Photo Gallery & Classroom Learning

Kindergarten

Shamrocks made to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Our Year 6 Buddies came down to help us make some 3 leaf clovers representing "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit".

Colouring and cutting out "stretchy snakes" to help us in Literacy when we stretch out words to hear each of the sounds. 

Year 2

Religion

Year 2 listened to the story of 'Zacchaeus' and 'The Poor Widow' and shared how they can turn back to God this Lenten season. Students lead prayer which is a part of our daily routine.

English

Students complete their first Cold Write.

Spelling activity

Students learn in their rotation groups.

Maths

Position - learning left, interpreting maps and giving directions.

Representing Whole Number

History

Learning about the past including artifacts. Year 2 trying to portray the past through this black and white picture.

Creative Arts

Successful Armidale Art Show

Students continue to work on their St Mary's Art Show piece.

Golf

Cross Country

Awards

I am Safe, I am a Learner and I am Valued, Respected and Cared for  

Year 3

Year 3 have started a new content area 'Addition & Inverse Operations' in Maths. They have been using the equals sign to mean the 'same as' and understanding associative property of addition. 

Tips for parents:

Continual reinforcement of the concept of addition in the real world is extremely beneficial to student learning and understanding. Adding totals at the supermarket, in the shed or collating minutes on a device are all examples of practicing the skill.

During Art lessons the students have been working on creating their own masterpieces. The students have been using Aboriginal symbols to create their own story within their art. We have been learning about Aboriginal Culture during our English and History units. 

Year 4

Year 4 playing “Race to 1000” applying our addition

Big Write and VCOP

At St Mary's we use the Big Write & VCOP methodology to help students develop their writing skills in an engaging and structured way. This approach encourages children to become confident, creative, and effective writers by focusing on four key aspects of writing: Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, and Punctuation (VCOP).

What is Big Write?

Big Write is a dedicated writing session where students apply their skills in an extended, independent writing task. Before the Big Write session, students take part in class discussions, fun oral activities, and 'Home Talk' (a chance to discuss ideas with family at home). This helps them feel prepared and excited to write. During the Big Write, they write in a quiet, focused environment, aiming to improve their use of descriptive language, structure, and creativity.

What is VCOP?

VCOP stands for:

• Vocabulary – Expanding word choices to make writing more vivid and engaging. We call these 'wow words'
• Connectives – Using words like “however,” “because,” and “therefore” join ideas together, create flow and form complex sentences.
• Openers – Varying sentence starters to make writing more interesting. Words  that end in ‘ly’ and ‘ing’ are power openers!
• Punctuation – Using punctuation correctly to enhance meaning and make writing more effective.

When you see your childs writing you will notice that some words will be highlighted. This forms one aspect of the editing process.  

Here, students identify the Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation in their written work and highlight each aspect in the appropriate colour.  Students are able to easily identify which of the four components they have done well, and those that need to be improved, or, ‘up-levelled’.

Armidale Diocesan Mathematics Initiative (MaST) Maths At Home:

Kindergarten - Representing Whole Numbers

They are also learning to read numerals and represent whole numbers to at least 20. The poster below shows the many different ways numbers can be represented.

• Encourage your child to count the number of pegs used to hang out the washing.
• Count the number of eggs in a carton, and again after some have been removed.
• Count the number of times you and your child can throw a ball to each other without dropping it.
• Have your child count as far as they are able to go and then encourage them to join you while you continue counting.

Stage 1 - Representing Whole Numbers

How is your counting going Stage 1? Can you work out the missing numbers?

Using Place Value Houses and MAB's to represent the number 268.