School News
Prep
What a wonderful week it has been for our first week of term. Our students have settled back in beautifully and have hit the ground running with their learning. We are once again impressed with a leap in independence and look forward to seeing a fabulous amount of growth this term!
We have been so excited to start our term off with PMP once again, after a brief break due to Ruccis circus training. This week the students worked on some fabulous skills that will help their hand-eye coordination, footwork skills and balance.
In reading and writing we are investigating fairytales by describing characters, settings and making predictions about stories. The students are getting a great chance to think about describing words during these sessions and will soon begin to create their own fairytale.
Maths is once again filled with lots of hands-on opportunities and this week we are investigating ‘one more’ or ‘adding one’. We’ve had lots of fun using number lines, hundreds charts and our special frogs, who jump up and down the lines.
For investigations, we’ve enjoyed exploring all of our new activities and it has been wonderful to see students making connections with the fairytale theme. The movie (puppet) theatre and dress up area (castle) have been a big hit and we can’t wait to see more investigating throughout the term!
Buddies is always a great deal of fun and this week we have been able to show our big Grade 5 buddies some of our favourite maths games!
For wellbeing we have focussed on our third school value of Pride and also revisited cybersafety. Students have considered what pride is and what it looks like in our classroom and school.
We hope your children have enjoyed their first week back, we certainly have loved seeing their smiley faces again!
Kindest regards,
The Prep Team
Laina Brebner, Kayla Hartrick and Emma Wright
Grade 1
Welcome back to the start of a very promising term 3! The Grade 1 classes have come back with energy and excitement as we dive straight into new learning.
In reading sessions, we’re putting all our phonic knowledge to work, tackling new words by decoding and problem-solving like true word detectives.
In writing, our young authors are turning up the heat with sizzling starts in their narrative writing, writing openings that grab attention and spark imagination from the very first line.
For spelling we have been focusing on the digraph 'oo' like in the word book. Don't be shook from a look in their book by the good words we took to cooking up. It's been really great seeing the progress these little spellers make throughout the year as their phonic knowledge becomes part of their reading and writing toolkit.
Our mathematicians have begun laying the foundation for future multiplication by skip counting by 10s, 5s, and 2s, as well as making and counting equal groups. You might have heard a catchy skip-counting song or two throughout the week.
With pride as the school value for Term 3, Grade 1 students took the time during wellbeing to reflect on how they can show pride, not just in the classroom, but also at home and in the broader community. You might have seen some neater bedrooms at home, or some thoughtful care for siblings, or some homework to be proud of!
You can really see how much these kids are growing this year and we've loved seeing those beaming faces walk back through the doors and into a new term of growth and excitement. As always, thanks for everything you do to help your little learners have a good day at school.
Kind regards,
The Grade 1 Team
Tim Huntington, Mel Layton, Sally Newton and Ashleigh Wilson
Grade 2
What a great start back for Term 3 for all our Grade 2 students this week! Below are some highlights:
In Reading, students have been making inferences when reading stories. We have read ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andraea, ‘The Run Away Hug’ by Nick Bland and ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ by Robert Munsch to identify character traits, emotions and motives. Students have been required to show their thinking using evidence from the text to support their ideas.
In Writing, our Grade 2’s have been exploring exciting endings for narratives. They have created alternative endings to well-known stories and worked backwards to plan out a story based on the ending. Students will continue working on creating interesting endings for their own story next week.
In Mathematics, students have begun a new unit looking at multiplication. Students are using the language ‘groups of’ and ‘equal’ to represent multiplication sentences, as well as connecting these to repeated addition. Students are also practising their skip counting for their 2’s, 5’s and 10’s to assist in their calculations.
Through our Wellbeing lessons, the Grade 2’s have looked at the school value of ‘Pride’ and what it means to be proud of their work in the classroom and at specialists, how they can wear their uniform to show their school pride and how they can take pride in the digital space as well. Through the Cyber Safety Project, students have also identified information that is safe to share online and why it is important to think twice before sharing.
Warm regards,
The Grade 2 Team
Allie Harrison, Sarah Jones and Brendan Van Haaster
Grade 3 & 4
Welcome back for Term 3! We have had a wonderful week back in the classroom and enjoyed hearing all about the students’ holidays and the fun they had over the break! It hasn’t taken long to get back to routine, sinking our teeth into learning straight away!
In Reading and Writing, we have begun our ‘Poetry’ unit where we will be reading and analysing the features and structure of a variety of poems. Reading many different forms of poetry will help with the writing of their own poetry during writing sessions. We have enjoyed writing ‘I Am’ poems, as well as poems with alliteration and adverbs. Word choice, and including descriptive vocabulary through powerful imagery, have been a big focus.
In Maths, we have started our unit on ‘Multiplication’. The students have been working with their maths buddies on problems that require skills in skip counting, repeated addition and multiplicative strategies. Activities such as ‘Animals in the Paddock’ and ‘Doubles Hunt’ have been completed. We are building their multiplicative skills for understanding and solving more formal multiplication problems throughout the term.
In Inquiry, we have commenced our unit on ‘Forces and Functions’ which has included what is needed to make things work. Their learning around this will lead them to design a balloon powered car!
Lastly, a reminder that home learning is an expectation for all students in the Grade 3 and 4 area. Spelling words, Reading logs and Squizya Maths tasks have been given out and set for Week 1. If you have any concerns or questions relating to home learning tasks, please reach out to your child’s teacher.
Have a lovely weekend!
The 3/4 Team
Damien Smith, Daena Hailey, Brent Smith, Claire Cripps and Nick Pagliaro
Grade 5 & 6
Welcome back everyone! It has been wonderful to see the Grade 5/6 students make a positive and enthusiastic start to Term Three. We have been busy sharing holiday news, catching up with our friends and getting back into school routines.
This week we have been diving into the world of poetry in both Reading and Writing. We've been exploring a range of poems - from classic to contemporary - looking closely at poetic devices. The students are developing their ability to interpret the mood, meaning and structure of poems, whilst also crafting their own creative pieces.
In Maths, our focus has been on multiplication. We have used Top Ten Maths games and resources to improve our knowledge of multiplication facts and strategies to solve real-world worded problems. There has been a strong emphasis on explaining our mathematical thinking. We loved helping our Buddies learn a variety of fun Maths games!
In Inquiry the students have begun to embrace their inner scientist through an exciting unit 'Journey to Discovery.' The classrooms have been buzzing with curiosity as students begin to investigate the world around them through hands-on experiments and critical thinking tasks.
In Wellbeing sessions, the children have focused on our school value of Pride. We have thought about how we can demonstrate pride in our; classrooms, learning, school grounds, homes and in our wonderful community.
Thanks, as always, for supporting our students, we look forward to a terrific term of learning. Don't forget it's Hoop Time on Monday! Have a fabulous weekend everyone!
Kind regards,
The 5/6 Team
Llinos Poole, Alarna Creed, Hayley Peirce and Erin Rennick