What's happening in our learning spaces?

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

PLW	Patricia - For always including detailed illustrations when completing your learning. You take such pride in the way your learning is presented each day. What a STAR you are!
PAM	Alexandra - For being a focused and persistent learner and giving everything a go with a smile on your face. Keep it up Lexi!
PAP	Florence - For sharing your creative ideas in our whole class discussions. Thank you for always being brave enough to share with us fabulous Florence!
1/2VS	Ruby - For showing courage and persistence when exploring dates in the monthly calendar. You are a wonderful mathematician Ruby, keep it up!
1/2VB	Madeline - For her creativity and determination in Writing. She worked hard to write an interesting Recount using adjectives and onomatopoeia. Amazing!
1/2VK	Eli - For demonstrating your love of learning each day. You tackle each task with tenacity and a growth mindset. Well done Eli.
3/4SH	Isaac - For being a consistent and diligent member of our learning community and for giving us the biggest smiles this week during our incursion. We're lucky to have you Isaac!
3/4BP	Riley - For being a respectful member of 3/4BP. You always listen to others and show kindness to your peers. We are lucky to have you in our class!
5/6MC	Stella - For being such a great collaborator when taking initiative and teaching others in our class how to use the algorithm when adding numbers in maths. Well done Stella!
5/6BZ	Dannte - For being a curious problem solver when adding large numbers using algorithms. Dazzling Dannte!
5/6OS	Victor - For working diligently and collaboratively during our reading groups and making thoughtful comments about the text. Fantastic Victor!

FOUNDATION

The Foundation teachers would like to welcome back all the families and students after a well deserved rest from Term 1. It was wonderful to see so many happy and eager students entering the learning spaces on the first day of Term 2.

As writers, we had time and opportunity to share where we went, who we saw, what we played and ate over the break, including our Easter celebrations. As thinkers, we drew detailed pictures and then wrote short sentences to describe them. Some of us are still recording initial sounds in words and using known sight words, whilst others are recording most of the sounds in words. We are also using finger spaces and full stops in our writing. Check it out below!

As mathematicians, we are beginning to understand the language and representation of solving simple addition problems. We will be using a variety of engaging and hands-on tasks to introduce the concept of addition. As thinkers, we have been building our vocabulary of addition. We know that we can use different words like add, more, plus, altogether and how many when talking about addition.

A friendly reminder to bring in the Me Bags if you have not already done so. A letter was sent home about this last week. If you have not sent a baby photo for Inquiry, please do so as well.

We hope you have a wonderful week, and hope to see you all for our Saint Fidelis' Feast Day Mass in the Church on Wednesday at 9:15am, and for our ANZAC Day assembly on Wednesday at 10:30am.

Kind regards,

Leanne Wenckowski, Alex Phillips and Alycia Marsico

Foundation Team

YEAR 1/2

It has been an exciting start to Term 2! We would like to commend how well the Year 1/2 cohort has settled in and begun to engage in learning opportunities. It is visible that the children have remembered the Agreed Ways of learning at St Fidelis Primary School.

As mathematicians, last week we had the opportunity to observe the April calendar. Through group discussions, we have identified how many days there are in a week and in the month of April. Together we have created a monthly calendar and recorded upcoming events for this term. Each of our learning spaces will continue to read and record on our class calendars for each of the months, as part of our morning routine.

As historians, we participated in a shared learning experience at the Bundoora Park Farm. It was a great start to the day, travelling by bus. When we arrived at the farm, we actively participated in a variety of different activities that helped us to extend our knowledge of how people lived in the past. We sat in a mini bus that drove us around the park to observe Australian animals such as emus and kangaroos. It was fascinating to see the animals up close! As thinkers watched and listened to an expert who showed us how to use some of the very first printers and engaged in an activity to print our very own initials.

We walked through an old cottage and practised how to do chores such as washing clothes, cleaning carpets and making butter. It was very tiring! Then we had the opportunity to experience what it was like to go to school in the olden days. We entered the school and we all had our very own desks. We had to listen to the very strict teacher and engage in writing using ink. We were very curious and asked lots of questions throughout the day.

We will continue to unpack and reflect on this opportunity throughout the term! Thank-you to the parents who joined us on the excursion, you were a fantastic help, supporting the teachers to capture student thinking and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did!

A friendly reminder to please ensure that children are reading each night. We strongly encourage children to engage in conversations after reading texts. This is what we call reading comprehension. This is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. This will be a big focus in our reading sessions this term. Here are some helpful questions to help talk about texts:

What are the important things that happened in this story?
Can you tell me what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story?
How was (character) feeling at the beginning/end of the story?
Can you tell me about a time when you had the same experience as (character)?

Vania Sparano, Vicky Karalis and Vivian Boggis

1/2 Team

YEAR 3/4

Welcome back to Term 2! We hope you all had a restful holiday break. We are looking forward to a wonderful term of learning together.

As inquirers, we engaged in a fun incursion with Amy called ‘Terra Australis - Oi Oi Oi’. Students explored different Australian events in history. During this incursion, students recreated major Australian historical events from the First Fleet to Federation. Students used mime, slow motion, improvisation, props and dialogue. Students experienced the challenges of building our national identity. Some of the events covered were the arrival of the First Fleet, hardships of the goldfields, Eureka Stockade, early explorers and the capture of Ned Kelly. Thank you Amy, we had a fun experience and learnt so much!

A reminder of our specialist timetable for Term 2:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

No specialists

STEM

Art

Library

Italian

**Sports uniform must be worn.

Intraschool Sport

**Sports uniform must be worn.

Important Term 2 dates:

Wednesday 24th April	Saint Fidelis' Feast Day Mass 9:15am - all welcome ANZAC Day Ceremony 10:15am - all welcome Whole School cross age activities Hot Food Day 1:30pm
Monday 29th April	Year 3/4 AKORN incursion - students can wear sports uniform on this day
Monday 6th May	GATEWAYS - lower years
Wednesday 8th May	GATEWAYS - upper years
Friday 10th May	Mother’s Day breakfast and activity in learning spaces

Home Learning Expectations

Home learning is expected to be completed at home to consolidate the learning at school. Home learning is to be completed in home learning workbooks with headings and dates relevant to the task. Home learning for Term 2 will be distributed on Monday 22 April, giving students two weeks to complete this at home.

Students are encouraged to read each night and record their reading in their school diary as well as complete the TRP GEM Habit builder. School diaries are to be handed into the classroom teacher every Friday for sign off.

Have a lovely week!

Year 3/4 Teachers

Belinda Panzarino & Sarah Hogan

YEAR 5/6

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful Easter break.

As writers, students brainstormed highlights from their school holidays. They then documented and drew their favourite parts of their school holidays. Students were able to share their holidays snapshots with each other and the learning space.

On Friday, the Year 6 students attended the Melbourne Legacy’s 92nd ANZAC Commemoration Ceremony. We had the opportunity to listen to a range of different speakers, lay a wreath/floral tribute and view the RAAF fly over us. After the ceremony we had the opportunity to enter the Shrine of Remembrance, this is where we viewed the Shrine Crypt and Galleries of Remembrance. We were guided by a volunteer, Barry, who was an engineer in the Vietnam War.