Classroom Happenings
F/1 CLASSROOM
As we wrap up another wonderful term, it's hard to believe we've reached the halfway point of the year! Term 2 has been filled with fantastic learning, growth and plenty of reasons to celebrate.
Our Foundation students have been absolute superstars, working hard to read and use numbers to 20 and proudly writing their very first simple sentences. It's a real joy to watch their confidence grow, and they should be incredibly proud of how far they've come.
Our Year 1 students have also worked incredibly hard this term, especially when learning their tricky words. Through lots of practise and determination, they've made fantastic progress, with many students showing huge improvements in their results.
To celebrate a fantastic semester of learning, students enjoyed a well-earned reward afternoon filled with LEGO, magnetic blocks, colouring and plenty of creativity. The smiles on their faces said it all!
Congratulations to our latest PBIS award recipients, who were recognised at assembly this week! Students nominated classmates who consistently demonstrated, or had shown wonderful growth in, our four school pillars: Respectful, Responsible, Safe and a Learner.
Their thoughtful nominations recognised qualities such as kindness, hard work, focus, good listening, sharing with others, and always trying their best. We are so proud of the caring classroom community we've built together.
What a wonderful bunch of cherubs we have! It's been such a pleasure watching them learn, grow and have fun together this semester. Thank you for all of your support along the way.
Mrs Nagy
Foundation/Year 1 Teacher
2/3 CLASSROOM
There is always wonderful learning happening in our Year 2/3 classroom!
This term, students have been working hard to develop their writing skills by learning how to join sentences using conjunctions. We began by exploring conjunctions such as because, but, and so, and have since extended our understanding to more complex conjunctions including before, after, and if. Students have learned that conjunctions can be used both in the middle of a sentence and at the beginning of a sentence to create more interesting and varied writing.
We recently completed our writing unit based on the novel Uncle Xbox, which was a fantastic learning experience for everyone. Not only did students gain valuable insights into First Nations cultures and perspectives, but they also deepened their understanding of Australia's history. The novel sparked thoughtful discussions and provided many opportunities for rich learning across multiple areas of the curriculum.
One of the many benefits of our composite Year 2/3 classroom is the opportunity to draw upon aspects of the Year 3 curriculum. While Year 2 students would typically focus on picture books at this stage, our mixed-age setting allows us to introduce students to rich, well-written novels that challenge their thinking and inspire meaningful conversations. These texts also provide excellent opportunities to explore a variety of writing genres while building knowledge through supplementary texts and research.
Perhaps the greatest sign of success is the reaction we see at the end of each novel. Students are always disappointed when the story comes to an end! This tells us that we are fostering a genuine love of reading by exposing students to engaging books they may not otherwise choose themselves. We look forward to sharing many more wonderful stories and learning experiences throughout the year.
Mrs Stephens
Year 2/3 Teacher
4/5/6 CLASSROOM
What a huge and wonderful Term 2 we have had in our Grade 4/5/6 classroom!
This term has been absolutely packed with learning, leadership, creativity, and plenty of moments where our students have stepped up and made us very proud. In Literacy, we explored Deadly Science: The Solar System, learning about planets, stars, space missions, and the Artemis II expedition, before using our research to write explanation texts about planning a mission to another planet. We also read Free Diving by Lorrae Coffin and wrote personal responses about the story, its themes, the history of the pearling trade, and how the book made us think and feel.
To finish the term, we have begun exploring poetry and playing with language in more creative ways.
In Maths, we worked through some really tricky concepts in Multiplication and Division, including factors, common factors, area models, short division, and remainders as whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. Students should feel incredibly proud of how much confidence they built, especially when tackling larger and more challenging problems. More recently, we have been working on Area and Perimeter, looking at polygons, composite shapes, formulas, templates, and grid lines, before moving into 3D shapes and nets.
In Digital Technologies, students loved working with the new laptops and building their confidence with logging in, saving work correctly, searching safely online, creating documents, and using different programs.
Their Dream School Canteen Menu project was a huge focus, and it was fantastic to see students collect data, make price lists, create spreadsheets, and design their final menus so creatively. They also began working on Battle of the Band posters for a local competition, which gave them a chance to design for a real audience and purpose.
We have also had a very full term outside of the classroom. Our class led the ANZAC Day Liturgy with respect and maturity, hosted assembly and performed their dance, attended the Athletics Carnival with Corryong College, took part in Cross Country, visited the College to see The Pirates of Penzance, celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and enjoyed our RMIT STEM excursion. Through all of this, our Grade 4/5/6 students have shown leadership, flexibility, and a willingness to have a go. It has been a busy term, but also a really rewarding one. The students have worked hard, supported each other, taken pride in their learning, and shown lots of growth along the way!
Miss Meares
Year 4/5/6 Teacher