What's happening?

Foundation

Oh my goodness, our lovely Foundation students have been very busy with all of our incursions, activities, and special event days! We loved having all our mums and special people in our rooms last Friday. We also very much enjoyed our first Dance lesson with Miss G on Wednesday as part of our ‘Healthy Habits’ topic. This will continue for another week on Wednesday. We also look forward to having ‘Market Fresh’ visit us tomorrow. We will learn about where fruit and vegetables come from and how they get to our homes. We also get to try some delicious fresh fruit and vegetables!

The past few weeks in literacy have also been very busy. This week we are learning about /f/ and /l/ and are exploring these sounds in our reading and writing. We have also been really busy learning how to write a good recount. It would also be great if you could have a quick chat with your child on the way to school each Monday about their weekend and what they did. This helps with their recount writing and thinking of ideas. We are so impressed with their writing skills, and it is lovely to see their confidence growing.

We have just finished learning ‘Time’ in Maths Groups and will review this topic again later in the year. You may like to discuss the days of the week with your child at home and how things in your day are sequenced i.e. first we get dressed, then we eat our breakfast, next we clean our teeth, last we pack our bag for school. Next week we will move on to ‘Addition’ and unpack the different vocabulary, symbols, and mental strategies. 

As the weather gets wetter and colder we encourage you to pack spare pants and socks, and a warm (named) navy jacket. It is also a good idea to keep a spare change of underwear, pants, and socks in your child's bag at all times as accidents can occur at school.

Grade 1

Week 5 and it feels like the term is zooming along. The Year 1’s are learning how to write a Procedure. We will be focusing on the structure of a Procedure text, beginning with the title and materials needed, followed by the details to form a step by step instruction. One of the key things we will also focus on while doing this writing is “Where to put a capital letter and full stop.” Any work at home around the correct use of a full stop and capital letter would be appreciated. 

Our sound focus is “Long Spelling Right After Short Vowel Sound” otherwise referred to as LSRASVS. Week 5 is ck and week 6 is tch.

Our reading focus is fluency, making sure we group our words together to make our reading sound like talking.

In Maths we have a new topic in Shape. Students are learning the names and features of 2D shapes and fractions of a shape.

I know you may have seen this before but just another reminder that all items coming to school need to be labelled. We still have a few unnamed jackets at school. Also, if you have any spare time to come and hear readers this term that would be awesome.

Grade 2

Our Grade 2 students have been doing a wonderful job of demonstrating their knowledge and skills as we work through a range of assessments across the different learning areas. They should be very proud of the effort, focus and persistence they have shown during this very busy time!

This week, we wrap up our procedural writing unit. Next week, students will begin learning about poetry. They will start with ‘Acrostic’ poems, discovering the effectiveness of a good ‘brainstorm’ before writing their own creative acrostic pieces.  

During our ‘Grammar Project’ lessons, students have been learning to identify and define adverbs and then use this knowledge to expand their own simple sentences with an adverb. 

As part of our ‘Word Study’, students have been learning to understand and use the suffixes -ed and -ing to indicate past and present tense. 

In Maths, we have just begun our new ‘Data and Statistics’ topic. Over the next fortnight, students will be learning how to pose relevant questions, gather data and record tally marks, display data in a pictograph and bar graph, interpret the data and make relevant statements. 

As part of our inquiry into the ‘states of matter’ (solids, liquids and gases), students are exploring and hypothesising what will happen when matter is heated or cooled. Students are absolutely loving the hands-on nature of our Inquiry topic this term! 

When you have a moment, please check out your child’s Seesaw page to see some of their amazing work! If you are having difficulty with logging in, please see your child’s teacher.

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 Maths’ (Essential Assessment). 

Grade 3

Core Knowledge: As part of our unit, ‘We Are One’, this fortnight we have explored First Nation Peoples’ languages and learned more about the significance and meaning of totems for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Students have been monitoring their reading for accuracy and understanding, which has helped them to find word meaning in context, and recall facts and details from these information texts.

Writing: Students are continuing to develop their information report writing skills, with an ongoing focus on structure, planning, and using coordinating conjunctions to write their facts in compound sentences. They are currently learning about famous landmarks and writing about Sydney Harbour Bridge. In our spelling lessons, we have been looking at the ‘consonant -le syllable (like in ‘simple’), as well as using the suffix -ish to create adjectives, and applying appropriate suffixing conventions (e.g. doubling final consonant, dropping the final e).

Maths: As part of our ‘Data and Graphs’ topic, students have gathered data from surveying, tallied the results and organised this into categories, created displays such as bar graphs and pictographs, analysed and shared statements about the data.

Wellbeing: Our wellbeing focus this fortnight is on problem solving, as well as the ongoing development of our ‘Super Six’ values, social skills and the importance of kindness.

Homework: We are encouraging students to ask a grown-up to check their homework with them before submitting, and give feedback so that they can spot and fix errors, or make changes as needed. As the same homework is given to whole Grade 3 cohort, if your child finds some of the tasks challenging, encourage them to have a go and remind them they can leave questions that they find too difficult. Students are expected to continue recording their home reading every week in their diary, get it signed by a grown up, and bring it to school every Friday. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Grade 4

It’s hard to believe that we are moving towards the halfway point of Term 2. The students have been completing a variety of mid-year assessments during the past two weeks. The Grade 4 teachers are so proud of our students for completing these and it’s been wonderful to see some great growth in their learning so far this year.

