What's happening?
Foundation
The holidays are in sight and everyone is very excited for a well-deserved break. The students have been enjoying our writing topic of ‘Information Reports’. The students began writing a report on a chosen community helper. It has been great to see them passionate about their writing and to see what they have learnt throughout ‘Community Helpers’ inquiry unit.
In Maths Groups, we have continued our topic on ‘Measurement’ (Length, Mass and Capacity). We have enjoyed completing many hands-on activities to further our learning. We will be moving to Statistics and Probability next week.
Just a reminder that Friday (13th of September) is a curriculum day and students will not be required to come to school. The following Friday (20th of September) is the Footy Day and the last day of school. School will finish at 2:30pm on that day.
We look forward to a fantastic final term in Foundation and want to thank you once again for your continued support. Have a wonderful and safe holiday and we look forward to seeing you on the 7th of October.
The Foundation Team
Grade 1
The Year 1’s are continuing their wonderful information texts with this week’s topic Koalas. The students have been looking at “ai and ay” sounds and next week will be reviewing the codes and sounds learnt this term. Over the coming days we will update the children’s take-home sound pack so please ensure these come to school each day inside their reader folders. Our Red Flag Word this week is “people”, and our handwriting focus has been the ‘rounded entries family’ which includes the letters, m,n,r,x and z. We have also been completing our regular progress monitoring of the student’s reading fluency and it has been lovely to celebrate the children’s improvements with their timed passage reading this week. We encourage all families to continue to practise daily reading over the coming break to help maintain progress!
In Maths this week and next week we will remain on the topic of addition and subtraction. We have been practising different strategies to get to the same answer when working out equations, like doubles, near doubles, bridging, partitioning and fact families.
Our Inquiry topic about Australia is coming to an end. The students are currently going for an imaginary drive around Australia and finding out about our states and territories. To finish the topic, we will have a special Australia themed day next Thursday. Please note costumes are not required for this day.
Just a reminder to have hats at school and at After School Care if your student attends.
Thank you for another wonderful term and we hope all families have a lovely holiday break!
Grade 2
As we wind up Term 3, we’d like to congratulate our Grade 2 students on their terrific effort and progress this term - they should be very proud of themselves! Thank you to our wonderful Grade 2 parents for your ongoing support. An extra big thank you to the parents that attended our War on Waste excursion today!
In Literacy, students have been writing some fabulous persuasive texts. They have been using strong language with solid reasons to support their opinions! For reading, we have been engaging in the text ‘One Plastic Bag’ by building vocabulary and comprehension skills. This text also links to our Inquiry into Earth’s Precious Resources. As part of our ‘Word Study’, we have been focusing on identifying the two most common sounds for the vowel team ‘ea’..../ē/ and /ĕ/.
In Maths, we are wrapping up our Multiplication and Division topic by linking the two operations and learning about fact families. Students have also been recognising and representing division as grouping into equal sets and solving problems using efficient mental and written strategies. Further experiences with these concepts at home will continue to consolidate students’ understanding of division and multiplication in ‘everyday life’. Using ‘Sunset’ and ‘Jetpack’ Maths (accessed through Essential Assessment) are also great online options to build understanding of these concepts.
We continue our inquiry into ‘Earth’s Precious Resources’, exploring ways we can reduce single plastic use and Take 3 for the Sea! Our ‘War on Waste’ excursion today was a fabulous way to consolidate key understandings that the students have learnt during our inquiry topic this term.
Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud, sound pack practise and ‘Red Flag Word’ spelling. If students are reading other books from home, in addition to the coloured levelled readers, we’d love if these could also be recorded in reading logs please.
Grade 3
Novel study: We will continue our novel study, ‘The Wind in the Willows’ up until the end of this term. Students are doing a terrific job demonstrating active listening, participating in discussions and responding to questions in writing to demonstrate their comprehension. The themes of friendship/loyalty, responsibility, and irresponsibility have continued throughout the text, (and most recently, hospitality), and students have been able to identify and discuss these themes in detail. Our vocabulary focus words also relate to our novel study and we continue to work on fluency with related readings each week.
Writing: We are currently exploring explanation texts, noting the differences between these and information or procedural texts. Students are focusing on structure, sequence and using technical or scientific words to explain how or why something happens. In our grammar and syntax lessons, we have been learning about reflexive pronouns such as yourself, himself, itself, themselves, etc. In our decoding and spelling lessons, we focused on the 1-1-1 doubling rule, homophones with the graphemes ow, oa, ea, a-e, and reading and spelling words with the ti, ci and si code when adding vowel suffixes, e.g. direction, magician, discussion.
