What's happening?
Foundation
Can you believe we’re already halfway through Term 3? Our Foundation kids have been working their socks off and doing an amazing job! We had a fantastic day on Monday, dressing up in theme with our favourite books. We are working super hard with our concert rehearsals and getting super excited as the days get closer.
Inquiry:
We have been looking at information reports as a class and focusing on community helpers. We have been identifying important elements of an information report including an introduction, where they work, what vehicle they drive and what our community helpers wear. This week, we have been drafting our very own information reports with the community helper of our choice!
Maths:
Next week, we’ll finish our ‘Subtraction’ unit, where the kids have been practicing different strategies to solve problems. After that, we’ll start our ‘Measurement’ unit, focusing first on length. The students will be exploring how to measure and compare the length of different objects using fun, hands-on activities.
Literacy:
In Literacy, the students have been working hard on learning some new sound patterns (codes). Last week, we looked at ay/ai (like in play and rain), and this week we’re focusing on ee/ea (like in tree and beach). They’ve been doing a great job using these sounds to read and spell some tricky words.
Don’t forget we have our first ever excursion coming up next week on Monday, the 25th of August!
As always, thank you for all your support.
Grade 1
We are already halfway through this term, and rehearsals for our concert are stepping up. Students did a great job on their recording, and the focus now is on the dance moves. Any practice at home would be much appreciated.
In Literacy, we are still focusing on Information Reports. The reports will be about wombats, and the process will be broken down into sections to ensure students know how to produce an Information Report. In Word Study, we have one more week on the diphthongs “ou/ow” sounds, before moving into the diphthongs “oi/oy.” Our morphology focus this week is the prefix “is,” and next week we will look at the suffix “ish.”
We have been, and will continue, completing the Education Department’s Phonics Testing this week. In Reading, the students will also complete a one-minute DIBELS fluency reading task in Week 6.
The Handwriting focus for this week is Zz, and next week is Rr.
In Maths, the students have continued their lessons on patterns within numbers, shapes, money, and skip counting. They have all worked hard and enjoyed the pattern lessons. Next week, the students will be concentrating on a new topic: sharing and grouping.
Our Australian Studies topic is focusing on Victoria and Melbourne this week. On Tuesday of Week 6, the students will participate in a rotation day, moving between classrooms to learn about the different states of Australia. This is always an action-packed and fun day for the students.
On Tuesday 19th August, the students were lucky to have author Cassy Polimeni (whose daughter Billie is in our Year One cohort) come and talk to them about how she became a writer, where she found inspiration, and how anyone can begin writing—even at the age of six! Cassy also shared the process of publishing a book and fascinating facts about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which inspired her picture storybook The Garden at the End of the World. She also spoke about frogs, which feature as a theme in her books The Amazing Frog Orchestra and The Sleepover Party. These books are available in our school library. Thank you so much for your time Cassy everyone enjoyed the informative talk.
Grade 2
It was so lovely to celebrate Book Week as a school! The Grade 2 teachers were absolutely blown away with the incredible effort that went into our dress up day on Monday. A huge thank you to our wonderful Grade 2 parents for your enthusiasm and support in making the day so special!
Writing: Students have been learning about the structure and features of persuasive texts. Using a planning template, they are working to ensure their writing includes a clear introduction, three strong reasons with supporting evidence, and a conclusion that restates their opinion. We are also focusing on using strong, emotive language, along with developing skills in paragraphing, proofreading, and editing.
Reading: We have started engaging with our whole-class text, The Garbage Barge. Students are building their vocabulary and comprehension skills, while also exploring different sentence types in the text. This story ties in beautifully with our Inquiry unit on Earth’s Precious Resources.
PhOrMeS / Word Study: In our PhOrMeS lessons, we’ve been learning about the rule: “i” is not allowed at the end of words (usually). We’ve also been reading and spelling words with suffixes that end in -y.
In our Grammar Project lessons, students have been learning to use commas to separate items in a list and are beginning to apply this skill in their writing.
Inquiry: Our inquiry continues as we explore why water is such a precious resource and ways we can conserve it in our daily lives. Next week, we’ll begin learning about the importance of soil in our environment and its role in supporting life on Earth.
Maths: This week, we wrapped up our unit on Multiplication and Division. Next week, we move into our new topic: Shapes! Students will explore both 2D shapes and 3D objects, learning to identify and describe their features using appropriate mathematical language.
Homework: Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud and a weekly Word Study/PhOrMeS worksheet. Optional online extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).
Recycled Materials Needed! Miss Watson is running a rotation activity focused on recycling and reusing household items, and she would love your help! If possible, please send in any of the following clean and safe materials:
-Empty tissue boxes
-Small boxes (no larger than A4 size)
-Paper towel rolls
-Cleaned plastic lids from milk bottles
Please do not send any items that have been in contact with food (especially wheat, egg, or nuts) or chemicals, due to allergies and hygiene concerns. Collection tubs are located at both ends of the Grade 2 corridor. Thank you so much for your support!
Grade 3
Well done to our Grade 3 students for their participation in our ‘Book Week’ dress-up day. It was lovely to see such a variety of characters and books represented across the cohort.
