Classroom & Curriculum News

Grade 6 leadership  

Our Grade 6 leaders have been exceptionally busy organising lots of fun and important days throughout the term. We thank them for all of their amazing ideas and hard work to organise this for the whole school. 

School Captains: A HUGE congratulations to Rosie, Yorke, Esther and James. N for organising the can collection drive to fund our Hotdog day for the entire school. The school community was very greatful to have a special treat last Wednesday !! We raised almost $160, which is a whopping 1,600 in cans and bottles for 10c each. Thankyou to all of the families that contributed to the recycling drive. 

Wellbeing Captains: Gemima, Charlie and Sofia have been extemely busy in helping organise the Multicultural day we had on Friday Week 9. A very successful day filled with dancing, drums and craft. Thankyou Miss P and Miss Mazzeo for organising the delicious pasta and gelati !!  There was also a seperate competition of guessing the primary school photo to match the teacher. All of our Gold coin donations to this game, helped us raise almost $70 to go to our chosen mental health charity: Headspace. Welldone Wellbeing team :)   It was very funny seeing everyone try and guess who belonged to who....

The answers to the competition are below, lets see how close you got:

Well done to the winners of the guessing game who received some great prizes

1st place: Oscar.R, 2nd place: Chloe. R, 3rd place: Alex.K 

Art Captains: Stella and James.L have been running a colouring competition to recolour and name our cow statue who lives in the kitchen garden area. There were so many amazing entries it was difficult to choose a winner!! Well done to the following students whos designs were picked by our Art captains, these students designs will be all used in a section of our cow and they get to paint it. Congratulations to Vedder: 5/6JM, Ayla: Prep, Marlo: 3/4S, Esther: 5/6JM and Millie: 1/2M

House Captains: Well done to all of our House captians for helping Mr M run a great Athletics day. There was lots of cheering and amazing effort in all of the events throughout the day. A big thankyou to all of our parent helpers that were there for the day. It was very, very appreciated for all of you to help out were you could, as it was important for our day to be run smoothly. 

SRC: Thankyou to our SRC team for helping collect and move all of the very generous donations of food, warm clothes and home necessities, for those people doing it tough this winter. We had some wonderful representatives come collect this from the St Vincent de Paul organisation. Thankyou to all who donated :) 

Paint Swatch poetry 5/6

Our students recently took part in a unique poetry challenge that put their creativity and adaptability to the test. Each student selected a random paint colour swatch from Bunnings in a lucky dip, with one important rule...no swapping allowed! This meant students had to work with whatever colour and paint name they received, no matter how unusual, quirky, or difficult it seemed.

Using their colour as inspiration, students explored the imagery, emotions, and ideas that the paint names evoked. Some colours had straightforward names, while others were strange and required students to think deeply and creatively to develop their poems. 

It was fantastic to see the variety of responses produced from such a simple starting point. 

Natural disaster Projects 5/6

Throughout the term, students have been working on a Natural Disasters Homework Project, which included a creation of a detailed Google Slides presentation and a diorama. The quality of work was outstanding, with students demonstrating excellent research skills and a strong understanding of their chosen natural disaster.

The dioramas were particularly impressive, showing creativity, careful planning, and beautiful attention to detail. It was clear that students invested a great deal of time, effort, and pride into their projects. We are extremely proud of the dedication shown throughout the term, and it was wonderful to see students confidently share their learning with others.

5/6 Prep story time

Our Grade 5/6 students have been busy creating their very own storybooks to share with the Prep students. As part of this task, students were asked to think carefully about an important lesson or learning concept that would be meaningful for younger children, such as keeping hands to ourselves, using kind words, being brave enough to try new things, or understanding when to seek help rather than “dob”. They then combined this message with a fun and engaging character to create an original story that would both entertain and teach an important social or emotional lesson.

 The highlight of the project was having the opportunity to visit the Preps and read their finished stories aloud. Our Grade 5/6 students did a fantastic job sharing their work, and the Prep children thoroughly enjoyed listening to the stories and spending time with the 5/6s.

1/2 Fun in the sun

After a busy day of Literacy learning and swimming, it was wonderful to watch the Year 1/2 students enjoying some time in the senior yard. The children embraced the opportunity to explore the larger play space, make use of the new silent balls, and challenge themselves on the bigger play equipment.

The different play areas encouraged students to interact with a wide range of peers as they played tennis, swung on the monkey bars, and practised their footy skills. Most importantly, it was lovely to see so many smiling faces enjoying the fresh air, friendship, and beautiful winter sunshine together.

Practicing our Times Tables

Year 1/2RS students have been busy building their multiplication skills by practising their 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Through games, hands-on activities and skip-counting challenges, students have been developing their confidence and fluency with these important number facts. 1/2 students will be applying these multiplication skills in Term 3 through mathematical modelling and explore sharing, grouping and arrays in greater depth.

1/2 Facts on Fire

Our Year 1/2 students are thoroughly enjoying practising their mathematical skills using a program called Facts on Fire. Through a variety of fun and engaging activities, students practise their basic addition and subtraction facts in one- and two-minute timed challenges.

