Learning Centre News... 

Learning Centre One

The end of the term is nearing! It has been such an exciting couple of weeks for the students as they near the end of their first year of school. 

In Literacy, students have been exploring how words and images work together to help us understand the meaning of stories. They have continued to develop and complete their booklets, slides, and stories on topics of their choice. It’s been wonderful to see them write, edit, and produce polished versions of their work. More recently, students began exploring persuasive language and texts. They’ve been unpacking the strategies behind persuasive writing, examining the language used and the reasons why we want others to agree with our point of view.

In Maths, the students have been learning about place value by exploring the concept of "bundling" and making groups of 10. They used a variety of materials to practice bundling and counting by tens, which helped them with skip counting. The students also worked on counting forwards and backwards, as well as skip counting from different starting points by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. It’s been wonderful to see their confidence grow throughout the week as they’ve become more comfortable with skip counting.

In Religion, the Preps have been learning about Advent, a time of waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus. As part of their learning, the students worked together to create their own Advent wreaths, which they bought to our Advent Liturgy. They also explored how they can show hope, peace, joy, and love during this special time of preparation.

Multicultural Day Celebration!

Thank you to all the parents, carers and students who came to celebrate our Multicultural Day. It was a fun day where we got to showcase the diverse cultures that we have at OLSC.

OLSC COLOUR RUN

Just a reminder that we have our OLSC colour run on Friday the 6th of December. Please see information below about fundraising and prizes!

Some friendly reminders:

• Saturday 30th November - P&F Bunnings BBQ
• Friday 6th December - OLSC Colour Run 2:15 - 3:15 pm
• Thursday 12th December - Christmas Liturgy 9 am
• Thursday 12th December - Inquiry Expo 10 am - Families Welcome
• Friday 13th December - Whole School Assembly 9 am
• Tuesday 17th December - End Term 1 pm

Prep Team - Amanda, Dasanthi, Donna, Kelsey, 

Kiah, Natasha, Rachael, Sarena, Teagan and Tina 

Learning Centre Two

MULTICULTURAL DAY

Last Friday, LC2 was awash with colour and culture for the OLSC Multicultural Day. We began with a parade of nations in the school hall and waved our national flags with pride. In the classrooms, students completed an activity where they drew items in a suitcase that would represent their cultural background. 

After a sausage sizzle lunch, we had a dance party where students used clues to guess the countries represented by the music and dances. They followed the steps of the dance videos and had a great time dancing together.

In the afternoon, we participated in an incursion called Harps-a-breeze lead by a musical trio who lead us through some Italian geography, music and dance. A perfect way to end such a celebratory day.

In Mandarin, Fan focused on saying greetings and responding to these with the students. They wrote these down and illustrated them beautifully for a hallway display.

INQUIRY

As the year draws to a close, the students are working hard to have their Inquiry projects ready for our learning expo. Scott's class composed some descriptive writing pieces about their chosen countries and had a focus on using geographical language, nouns and proper nouns in their paragraphs.

STUDENT LEADERS 2025

On Tuesday this week, our 2025 Student Leadership team was announced to the staff and students of Years 4, 5 and 6. The current Year 5s were invited to apply for any of the leadership roles that were of interest to them and then wrote and presented a speech to their teachers and peers. Sixty-six of our Year 5 students bravely stood and shared their speeches, votes were cast by Google Form and then winners were presented this week. A big congratulations to all who applied!

Introducing our 2025 Student Leadership Team - 

IMPORTANT MACKILLOP DATES

For those Year 6 students who are attending MacKillop College in 2025:

• Wednesday 4th December – Year 7 2025 Orientation Day  - 8:25 am – 3:20 pm  (students to wear their primary school sports uniform with orange polo top) Families to get students to the college for this day.
• Thursday 30th January 2025 –  Year 7 & VCE Students Return
• Friday 31st January 2025 -  All Students Return

IMPORTANT DATES

• Saturday 30th November - P&F Bunnings BBQ
• Wednesday 4th December - Yr 7 Orientation Day at MacKillop
• Friday 6th December - OLSC Colour Run 2:15 - 3:15 pm
• Thursday 12th December - Christmas Liturgy 9 am
• Thursday 12th December - Inquiry Expo 10 am Families Welcome
• Friday 13th December - Whole School Assembly 9 am
• Friday 13th December - Year 6 Last Day and Graduation 6:30 pm
• Monday 16th December - Year 6 Adventure Park Day
• Tuesday 17th December - End of Term 1 pm

Year 5/6 Team:  Ann, Anna, Ben, Chelsea, Cheryl, Danielle, Kristina, Krystin, Selena, Scott and Zach.

Learning Centre Three

Another two weeks have flown by and we have been so busy!

We had a fantastic time celebrating Multicultural Day and sharing our stories about our culture and participating in games and dances from around the world. 

