Prep

What’s Happening in Prep: Weeks 5 and 6

What’s been happening

It has been an exciting couple of weeks in Prep with so much learning happening around the theme of the Olympics. In writing, we wrote about what sport we would do if we were an Olympian and in Maths we competed in a ‘Maths Triathlon’ rotating through 3 number-based games. To top off the week, we celebrated the BPS Olympics! We dressed up in our country colours and participated in equestrian, swimming and athletics.

What will be happening over the next fortnight

Wellbeing

Using positive language to support our development (growth mindset)

Phonics

Recognising the digraph /ng/
Recognising the digraph /nk/
Learning the suffix’ es –ing –ed

Reading

Decoding words and blending to read smoothly
Recognising how adjectives can be used to describe a noun
Making inferences about characters’ feelings

Writing

Segmenting words into syllables and writing sounds to match
Using dotted thirds to write upper and lowercase letters correctly
Writing a sentence correctly
Expanding simple sentences with an adjective
Researching and planning our ideas before writing

Maths

Making connections between addition and subtraction
Recognising, ordering and identifying the value of Australian coins
Comparing objects based on length

Inquiry

Big Question: How do living things grow and change?

Over the next fortnight, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:

How do living things grow and change through their lives?
Which animals are native to Australia?

Homework

Continue looking through Decoding Detective and Word Wizard book as well as take home readers. Students are encouraged to participate in daily reading. If students record 100 nights of reading in their journal, they will enjoy a pizza party hosted by Mr. Tapp. Please encourage students to read the same book multiple times per week as this is valuable to their learning and assists with their fluency. Please note that reading pages from the Decoding Detective/ Word Wizard exercise book counts as a reading entry in the student journal.

Optional: Mathletics and exploring the Prep-2 homework rubric located inside the students reading pouch.

Reminders

Wednesday 21st August – Book Week dress up day
Friday 23rd August – Moonlit Sanctuary Excursion
Friday 30th August – Footy Day (Father's and Special Friends Day Breakfast in the morning)

Year 1

What’s Happening in Year 1: Weeks 5 and 6

What’s been happening

Science has been a major highlight of the past few weeks for the Year 1 students. Professor Bunsen introduced students to the wonderful world of Chemical Science through fun and exciting experiments. Year 1 students also worked on expanding their vocabulary, sentences and writing skills in Literacy. The students have grasped a number of new spelling patterns which they have used in their writing and recognised when reading. For Maths, students have outdone themselves, already exploring division and multiplication problems.

Students had a ball representing their BPS Olympic country. The students showed off their wonderful and colourful outfits. They then competed in an egg and spoon contest, mini table hockey competition and beanbag shotput race. The Year 1 teachers had the privilege of handing out 3 gold, silver and bronze medals, as well as 3 spirit awards. Well done Year 1 students!

What will be happening over the next fortnight

Wellbeing

Students will consider their emotions through the Respectful Relationships program.
Students will construct their Term 3 learning goals and evaluate their current goals.

Literacy

Literacy encompasses spelling, reading and writing. The following few weeks students will be focusing on:

Spelling: Students will learn when and how to use –le at the end of a word. For example, gentle, little.
Writing: Students will unpack mentor texts to recognise the different parts of a sentence, i.e. verb, subject and object. They will then create their own pieces of writing using this structure.
Reading: We will be looking at mentor texts to identify the parts of a simple sentence; a subject, verb and object. Students will also explore levelled texts that have the new spelling pattern.

Maths

Students will continue to look at division and multiplication in the following weeks. Once they have a better understanding of the concept, students will explore fractions.

Inquiry

For our Science unit, students will be exploring how materials can change. Students will use Stopmotion to show materials can change. Additionally, students will participate in a number of classroom Science experiments.

Homework

Keep practicing spelling and reading the memory words that were sent home.
Read every day to add to your 100 days of reading challenge and the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
Mathletics passwords are in the front of reading journals. Students can practice what we have been learning in class.
Additionally, students can choose a homework activity from the Prep - Year 2 homework rubric.

Year 2

What’s Happening in Year 2: Week 5 & 6

What will be happening over the next two weeks in Year 2

The Year 2 teachers have loved the Year 2 Potato Olympics. The students have been incredibly engaged in the unit of work, from rolling potatoes down slides to writing descriptive paragraphs! It has been a blast. Over the next two weeks, BPS will be celebrating Book Week. The Year 2 teachers are looking forward to getting dressed up and reading lots of wonderful books. The students will also be continuing to work on their amazing Inquiry projects.

Wellbeing

During the next two weeks of the term the students will be continuing to work on managing stressful situations and building on their self esteem.

Reading

Book Week is a highlight for both teachers and students. The Year 2 teachers are looking forward to delving into lots of CBCA shortlisted books. During the reading sessions students will be identifying language choices that authors utilise to describe character traits and how descriptive adjectives are used to create tone and emotion. Students will continue to build on their fluency through parent reading volunteer sessions and participating in choral and echo reading in the classroom.

