What's happening?
Foundation
We are nearing the end of Foundation and what a busy final few weeks it has been! The students have been working away on their information reports. They are full of super interesting facts and it has been great to watch them enjoy writing about their favourite animal. We look forward to you reading them next week, at our portfolio presentation afternoon. A reminder that this will be on Wednesday 13th December at 3pm. It is a lovely chance for you and your child to reflect on the wonderful year they have had in prep! Please let your class teacher know if you are unable to make it and they will organise their buddy to be there. You are welcome to bring along a small snack you can share with your child as you look through their Portfolios together.
We had some very excited preps ready to set off on a busy excursion to the Melbourne Zoo! We had such a great day and it was a lovely chance for the students to see all the animals they had been learning about in Inquiry this term. We started the day becoming ‘wild explorers’ during a great session with a zookeeper. We got to meet a snake and turtle, and explore the gardens with magnifying glasses and binoculars. We then split off into groups and started exploring all around the zoo, seeing the amazing animals up close. The students had such an amazing time there and were so lucky to have such amazing weather. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered, we really appreciate it!
Yesterday the students had a lovely Wellbeing Day! We started the morning off with a range of gratitude activities and rotated through each prep class! We had so much fun at the Magic Show later on in the day and saw some really cool tricks.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support over these last few weeks, we are nearly at this finish line! A bigger thank you for everything across the year, it has been a busy and brilliant year and we have LOVED teaching your little ones.
Grade 1
We have had a very busy couple of weeks in Grade 1 and are finding it hard to believe that we have only 8 school days remaining with our wonderful students! We would like to say an enormous well done to all the children for their amazing efforts throughout the year, and thank you to all the parents for all of your support!
Back in Week 8, we had a fabulous Japanese Day; dressing up, creating origami paper planes, and participating in a Taiko drumming session. The students experienced a very structured lesson in drumming and successfully repeated the patterns they were given. They held their sticks in the right way and stood at the correct angle to the drum. This session required some concentration and specific directions to make it a success. It was loud but the students kept fabulous time!
We also had a very informative and wonderful hands-on experience with Bugs getting close to stick insects, worms, crickets and monarch butterflies. We all got close up to the butterflies to observe them drinking the nectar and watch the movement of the proboscis, this and watching the butterflies fly around us inside the butterfly tent, were definitely the highlight of the session. Other highlights from the session, were making plasticine insect models or making wristbands, looking at insects through magnifying glasses and digging in dirt to find worms and crickets.
This week, we have had lots of fun with a wonderful welcome to 'Summer,' dress-up day, followed by our Wellbeing day with a Magic Show. In classrooms, the students have been reflecting on what they have learnt this year, across all subject areas and were very excited to welcome our slightly cheeky classroom elves. We have been working hard to teach our elves by modelling positive classroom behaviours and completing our very best work!
Early next week, we will be collecting reader satchels and sound packs, ready to pass on to the Grade 2 teachers. Whilst students will stop bringing home readers, we encourage all families to continue reading with their children as much as possible over the break. If you have any questions regarding how best to support your child in maintaining this routine, please contact your child’s teacher!
Thank you again for an absolutely fabulous year, from all the Grade One teachers, we wish you a very happy and safe holidays and we will see you next year!
Grade 2
This fortnight, students have been learning more about the structure and features of persuasive texts. They have been using a graphic organiser to plan their texts, ensuring that they have a clear introduction, three solid reasons to support their argument (topic sentences backed up with supporting evidence), and a conclusion to sum up and restate their opinion. We have also explored persuasive and emotive language and continued to develop paragraphing, proofreading and editing skills.
During our ‘Word Study’ sessions, students have been learning about the ‘1:1:1 Doubling Rule’ (also known as ‘CVC Doubling Rule’) and learning when to double the final consonant before adding a suffix. We have now moved on to looking at the suffix -es, which is added to words ending in s, x, z, ch, and sh to spell their plurals (for other words, just add -s to make them plural). Finally, students have been building their understanding of the homophones ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’, attaching meaning to spelling.
In Maths this fortnight, students have been developing their knowledge and skills with using money. They have been counting and ordering collections of Australian coins and notes according to their value, representing money values in multiple ways, and counting the change required for simple transactions. As always, opportunities to explore these concepts in everyday situations and at home will be a great way to consolidate and build on your child’s knowledge and skills.
Students have really enjoyed creating their dioramas as a way to demonstrate their learning about animals and their habitats. Each grade will get to see each other’s completed dioramas next week before students take them home. Thank you for your support with boxes and additional materials.
Our wellbeing focus this fortnight has been on social skills, emotional literacy, and the ‘Zones of Regulation’.