Learning addition and subtraction facts to 6, 10 and 20 is an important foundational skill children will need for future mathematical learning. Developing quick recall of these number facts helps the children build confidence, improve their accuracy, and solve more complex problems with greater ease.

Alongside our FOF, we have also been reviewing this terms learning by utilsiing our skills to represent one, two and three-digit numbers in multiple ways, reading numbers from a 120 chart, and demonstrating our understanding of place value.

It has been wonderful to see students embracing the challenge, celebrating their personal growth, competing respectfully and encouraging one another as they strengthen these important mathematical skills.

Public Speaking in 1/2

Students have been engaging in regular opportunities to develop their public speaking skills. Public speaking skill development is essential for building confidence, communication, and development of important active listening skills,  that students will use throughout their lives.

This term, students have been participating in a range of speaking activities, including reading aloud to a partner, sharing their learning in small groups, and presenting to the whole class. Through these experiences, students are learning to speak clearly, use an appropriate volume, maintain eye contact with their audience, and listen respectfully to others.

It has been wonderful to see students grow in confidence as they share their ideas and stories with their peers. Many students who were initially hesitant to speak in front of others are now volunteering to read aloud and present their work to the class. We are incredibly proud of the courage, persistence, and respect students demonstrate as they continue to strengthen these important communication skills.

Prep News!!

Prep M have been very busy this month...

Athletics Carnival

The Prep students had a wonderful time at their first Athletics Carnival, enthusiastically participating in a range of events throughout the day. They particularly enjoyed the novelty activities, which brought lots of fun and excitement. A highlight for many students was the opportunity to race up and down the track in the hurdles and 100-metre events.

Musical Words

The Prep students have also been busy learning to read, say, and write a variety of "heart words." To make learning engaging and enjoyable, we incorporated a game of musical statues into our literacy sessions. Each time the music stopped, students had to quickly identify and write the heart word in front of them.

Jesus The Good Sheperd

The Prep students enjoyed learning about the story of the Good Shepherd. Through this story, we explored how Jesus is kind, caring, and loving, just as a shepherd cares for and protects their sheep. To celebrate our learning, the students created their own sheep artwork, which has been displayed in the classroom window. 

Counting 1-20

We have been practicing our counting and writing numbers 0-20.

We brought our classroom outside.

We loved Hot Dog Day!!

Teddybear Picnic

We celebrated the final day of Term 2 with a Teddybear Picnic at Harris Reserve. The students (and teddies) enjoyed morning tea and fun on the playground. 

Year 3/4 News!!

Firstly we would like to congratulate all the students on their attendance and participation in the swimming program. It was great to see the students follow the routines each session and travelling safely to and from the centre. Students were very enthusiastic and it was great to see them support each other during the lessons.

Following on from 3/4S, 3/4L participated in the Wicked Weather incursion. The students were highly engaged throughout the session and thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on experiments. Some of the highlights included creating whirlpools to model cyclones and making clouds using a water bottle, methylated spirits, and a pump. The biggest highlight, however, was creating "snow" using a special chemical that reacted with water and expanded into a snow-like substance. Students were able to take some of this home and can continue to add water to keep it expanding and observe how it changes over time. The incursion was a fantastic way for students to explore weather concepts through fun, interactive, and memorable experiences.

It has been amazing seeing all the 3/4 homework projects and how great they have turned out. Over three weeks students created their own city, made up the climate and weather for their city and designed a structure to withstand wind and rain. This week, we invited the entire school to visit our classroom and view the projects. The many "wows" and "that's so cool!" comments we heard from students across the school were fantastic! Our students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share their learning. We tested the structures this week, which the students were extremely excited about, with majority of the structures withstanding the wind and rain elements. We thank all parents and family members who supported the students in creating these projects.

Multicultural day incursion was a great day of dancing and pasta. Students enjoyed learning about the different dances from the talented instructors.They got to learn dances from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Italy. Students had a great time dancing to music from these places. For lunch students all enjoyed pasta from 48hr Gnocchi  and pizza bar and chocolate gelato. It was a great day and we hope students will share these dances they have learnt at home.

Athletics Day was a fun-filled day for all. The students thoroughly enjoyed participating in the various events and, although tired by the end of the day, demonstrated great perseverance throughout. Team spirit was on full display, and it was wonderful to hear students cheering each other on, even from afar, as they participated in events within their age groups rather than their class groups. We congratulate all students on their hard work, positive attitude, and excellent sportsmanship. While ribbons are exciting, Athletics Day is ultimately about having fun, trying your best, and supporting one another.

Check out all the photos from these events below and the Biggest Morning Tea & cheering on the Socceroos!

Andrew McDonald visits St Augustine's!

We were fortunate to welcome author Andrew McDonald to our school. During his engaging presentation, Andrew shared some of his popular books and gave students an insight into the creative process behind writing and illustrating stories. He explained how he uses storyboards to plan and organise his ideas before creating a book. Students then had the exciting opportunity to collaborate with Andrew to create a storyboard with him, using their imagination and creativity to help bring a story to life. Students who purcahsed a book were able to get Andrew to sign their books.