Writing

Over the next two weeks the Year 2 cohort will be focusing on our mentor text Jetty Jumping, written by Andrea Rowe. During Book Week, the students will meet Andrea Rowe and ask Andrea questions. Jetty Jumping links to the persuasive unit of writing the students will be working on.

Maths

Students will begin exploring the concept and language surrounding fractions. The unit on fractions will take place for the next two weeks. Other taught concepts will be revisited during our warmup activities in the classroom.

Inquiry

Throughout Term 3 the Year 2 cohort will be focusing on Design and Technologies as their unit of Inquiry. The Big Question for the unit of Inquiry is: How do forces create movement in our daily lives?

Over the next two weeks students will begin designing and creating their arcade games.

Reminders

Reading Rockets/ Take Home Readers

The Reading Rockets program will continue in Term 3. The Year 2 teachers will continue to check reading diaries on a Monday morning and will be adding to the Reading Rockets Tally in the classrooms.

Box donations welcomed!

You may have seen in last Thursday's communication that the Year 2 students will be utilising boxes as a part of their inquiry projects this term. For the students to be able to create their games, the Year 2 teachers would LOVE for families to gather and donate recycled boxes. The boxes will need to be stored in the classrooms so it would be great if the boxes could be of small/medium size (think Hello Fresh boxes/ shoe boxes etc).

Year 3

What’s Happening in Year 3: Term 3 Week 5 & 6

What’s been happening in Year 3

How amazing were the 2024 BPS Olympics! We had such a fun day competing for our countries and demonstrating the qualities that we pledged to when stating the Athletes Oath, including fair play, persistence, honesty and teamwork. We all were striving to be good sports when competing in table tennis, volleyball, archery and tunnel ball while having a great time in mixed grades.

Our Potato Olympics has concluded. The spuds worked hard in many disciplines with gold medals awarded for sporting excellence, accuracy in Mathematics and teamwork. This was such a fun way to explore and practice maths!

What will be happening over the next two weeks in Year 3

Wellbeing

How to maintain a positive and growth mindset.

Recognising and celebrating character strengths.

Strengthening our existing relationships and building a supportive and team environment within our classroom and in the yard through small groups, whole class and whole year level activities.

Reading

We will be analysing, interpreting and evaluating transactional texts such as letters. We will be identifying the purpose of these texts along with the vocabulary used to set the tone.

Comprehension strategies will be used to build literal and inferential meaning when reading transactional texts.

Writing

We are learning about words that share common traits and how they are considered a word family, sharing meaning and spelling.

We will be continuing our Pen Pal writing with our 2023 buddies from Hampton PS! All students will have a pen pal to connect with through their writing.

Maths

We will be completing activities focused on graphing and data collection with an Olympics focus before returning to revisit and continuing to explore multiplication and division.

Inquiry – Design and Technology

Big Question: How might we design a community park that is sustainable, inclusive and reflects Indigenous perspectives?

We will be walking to Bayside Community Nursery on Friday the 16th to continue learning about Indigenous and native plants from some local experts. Students will also explore how design can be inclusive to cater for all community members.

Our excursion to CERES environmental park will encompass many aspects of our big question. The students will learn more about the cultural significance of Indigenous and native plants and wildlife, what a sustainably built park looks like and more.

Homework

Students are asked to continue to read every night and to complete Mathletics tasks set by classroom teachers. Students have some optional activities to complete from the Homework Grid in their homework books.

Reminders

Diaries are expected to come to school every day with their reading recorded and ready to be checked by the teacher. We are keeping a tally of individual reading and as a class to hopefully win the prize of a pizza lunch!

Please see the details for our upcoming excursion to CERES via the compass event, happening in Week 6.

Book Week Dress Up Wednesday 21st August Dress as your favourite book/book character!

Ceres Excursion Friday 23rd August Make sure you have given permission and payment via the Compass event.

Father’s and Special Friends Day Stall Wednesday 28th August More details TBC

Father’s and Special Friends Day Breakfast & Footy Day Friday 30th August More details TBC

Friendship Lunch Thursday 5th September More details TBC

Open Classroom Friday 6th September More details TBC

Last Day of Term Friday 20th September 2:30pm Early Dismissal

Year 4

What’s Happening in Year 4: Week 5 & 6

What’s been happening

We are looking forward to another wonderful few weeks in Year 4. This week we have been visiting the Scholastic Book Fair! Your child will have already visited the book fair with their teacher. They will have made a wish list of potential books to buy. In Week 6 we are also celebrating Book Week with the theme – Reading is Magic. Don’t forget, the students are invited to dress up as a character from their favourite book on Wednesday 21st August.

What will be happening over the next fortnight

Wellbeing

We are focusing on teamwork skills; how to work proactively and respectfully with a variety of different students.
Affirmations and positive self-talk.
Reading books with the theme of neurodiversity.

Literacy

Reading fluency sessions with a focus on inferencing, text connections and unpacking comprehension questions.
Focus on fluency through a range of whole, paired and independent activities.
Spelling revision and testing.
Prefixes, suffixes and base words.
Using the conventions of dialogue in our writing.
The correct use of apostrophes; contractions, plural possessive and singular possessive.
Novel study – Nim's Island.

