From the Classroom

News from 5/6

Homework 

As we approach the end of term homework our homework completion rate has dwindled. Students are strongly encouraged to learn how to engage with learning tasks at home. Doing so helps build the foundations of a healthy work-life balance and will set your child up for success in later years. Homework should aim to develop 'intrinsically motivated learners' and see students build healthy relationships with 'learning at home'. 

In addition to daily reading and the homework grid, students are encouraged to engage with Khan Academy, a self-paced Numeracy program with a focus on ‘mastery learning'. Several students have been engaging with this in their own time and the benefit is showing in their results at school. 

Additional information can be found here: https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-for-educators/resources/parents-mentors-1  

Reminder:  Homework is encouraged but not mandatory. Students are encouraged to spend approximately 1-hour completing homework each week.

English

This week students have been completing their posters exploring and explaining either an adaptation as it occurs across a variety of species (e.g Camouflage) OR  focusing on a single species and its various adaptations. These posters will form part of student portfolios for the year. 

We are also working our way through our class novel “His Name was Walter” by Emily Roder. The full text is available via Google Classroom and students are encouraged to catch up where they have missed chapters

Maths 

In maths we have been exploring probability and for the remainder of term our focus will shift to data collection and representation. Students will be conducting surveys, analyzing data formulating statements of significance and creating graphs to represent their findings. 

Upcoming Events

Grade 5 and 6 zoo excursion - On Wednesday 13th September, Grade 5 and 6 students will be heading to Melbourne Zoo as a culminating activity for our unit on Adaptations. Please complete the event permissions on Compass ASAP. 

We are looking for parent volunteers to support this program. If you are interested in coming along please contact peter.moore2@education.vic.gov.au 

What's happening in 3/4

The grade 3/4 students have been busily writing to persuade their teachers and classmates to name the hens a name they have chosen. Once all the pieces had been written and published the teachers shortlisted the names. Students then listened to all the nominations and then voted on the name they thought was the most suited to the hens.

The names voted on as winners and the new names for our 4 new hens, now joining Material Girl are:

Midnight: The purple ringed hen. Her purple anklet is the colour of a purple midnight sky and also a unique name (Amy K)

Kerr: the yellow ringed hen. Yellow is the colour of Sam Kerr's jumper. When Sam Kerr represents Australia by versing other teams they make people want to join by winning and showing good sportsmanship. This makes her a fantastic role model. Name the yellow chicken Kerr after our famous footballer. (Vasili)

Scrooge McCluck: The blue ringed hen. The chicken coop is as fortified as Scrooge McDucks money vault and this is where this chicken will store her eggs. (Lachlan P)

Hunter: The red ringed hen. Don't you think Hunter is a fantastic name for the red ringed chicken? Hunters wear hats like the hens comb and Hunters hunt for food like the chicken hunts for creepy crawlies and bugs. (Linkin)

Coming Up

English: Students are currently using their persuasive skills to create posters advertising for a new principal. They have been busily using a variety of persuasive devices to sell Marlborough to a potential principal, highlighting all the fabulous things that are here.

Maths: We are finishing a financial project where students purchase items, find the total cost and calculate change. 

Performing Arts: The unit has been working in groups to read scripts and perform 'Fractured Fairy Tales' to an audience.

The Adventures of 1/2s

We have had an exciting last few weeks, a few stand-out events being the Book Week parade and our Whole-School Athletics Carnival! It was great to see all of our students share their favourite characters or bring in a book to share with the class during Book Week. We also loved watching the great sportsmanship of the 1/2 unit during our Athletics events, we are so proud of all of the efforts of our students!

We have recently begun delving into the world of informative texts. Students have been investigating a range of different information books, identifying the key features of these texts. Students have used this new knowledge to label key features a range of animal information books. Over the next fortnight, we are beginning to write our own information texts about an animal, where students will be creating their own booklet to share their knowledge. Ask your child about which animal they are researching, you may even like to look up some interesting facts with your child that they can write about in their booklet too!

During our Maths lessons we have been building on our understanding of division. We have been manipulating counters, animals and unifix to practice sharing into groups of 2, 4 and more. We have been using a range of worded problems to unpack division, the students particularly love the worded problems that involve the sharing of lollies! Some students have been extending themselves to complete division sums that involve calculating remainders too. We are moving into learning about data, how to collect it and graph it. We will also be unpacking measuring length, so you may like to have some discussions about comparing objects and talking about what is longer and shorter and how your child may be able to measure objects to check their length (eg- which wall is longer in our house? Can we measure the wall by counting our steps from one end to the other?)

Our Inquiry focus has shifted to looking at Earth's resources and how we can use and reuse these resources in our everyday life. Students have been creative in coming up with solutions to our Earth and communities waste issues, including how we dispose of rubbish, recycling and compost. Some students even mentioned ways in which they already act in a sustainable way at home! Some students decided to challenge themselves to have shorter showers to save water - others were not yet ready to give up their "singing time"! We are looking forward to future discussion about our personal impact on Earth's Resources in the coming weeks.

Fantastic Foundation

This week we have started our unit on Information Texts which will take us to the end of the Term. Students have been learning what a non-fiction text is and some of it's features. They have been practising labelling and writing captions with each student choosing a 'furry friend' which they drew and then labelled. Students have also been learning about writing about their picture and practising writing sentences with adjectives.

In Literacy, students are continuing phonic practice and are working on decoding and blending words. Their understanding of the phonic code will be assessed over the next few weeks with their home practice book being updated as required. Please make sure your child is bringing their reader pack each day.

In Math's we have been learning about statistics and data. Students have practised skills of asking questions and making tally marks to represent responses. We are now starting our unit on sharing and division. Students are using hands on materials to share between two, then move onto sharing between more groups.

Below are some photos of the recent work students did on What the Ladybird Heard in their exploration of maps and positional language.

In our Inquiry unit, we have been learning about how living things help us other than for food. Students are exploring where materials come from. In the coming week we will be planting our vegetable patch which will become a new responsibility for students to care for.