Learning News

Learning News Weeks 5-6, Term 2 2024

Learning News

Over the last few weeks, students throughout the school have been undertaking assessments which will not only help to assist teachers to write reports, but will be used diagnostically to inform the next teaching and learning steps for our students moving forward.  

Across our Diocese, Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT Tests) have been used to measure a student’s knowledge, skills and understanding in Mathematics and Reading Comprehension in order to pinpoint where they are in their learning journey - and most importantly, what they need to progress. Cold Writes have also been undertaken which allows the students to independently show the writing skills they have learnt from their English and other literacy sessions.  Assessment of their writing helps the teacher work out what to teach the whole class, different groups and their next steps to assist the students’ progress.  It’s a busy time of year for students and teachers alike!

Kindergarten

In Mathematics, Kindergarten have learned how to compare and measure areas of different objects. We learned that when things can be touched, have a surface and take up space they also will have an area. The children were taught how to superimpose objects (place objects on top of one another) to determine the area of objects. Kinder also learned how we can use smaller objects, like blocks or post-it notes, to measure surface area. We had great hands-on fun investigating square and rectangular shapes and objects in the classroom. Great job Kinder! 

Miss Fraser

Year 1

This term in Science, Year 1 has been learning about where our food and clothes come from. We looked at how food comes from farms, is transported to processors to be cleaned and prepared, and then it makes its way to the shops. We also learned how to keep our food from spoiling by using an insulated lunch box or esky. We conducted an experiment to see how to preserve apple slices to stop them going brown and found out that putting them in water stopped the apple from spoiling. Finally we learned that our clothes also come from the farm too and investigated which stain was the hardest to remove from a ‘chef’s shirt’. Excellent work Year 1 food scientists! 

Miss Myers and Mrs Gall

Year 2

In Science, Year 2 have been exploring how living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves. The students learnt that as we grow older, we change. However, our left or right dominance does not change. The students participated in activities inspired by Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. We had to complete tasks such as walk a plank and balance on one foot, sprinkle fairy dust and look through a telescope. The students observed which hand, foot and side of their body they used to determine their dominant side. We then tallied our answers and discovered that Year 2 is mostly right side dominant. Fantastic work Year 2! 

Miss Rasche

Year 3/4

In English, Year 3/4 have been exploring persuasive texts and the concept of ‘argument’ as a stated position about an idea. This week, students came to school and discovered that the classroom’s stationery, chromebooks and pillows had quit for the day. Year 3/4 had to write a persuasive letter to Miss Maunder, convincing her to release these resources back into the classroom, by utilising strong arguments in their writing. Students used the Bump It Up Wall in the classroom, to compare their writing samples with success criterias so as to improve their learning. Fantastic persuasive skills this week, Year 3/4!  

Miss Maunder 

Year 5

This term in History, Year 5 has continued our learning on the development of the Australian Colonies. Our learning has taken us into assessing the impacts of this time on people and the environment. This week, the students replicated the effects of wind and water Erosion. To achieve this they had to build a small structure in a sand pit, then using buckets of water and paper straws, they had to erode their structure. What a fantastic hands on experiment and well done to Year 5 on their hard work!

Mr Beaumont

Year 6

In English, Year 6 has been learning about our mental model - a mental representation of the information in a real or an imaginary world. We have been discussing how our mental model of a character changes, as we read further into the text. As a class, we have been reading ‘Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief’ by Katrina Nannestad. Students read 2 different characters accounts of the same location (Stalingrad) and illustrated each version. We then discussed how the language from the passage built their mental model of Stalingrad. Fantastic work Year 6!  

Miss Summerell