Foundation

We are past the halfway mark in term 3 and oh boy have the Foundation students been working hard. In Literacy, we have been learning about short and long vowels. A short/weak vowel is followed by a consonant/s (cat, fish, stamp) and makes the common letter sound for its name. A strong/long vowel (cake, bike, cute) says the letter name in the word. This will help us when we begin learning about open syllables. An open syllable (me, no, hi) is when the vowel is ‘open’ at the end and makes a long/strong sound, its name.

We have also been busy writing our information reports. So far we have worked as a class on writing about lifesavers and vets. Next week the students will begin their own writing piece on a community helper.

In Maths Groups, we have started our unit on ‘Measurement’ (Length, Mass and Capacity). We have enjoyed completing many hands-on activities to measure. Our Friday sessions (in classes) are for assessment, My Numeracy tasks or Bar Modelling.

We have many busy and exciting things coming up before the end of term including our: -Father’s Day breakfast this Friday 30th August

-Teddy Bear Hospital 4th of September

-‘Sticks and Stones’ whole school incursion 5th September

-Curriculum day on 13th September

-Finally Footy Day (last day of term) on 20th September (WOW, what a mouthful!)

Grade 1

It’s week 7 and the students are continuing to practise “r -controlled vowels” with a focus on “or.” To learn more about these sounds you can look at this week’s word study practise page in homework folders, which covers the spelling choices of er, ir, ur, or, ar.

This week the students have enjoyed researching Quokkas. They will use their research to assist them in writing an information report about them, with a particular focus on our introductions and conclusions. The students will continue to learn about researching and writing information texts for the remainder of this term.

Over the past few weeks we can been focussing on kindness and cooperation in Grade 1. It has been lovely to see the children putting into practice some of the different examples we have discussed, particularly during our marble run challenges!

In Maths we are still focusing on Measurement and are currently looking at the mass of objects. The students have been learning to use the correct vocabulary and have been using balance scales to assist them in making comparisons between objects and using non-standard units to measure mass. Next week we move to addition and subtraction, please be mindful that with this change from measurement back to number focus, there will likely be significant changes to groups to ensure the needs of all students can be catered to.

The whole cohort loved Book Week and dressing up as their favourite character. We enjoyed sharing some of our favourite books and writing about our character.

We are looking forward to welcoming dads into the classroom this Friday as part of our Father’s day morning, and hope that all dads have a lovely dad on Sunday!

Grade 2

It was so lovely to celebrate Book Week last week! The Grade 2 teachers were blown away with the incredible effort that went into our dress up day on Friday. Thank you to our wonderful Grade 2 parents for your support with this.

In Literacy, students have been learning about the structure and features of persuasive texts. They have been using a graphic organiser to plan their texts, ensuring that they have a clear introduction, three solid reasons to support their argument (topic sentences backed up with supporting evidence), and a conclusion to sum up and restate their opinion. We are also exploring persuasive and emotive language and continue to develop paragraphing, proof reading and editing skills. For reading, we continue to engage in the text ‘The Garbage Barge’ by building vocabulary, comprehension skills as well as looking at sentence types within the text. Students are learning to apply their knowledge from our ‘Grammar Project’ lessons by using commas to separate items in a list. As part of our ‘Word Study’, we have been focusing on the sounds for hard and soft c and g.

In Maths, students have been building their understanding of multiplication as repeated addition, groups and arrays, and developing strategies for solving multiplication stories and number sentences. Further experiences with these concepts at home will continue to consolidate students’ understanding of multiplication in ‘everyday life’.

We continue our inquiry into ‘Earth’s Precious Resources’, investigating waste in our lives and the environment.

This fortnight our wellbeing and social skills focus is on Cooperation and conflict resolution.

Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud, sound pack practise and ‘Red Flag Word’ spelling. Optional extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).

Reminders: On Thursday 12th September, we will be heading to the St Kilda Botanic Gardens for our War on Waste excursion. Please ensure you have read all the information on the notice (sent out via Compass) and consented/paid. Please let your child’s teacher know if you are interested in being a parent helper on the day.

Grade 3

We’ve had a great fortnight in Grade 3 with our ‘Book Week’ dress up day and excursion to ACMI.

Grade 3 ACMI Excursion

On Monday 26th August, the students in Grade 3 visited the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square. The excursion was a part of their current unit of work in Media Arts (which is studied in Visual Arts) on animation.

The students, classroom teachers and art teachers (Mrs Richard and Mrs Lundy), had a wonderful experience learning all about the magic and history of different styles of animation from museum educator Gary and visiting the Exhibition: History of the moving picture.

The students were very engaged and the exhibition space is a very fun and interactive experience with lots to touch and interact with including making your own flip books, playing vintage and modern video games and becoming part of the art in the garden of memories.

Upon our return to school we received the following message from ACMI staff:

Thanks for bringing such wonderful students today for the animation talk, seriously, they were such outstanding Yr3 students, I was impressed with their knowledge and input, politeness and enthusiasm!

