Happy Friday!

Our 4/5/6 children have had a great two weeks. We continue to build a community of learners that are supportive, resilient and open minded.

Literacy

We are been exploring the concept of 'Our Authentic Self' this Term. To connect to this theme, we have been reading a class novel, titled Out of my Mind. Through this novel, learners have explored themes such as identity and belonging, personal strengths and individual needs and differences.

Our main character, Melody is a young girl diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, meaning she is unable to communicate with others, until she is granted this ability using technology.

After learning this, 4/5/6 children engaged in a rich discussion around the positives and negatives of technology. They worked collaboratively to research and construct convincing arguments for and against technology.

Some arguments for technology included:

Technology helps us to stay connected to people who live away from us

Technology helps us to collaborate with others - like Zoom

Technology keeps people alive in the hospitals - like defibrillators

Some arguments against technology included:

Technology is bad because of scammers, 13.2. million in Australians were scammed last year

Sometimes people get addicted to games and computers and you get a lack of sleep

Can always communicate using a hand written letter or ride your bike to your friends house

Writing

We have been analysing the characters from Out of my Mind and identifying what personal strengths they have. Some character strengths we have used to describe the main characters include:

Courageous and brave

Jealous

Intelligent

Stubborn

Persistent

Empathetic

Using our knowledge from Out of my Mind, we explored the idea of Heroes vs Villains. Learners used their understanding of the characters from the novel to write a comic strip using a hero and villain from the story. We began by placing our ideas into our Writer's Notebook as a draft. Next, we will move to editing our drafts before publishing these as illustrated comic strips - so stay tuned!

Inquiry

We have investigated different ways we can nourish our minds and bodies. This week we investigated food and mood. Learners explored the impact food has on our mood and healthy habits we can introduce into our life to help us be our best self.

Some tips included:

1.Eat the rainbow & drink lots of water

2.Stay active

3.Get good sleep

4.Find a balance

Using their knowledge of healthy habits, learners researched healthy eating options and prepared these for the group. They displayed learner assets such as being responsible, collaboration, flexibility, self-management, respect.

The snacks prepared and enjoyed by the learners included a peanut and banana smoothie, date and cranberry bliss balls, sugar free raspberry muffins and nachos with homemade guacamole. I was so proud of the independence, patience and care each learner took when engaging in this learning experience.

The next few weeks are busy, some important events coming up:

Week 7: NAPLAN will start for Grade 5 learners.

Week 8: 5/6 children will head to Ballarat for camp, with the Grade 4 learners joining Miss Gab's class.

Week 9: Cross Country and Last week of Term.

I know the end of Term is hitting me, so I am sure the children and their families will enjoy the well deserved long weekend. Stay safe, enjoy time with family and friends and stay cool with whatever you get up to. See you Wednesday!

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!

Shan: sanderson@sjnagambie.catholic.edu.au

Prayer and Acknowledgement

March 2024