Maths: We began our ‘Shape’ topic this week with students identifying and naming 3-dimensional objects using the correct geometric terms, describing their features, and recognising similarities and differences. Encouraging your child to identify 3D objects in everyday life at and home will continue to build their understanding. It would also be great if students could continue practising learned time tables and strategies.
Wellbeing: Last week all students were lucky enough to watch a performance by ‘Brainstorm Productions’ called ‘Sticks and Stones’, promoting resilience, cyber safety, positive connections and social skills. We will also continuing our focus through to the end of term on social skills, Super 6 values, problem-solving strategies and help-seeking processes.
Homework: Thank for your ongoing support this term with checking weekly homework, home reading, and signing diaries. It would be wonderful if all students could keep up their reading over the holidays (as well as having a lovely break :)
Grade 4
Literacy
This week in Literacy, we wrapped up our persuasive writing pieces. The focus has been on creating strong, convincing arguments using high modality words, emotive language, and persuasive techniques. In reading, we finished War Horse, and we loved unpacking the incredible story. The themes and characters led to rich discussions that everyone enjoyed.
Numeracy
In Maths, our unit on decimals and percentages continued. We’ve been learning strategies to convert decimals into fractions and percentages, as well as how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals. The students are becoming more confident in working with these concepts.
Inquiry
In Inquiry, it’s been an exciting week! Students worked in groups to create their own political parties, each with a unique vision. Every party has been busy coming up with new laws that could be introduced at school and in the local community. It’s been a great opportunity to develop teamwork and creativity.
Finally, we’re all looking forward to camp next week! Be sure to check the packing list. A final reminder will be sent out on Compass on Thursday.
Grade 5
Maths – We have begun our new Maths topic ‘Chance’ which will take us to the end of term.
Reading – We have finished reading ‘A Single Shard’ and students completed a post-test to show their comprehension of the story. This week students will be individually conferencing with their teacher to discuss their results and understanding.
Writing – We have also started writing procedural texts, such as ‘How to make a corner bookmark’ and ‘How to make a Mr Bean sandwich’. Students have thoroughly enjoyed practising this genre by ensuring their steps match the action involved with strong word choices.
Inquiry – Students are beginning their mini group projects, making a life size poster of the circulatory and respiratory systems in the human body. Students also thoroughly enjoyed the ‘Mad About Science – Human Body’ incursion on Monday where they participated in a range of experiments.
Reminders:
Friday 13th September – Curriculum Day
Tuesday 17th September – Online Parent Info session for Health Education (see Compass event for details)
Friday 20th September – Footy Day and early finish
Grade 6
We are back from Log Cabin Camp after an incredible 3-day trip! The students had a fantastic time taking part in a wide range of activities, stepping out of their comfort zone and being exemplary Parkdale P.S students for the duration of camp.
We started with our day trip to Sovereign Hill, soaking in the history of the goldfields and what life was like in the 1800s. Followed by our short bus ride to Log Cabin Camp for activities such as the Leap of Faith, Giant Swing and Zipline. The students also took part in some Disc Golf, Commando courses and Archery. Well done to all who went and a big thanks to our helpers for coming along and being a part of the fun!
Literacy:
We are starting to wrap up our novel study of the Magician's Nephew, finalising our discussions about allegories, allusions and fantasy features of the novel. In class students will complete a post unit assessment and also have the opportunity to watch the following chapter to the story, Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Mathematics:
Measurement units have come and gone, wrapping up with volume and capacity. Students have moved into new groups to learn about Data and Statistics. They are beginning to explore collecting, interpreting and representing data. While also discovering how data can be misrepresented in media.
Memory Books:
Students have been completing their drafts for memory book writing. They should all be close to the editing stage. Students have been asked to bring in a project book that can be used as their memory book for our upcoming projects. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher for clarification.
End of Term:
Please keep an eye on your child's Seesaw in the final week of term, as they will complete learner reflections and demonstrate their learning from throughout Term 3.
Term 4 Dates:
Please keep up to date with Compass and Focus, there have been several important dates released recently. Our ‘Smoothie Boss’ Incursion will take place early Term 4, and dates have been shared about end-of-year celebrations.