As this will be our last newsletter, we’d like to say a very big thank you to our Grade 2 families for all of your support in what has been a fabulous year with our cohort, and we wish you all the best for the holiday break.
Grade 3
The elves have well and truly taken over the Grade 3 hub! They are keeping us all on our toes…
As a final task, the students have been independently writing insightful book reports based our class novel "Storm Boy." Also, they have collaborated with partners to research and compile engaging information reports on Australia’s neighbouring countries, honing their writing and research skills while fostering teamwork.
In Maths, our students have successfully completed their last Grade 3 unit, demonstrating commendable progress in their understanding of taught concepts. We are so proud of their hard work this year!
As we reflect on the year, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to you, the parents, for your unwavering support and understanding. Your help has been very appreciated in creating a nurturing learning environment for our students. We are extremely grateful for your help and understanding throughout this year.
As we approach the end of year, we encourage you to stay updated by checking Compass regularly for any future announcements and updates. Thank you for your continued partnership in your child's education. We wish you a wonderful and restful summer break!
Grade 4
The year is very quickly coming to a close and what a wonderful year it has been. The students have had many memorable experiences this term to finish their year in Grade 4. We are capping off the year with an excursion to Braeside Park and are extremely grateful to the parents who have volunteered to join us. The kids enjoyed the Wellbeing day in particular the mini golf course where they tested their skills on the various holes. We have our final session of Bike Ed next Friday December 15 and the skills being learnt are hopefully being practised outside of the school grounds. Again, we thank the volunteers for being so incredibly supportive of this program.
Literacy
We are drawing to a close on our study of ‘Wonder’ and the learning and development of the kids can only be described as remarkable. The depth and content we are seeing daily continually amazes us and we are very proud of the learning being achieved. The descriptive writing genre we have embarked has again amazed us with the level of content they are writing. They have been using the descriptive bubble to build their vocab and using this to create highly descriptive texts.
Numeracy
Our numeracy focus is quite timely, ‘Money’. The kids are learning how to find change amounts from quantities such as $20, $50 and $100. They have also been finding totals of items using addition algorithms. Some students have been using their money knowledge to learn about how to make a budget and create a financial plan.
Inquiry
The students have been looking at chemical sciences, more specifically the relationship between gases, liquids and solids. They are learning about the process of change between these elements and what forces gases, liquids and solids to change.
Grade 5
Grade 5 teachers would like to take this opportunity to thank all our families for their support this year. We can’t wait to see what our students accomplish in Grade 6 in 2024. Just a reminder that our students will be going on an end of year excursion to Bounce on the 19th of December. If families could please ensure they’ve consented and paid via the Compass notification.
English: The students have thoroughly enjoyed reflecting on their own lives as they plan and draft their own autobiographies in writing. We learned about the structure and features of interesting autobiographies and even learned about the life of Ms Sell after we read an excellent example of a WAGOLL (What a good one looks like!) written by Ms Sell herself. Students have also continued their reading rotation activities where they practiced reciprocal reading, summarised videos and articles and came up with responses to complex questions.
Maths: Students have been exploring all things Mass and Capacity over the last couple of weeks. Next week, students will be completing a range of interesting maths problem solving tasks and challenges in their class groups, which will give them a chance to demonstrate all they’ve learned with members of their own classroom.
Inquiry: With the Travel Expo fast approaching, our project teams have been busy creating a budget and planning a dream holiday to their focus country including flights, accommodation, transport, travel insurance and food. Groups will now be finalising their Travel Expo booklets and will look to plan their stall and making decisions around decorations, clothing, flags etc.
Grade 6
Literacy
This week we have finished our novel study text, Treasure Island. We have focused on a range of literacy elements when reading including figurative language, inferential comprehension, word meaning and using evidence from the text to support our answers.
In writing, we are working towards completing our narrative adventure story. Students have focused on creating tension in their story using rising action and a turning point before they resolve their main problem.
Students have also continued working on their memory books. These will be shared with families in Week 11.
Mathematics
In Maths we have been working on some practical mathematical projects. One project has been planning a trip around Australia using a series of guidelines. Students have been using their knowledge of financial maths, budgeting, and best buys to plan this trip. Students have had a choice in how to present their work and they are working well to plan their trips.
Inquiry
Our Market Day stalls are very close to being completed. We are looking forward to running our Market Day next week. Students have decided to donate the money raised to the Cancer Council.
End of Year Celebrations
Over the last two weeks of school there are lots of exciting things happening in Grade 6. Please make sure you have checked Compass for information on Graduation, Grade 6 Lunch and our MSAC Excursion.