Reading: We have continued to delve deeper and read about how humans depend on plants for survival, the life cycle of trees and ants as well as how seeds are dispersed by these tiny yet strong insects. Students continue to build their reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills from one lesson to the next. We include reviews and retrieval activities so the students can revisit previous learning and use this to continually build upon and develop their understandings which are linked to our Inquiry unit of study.

Writing: Students have completed some terrific research and note taking for a chosen animal’s life cycle or a plant’s life cycle. They have been learning about and practising writing engaging introductions for an explanation text as well as using sequencing words and adverbs of manner when writing the body paragraphs to explain the stages of their animal or plant’s life cycle.

Numeracy:  Multiplication work has continued across the cohort in Maths. Students have been learning and building their proficiency with recalling multiplication facts as well as learning and applying different methods and strategies to multiply larger numbers such as partitioning (eg. 49 x 5 = 40 x5 = 200, 9 x 5 = 45, 200 + 45 = 245) and using a visual model such as a grid, to partition and multiply each part of a number. Students of all abilities are accessing and applying these methods with increasing confidence and success.

Inquiry: The student’s have continued with the growing of grass seeds and recording their observations in class. They have learnt about the various methods of seed dispersal and how this contributes to the continuation of plant life cycles. The variety of seeds that the students brought in were great as they were able to look at the features of these with magnifying glasses & test to see if they might be dispersed by water or blown by wind.

Homework: 

• Reading 5 x week. Students should be recording their reading in their diary and we ask if you could please sign these at the end of the week.
• Mentor Text vocabulary.  Due: Tuesday 21st May
• SplashLearn Maths tasks & multiplication fact practice

Reminders:

• StarTime incursion information is now available on COMPASS. Consent & payment is due by Wednesday 29th May

Grade 5

This week, the Year 5 students participated in an incursion focusing on Positive Peer Relationships. Students discussed and took part in activities which focused on building personal and social skills to enhance the quantity and quality of our interpersonal interactions. The session was broken into Growing Social Skills and Building Stronger Relationships. The sessions focused on the power of empathy, active listening, the science of kindness and conflict resolution, teamwork and how they can lift others when they are feeling down.

Maths

In Maths, the Year 5 students have post tested their skills in multiplication and have been using their knowledge and understanding of multiplication and applying it to division. Students have been revising short division with and without remainders with larger numbers, estimating division problems using rounding skills and some groups have been developing division skills with decimals and when dividing by two-digit numbers eg. 145 ÷22

Writing

Students last week have been developing their understanding of the structure of a response piece of writing. As a group, we focused on ‘Ruth’s Story’ which is an interview with Ruth discussing the impacts that the stolen generation had on her life. Students have been working on breaking down their writing into planning, how to write an introduction, describing the story and what they heard and saw when watching the video, and stating their own opinion on the piece and reasons why they feel that way. This week students will be using their knowledge and understanding of response writing to look at a piece of indigenous artwork called ‘Bushfire Dreaming’ by Gabriella Possum (Nungurrayi) and will again be developing their ability to plan and writing a written response. 

Reading

In reading, students have continued to work through our year level text ‘Rabbit Roof Fence’ which is linked to our inquiry unit topic ‘Closing the Gap’. Students have continued to develop their background knowledge and understanding of the text and have been working through the chapters. Students have also been developing their vocabulary and written comprehension skills and have been participating in regular reading fluency sessions developing students oral reading skills.

Inquiry

Students have further developed their knowledge and understanding of the impacts of the Stolen Generation exploring the big question ‘How did Aboriginal society decline and what caused this?’ Students worked together to discuss and create a display demonstrating their understanding of key themes of culture and identity loss, separation, government policies, forced removal, loss of connection and the strict rules that were in place. 

Grade 6

Literacy

Students have continued their work on information reports this week researching, planning and writing a text based on the Solar System which links to our Reading/Inquiry topic.

In Reading, we have continued working on our ‘Astronomy: Space Systems’ unit. This week students have considered the question ‘What are the moon’s phases and eclipses?’ Students have also learnt about lunar and solar eclipses.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, we will be completing our unit on Shape this week. Students will be revising their work in class before completing their post-test on Friday. In week 6, students will commence our next concept on ‘Location & Transformation’.

Year 7 Transition 2025

In week one, Year 6 to Year 7 Placement Packs were sent out. Parents received a Compass notification and application forms were sent home with your child. These forms were due on Friday 10th May. Families will be notified of student placements on Wednesday 17th July. Please ensure you read the instructions carefully when completing the forms. 

If you have any questions, please contact the Year 7 transition coordinators (Audrey Ulrich & Nathan James).

Interschool Sport

Students played their second round of interschool sport away last week at Dingley. Our third round will be this Friday 17th May at home against Mentone Park. Good luck to all our teams.

Term 2 Dates

Please check Compass and Focus for further information regarding Term 2 dates relating to Grade 6 students.