Classroom News

Foundation: Miss Hart

The ‘Foundies’ have made it through their very first term at school, and what a term it has been! The perfect term for an introduction into school life for these kids 

Here’s a glimpse of what our students have been up to: 

Literacy: 

In literacy, we’ve been focusing on word building, exploring the sounds of m, s, t, p, a, f, i, and r. This is helping students form and recognize simple words. We’ve also been practicing our handwriting skills, forming letters carefully, and building fine motor control. 

Maths: In maths, we’ve been writing numbers 0-10, working on subitizing (recognizing small quantities without counting), and counting collections. Through hands-on activities, we’ve explored positional words like "under," "over," and "beside" to help us understand location. These activities are making math fun and interactive! 

Inquiry: In our inquiry work, we’re learning about the concept of place. Students are discovering what places are like, how they are named, and why they are important in our lives. We’ve been planting in our newly decorated biodegradable pots and discussing how to care for both our local environment and the world around us. 

Religion: During Lent and Easter, we’ve been learning about Jesus’ journey, reflecting on his life, death, and resurrection. Students went on a cross-scavenger hunt around the school, exploring different types of crosses and expressing their reflections through art. 

We have also loved our extra special opportunities throughout the term. Including, St Patrick’s Day, World Down Syndrome Day, Inform & Empower sessions, Ride 2 School Day, Harmony Day, Responsible Pet Ownership, Mass (visiting the Church), Tennis and all our awesome specialist classes. 

Thank you for your continued support! See you next term!! 

Foundation: Grade 1 Miss Emmett

As we wrap up an exciting first term in Foundation/1, we take a moment to reflect on the incredible learning and growth we have achieved. 

In Literacy, we have been making fantastic progress in our InitiaLit program. We have now completed the second set of letters and sounds, developing confidence in blending and segmenting words. It has been wonderful to apply our new skills when reading and writing! 

In Mathematics, we have been busy learning to recognise, count, and represent numbers up to 20. We have explored the concepts of ‘one more’ and ‘one less’ and have enjoyed using ten frames and MAB blocks to build our understanding of numbers. These hands-on activities have helped us to develop strong number sense and mathematical thinking. 

We also had a great time celebrating all of our learning in Inquiry this term. We designed our own pots with all of their learning from this term. We then planted flower seeds in our pots to take home and grow. 

In RE, we went on a learning walk to find crossed around the school, then discussed why the different crosses were in different places.  

We also enjoyed celebrating World Down Syndrome Day and seeing Blake receive his Blake bear. We were so excited to show off our crazy socks!

Grade 3: Mrs Stock

As we wrap up an amazing Term 1, we want to celebrate some fantastic achievements in our class!

🎉 Congratulations to Charli on receiving a class award and George for reaching 25 nights of reading! These boys unfortunately missed their awards at the last assembly, but we want to acknowledge their hard work.

🏆 Lunchtime Competition Champions! A huge congratulations to the following students for their incredible efforts in the Grade 3 lunchtime competition:🥇 1st Place – George🥈 2nd Place – Will🥉 3rd Place – Tom🏅 4th Place – Tully

📖 Class Novel – "Off We Go Around Australia"We have started reading Off We Go Around Australia by Roland Harvey, and the students are absolutely loving it! The hilarious illustrations and fun adventures have sparked lots of excitement and discussion in the classroom.

🔡 Exploring the Silent ‘E’In literacy, we’ve been uncovering the many jobs of the silent ‘e’! The students have discovered that it:

✔ Makes a vowel sound long (e.g., tap → tape)

✔ Prevents a word from ending in u or v (e.g., have, blue)

✔ Softens a c or g (e.g., dance, large)

➗✖ Multiplication & Division in MathOur mathematicians have been demonstrating their understanding of multiplication and division! They’ve been:

🔹 Making arrays and matching them with equations

🔹 Practicing skip counting by 5s, 10s, 3s, and 4s

🎒🏕 Grade 3/4 Camp – Here We Come! Excitement is building as we prepare to head off on our Grade 3/4 camp at the Log Cabin near Ballarat this week! The students can’t wait for the adventure ahead. Stay tuned for some fantastic stories from our camp experience!

Wishing everyone a wonderful end to Term 1 and a relaxing break!

Grade 4: Miss Dove & Mrs McKiernan

How quick has this term flown!!! The last few weeks have been so much fun celebrating Ride to School Day, World Down Syndrome Day, Harmony Day and Inquiry Celebration in true style as only St. Patrick’s School Tongala, knows how to do!!!!  

In Literacy, we have begun our new novel called ‘Leo and Ralph.’ The story is about space, soccer and the best friend you could ever imagine. Leo is the main character, and he is lonely, struggling to connect and make friends which all changes when Ralph comes along! 

Our writing focus for this novel is narrative text so the students have been learning all about how to develop characters, supporting characters and settings. 

In Maths, we have been working on Multiplication and Division. Students are extending their multiplication and division facts, using efficient strategies and concrete materials to multiply and divide, including extended facts. We have been using arrays to help students in understanding the meanings behind the symbols and modelling written multiplication equations for given arrays. 

The Grade 4 students have also been preparing for Lent and Easter. At the beginning of the unit, we planted snap peas to represent our Lenten journey and growing closer to Jesus during this time. Nearly all the seedlings have sprouted, and the students have loved watering and caring for the plants just the way we need to nurture and care for our relationship with Jesus through this time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The students completed the unit by creating a poster, booklet or pamphlet to help someone who is learning about Lent and Holy Week engage in the liturgical season. 

This week has been full of anticipation in the lead up to camp at the end of week. The Grade 4 students have had a fantastic term and how fitting to end with all the fun and excitement of a school camp!!!! 

Grade 5-6: Miss Rasmussen

What a fantastic end to Term 1 we’ve had in Grade 5/6!

Some of the Grade 5/6s recently represented St Patrick’s at the Campaspe Team Tennis tournament in Echuca. It was a great day out with plenty of rallies, smiles, and sportsmanship on display. Everyone improved so much over the course of the day, and we especially loved catching up with our old friend Yohan, who we were thrilled to see there too!

We also had an absolute blast celebrating April Fool’s Day. The students came prepared with pranks for Miss Ras, confident they had the upper hand… but she had a few tricks up her sleeve! Our Daily Review looked a little different that day – spelling words like “slay,” “rizz,” “skibidi,” and “cap” had the class raising eyebrows, but it was the vocabulary words — “drip” and “bussin” — that really caused chaos. Let’s just say, writing sentences about classmates showing off their drip or making bussin snacks turned English into the most memorable lesson of the week! For a teacher known for her dad jokes, this prank definitely earned her some street cred.

In reading, we’re still fully engaged in our new text "How Was That Built?" We’ve been learning all about the work of engineers and what it takes to design and build impressive structures. From bridges to skyscrapers, our curiosity has been sparked! We’re currently working on explanation texts about how skyscrapers are built, and it’s been great to see our understanding of explanation texts improve as we go.

In maths, we’ve been diving into BIDMAS (the order of operations), and we’re getting really confident with it. Miss Ras is finding it harder and harder to trick us with challenging problems – our maths brains are switched on and working overtime!

It’s been a term full of laughter, learning, leadership, and growth, and we’re proud of everything we’ve achieved. We’ve made wonderful memories and can’t wait to see what Term 2 brings.

Wishing all our families a safe and restful break!

— Miss Ras & the Grade 5/6 Team