to solve subtraction problems and working towards choosing the most efficient strategy for a particular problem. We will also be linking our understanding or addition to our understanding of subtraction.

2. Money- exploring, recognising and counting collections of Australian

coins, as well as solving problems involving whole dollar amounts.

The Wellbeing concepts that we will explore through this Big Idea are;

1. Stress Management - noticing signs of stress in their bodies and minds,

and responding with positive strategies.

Core Literacy

Through daily core literacy learning sessions, students learn letter–sound relationships and develop skills in blending sounds to read words and sentences, as well as segmenting sounds to support their writing.

These sessions are differentiated to meet the needs of all learners and are

delivered in a systematic and explicit way to support skill development and

confidence in literacy.

Each week, students are supported to select and change their home reading

pack and select a book to borrow from the Library.

Early in Term 3, we will be heading on an excursion to Ceres to extend the

understandings we are building throughout this cycle. Please keep an eye

out for information about that!

Towards the end of this Inquiry, we will communicate with families about our

next Big Idea. As we encourage students to be agents of their own learning,

we remain flexible on pacing which means our Inquiry may move faster than

originally planned, or may require more time with one or more concepts.

If you have any questions about this Inquiry, or you have any skills, resources,

experiences or talents that may help us as we explore the concepts, please

contact your classroom teacher.

We acknowledge the role of families in learning so please take every

opportunity to talk to your child about their learning, share your own stories of

strength and need with them and build connections between your child,

your family and their learning at school. Formal assessment will be

communicated through Semester reports.

With kindness,

Grade 1 Team - Deb, James, Kate and Jenny

Grade 2

Moving into Cycle 2 Big Idea 1- Water supports life.

This term, our school-wide Key Understanding is:

Water is precious. We need to manage water in sustainable ways. The health of water is the health of all living systems.

We expect this part of our Inquiry learning to run for approximately three weeks.

To support students in developing this understanding, we

have broken the Big Idea into four key stages:

● Describe the characteristics of a living thing

● Living things have basic needs

● Living things need water

● Habitats provide the needs of living things

In Week 7, the Grade 2 classes will be visiting Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. Students will discover how the habitats of Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary provide living things with their basic needs.

Literacy – Texts We Will Explore

To support this Inquiry, students will engage with the

following texts:

-Water: Discovering the Precious Resource all Around us. Olga Fadeeva

-Why do we need water? Kelley Macaulay

-Water Water Everywhere - Film

Through these texts, students will explore the curriculum

concepts of:

-Topic specific vocabulary

-Text Types

Mathematics Focus

The Mathematics concepts connected to this Inquiry are:

-Subtraction

-Measurement- Days and Months

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Focus

This unit of learning will teach students about respecting their own bodies and the bodies of others.

CORE Literacy CORE Literacy is our daily phonics teaching and learning. This block is structured into key components. In phonics, students learn letter–sound relationships and develop skills in blending sounds to read words and sentences, as well as segmenting sounds to support their writing.

CORE Literacy is differentiated to meet the needs of all learners and is delivered in a systematic and explicit way to support skill development and confidence in literacy.

Each week, students are supported to select and change their home reader, helping to build confidence, develop their reading skills, and establish a consistent reading routine.

Towards the end of this Inquiry, we will communicate with families about our next Big Idea. As we encourage students to be active agents in their own learning, we remain flexible with pacing. This means our Inquiry may move more quickly than planned or require additional time with

particular concepts.

If you have any questions about this Inquiry, or if you have skills, resources, experiences, or talents that may support our learning, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.

With kindness,

Grade 2 Team

Middles

What are we learning in Grade 3/4?

School-Wide Key Understanding: This term, our School-Wide Key Understanding is that

Water is precious.

We need to manage water in sustainable ways. The health of water is the health of all living systems.

Big Idea #1: To start this inquiry, our first focus is Big Idea #1:

Water supports all life.

Students will begin to understand different types of water environments, identify the importance of water to the environment, identify the importance of water to living things, and identify the importance of water to people.

Respectful Relationships: Over the next three weeks, we will also be using the Respectful Relationships program to develop our Emotional Literacy. This will include learning to identify what emotions look like, understand our emotional triggers, and recognise emotions across the school day.

Literacy – Texts We Will Explore: To support this Inquiry, students will engage with the following texts

Lets Save the Great Barrier Reef - Catherine Barr
The Great Barrier Reef (Epic)
David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef

Concepts: Through these texts, students will explore the curriculum concepts of

Vocabulary
Visuals

Core Literacy Learning: Students will build on these with Core Literacy Learning (CLL), which takes place for 30–40 minutes at the start of each literacy session. These lessons focus on building foundational skills through activities that improve phonics, handwriting and reading and writing fluency.

Mathematics Focus: The Mathematics concepts connected to this Inquiry are

Multiplication
Measurement: Length

If you have any questions about this Inquiry, or if you have skills, resources, experiences, or talents that may support our learning, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.

With kindness,

The Middles

Seniors

What are we learning in the Senior School Term 2, Weeks 4 - Term 2, Week 6

The School Wide Key Understanding we are exploring is;

Water is precious. We need to manage water in sustainable ways. The health

of water is the health of all living systems.

Our first Big Idea linked to this understanding is:

All living systems need water

We expect this portion of our Inquiry to go for approximately three weeks.

We have broken down this Big Idea into four key stages. These stages are:

1. Identifying the physical conditions in the Great Barrier Reef

2. Identify how the physical conditions of the Great Barrier Reef have changed over time

3. Examine the causes and effects of changes in physical conditions over time

4. Predict the impacts of these changes on the environment over time

To enhance this portion of our Inquiry, In English we will explore these texts:

1. Lets Save the Great Barrier Reef - Catherine Barr

2. Blue Planet - Life in our Oceans and Rivers - Moira Butterfield (12 May)

3. David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef

The English concepts that we will explore through these texts are:

1. Precise Vocabulary

2. Sequencing

SENTENCE ABOUT CORE LITERACY

The Maths concepts that we will explore through this Big Idea are:

1. Multiplication

2. Capacity

The key Wellbeing concept that we will explore through this Big Idea is the

EveryBODY Program.

The Grade 5/6 teachers will be delivering Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) to students in Week 5, 8, 9 and 10. RSE is a compulsory part of the Victorian Curriculum, mandated for Government schools in Victoria and supported by the Child Safe Standards. We have engaged Sexual Health Victoria (SHV) to guide delivery of RSE. SHV have provided our classroom teachers, Bek and Emma, with professional training and classroom materials to facilitate the delivery of the SHV EveryBODY Education Program.

This program is designed by expert educators to be age appropriate and reflect

curriculum standards.

The topics that will be covered in this program include:

• Sexual and reproductive anatomy

• Bodily autonomy

• Help seeking

• Reproduction, pregnancy and birth

• Consent

• Respect

• Puberty and management of puberty changes.

• Sexual content online

Our next Inquiry Cycle will begin in Term 2, Week 6. We will notify you of our next Inquiry Cycle’s Big Ideas prior to beginning. As we encourage students to be agents of their own learning, we remain flexible on pacing which means our Inquiry may move faster than originally planned, or may require more time with one or more concepts.

If you have any questions about this Inquiry, or you have any skills, resources, experiences or talents that may help us as we explore the concepts, please contact your classroom teacher.

Formal assessment will be communicated through future student-led

conferences and Semester One reports at the end of the semester.

With kindness,

Senior Team

Working Bee

Saturday 30 May