What's happening in our learning spaces? 

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

FOUNDATION 

We have had a blast in the Foundation learning spaces over the last few weeks as we have engaged with our new Discovery Time stations and explored the stories of our lives through our Inquiry BIG question “What’s my Story? What’s your Story?”

As readers, we have been engaging in our Big Books continuing to learn about the concepts of print. We have become very clever as we can now identify and explain what the title of the story is, what an author and illustrator does and talk about the different illustrations on the front and back covers of the texts. We have been exploring new literacy independent tasks during our reading sessions to help us consolidate our letter knowledge, identify the initial sounds in words, practise our sight words and begin to learn about CVC words. 

As learners, we have been engaging in some new and exciting Discovery Time stations. As collaborators, we have been working together to problem solve at the puzzle station, taking on different roles to finish different puzzles. At the cups and plates station and the blocks station, we created music centres, super cities and giant towers. We talked about what we were going to do, came up with a plan, drew our plan and took on different roles. As communicators, we are making sure that we listen respectfully to one another and ask each other questions. As builders, we popped on our safety goggles and fluro vests as we explored different tools and hardware. We tinkered with door knobs, hinges, light switches and different sized nails and screws. Lastly, we looked closely at photos of us as babies and photos of us now. We identified our features and the different ages and how we have changed over time!

Here is some of our thinking about our photos…

• I have lighter skin now, my baby hands are smaller - Sophie 
• My eyes were blue as a baby - Sienna
• I don’t have hair and my fingers are smaller, my feet are little - Arsema 
• I’m so, so small, my skin now is lighter - Elena 
• We don't have any teeth and less hair - Grazia 
• I have more hair now - Patricia 
• My hair is curly now and not when I was a baby. I don’t wear bibs anymore - Archie 

As Inquirers, we have been learning about the special things that make us who we are. The Foundation teachers asked each of us to bring in a family photo and sone items that are valuable to us and represent who we are. As communicators we had the opportunity to share and present our ME Bag to our peers. This was such a fantastic learning experience for us and helped us with our confidence in speaking in front of others about the things we love. We will use this information to go further and find out more about the people in our classes and where they come from. 

On Wednesday 8th May, there will be a Mother’s Day Stall. Students are asked to bring $5 to $10, and a bag, to purchase a gift. 

Kind regards, 

Leanne Wenckowski, Alex Phillips and Alycia Marsico 

Foundation Team 

YEAR 1/2

What a wonderful week we had in 1/2 last week! We celebrated our wonderful Teacher, Ms. Sparano, and her impending wedding. 1/2VK hosted their first assembly, and we engaged in some wonderful hands-on learning activities. 

As mathematicians, we tuned in to the concept of Addition.  We are beginning to explore different strategies we could use to solve simple addition problems and the ways in which we can represent these problems. As thinkers, we focused on partitioning numbers in different ways. We used concrete materials, drew the different solutions and made connections to our knowledge of basic facts. Some of us also used the counting-on strategy, while others applied other known strategies. In the coming weeks, as researchers, we will find out about a variety of strategies, including counting on, doubles, near doubles, building to the nearest ten and the split strategy. 

As thinkers, we began sorting out our research as we continued building on change concepts over time. We made connections to our excursion to Bundoora Park Farm and engaged in the first of two mini-inquiries, where we made butter using two ingredients. We then investigated how butter is made today. We continued to build on our understanding of the concepts of change, innovation and the drivers behind change. Students began to document their thinking using a t-chart to compare the differences. 

On Friday, 1/2VK did an excellent job hosting their first assembly for the year, which was a special one. As communicators, they showcased their growing confidence and did a fantastic job reading and singing—a big congratulations to all of 1/2VK for their persistence and outstanding work. We would like to thank all of the parents for getting involved in Friday’s celebrations for Ms. Sparano. We know it was a very special day for her, and we wish her all of the love and well wishes for this Saturday. We know it’ll be a truly beautiful day.

We look forward to another exciting week ahead, especially with Mother’s Day coming up! Please remember to continue to read with your children, prompting questions about the story. 

Vania Sparano, Vicky Karalis and Vivian Boggis

1/2 Team

YEAR 3/4

As innovative thinkers, we engaged in a “Design Like an Engineer” incursion on Monday, run by the staff from Akorn Education. We spent the day learning about the design process, creatively responding to problems, trialling innovative solutions and working in collaborative teams. 

Each of the groups were tasked with the challenge of designing and building an emergency structure using one 90cm x 120cm sheet of cardboard and Makedo equipment. The aim of this challenge was to build the strongest and largest shelter with no floor required. 

We had so much fun and can’t wait to continue our learning journey during our STEM lessons with Mr Frazzetto! 

As historians, we have been using our researching skills to find out about key events in Australia’s history. In small groups, we explored the First Fleet, the Gold Rush, Eureka Stockade, Burke and Wills expedition, the Kelly gang and Australia’s Federation.

As mathematicians, we have been learning different addition strategies so we can add efficiently. We have been playing fun games like flipper, kaboom and addition pac man to help us build our addition skills and fluency. 

A reminder of some upcoming events:

Parent helpers for any parent wishing to sign up to provide assistance in the 3/4 classrooms, you can find our weekly timetables on display in the junior learning area, on the glass door outside 3/4BP's learning space. Please note you can only volunteer your time if you have attended the parent induction session. Thank you very much for your support. 

Have a lovely week!

Year 3/4 Teachers,

Belinda Panzarino & Sarah Hogan

YEAR 5/6

We were super excited to begin our Winter Interschool Sports last week!

As a way of finding out in the Resilience Project we engaged in an Empathy Lesson, we discovered the T.H.I.N.K method can help them consider how what we say may impact others. The T.H.I.N.K method stands for before speaking…

T - Is it the truth?

H - Is it helpful?

I - Is it inspiring?

N - Is it necessary? 

K - Is it kind?

As inquirers, we gathered in the SLA to brainstorm and identify significant events from our past that have impacted Australia today. Students then brainstormed a set of questions that would relate to any of the topics. This then formed the data chart that we are able to use to research. 

In our mathematical thinking, we have become contestants on the BLOCK! As part of our addition learning, students have been designing areas of a house, factoring in adding large numbers and effective strategies to solve money problems. There are some chances in our Block challenge, including the Blocky Dip. This is where students can either get a well received bonus OR a not-so-well-received bill.

During Interschool sports we travelled to play Merri-Bek Primary School for an away game. We played Netball, Soccer and Footy. We congratulate the children on playing with such fantastic sportsmanship during these games. We look forward to the competition ahead!

We hope you have a wonderful week!

The Year 5/6 Team, 

Olivia Sargent, Maddie Comrie & Bianka Zorzut