Infants and Primary
Infants
Term 3 is well and truly up and running, and we have already had a great number of events and lots more to look forward to. Please keep your eyes peeled for times, dates and information in the Newsletters, on Compass and Facebook.
It was fantastic to meet with many of our families last week as part of our Parent/Teacher interviews. These provided the opportunity to have a chat with your child’s teacher about their progress, successes and challenges so far this year as well as discuss any concerns you may have. If for some reason last week did not suit, please make another time with your child’s teacher by contacting the school office. We are all always more than happy to have a chat with you.
This week in our school calendar is always a highlight with our ‘Grandfriends’ visiting and coinciding with our Book Character Parade and Book Fair. Lots of fun seeing all sorts of superheros, magicians, witches, bees, butterflies, bears and other special characters at school on Tuesday and sharing their favourite characters and stories with each other. A huge thank you to our Library staff who made all of this happen!
Our students very much enjoyed having our ‘Grandfriends’ visiting us on Tuesday. They had fun playing games, reading stories and showing off some of their hard work in the classroom. It was lovely to have over 100 special visitors joining in for the open classrooms and our book parade. Our Grandfriends then enjoyed a very delicious spread for Morning Tea and coffee prepared by our Stage 5 Food Tec and Hospitality students – a big shout out to Mrs Golden and her team for all the hard work preparing and presenting the tasty treats!
Kindy/Year 1
K/1 students have had an excellent start to Term 3 and have really enjoyed sharing their favourite stories with their classmates as part of our literacy work. We had a such a wide range of favourite stories and spent time identifying if they were fiction or non-fiction, talking about why we liked them and then comparing some of our favourite characters.
In Mathematics, we have been counting collections and working out ways to count more efficiently and keeping track of our counting as we work with higher numbers. Students are also improving their number awareness and beginning to notice patterns in our numbers which is very clever!
K/1 enjoyed our ‘Feather Celebration’ last week – all students were invited to wear mufti and we then had fun playing some games together in the afternoon. There were lots of laughs and giggles as we played Twister, Musical Spots, many variations of ‘Duck, duck goose’ and others.
We have been working very hard on filling our feather tub and are quickly filling it up again!
Year 1/2
A Fantastic Start to the Term!
It’s been a busy but fantastic start to the term in the year 1/2 classroom, with so many awesome learning experiences already under our belts!
In English, we've been exploring perspectives in fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. We have been discovering that there really are two sides to every story! We put ourselves in the shoes of the troll from The Three Billy Goats Gruff and wrote persuasive newspaper articles from the troll's perspective. More recently, we’ve been diving into the concept of representation, looking at how different cultures are portrayed in texts. Today, we learned about symbols in Asian cultures, like dragons and koi fish, and even created personal symbols to represent ourselves.
At our recent primary assembly, we proudly showcased some of our artworks, which were inspired by an English unit on ocean pollution. Our vibrant sandcastle artworks reminded us why protecting our oceans is so important.
A special highlight so far this term was welcoming our Grandfriends into our classroom! We shared activities, games, and plenty of smiles as we showed them around and let them be a part of our learning space.
Our Book Week parade was another moment of joy and excitement. Every student came dressed in a wonderfully creative costume inspired by the theme of adventure.
In Maths, we’ve been investigating patterns, using objects, our bodies, and numbers! We’ve also been working on skip counting, learning that grouping numbers makes counting much easier.
And of course, we can’t forget cooking! We whipped up some delicious banana muffins, though they didn’t last long. Let’s just say the muffins were devoured quickly, and the mess was totally worth it!
We’re looking forward to all the wonderful learning still to come!
Phoebe Wood
Year 1/2 Classroom Teacher
Year 2/3
We have been very busy in Year 2/3 over the last few weeks. Our new class has settled in very well together and we are enjoying our new routines and working together to have some fun learning experiences. In week 1 we learnt about NAIDOC week and what it means to all of us. We have enjoyed our cooking lessons, making some yummy food together and learning new skills. We have started reading the novel 'The Calling' and we have discovered a vast range of new vocabulary and ideas while sharing this book together. In Maths we have been working on angles, larger numbers and fractions. Our Science studies have taken us to Planet Zog where we have to study the interactions of plants and animals and choose which ones to take to this new planet, ensuring that all of these living things can survive together is very important. During our Sport sessions we have been combining with Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 to play league tag, touch football, netball and league. It's lots of fun learning new skills from our older friends. Lastly, we have started learning our performance for Smart night and we hope you're going to love it as much as we do.
Miss Downey l Year 2/3 Teacher
Yindyamarra
The first few weeks of Term 3 have been a busy and engaging time for Yindyamarra students. They began the term by completing a "holiday snapshot" task, where they shared an adventure, they experienced during the break.
In English, students are exploring how settings and situations are represented in texts, and how authors draw on their own experiences, memories, and knowledge to inform their writing. Through imaginative play and storytelling, students are developing their understanding of the real and imagined worlds. This learning is supported by the texts The Patchwork Bike and Molly the Pirate, which offer rich opportunities to examine how imaginative play is portrayed in different contexts.
Mrs McGrath
Primary
Grandparents Day/ Book Week A big thank you to everyone who attended our Grandparents Day and Book Week celebrations! We had a fantastic turnout filled with joy and creativity. It was wonderful to see our students engaging with their grandparents and sharing the love of reading.
Congratulations to Our Southern Stars Students, We are thrilled to announce that our Southern Stars students are gearing up for final rehearsals as we approach week 6. With lots of practices scheduled, we can’t wait to see our talented students shine on stage!
Alice Apps - Rostrum Public Speaking Congratulations to Alice Apps for advancing to the next level in the Rostrum Public Speaking Competition! Alice will be competing in Canberra in the coming weeks. Good luck, Alice – we are all cheering you on!
Good Luck to Our Athletes Best of luck to all students participating in the Trent Barrett Shield and District Athletics next week! The Trent Barrett Shield will be held on Tuesday, August 12th, followed by the District Athletics on Friday, August 15th. Go, team!
Combined Primary Sport We kicked off our Combined Primary Sport program last week, where students from 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, Yindy, and 5/6 come together during period 4 to enjoy mixed sports activities. The students loved this initiative, which also serves as a fantastic opportunity to prepare for upcoming sporting events, including the Trent Barrett Shield and Touch Football/Netball Carnival in term 4.
5/6 Newsletter
In 5/6, we have been busy honing our skills in constructing newspaper articles while incorporating figurative language to engage our readers. Our students planned and wrote compelling articles, which they then transformed into visually appealing newspaper layouts using Canva.
The focus of our articles was on the main character, Sasha, from our class novel Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief. The students explored how Sasha serves as a glimmer of light amidst the darkness of World War II in Stalingrad. Through this project, students not only practiced their writing skills but also gained a deeper understanding of the historical context and themes presented in the novel. We are proud of their creativity and effort in bringing their articles to life!
Year 6/7 Transition
At the end of last term, our Year 6 students, and a number of students from other schools, had their first ‘taste’ of high school when we held our first Year 6/7 Transition Day. They were able to get a much greater idea of what a day in high school looks like by taking part in activities from various subject areas, working with a number of different staff from across faculties and moving around the school to work in specialist classrooms. Some of the highlights from the day, included:
- Graffiti art and STEM when we made a card with an LED battery in it – Joe
- Doing different science experiments with electricity and balloons – Caleb
- Finding ways to keep an egg safe when dropping it from up high in Science – Deon
- Doing a Jungle Gym Challenge with Mr Jones and writing our name in graffiti in Art – Maddyn
- Using ‘Skittles’ for measurement and statistics in Maths and doing a teamwork challenge in the morning – Siarra
The next transition day is coming up later in Term 3. Students said they were looking forward to working with some of the new students they met, catching up with other friends again who are already in high school, having a go at different subjects they haven’t tried yet, and hoping to do cooking and use some different equipment in the kitchen.
