Around The Rooms

Senior Team

Welcome to Term 2 we hope you all had a great break, it has been so lovely seeing our students settle back into class routines so quickly. We have a very busy and exciting term ahead with Cross Country, District Sports, Electives returning and also an Excursion (just to name a few). We have hit the ground running with our Teaching and Learning by starting a number of new learning cycles. 

In Maths, we have begun our learning cycle on "Units of Measurement and Area" this will see us jump back into our maths groups to be teaching at point of need. 

Inquiry this term will have a focus on sustainability and the environment around us. There will also be an excursion that will support the learning, further information will be sent home next week! 

Our writing unit has begun with studies around the great work of Sir David Attenborough for animal conservation and how we can persuade our audience to support these causes in addition to the benefit for our world.

In Reading we have started to take a deep dive into Australian Indigenous Dreamtime stories to practice and continue to develop our strategies in finding the Author's purpose, what the heart/message of the story is, character analysis, and summarising. 

Middle Years

It is an exciting term ahead for Grade 3/4s. Our maths this term will be centred on looking at star constellations, incorporating measurement, shape, angles etc. Our new class novel is historical fiction based on the time of convict settlements. Linked with this, our MAPPEN unit this term is titled ‘1st Contact’ and it is a history unit exploring the lives of 1st Nations’ people before European settlers arrived in this country, and the causes and reasons for the journey of the 1st Fleet. Students will practise thinking and acting like historians as they are immersed in the stories of 1st contact. Our unit culminates in the students putting on an expo of cultural artefacts and all their work, which other year levels and parents will be invited to attend. We are also finalising details of an exciting excursion to the Geelong Gaol to tie in with the learning from this topic. Information will be sent home to families very soon. 

We have begun the term learning about the importance of, and history behind, ANZAC Day by exploring mentor texts and having lots of wonderful, deep, rich class discussion. ANZAC Day Public Holiday is next Thursday. Ballan Primary School Captains will be making a speech at the dawn service (be at McLean's reserve before the sun comes up if you would like to attend the service) and also laying a wreath at the Ballan Cenotaph later in the day. There will be a march down the main street, finishing at the cenotaph, and Ballan Primary students are invited to attend (please let your teacher know if you will be marching, as numbers are capped at 12 students). Full school uniform must be worn and if you have medals from service people in your family, you are invited to wear them.

See community page for more details of march and service/s.

Junior Team

In P-2 we have been learning a lot of new concepts in Maths. For the Preps, Addition has been a focus. Through hands-on activities, they're learning that addition means putting two groups together to find the total. Students have used a variety of strategies to solve simple addition problems and throughout the year will revisit the concept of adding. In 1/2, Place Value has been a focus, where students have been using MAB as a concrete material to help them better understand that the position of a digit determines its value, whether it's ones, tens, or hundreds. 

To help consolidate the P-2s learning, we like to use a craft activity to help reinforce mathematical concepts in a fun and interactive way. By creating crafts related to specific math topics, such as shapes, numbers and operations students engage with the material on a deeper level. These activities provide visual representations of abstract concepts, making them easier to understand and remember. This is also a wonderful way for the students to continue to develop their fine motor skills as well. 

When you are next in the Prep rooms or down in the 1/2 building, come and check out our wonderful creations!