Classroom News

Foundation: Miss Hart

Wow! This term has been jam packed with lots of fun things. Lots has been happening in the Foundation classroom; we have been having so much fun. 

In our Foundation literacy lessons, we’ve been focusing on the letter sounds for m, s, t, and a. Our young learners have been busy practicing their handwriting, perfecting the shapes of each letter, and building words with these sounds. Through engaging activities like word building and picture matching, children are beginning to connect sounds with words, helping to strengthen their reading and writing skills. It's been wonderful to see their progress as they gain confidence in their early literacy journey! We love learning about our new friends to match our new letter sounds. They are Maggie Mouse for /m/, Sammy Seal for /s/, Tommy Tiger for /t/ and Andy Ant for /a/.  

In our Foundation maths lessons, we’ve been working on number formation, counting collections, and developing our subitising skills (recognizing numbers without counting them). The children are also learning to identify groups with more or less, which helps them understand number comparison. Along with our number work, we’ve been reviewing the days of the week and discussing times of the day, helping the children connect numbers with real-life routines. It’s been a fantastic time of discovery and growth as they build a strong foundation for future maths learning! 

St Patrick’s Day was an absolute blast for our Foundation learners. We started off the day learning about the story behind St Patrick and how he and his story is important to our school. After a yummy barbeque lunch, we took park in a range of educational activities outside, before taking another break to snack on some freshly made green cupcakes made specially by Rach. Safe to say the students were very tired after this massive day!! Check out which activity they enjoyed the most: 

Foundation: Grade 1 Miss Emmett

Preparing for St Patrick’s Day 

We have been enthusiastically practising songs for our upcoming St Patrick’s Day Mass. Our joyful voices fill the classroom as we learn the lyrics and actions, preparing to participate in this special celebration with confidence and enthusiasm. 

Exploring ‘The River’ by Sally Morgan 

As part of our InitiaLit Storybook lessons, we have been exploring the beautiful picture book The River by Sally Morgan. To bring the story to life, we created paper mosaic crocodiles, carefully piecing together different green-coloured squares to form our artworks. This activity helped develop our fine motor skills while deepening our connection to the themes of the book. 

Mathematics Learning – Numbers to 20 

In Mathematics, we have been working incredibly hard to develop a strong understanding of numbers to 20. We have been representing numbers on tens frames, practising partitioning, and refining our numeral formation. Through hands-on activities and engaging tasks, we are building our confidence with number concepts, setting a solid foundation for future mathematical learning. 

A Fun Dance Break! 

Amid all our fantastic learning, we took a small break to enjoy an impromptu dance session! We had so much fun moving to the music, showing off our best dance moves, and sharing laughter with our friends. It was a great way to refresh our minds and bodies before getting back to our learning adventures. 

Grade 2: Miss Wooden

Numeracy  

We have been working very hard in Grade 2 to learn how to read the time. We have been learning how low it takes for the minute hand to make its way around the clock. We have also been having fun with clockwise and anti-clockwise, by turning shapes and spinning. We have been exploring calendars, how to read them and counting between dates! I am very proud of everyone during this unit, but I am excited to begin addition and subtraction. 

Literacy 

Over the term we have read many story books!! The students have shared what their favourite stories. 

Lottie – Liked predicting what was going to happen in ‘Feathers for Pheobe’.  

Buddy – Enjoyed reading ‘Willy the Whimp’  

Harlow – Liked how Pheobe changes in the story ‘Feathers for Pheobe’. 

Indy – Liked reading ‘Pete the Sheep’ because all the shearers become friends.  

Heidi – Liked how Pheobe made a new friend.  

Alex – Liked reading ‘Pete the Sheep’ and all the sheep’s haircuts.  

Tom – Thought that ‘Pete the Sheep’ was funny and liked the haircuts.  

Angus – Liked watching the short movie ‘The Snail and the Whale’. 

Matilda – Enjoyed comparing ‘Feathers for Pheobe’ and the ‘Fabulous Pink Feather Boa’. 

Noah – Liked reading the ‘Fabulous Pink Feather Boa’ because the characters get tricked. 

Linc – Thought that ‘Willy the Whimp’ was funny.  

We love spending time together in Grade 2! 

Grade 3: Mrs Stock

NAPLAN Week: The grade has had a busy fortnight, with NAPLAN assessments taking place. We are incredibly proud of everyone’s hard work and focus throughout the testing period.

English: The students are almost at the end of their class novel, Matilda. They have enjoyed following the adventures of Matilda and have been focusing on persuasive writing, developing skills to present their ideas and arguments effectively.

Math: In Math, we have completed our unit on 'Time Durations' and have now started our final unit for the term on Multiplication and Division. The students are eager to deepen their understanding and skills in these areas.

Religion: In Religion, we have begun our new unit on Lent. The students are exploring the themes of reflection, sacrifice, and preparation for Easter.

Visit to Tongala Aged Care: In the midst of all the activities, the students had a heartwarming visit to Tongala Aged Care. They took part in an art activity to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the residents, bringing creativity and joy to the day.

St. Patrick's Feast Day: The class also had a wonderful time celebrating St. Patrick’s Feast Day. The day was filled with fun sports activities, and the students enjoyed delicious cupcakes made by Rach. It was the perfect way to celebrate.

Table Winners: A special congratulations goes out to the table winners over the past fortnight: Will, Marla, Zarielle, Charlie, and George! They worked together as a fantastic team, showing great collaboration and effort. Well done, everyone!

Grade 4: Miss Dove & Mrs McKiernan

It’s been a shorter 2 weeks with the labour day public holiday last Monday, but every week is always packed with lots of amazing things for our students and this fortnight was no different. 

On Monday the 17th of March we had our St Patrick’s Day celebrations. It was great to see students dressed up in green and enjoying the day with lots of smiles and fun during our educational sports carnival, which had lots of engaging activities for the students.  

Some of our students have been excited to have the opportunity to take up music lessons which are ran at school by Dillmac Entertainment. It’s also fantastic to see some students being part of our very own school choir - how amazing will that be! 

Our class held their first Student Advisory Council meeting with Maddi and Charli doing a fantastic job running the meeting as our class representatives, displaying great leadership skills. We are excited to see all the amazing things they will be involved in this year. 

In English, our Kensuke’s Kingdom unit came to an end with students writing a persuasive piece on why we must protect our forests – students learnt all about the reasons why this is so important. They also worked on using persuasive language to help convince others why they should agree with their point of view. Kensuke’s Kingdom was a beautiful story that the class seemed to really enjoy, it led us to having many interesting conversations on a range of topics which are covered in the book. We will now be moving on to our next text, Leo and Ralph, which we are really looking forward to. 

In Maths we finished up our Time unit and started learning about Multiplication and Division. It will be a great unit and we’re looking forward to teaching students some strategies for learning and remembering their times tables which many of them have been showing an interest in. 

Camp is coming up in our last week of term, thank you so much to our families for coming along to our information session for this. The class are all really looking forward to going, it will be a fantastic end to an amazing first term for our very deserving Grade 4’s. 

Grade 5-6: Miss Rasmussen

The past few weeks have been full of exciting learning experiences and leadership opportunities for our Grade 5/6 students.

We recently finished reading War Horse, and the ending had us sitting on the edge of our seats! We were overjoyed to discover that the story had a happy ending, bringing a great sense of relief after such an emotional journey.

In writing, we have been crafting persuasive texts debating whether animals should have been sent to war. We've explored powerful writing techniques, including high modality words, rhetorical questions, and emotive language, to strengthen our arguments. We've also deepened our understanding of persuasive text structure, ensuring each paragraph serves a clear purpose. In addition to our persuasive writing, we have also been working on narrative texts. A highlight for students was sharing their narratives with their younger buddies. This experience made it clear that writing has an audience and reminded students of the importance of crafting texts with their audience in mind.

Maths has been a challenge, but we are rising to it! We have been working hard to master the four operations, particularly long multiplication and division. These concepts can be tricky, but we are making great progress. Next, we will tackle the Order of Operations, which will put our understanding to the test.

Our leadership teams have been busy making meaningful contributions to the school:

• PBIS Leaders continue to introduce new blitzes at assembly.
• Media Leaders filmed highlights from the sports carnival.
• Sports Leaders have been running a lunchtime tennis program.
• Catholic Identity Leaders have been leading the Caritas Fundraising efforts.

We are also excited to be sending students to compete in the Team Tennis Tournament in Echuca next week. Best of luck to all participants!

A highlight for many of us was the Educational Sports Carnival, where we were grouped with our younger buddies. It was a fantastic opportunity to support them through different activities while also having a great time together.

Lastly, a huge congratulations to our Grade 5 students for completing their NAPLAN testing! We are very proud of their efforts and the way they approached the challenge with resilience and determination.

Well done to all our 5/6 students on a fantastic few weeks of learning and leadership!