School News 

Prep 

The last fortnight has been a great deal of fun for Preps with our celebrations for Book Week and our construction adventures continuing for investigations. We have continued to make leaps in our learning and are developing so many skills that help us to be more independent. 

In Reading, we are continuing to revise and consolidate our skills in level 3 of the Decodable Readers Australia program. We are revising the phonemes and graphemes for the letters b, h, f, l, j, v, x, y and z. We are also revising our sight words have, them, be, are, put, then, when, they, wants, or too, your and my. In addition to this, we have had a strong focus on developing our fluency in reading. 

For Writing, we have been learning about the difference between facts and opinions. Students have begun to express their opinions in writing and giving a reason using the word ‘because’. We have loved hearing and reading about their opinions and are proud that they are starting to give very valid reasons for their preferences. 

In Maths, we have continued to enjoy our subtraction unit, with a focus of reviewing our different strategies (crossing out, sliding away and counting back) as well as an emphasis on recording. Students have really seemed to enjoy using all of the concrete materials to practise subtraction in different ways. 

In Investigations, we are thoroughly enjoying our construction challenges at the moment. This week our challenge has been to create a plan and build a bridge. The students have worked brilliantly in their groups and should be so proud of their work. 

In Wellbeing, this week we have investigated the STOP strategy in cybersafety. Students have done a great job of learning the strategies and the song as well.  

As we begin to wind up the term we are looking forward to enjoying spending time with out buddies and connect groups before our holiday. 

We would like to wish a very Happy Fathers’ Day to all of our Dads, Step-dads, Granpas and Dad-figures! We hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy being celebrated. 

Reminders: 

Friday 11th September – Pyjama Day

Thursday 17th – Canteen Footy lunch

Kind regards,

The Prep Team

Laina Brebner, Kayla Hartrick and Emma Wright

Grade 1 

What a busy two weeks we’ve had in Grade 1! Thank you to all the families who attended our 3-way conferences and took the time to connect with us, celebrate your child’s progress, and share in their learning journey.

In Reading, we have moved on to Level 6 books in class with our Fluency Friends. We have enjoyed a range of activities, including ‘Catch the Characters’, ‘Tap and Say’, and ‘Spy Torches’, to help consolidate our learning and build confidence with the Level 6 sounds.

In Writing, we have begun learning about Information Reports. We have been researching interesting facts about an animal of our choice and organising our information into four categories: Appearance, Diet, Habitat and Other. We can’t wait to showcase our finished reports in our classrooms!

In Maths, we have been revising and strengthening our Addition and Subtraction skills. This week, we have enjoyed playing games such as Roll a Goal, Roll It Up and Walk the Plank. Why not have a go at playing these games at home? All you need is a dice or a pack of cards!

Symphony of Stories

We loved celebrating Book Week last Thursday! We dressed up as some of our favourite characters and shared special stories. We had so much fun showing off our costumes during assembly and parading them back to class. Here are a few of our fabulous looks!

Congratulations to our Shining Stars for weeks 6 and 7—Ayesha, Ruby, Stephanie, Jake, Lenny and Charlotte! We are so proud of the wonderful effort, kindness and enthusiasm you have shown. Keep shining!

Kind regards, 

The Grade 1 Team

Mel Layton, Rowena Blake, Sally Newton and Tim Huntington 

Grade 2

It has been another busy and exciting few weeks of learning in Grade 2!

In Writing, we have been busy creating our own Narratives. We have been working hard to include interesting characters, exciting events and engaging storylines. We were especially excited to share our finished stories with some of our Prep friends. It was wonderful to see the students proudly sharing their writing and enjoying the opportunity to be authors for an audience!

In Reading, we have been learning about finding facts and identifying important information in texts. We have also been exploring the difference between a fact and an opinion. Students have been developing their ability to ask questions, locate information and think carefully about whether a statement can be proven or is someone's personal belief.

In Maths, our focus has been on Division. We have been learning how to share and group objects equally and have explored division problems both with and without remainders. Students have been using a range of strategies, materials and mathematical thinking to solve problems and explain their answers.