During Literacy, we watched short documentaries by David Attenborough on different animals and learned about the audience and the purpose of the documentary. We looked at the book ‘Windows’ which had no words and described what we seen in the book. We then drew and wrote about what we see out our windows. 

In Maths, we learned how to tell the time on an analogue clock in maths. We started with hour times, and then half hour and quarter hours. We have then used different objects and shapes to show quarter turns, clockwise and anticlockwise.

For Inquiry, we have been busy working on our projects to show how things have changed over time. These projects will be shown at the Inquiry Expo which will be held on 12th December in the Learning Spaces from 10am (after the Christmas Liturgy).

During Religion, we learned about The Annunciation and created a class Christmas wreath in preparation for the beginning of Advent.  

Werribee Mansion

What an amazing time we all had exploring the Werribee Mansion and the surroundings. Everyone got to experience what it would be like to be a washmaid and clean and dry the clothes. It was a great experience to see how things have changed over time. 

Year 1/2 Team - Bianca, Gabby, Gillian, Imogen, Janeen, Jamie, Jordan, Marion, Mary, Shalome, Tina and Sue.

Important dates:

• Saturday 30th November - P&F Bunnings BBQ
• Friday 6th December - OLSC Colour Run 2:15 - 3:15 pm
• Thursday 12th December - Christmas Liturgy 9 am
• Thursday 12th December - Inquiry Expo 10 am Families Welcome
• Friday 13th December - Whole School Assembly 9 am
• Tuesday 17th December - End of Term 1 pm

Learning Centre Four

Melbourne Museum: 

On Monday the 25th of November, all of the 3/4 students attended an exciting excursion to the Melbourne Museum linked to our Inquiry unit for Term 4. We explored several exhibits including the First Peoples, Melbourne Icons, Dinosaur Walk, Dynamic Earth, Forest Gallery and Bugs Alive! The students learnt so much throughout the day, were well behaved and loved the whole experience! A wonderful day for all!

Multicultural Day:

On Friday the 22nd of November, all the students took part in Multicultural Day. We began the day with an assembly where we had a parade of nations, prayers in different languages, cultural dances and a cultural video on how to say ‘hello’. It was amazing to see some of the students in 3/4 being part of the Filipino and Nigerian dances and the prayers. The incursion ‘Harps a breeze’ joined us in the gym and we learnt about Italian culture, listened to some instrumental music and sang along.

In the learning space, the students completed 3 craft activities based on different cultures. The students created a heart to signify our multicultural school which is hanging outside the wellbeing hub. They created a Chinese lantern using different templates provided and an Indian mandala which are hanging up in LC4.

Literacy:

In Literacy we have begun our poetry unit. In reading, we have looked at the poem ‘Jabberwocky’ written by Lewis Carrol focusing on the nonsense words used throughout. We then compared this poem to the book ‘Return of the Jabberwock’. The last text we have looked at so far is ‘Animalia’ focusing on the alliteration used.

In writing, the students have begun to practice experimenting with poetry and have drafted and published some writing pieces. They have created some rhyming couplets, colour poems and haiku poems. 

Maths:

In maths we have been working on multiplication and division. The students have explored some different strategies that can be used to help solve both equations and worded problems. They have practised using arrays, equal groups, the vertical algorithm, skip counting/ repeated addition as well as some students learning about box algorithms and lattice strategies. These have been applied to both multiplication and division equations.

Inquiry:

Throughout the term we have been looking at Australian history between 1788-1800. The students were given the opportunity to choose a topic or event that they have learnt about this term. Some of the topics included: Aboriginal perspectives, convicts, marines or soldiers, commanders (including Cook, Banks and Phillips), Captain Cook’s voyage, the First Fleet, the smallpox epidemic and the Pemulwuy rebellion.

The students are currently busily preparing their projects for the Learning Expo that will be held on Thursday 12th of December at 10-11am. 

Religion:

In Religion, we have begun our unit of Advent focusing on the perspective of Joseph. To begin the unit we have looked at Joseph’s 4 dreams told in Matthew’s perspective.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Week 9 - Vinnies Christmas Food Drive ends on Friday
• Saturday 30th November - P&F Bunnings BBQ
• Friday 6th December - OLSC Colour Run 2:15 - 3:15pm
• Thursday 12th December - Christmas Nativity Liturgy 9am ALL WELCOME
• Thursday 12th December - Inquiry Expo 10am Families Welcome
• Friday 13th December - Whole School Assembly 9am
• Friday 13th December - Graduation Mass 6:30pm
• Tuesday 17th December - End of Term 1pm

Year 3/4 Team: Adam, Alison, Amelia, Anastasia, Beth, Elizabeth, Emma, Hayley, Helen, Jannine, John, Josh and Milla.