Core Knowledge: This fortnight, we wrapped up our ‘Forces and Motion’ topic with a focus on magnetism. Students conducted activities with magnets to determine which materials are and are not attracted or repelled by a magnetic force. They experienced the push and pull of magnetic force and how distance affects this, establishing the idea that a force can act upon an object and make it move without even touching it. Students then completed a unit assessment to demonstrate what they had learned about forces.
Writing: Students have continued developing their procedural text writing skills by using relevant adverbs and adverbial phrases. They have also been learning about appositives, and how to use them to combine sentences.
In our word study lessons, we reviewed the morphemes ‘rupt’ and ‘tract’, and introduced ‘form’, combining all three with a variety of prefixes and suffixes, and we continue to read and spell a range of ‘weird words’.
Maths: This fortnight, we ran our ‘Shape’ topic, with students identifying, describing and classifying 3-dimensional objects using the correct geometric terms, recognising similarities and differences, and constructing 3-dimensional models out of different materials. Encouraging your child to identify 3D objects in everyday life at and home will continue to build their understanding.
Wellbeing/Values/Social Skills: This week, students have been exploring character strengths, the ways in which we can use different strengths to show respect, and how being respectful can benefit others.
Homework: Thank for your ongoing support with checking weekly homework, home reading, and signing diaries.
Project: Over the next few weeks, students will design and plan to build a balloon-powered car as part of our core knowledge topic. We will provide some of the materials, e.g. balloons, skewers, straws, tape, and have asked students to think about what additional materials they will need, e.g. bottle tops for wheels, box, cardboard or plastic bottles to make the body of their car, materials for decoration.
**Additional items should be brought to school on Monday 1st September, to begin construction that week.
Grade 4
We’re just over halfway through Term 3, and it’s been a busy and exciting time in Grade 4! Well done to everyone who participated in school athletics last Wednesday, it was fantastic to see so much effort and enthusiasm on the day. Congratulations also to those who had a go at the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee.
Writing
This week, we continued our persuasive writing unit, focusing on writing strong body paragraphs using the PEEL structure. PEEL stands for Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link, and it helps us organise our ideas clearly and convincingly. We practiced using persuasive techniques, such as rhetorical questions, emotive language, and facts or statistics, to make our arguments more powerful. In grammar, we focused on writing compound and complex sentences to add more detail and variety to our writing.
Reading
We are coming to the end of our novel study, War Horse. This week, we focused on answering novel questions in detail, making sure to provide multiple examples and direct quotes from the book to support our answers. This helps us explain our thinking more clearly and show a deeper understanding of the story and its characters.
Inquiry
On Monday, we were lucky to have local MP Tim Richardson visit our class. He spoke to us about the three levels of government, local, state, and federal, and how laws are made at each level. In our lesson, we also learned about the voting process, including preferential voting, and discussed how citizens participate in decision-making in a democracy. We even explored why voting matters and how it affects our community.
Reminders
Please make sure to return camp medical forms as soon as possible. Also, don’t forget to keep practising your concert dance at home so we’re ready to shine!
Grade 5
It’s been another busy week in Grade 5. Students found out the winning design for their Grade 6 jumpers, enjoyed their Book Week dress up and practised their concert performance. If you already haven’t, please ensure you have provided consent and/or payment via Compass for our Grade 5 incursion occurring on Thursday next week.
Reading Comprehension
In Reading Comprehension, students have now completed their Mid-Cycle review, which is an assessment topics, concepts and themes covered in our mentor text, A Single Shard. We’ve been thoroughly impressed with the students improved understanding of symbolism and their detailed written responses.
Writing
In Writing, students have continued researching, planning and drafting explanation texts with topics that link to our Inquiry Unit. This week, students have independently drafted an explanation text relating to the Respiratory System. We now are working our way towards our writing post assessment in the coming weeks.
Maths
Students have been learning all about Angles this week in maths. Comparing, ordering, measuring and constructing angles, in addition to learning how to find unknown angles.
Inquiry
Grade 5’s have thoroughly enjoyed building on their knowledge of the circulatory system by sketching a detailed and labelled diagram of the human heart.
Grade 6
We’ve reached the halfway mark of Term 3, and we couldn’t be more proud of the effort and dedication our Grade 6 students have shown so far. From concert rehearsals to Literacy and Maths lessons, their commitment has been outstanding. As we head into the second half of the term, we encourage everyone to maintain that same level of focus and enthusiasm. It’s going to be a big finish with camp and the school concert still to come!
Please continue to stay on top of homework and individual expectations, and make sure students are getting plenty of rest. We also remind everyone to consistently demonstrate our Super 6 Values, both in and out of the classroom.
For camp, be sure to check the packing list carefully. For example, students must bring their own pillow, and pack appropriately for the weather. Any medications should be clearly labelled and handed to classroom teachers on the morning of departure. Keep an eye on Compass over the coming days for further reminders.
Regarding memory books, students have begun asking about purchasing details. These will be shared in early to mid Term 4, with plenty of notice provided. Thanks again for your ongoing support!