Maths

Numeracy Ninja’s - Daily numeracy fluency sessions.
Using the area model to solve double digit multiplication problems.
Measure and approximate perimeters for regular and irregular shapes.
Strategies for division and multiplication.

Inquiry

Day and Night post-assessment.
What is the Earth’s surface and how does it change?
Weathering and Erosion.

Homework

Daily reading recorded in diaries.
Allocated and outstanding Mathletics tasks.

Reminders

Week 5: Scholastic Book Fair – you are welcome to visit and purchase books before school between 8:30 – 9 am, this Monday to Friday.
Week 6: Book Week Dress-up Day – Wednesday 21st of August. Come dressed as a character from your favourite book.

Year 5

What’s Happening in Year 5: Week 5 & 6

What will be happening in Weeks 5 and 6 in Year 5

This week began with the Potato Olympics. Students enjoyed creating their potato athletes and participating in the events. Students created data sets of the event results and will use them this week to create different graphs and make comparisons. The Year 5 students participated in the House Athletics Carnival. Each competitor demonstrated persistence and determination and showed great care and support for their peers. Well done, everyone! It was a huge day and there were some very tired faces the following morning. Students will begin planning and writing their podcast. They are excited to begin this work. Week 6 is Book Week. Students have been discussing their favourite books and costume ideas.

Wellbeing

Students work on resilience, respect, relationships and responsibility.

Literacy

Students will practise reading fluency (accuracy, rate, prosody) through repeated oral strategies and information texts related to Earth and Space Science curriculum.
Students will study the features of an imaginative podcast through the study of our mentor podcast ‘Macaroy Uncovered’ by ABC.
Student will identify and explain how analytical images like figures, tables, diagrams, maps and graphs contribute to our understanding of verbal information in factual and persuasive texts.
Students will analyse strategies authors use to influence readers.
Students will spell words with common letter patterns but different pronunciations.

Maths

Students will use their proficiency with addition, subtraction, multiplication facts for tens (× 10) and related division facts to perform arithmetic operations to divide numbers efficiently.
Students will use their proficiency with multiplication facts and efficient mental and written calculation strategies to divide by one-digit numbers.
Students will solve problems involving division, choosing efficient written strategies.
Students will solve problems using the properties of square numbers.
Students will learn how to multiply and divide decimals by powers of 10.

Science

Chemistry

What is matter?

What is the difference between solids, liquids and gases?

Why do materials behave the way they do?

What causes changes to matter?

Earth and Space

What makes up the solar system?

Why is the sun so important?

Homework

An updated Year 5&6 Homework Rubric is linked to your child’s class Microsoft Team.

Students are expected to be reading every night and completing assigned Mathletics activities over the fortnight.

Reminders

19th – 23rd August Book Week

21st August Book Week Dress Up

30th August Mini Boss Studio Incursion

2nd – 5th Sept. Bike Education

Year 6

What’s Happening in Year 6: Week 5 & 6

We’ve had a great few weeks of sport for the Year 6’s with our Hockey team and T-ball team progressing to regional finals! We also had our House Athletics Carnival which was a beautiful day in the sunshine with lots of friendly competition and fun for our students. Well done to everyone who came along. We also celebrated 100 Days of School with our Prep buddies, doing a scavenger hunt and having a special lunch together.

What will be happening in Week 5 and 6 in Year 6

We will be ramping up our musical practice in the next few weeks as the musical looms ever closer! Classes will have a chance to visit the Book Fair before the end of week 5 to create their wish lists. The Book Week dress up day will be Wednesday 21st of August.

Wellbeing

We are exploring the impacts of gender stereotypes on individuals and the way we interact with others based on their gender.

Literacy

Spelling – Latin bases <spire>
Classes will be continuing to read Us Mob Walawurru, students will be engaging in accountable independent reading, paired and small group reading and listening to teacher read aloud.
Sentence level writing- students will be forming different types of complex sentences.
Students will be beginning to create a character profile of Us Mob Walawurru’s protagonist, Ruby. We will be deepening our understanding of the Luritja mob through non-fiction text study and writing prompts.

Maths

Students will continue to use different types of measurement and will be learning to convert between them.
Problem solving will be embedded throughout these lessons

Inquiry

Big Question: How is energy generated and transferred and how can we generate electricity in sustainable ways?
- What are the different forms of energy?
- How is energy transferred and transformed?
- How do circuits conduct electrical energy?

Homework

Students are expected to be reading every night and completing assigned Mathletics activities over the fortnight. Diaries with reading recorded will be checked weekly and Mathletics tasks should be completed by Friday August 9th.

Reminders

Week 6

Book Week dress-up day – Wednesday 21 August

Oscar	40L
Harley	50C
Vivienne	20W
Winter	60J
Reuben	50C
Emma	30K
Savannah	40L
Lachlan	40B
Makayla	10M
Isabelle	20W
Mason	50L
Sebastian	50C
Lewis	1LP
Harvey	3GP
Zahi	00F
Noah	30C
Mae	00J
Valerie	6CD

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to all of the following students: