What's happening?
Foundation
We have had a busy few weeks of learning in Foundation and are very proud of our amazing prep's progress. This week we have focused on the letters /q/ and /w./ You may like to discuss with your child how /q/ makes a /k/ sound, but because it is always followed by a /u/ it makes the consonant cluster /kw/. Try using your sound pack to start building words with /q/ and /w/.
The Foundation students have been so busy this semester learning all their letters and sounds and soon will have learnt the whole alphabet. We agree that is a cause for celebration! We can’t wait to celebrate our annual Alphabet Day on the 19th June. Students can dress up as something that starts with any letter from the alphabet. Parents are welcome to join us for our alphabet parade at 9:15 am on the quad. Please note you are only allowed to take photos of your own child. Please be assured that your classroom teacher will take a group photo and post it to Seesaw.
We have started learning about addition for our maths unit. We have been paying particular attention to partitioning numbers (breaking a number into its parts i.e. 3 and 2 make 5), subitising (knowing a number represented without counting), and numbers bonds (pairs of numbers that can be added together to make another number). You may like to ask your child to practice these skills using items around the house (i.e. Lego, blocks, pasta).
We had such a fun day celebrating our ‘Healthy Habits’ inquiry unit last Wednesday. The students participated in activities including; exercise, sleep, allergies, meditation and hygiene. All of the foundation teachers agreed that students were fantastic and it was lovely to have the opportunity to teach the whole cohort in one day.
Just a reminder, we are now collecting shoe boxes which will be made into bedrooms for the student's inquiry project. If your child would like to bring in any other materials (small boxes, cardboard, cloth, beads) to help build their room, they are more than welcome.
We are also very excited about our parent picnic on 26th June. This is a wonderful afternoon to celebrate your child’s amazing success over their first semester at school. Please bring along some snacks to enjoy with your child. We will be crossing our fingers for nice weather and hope to eat on the quadrangle.
Grade 1
We have had a busy couple of weeks diving into our Inquiry Unit about weather. The students have made Pinwheels and participated in the Mad About Science Incursion. During the incursion, the students had the opportunity to perform numerous experiments enriching their knowledge of the water cycle and weather. Students made rain in a jar using hot water and ice, synthetic snow, and also looked at how a tornado and clouds are formed. The students learnt about UV light and made bracelets with beads that are UV sensitive. They had a wonderful and exciting time with lots of questioning and answers to their findings.
In Literacy students have written procedures on “How to make a Pinwheel” and “How to Draw a Clockface.” We have continued the concept in phonemic awareness this week, learning the three sounds of the suffix ed, e.g. “ed, d and t.” Students have been practising their Red Flag Words and will soon be coming home with a list of focus words to review and practise.
In Maths our focus has been “time,” beginning with duration of time i.e. a second, a minute and an hour. Over the past week we have been looking at telling the time on both analogue and digital time to the hour and also extending ourselves to read some half past times.
Grade 2
Our Grade 2 students have continued to be really engaged during our poetry unit and have produced some excellent diamante poems over the last fortnight. Next week we will be exploring rhyming couplet poetry. Students will build their understanding and skills around rhythm and rhyme in poetry.
During our ‘Grammar Project’ lessons, students have been learning how to enhance their writing by improving sentence structure. They have been working on carefully reading writing samples, identifying fragments, and editing to complete sentences accurately.
As part of our ‘Word Study’, students have been further developing their understanding of different suffixes, and are learning when to ‘keep or drop the e’ if adding a suffix to a base word ending in the final silent e.
In Maths, we have begun our ‘Money’ topic. Students will be developing their knowledge and skills with using money over the next fortnight. They will be counting and ordering collections of Australian coins and notes according to their value, representing money values in multiple ways, and counting the change required for simple transactions. As always, opportunities to explore these concepts in everyday situations and at home will be a great way to consolidate and build on your child’s knowledge and skills.
As part of our Inquiry/Core knowledge unit ‘All Mixed Up’, students are continuing to investigate changes to matter (solids, liquids, gases) and conducting experiments to determine if changes to matter caused by heating or cooling can be reversed.
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/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).
Grade 3
Core Knowledge: As part of our ‘We Are One’ unit, this fortnight we have looked at flags and explored how symbols and colours can represent our culture.
Novel Study – We began reading the text, ‘Yirra and her Deadly Dog, Demon’, a story about indigenous children living in Sydney. In addition to focusing on the ‘big ideas’ within the text so far, students been building vocabulary, sentence writing skills, and their understanding of literary devices (e.g. similes and idioms).
Writing: To kick off our poetry unit, students have been developing their rhyming skills, focusing on rhyming couplets and limericks – challenging but lots of fun! In our spelling lessons, we have been looking at the ‘oe’ grapheme, ‘Red Flag’ words, and prefixes under- and over-.
Maths: This fortnight we have been exploring angles as part of our measurement and geometry strand. Students have been identifying angles as measures of turn and comparing angle sizes in everyday situations. The are now very familiar with acute, right, and obtuse angles.
Wellbeing: We continued to work through ‘everyday’ scenarios that students might face at school and which strategies might be useful for solving different problems, along with demonstrating our ‘Super Six’ values.
Homework reminders: Students should ask a grown-up to check their homework with them before submitting, and fix errors or make changes as needed. Record home reading every week in diary, get it signed by a grown up, and bring it to school every Friday. Thanks for your ongoing support with this :)
Excursion: We are very excited about our museum excursion on Monday 17th June! Please check Compass excursion notice if you have any queries.
Grade 4
Our Star Time incursion was a huge success last week & the students learnt so much about the movie making process such as: how to use a green screen, filming techniques, editing processes such as transitions, sound effects etc. It was great to see co-operative group work and problem solving amongst the students. If your child would like a copy of their documentary, they can bring in a USB and the teachers will be able to upload a copy of it.
Literacy: Speaking and listening skills were put to the test during our Star Time movie making incursions on Monday 3rd June and Wednesday 5th June. The students did an excellent job with writing, reading, rehearsing and delivering their scripts when recording their speaking parts. We are now reading a great class novel called, ‘The Worst Witch’ and the student’s are completing reading comprehension tasks and vocabulary activities for each chapter that we cover.
Numeracy: Even though we have finished our focus on length and area, these concepts are revisited as part of our Daily Review tasks and in the student’s Mental Maths work too. We have shifted our Maths learning to the area of ‘Statistics and Probability’ with lessons and activities centred around the concept of chance.
Inquiry: We have begun a new Inquiry unit called, ‘Melting Moments’ which comes under the umbrella of ‘chemical sciences’ for Level 3 & 4 of the Science curriculum. Our Grade 4’s will be investigating a change of state between solids and liquid which can be caused by adding or removing heat. Students have been introduced to the structure of science reports and will be writing these for different activities and experiments that they will be completing in class.
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.
- Literacy & numeracy worksheet.
- SplashLearn Maths tasks.
- Multiplication fact practice.
Grade 5
Writing
Students have completed their response writing unit by writing a written response piece after watching Kevin Rudd’s ‘Sorry Speech’. Students included great use of emotive and evaluative language to describe the speech and to state their opinion and feelings on the prompt. This week students have begun exploring Palindrome Poetry. Students have been looking at the structure of the poetry and how the poem reads negatively one way and positively when read the other way.
Reading
In Reading, Year 5 students have continued to read and unpack our mentor text ‘Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence’. We are now reading the part in the text in which the three girls Molly, Gracie and Daisy escape from the settlement and are trying to work their way back home. Whilst reading the chapters of the text, students have been developing their background knowledge and understanding of where the text takes place, vocabulary skills and ability to comprehend questions demonstrating their understanding of the text.
Inquiry
During inquiry sessions, students have continued with their research project, researching either a well know Indigenous Australian that has impact in assisting indigenous cultures or a chosen day or week such as NAIDOC week and explaining the reasoning behind these occasions. Some students have begun developing their presentation either by creating a poster or using PowerPoint to present their information. Students will be presenting their information to their peers over the coming weeks.
Maths
In Maths, students have completed work on volume and capacity and have been applying their skills to real world situations. This week students have been working on their knowledge and understanding of mass and the difference between mass and weight as well as their ability to convert between units of mass e.g. from grams to kilograms or grams to tonnes. During the last few weeks of term Year 5’s will be looking at how to interpret data and ways in which we data can be displayed.
Grade 6
Literacy
Students have continued their media study on the film ‘Hidden Figures’ this week. Students have answered a series of open-ended questions about the film and completed a ‘Character Study’ on the three main protagonists.
In Reading, we have continued working on our ‘Astronomy: Space Systems’ unit. This week students have considered the question ‘How have people learned about space systems?’. Students have studied several female astronauts including Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, we will be completing our unit on ‘Time’ this week. Students will be revising their work in class before completing their post-tests on Friday. In week 10, students will commence our next concept on ‘Angles’.
Interschool Sport
Students played their fifth round of interschool sport last week against Kingswood. Our final round will be on Friday 21st June away against St. John Vianney’s. Teams will be training during our Friday sport session this week.
Space Incursion
Today students participated in a space-themed incursion involving the ‘Science Discovery Dome’. Children also completed several space-related activities throughout the day.
Term 2 Dates
Please check Compass and Focus for further information regarding Term 2 dates relating to Grade 6 students.