School News 

Prep

100 days completed! Can you believe that our Preps have already completed their first 100 days of their education? It seems to have gone in the blink of an eye. The Prep teachers were beaming with pride on Tuesday 30th July  when we were greeted with so many excited faces, all dressed up in their colourful costumes. We had princesses, famous footy players, fairy tale characters, pirates, fairies, home-made ‘100’ t-shirts and many superheroes. In all the excitement, we also seemed to gain many visitors from a local retirement village! It was also so lovely for our Preps to be welcomed into the Boorai by members of 5/6A, who made a 100 days sign to celebrate our students. Thank you to Mrs. Creed for getting behind our celebrations and surprising us with her students. 

 

We celebrated our 100 days in style. We made ‘100 days brighter’ crowns and funny glasses. We found 100 things in a picture and counted to 100 in style. We sang songs and shared our successes at school so far. 

We are so very proud of all our Prep students and can’t wait to see what the next 100 days brings.

 

Our Prep students also enjoyed our latest buddy catch up! The Grade 5 buddies supported the Preps to create a funny monster who could become the main character in the stories that we are writing at the moment. The best part about buddies is seeing the kind and supportive way our older students interact with the Preps. 

 

Our swimming week is fast approaching! We will send out specific information about swimming week at the end of week 5 with everything that you need to know, so please keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, we encourage all the Prep students to practise getting in and out of their bathers and dressing independently so that they can approach swimming week with confidence. If you would like to volunteer as a helper for swimming week, please email your child’s teacher. 

The Prep Team

Mrs. Harrison, Miss. Hartrick, Mrs. Brebner & Mrs. Munnecke

Grade 1 & 2

What a super fun and busy fortnight the Level 1 and 2 students have had. 

In Writing we have been publishing our sizzling starts using the program 'Puppet Pals'. We hope to share these with our families during Week 6 when we bring home our learning portfolios. 

 

In Reading we have been practising decoding words and making inferences. We have learnt that to make an inferences we need to use the knowledge we already have and the clues in what we read or see. 

 

In Maths we have been learning to skip count by 2s, 5s, 10s and even 3s. Set your child a challenge and see how high they can count in 30 seconds by 10s, or 5s.

 

One of our biggest highlights has been our Quantum Excursion. 

"I liked making the jumping beans the best" - Mila

"I loved visiting the movie theatre'- Emily

"I loved racing the Mexican jumping beans" - Harrison

"I liked learning about the life cycles of animals" -Charlotte

We also enjoyed catching up with our Level 6 buddies and together created crazy monsters.

 

In Level 1 and 2 we are really encouraging developing students independence. This includes students saying 'Goodbye' in the morning, walking into their classroom on their own and unpacking their bags. We can appreciate your support by saying 'Goodbye' at the line when the bell goes.

 

The Level 1/2 Team

Llinos Poole, Sally Newton, Tim Huntington, Emma Wright and Veronica Paps

Grade 3 & 4

There have been amazing things happening in Grade 3/4, as we get through the first month of Term 3! 

 

The students have completed some of their learning tasks already, doing an amazing job of showing their success in learning.

 

In Reading, students have read a variety of procedural texts. They have had fun analysing the features of procedures, using EPIC to read many of these. Observing elements such as procedural goal, materials/ingredients, steps/method and a conclusion. They even had time to read instructions to create origami and drawings throughout the week. Our students have also had the opportunity to revise the skill of summarising and completed summaries of different narrative procedures this week.

 

In Writing, students completed their learning task, which was choosing a knowledgeable topic and plan, draft and edit a procedure. There were some great ideas, and the kids were able to write strong procedures – we hope you enjoy reading these in their portfolios in a few weeks! This week, students have read a number of narrative procedural texts which has created many great ideas for writing. They planned and are now beginning to draft their own narrative. The narrative needed to show an element of a procedure throughout the writing.

 

In Maths, students completed the unit on Multiplication which included the completion of their learning task. This task showed their knowledge and skills in using written strategies to calculate a chosen multiplication equation. The strategies included formal algorithm (column method), lattice method, and box method. This week, the new maths topic is Volume and Capacity. Students have loved using resources to understand these concepts. They have measured, ordered and compared objects using units of volume and capacity.

 

In Inquiry, students have involved themselves in the understanding of rules and law making and comprehending the difference between the two. They had the opportunity to make a law last week! This week has been focusing on the 3-levels of government and the other systems of government around the world/in history. 

 

In Science, knowledge of ‘states of matter’ has continued, and last week students participated in an experiment where they viewed heat being added to different substances. They had to time how long it took for these substances to melt – this included lard, ice-cream, ice, shredded cheese and aluminium foil. This week it’s been freezing different substances! Students predicted, observed and recorded results for the freezing points of water, oil, milk, honey and vinegar. So much fun!

 

The Level 3/4 Team

Hayley Peirce, Sarah Jones, Damien Smith, Renée Barnden & Brent Smith

Grade 5 & 6

It has been a busy two weeks in Grade 5/6!  From netball champions, Hoop Time training, Buddies, Grade 5 visit to Lilydale High School and not to mention our core business of reading, writing, maths, science, inquiry, wellbeing and specialists!   

 

In Reading we have been continuing our class novel of ‘Boy Overboard’ by Morris Gleitzman.  It has been a very powerful text that has explored concepts of refugees from Afghanistan and evoked thought-provoking conversations amongst the classes.   

 

In Writing we have finished our explanation text type.  Students have been developing their sentence fluency, proofreading and recrafting.

   

In Maths, we have completed our unit on fractions with students applying their understanding to fraction problem solving.  We have started our work on the order of operations using BODMAS, PIMDAS & PEMDAS.   

 

In Wellbeing, we have been learning about character strengths and how we use them in our life.  Students explored the character strengths of their role models and noticed commonalities and differences between them.  Ask your child what their top 5-character strengths are and what they think yours are!  

 

Inquiry has had students identifying big problems that are affecting children globally.  Students are working on a project that is a call to action for a problem that they would like to address.  Students will be using persuasive devices as part of their project.   

 

Our Grade 5 excursion to Lilydale High School had students enjoying the dramatic delights of their production Curtain Calls and Chronicles.  We were also lucky enough to spend a session in the school’s Zoology department exploring the amazing reptiles! 

 

We hope you have a great weekend and we look forward to Hoop Time on Monday! 

 

The Level 5/6 Team

Megan Pepprell, Alarna Creed, Sam Younes, Mykaela Oakley, Brendan Van Haaster, and Ashleigh Wilson.