Mrs Richard.

The following learning activities have also kept us very busy!

Novel study: Last week, we started our novel study, ‘The Wind in the Willows’. Students listen to three chapters per week and participate in discussions and written responses. They are currently learning about narration, dialogue, and personification, as well as the themes of friendship/loyalty, responsibility, irresponsibility. Our vocabulary focus words also relate to our novel study and we continue to work on fluency with related readings each week.

Writing: This week, we wrap up our focus on procedural texts, adverbs and adverbial phrases with an independent assessment task, which will allow students to demonstrate the growth they have made since the beginning of the topic. In our grammar and syntax lessons, students have been learning to use quotation marks to punctuate direct speech and dialogue. In our decoding and spelling lessons, we focused on homophones, the phoneme /or/ and the various graphemes we can use for this sound.

Maths: We began our ‘Fractions’ topic this week by exploring key language such as numerator and denominator, and drawing, dividing and shading shapes and collections to represent 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/10. As always, we encourage opportunities to explore these concepts further at home, as well as ongoing practise of learned time tables and strategies.

Wellbeing: This fortnight, we continue our focus on social skills, Super 6 values, problem-solving strategies and help-seeking processes.

Homework: Thank for your ongoing support with checking weekly homework, home reading, and signing diaries, as well as helping your child sort their materials for the balloon-powered car. We will upload photos to Seesaw once completed.

Grade 4

This week, our Grade 4 students truly shone during Book Week, dazzling everyone with their creative and vibrant costumes. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and participation!

Literacy

We have begun a persuasive writing unit during our writing sessions this week. We've been learning about the structure of persuasive texts and have started to develop key persuasive techniques. In reading, we continue to delve into the novel ‘War Horse,’ where students are showing impressive understanding of the plot and themes through their detailed written responses.

Numeracy

In numeracy, we've started a new unit focused on decimals and percentages. The students have been working on understanding decimal place value, including tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. They are also learning to express these decimals in expanded form.

Inquiry

Our inquiry unit, ‘May the Best Party Win,’ is in full swing. This week, the students have been exploring the process of how laws are made and passed, as well as gaining insights into the voting system used in elections. Their enthusiasm and engagement in these topics have been outstanding!

Keep up the great work Grade 4!

Grade 5

Last week, Grade 5 students participated in the Leadership Incursion present by Gil and Jamie of UPP. Students took part in a wide variety of activities which included strong communication and teamwork skills. At the end of the day, each student did a ‘Leadership Strengths Inventory’ to self-assess and figure out what type of leader they were, i.e. Prophet, Planner, or People leader. This was a fantastic session in preparation for leadership speeches in Term 4.

Well done to all Grade 5 students who put a lot of time and effort into their costumes for Book Week last Friday. All the teachers were impressed with the design and ideas for characters that students came up with!

Literacy & Numeracy:

We are midway through our unit of decimals where students are moving through all the operations of decimals, as well as comparing and ordering decimals, and linking to fractions and percentages. This week we have completed a post-test in writing for our explanation text genre, ‘How do muscles work?’. Students have also been conferencing one on one with their teachers to assess their progress and goals they set early in the term.

Week 8 & 9 Reminders:

Monday 2nd September - Students must begin wearing hats at school again

Tuesday 3rd September - District Athletics

Thursday 5th September - Whole school bullying incursion

Monday 9th September - Mad About Science Incursion

Friday 13th September - Curriculum Day

Grade 6

We’ve had a great fortnight in Grade 3 with our ‘Book Week’ dress up day and excursion to ACMI (see Ms Richard’s page for a recount and some photos). The following learning activities have also kept us very busy!

Novel study: Last week, we started our novel study, ‘The Wind in the Willows’. Students listen to three chapters per week and participate in discussions and written responses. They are currently learning about narration, dialogue, and personification, as well as the themes of friendship/loyalty, responsibility, irresponsibility. Our vocabulary focus words also relate to our novel study and we continue to work on fluency with related readings each week.

Writing: This week, we wrap up our focus on procedural texts, adverbs and adverbial phrases with an independent assessment task, which will allow students to demonstrate the growth they have made since the beginning of the topic. In our grammar and syntax lessons, students have been learning to use quotation marks to punctuate direct speech and dialogue. In our decoding and spelling lessons, we focused on homophones, the phoneme /or/ and the various graphemes we can use for this sound.

Maths: We began our ‘Fractions’ topic this week by exploring key language such as numerator and denominator, and drawing, dividing and shading shapes and collections to represent 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/10. As always, we encourage opportunities to explore these concepts further at home, as well as ongoing practise of learned time tables and strategies.

Wellbeing: This fortnight, we continue our focus on social skills, Super 6 values, problem-solving strategies and help-seeking processes.

Homework: Thank for your ongoing support with checking weekly homework, home reading, and signing diaries, as well as helping your child sort their materials for the balloon-powered car. We will upload photos to Seesaw once completed.

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