From the Classroom

What's happening in 3/4

 It was lovely to see so many smiling faces the first day back of Term Four. It was fantastic to see all the children settle back into classroom routines so quickly. 

 This term in English, we are reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Over the next two weeks the unit will look at summarising chapters and character analysis. The students will also be reading books about different cultures and will investigate and explore the days of importance and celebrations included in each text. 

 Over the next fortnight, the students in the 34 unit will be introduced to our unit on fractions. They will represent factions such as halves quarters and thirds and investigate equivalent fractions. Each week students will spend a lesson revising their strategies for solving problems with the four processes.

 In Performing Arts this term, students will learn dances from over all the world. Students will learn new skills, partner work and how to communicate ideas and concepts through dance.

  Homework will be given to students on Tuesday of week 2 and information about homework will be emailed out to families soon. 

If you have any inquiries or concerns, please contact your child's teacher.

Thank you,

Pippa Davis, Sheena Cronin and Victoria Sumskas 

The Adventures of 1/2s

Wow,  who can believe that we are starting Term Four, how time fly's when you are having fun and learning lots!! It has been so exciting seeing all the students back and settled in so quickly ready to take on all we have for Term Four.  

 To start off the term in English, we are learning to understand different purposes for writing with a focus and introducing persuasive writing. Learning how to be persuasive and write to express an opinion. Along with  continuing with our Heggerty's and phonics/decoding programs.  

 Math's this term we are starting with introducing simple fractions, and continue to grow in our confidence and knowledge of place value and number. We will look at simple fractions and hw they work such as halves and quarters. 

 In Inquiry we are looking at Fairy Tales, and have started looking at and experimenting and exploring how musical ideas, such as voice, movement and body percussion improvise sounds in the story. This week we have looked at Jack and the beanstalk. 

Looking forward to a wonderful final Term

From the 1/2 Team!

Fantastic Foundation

Time has flown past and our Foundation students are in their final term of the year. It was brilliant seeing students settle quickly back into their routines on Monday. This term we have a focus on ensuring students are ready for Grade 1 with their independence and ability to focus and learn continuing to grow. We will also spend time on building their resilience and self-regulation skills to support them in managing big emotions. For this we use the Zones of Regulation.

In Literacy this term, we will be consolidating our knowledge of the basic phonic code with an emphasis on reading words and sentences fluently. This will involve practising segmenting and blending words. During our English lessons for the next four weeks we will be exploring persuasive texts and opinions. Students will learn how to write and say their opinion as well as how to identify opinions in a text. Students have this week begun learning how to write on dotted third lines and this will continue throughout the term across all Literacy and English lessons. Our initial focus for the next fortnight is writing our letters on the base line. In Maths for the next fortnight we will be learning about Facts of 10 and making 10 through many hands on activities. This will also reinforce students addition skills.

Our Inquiry unit this term is ‘I am a performer’ and will explore Drama, Dance and Music. I am excited to share that later this term in November we will have an excursion as an Foundation to Year 2 cohort to Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI) at Federation Square. Students will get to perform, record in front of a green screen and explore the Museum for Moving Image. Stay tuned to Compass for more details soon.

A reminder that students need to bring their Reader Packs to school on Mondays to change their readers. All students also need to have a named waterbottle and hat at school, we have a ‘No Hat, No Play’ policy to support student sun safety.

Science

In Science during Term 4, classes will be exploring, experimenting and investigating a range of topics across the Science curriculum. 

Foundation: Students in Foundation are exploring Earth and Space Science this term by investigating the topic Weather. They will be completing a range of hands on exploratory tasks to examine different types of weather, the four seasons, how animals adapt to different times of year and day/night. Weather is also a great concept to discuss at home. You may like to ask your child to make weather observations, suggest clothing/activities suitable for such weather and look around outside at what is happening over Spring as we experience it. 

Grade 1/2: These students are investigating the area of Biological Science. This term they will be focused on the biology of plants. We will look at how plants grow and survive, the lifecycle of plants and the different parts of plants. This is another great topic to continue exploring at home if you would like. Spring is a wonderful time to be outside looking at plants in the neighborhood and their features and noticing the bees and how other animals rely on them. 

Grade 3/4: Students in 3/4 are engaging with the Physical Science strand this semester and examining forces. They are investigating the force of friction, gravity and air resistance by completing a range of hands on investigations. They will also be looking at what it takes to conduct a fair scientific test as part of the process. 

Grade 5/6: The grade 5/6 students will continue their exploration of natural disasters and also look at sudden weather events and their impact on the earth’s surface. This term we are exploring tsunamis, floods and cyclones. A huge thank you for all the glass jar donations- they will come in handy when we make our own cyclones later in the term! 

Simone Ryan