Our Solar System in Inquiry has taken us on an exciting journey into space! Students have been researching a planet in our Solar System, collecting interesting facts and information that they will use to create their own informative posters. We are looking forward to seeing their creativity and sharing our new learning with the class.

What a wonderful Book Week we had! We loved celebrating our favourite books and characters, and the Book Week Parade was certainly a highlight. It was fantastic to see the incredible variety of costumes and the excitement on the students' faces as they proudly paraded around the school. Thank you to all our families for helping make Book Week such a memorable celebration of reading.

3-Way-Conferences:  It was also lovely to catch up with parents last week to discuss the students' learning and share their portfolios. We really value the opportunity to celebrate each student's progress and talk about their next steps in learning. Thank you to all the families who took the time to meet with us.

Pre-Service Teachers:  Next week, starting Monday 7th, 2BV and 2SM will be welcoming some pre-service teachers into our wonderful classrooms. We are excited to have them join us and become part of our learning community. The students will enjoy sharing their classroom experiences and learning alongside our new teachers.

Kind regards,

The Grade 2 Team

Allie Harrison, Sarah Margetts and Brendan Van Haaster

Grades 3/4

It has been another busy week in 3/4! It was fabulous to see everyone in their Book Week outfits and hearing the conversations about favourite books and authors! On Monday, Grade 4 students participated in Hoop Time, whilst the remaining Grade 3’s enjoyed participating in Book Week activities and division maths games.

In Reading, students are enjoying the book ‘The Wild Robot’. We are building our comprehension strategies by answering text level questions and making inferences about characters and their actions. Each session, we are unpacking the meaning of vocabulary used in the text and then applying this to other contexts. Focus words this week included ‘hoisted’, ‘instincts’ and ‘withered’. 

In Writing, we have been learning about connectives and how they can be used to describe time, place, contrast or cause and effect. We have then applied these to writing complex sentences using connectives such as ‘however’, ‘despite this’ and ‘therefore’ to give a reader more information.

In Maths, students have been using strategies including skip counting, doubling, halving and partitioning to explore the link between multiplication and division and identify fact families.

In Inquiry, students are starting to work in small groups to design a science challenge, where the focus will be on collaborative skills and conducting fair tests.

In Wellbeing, we have been learning the difference between Friendship Fires and Mean-on-Purpose during Friendology sessions, as well as developing strategies to ensure healthy screen time habits during Cyber Safety lessons.

Kind regards,

The 3/4 Team

Nick Pagliaro, Daena Hailey, Brent Smith, Claire Cripps, Ashleigh Wilson and Mykaela Oakley

Grades 5/6

What a busy and exciting two weeks we have had in Grade 5/6!

Week 7 was Book Week, and we loved celebrating the joy of reading and the wonderful world of books. The Book Week costumes were fantastic, and it was wonderful to see so many students getting involved and showing their creativity!

In Literacy, we continued exploring Us Mob Walawurru, thinking deeply about authors' choices, perspectives and characters. Students have also begun researching and writing a factual recount about the 1967 Referendum, learning about this important event in Australian history and why it was significant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In Maths, we continued developing our division skills, solving problems and using our understanding of multiplication and division to tackle number challenges. 

Our Inquiry learning focused on reversible and irreversible changes, before students began planning and conducting their own scientific investigations.

In Wellbeing, we explored help-seeking, discussing when we can solve problems independently and when it is important to ask a friend or trusted adult for support. We also explored how trust and courage can help us ask for help when we need it.

The students also had a wonderful time at the Father's Day Stall and were very excited to choose special gifts for their loved ones. A huge thank you to all of our amazing parent helpers who gave their time to make the stall such a success! We would like to wish all of the wonderful dads, grandfathers and special people in our community a very Happy Father's Day for this Sunday!

Kind regards,

The 5/6 Team

Llinos Poole, Erin Rennick, Hayley Peirce and  Kylie Morrissey