Reception: Katie

The Reception class have been busy learning lots of new sounds in phonics. We have been learning how to blend these sounds into words and have even been able to start writing some basic sentences. In maths, we have been learning about patterning and grouping. We have learnt how to sort items in lots of different ways and identify the unit of repetition in patterns. As part of our work with the Kimochis, we have been learning about Huggtopus, which has coincided well with our learning about the Zones of Regulation. We have also recently had a visit from the Kindy, where we made Easter cards together.

Year 1: Alex

The past few weeks have been full of fun and excitement, with lots of Easter activities and our much-anticipated Sports Day!

In Writing this term, the children have been focusing on using capital letters, finger spaces, and full stops, as well as learning to apply their phonics knowledge in their writing. We have also been exploring narratives, learning that good stories include a beginning, a middle (with a problem), and an ending.

The Year 1 children have been busy exploring all things Easter—creating egg patterns and learning about symmetry in Maths. They also enjoyed writing about what they would do if they were the Easter Bunny, along with taking part in a range of arts and crafts. A special highlight was decorating their colourful Easter hats with the Reception class.

On Thursday, the Year 1s did a fantastic job at Sports Day. It was wonderful to see them trying their best, cheering each other on, and enjoying the day together. We are so proud of their positive attitudes and team spirit! A big thank you to all the parents who helped on the day—it was greatly appreciated.

From all the year 1’s, we hope you have a wonderful holiday break, and we look forward to seeing you all again in Term 2!

Year 2: Suzie

Students have worked well this term to develop a super learner team. They are showing understanding and openness to being in the learning pit, developing a growth mindset when tasks can be complicated and supporting each other as learners. Recently in writing we explored a Big Write to develop skills in preparing and planning to be successful creative writers. We focused on persuasive text structure to support the design of their butterfly garden and how to write a recount using ‘Sports Day’ as the topic.

I was proud of the students at ‘Sports Day.’ They worked as a team, participated well individually and supported each other with lots of cheering and praise. Each student set a goal for the day and they have reflected on their goals as part of our term focus on goal setting. Setting goals can be tricky to get them ‘just right,’ so the students have worked at developing their understanding of how to set themselves goals that are not too hard and not too easy, known as the ‘Goldilocks Goal.’ We will continue to revisit goal-setting around our learning throughout the year.

Year 2/3: Emma

Sustainability Fair: We had such a wonderful turnout at our Sustainability Fair and felt incredibly proud to showcase our ideas for reusing and repurposing products. Our butterfly garden project was a great success, raising over $100! We’re excited to put this towards developing our garden next term.

Grandparents’ Day: What a special experience it was to welcome grandparents and carers into our classroom on Harmony Day. There is something truly special about the positive and vibrant outlook grandparents bring—so similar to the children—and it created such a warm and joyful atmosphere for everyone.

Creative Write (Big Write): I was so proud of the class and their preparation and dedication towards their creative writing task last week. We created a cosy environment with (pretend!) candles, a fireplace on the big screen, and dimmed lights to help inspire calmness and creativity. It was wonderful to see their ideas come to life.

Place Value: This term, we have been building a strong foundation in place value. This understanding is essential, as it supports many other areas of mathematics that we will continue to explore throughout the year.

A Final Note: I feel incredibly proud of how much our class has grown this term—academically, socially, and emotionally. It truly is a welcoming and positive environment each day. A special mention goes to our two new class pet fish, Goldie Lucy June and Douglas Jermey Polar, who have quickly become much-loved members of our classroom!

Wishing you all a restful break, and I look forward to another fantastic term ahead!

Year 3/4: Stephen and Kelly

We enjoyed putting together our Australiana theme of music and information reports. We finally had the opportunity to perform our songs to two very appreciative audiences - from Suzie's class and Katie's class (More, more, more they all demanded 🙂) We have concluded our learning about Place Value for the time being, as we now read numbers up to the millions and determine the value of individual digits in these larger numbers. There was lots of positive feedback about Sports Day from last week too.

We have had a busy two weeks. We have had great discussions about whether or not students should only go to school four days a week and they have begun writing a persuasive text to convince their audience of their opinion. For health, we have focused on what a healthy and unhealthy friend looks like, as well as looking at the difference between rights and responsibilities and what rights/ responsibilities children have.

I was so proud of how well Sports Day went. The class showed such great sportsmanship, cooperation and listening skills. Listening to them cheering each other, supporting each other and working as a team was fantastic. It was a fantastic day!

Year 4/5: Rachael and Troy

The Year 4/5 class has had a wonderful few weeks. We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Harmony Day and Grandparents Day together – it was lovely to see such a fantastic turnout, and the mosaic activity created a beautiful opportunity for students and grandparents to connect and work together – with some intricate and beautiful results!

Our excursion to Ashton Valley Fresh was another highlight. Students learned so much about the apple-growing process, explored the impressive machinery and technology (which can produce 10,000 litres of juice per hour – up to 100,000 litres a day!), and discovered how nothing is wasted, with leftovers going to the cows. A favourite moment for many students was picking their own Fuji apples to take home, as well as the generous taste testing of the different juices. A big thank you to all of our parent drivers who made this excursion possible.

In the classroom, our fluency reading sessions are settling into a great rhythm, and it has been fantastic to see such strong improvement in both accuracy and expression. In spelling, students are making excellent progress with their understanding of morphemes, including re (meaning again) and im (meaning into or not). In maths, we have been extending our knowledge of rounding and place value through some engaging games, and students are really enjoying their Makers Empire challenge, “Everyone’s an Inventor!”

It has been a productive and fun term! Enjoy your holidays everyone!

Year 5/6: Sallie

Since the last newsletter, our class has settled back into learning with me. Thanks to Michael for his great work while I was away.

In maths, we have continued to focus on addition and worded problem solving. We have been trying to be conscious of different problem solving strategies (sense - does your answer make sense, solve - use all the information to solve the problem, select - select a strategy what operations are necessary to solve this problem, see/sketch - sketch, collect data, make a table, see pattern, sort - what information is needed to solve the problem, search - read/listen to what the problem is asking and underline important information). So far it seems that making a table and looking for a pattern are the strategies most used for the problems covered to this point.

In English we have continued with our new spelling program. This term we have concentrated on affixes (prefixes and suffixes). The affixes we have focused on are anti, de, en, re, im, less, in, and mis. We finalised our novel studies and did a showcase (just with students from class), students were encouraged to critique each other (with a proforma for prompts). It was a great way for students to show their work and also to learn from each other (see the photos below).

In art, students have completed more work on "cubism" and Lego Spike continues to be our design and technology focus.

SAPSASA district athletics was very successful, and the students are eager for sports day! Enjoy the holiday break, and I look forward to seeing all students back next term, rested and ready to take on new learning.

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