F/1/2 Classroom

It has certainly been a busy few weeks in the F/1/2 classroom! This newsletter is a little bigger than usual as we catch up on all of the wonderful learning and events from the past few weeks. As we move past the halfway point of Term 3, students continue to amaze us with their enthusiasm, growing independence and the effort they are putting into their learning. There has also been plenty to celebrate across our classroom and wider school community over the past few weeks.

100 Days of School & Grandparents Day

Week 5 was a particularly special one as we celebrated 100 Days of School! Our Foundation students were very excited to mark this milestone and enjoyed a day filled with special activities and celebrations. We were also fortunate to welcome so many grandparents and special people into our school for Grandparents Day. It was wonderful to see students proudly sharing their classroom and learning with their visitors. Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the day so special. We also came together as a whole school for a beautiful liturgy, making it an extra memorable day for our school community.

Book Week

This week has been filled with excitement as we celebrated Book Week! We kicked off the week on Monday with our Book Week Parade, and it was fantastic to see the creativity and excitement as students arrived dressed as some of their favourite book characters. Throughout the week, we have continued celebrating our love of books and reading, including a visit to the Rushworth Library and our whole-school Book Week rotations. It has been a wonderful opportunity for students to enjoy stories and engage in some fun and creative experiences together.

Literacy

There has been lots of progress to celebrate in Literacy. Our Foundation students have now been introduced to almost all of their letters and sounds and are continuing to build confidence using these to read, spell and write words and sentences. It has been particularly exciting to see how far they have come as readers since the beginning of the year.

Year 1 students have continued extending their phonics and spelling knowledge, with a strong focus on digraphs, split digraphs and suffixes. They are becoming increasingly confident recognising these patterns and applying them to their own reading and writing. Year 2 students have continued developing their spelling, grammar and comprehension skills, with a particular focus on finding the main idea, making inferences and summarising information from texts.

Maths

Our Mathematics learning has continued to look a little different across each year level. Foundation students have been strengthening their number knowledge and are now beginning to explore addition and subtraction through number stories, materials and hands-on experiences. Year 1 students have recently been exploring measurement, including comparing and measuring length using informal units. Year 2 students have begun developing their understanding of multiplication and division through grouping, arrays, skip counting and hands-on materials.

Our fortnightly Maths Groups have also continued, providing students with opportunities to consolidate important skills in smaller, targeted groups. These sessions allow us to revisit concepts where students may need additional support while also providing opportunities for extension.

Science & Religion

In Science, students have continued investigating Physical Sciences through lots of hands-on learning. We have explored pushes and pulls, how forces can change the movement and shape of objects and more recently how sounds are made through vibrations. Students have loved predicting, experimenting and discussing what they notice during our investigations.

In Religion, our learning has moved from exploring the Bible and the messages it teaches us about love and kindness to thinking about God's creation and our responsibility to care for the world and one another. Students have been discussing practical ways we can care for people and our environment in our everyday lives.

As always, I am incredibly proud of the effort our students continue to put into their learning and the way they demonstrate our school expectations. It has been a very full few weeks and students should be proud of everything they have achieved.

Thank you, to our families for your continued support both at school and at home. Whether it is joining us for special events, supporting home reading or simply encouraging your child each day, your involvement is greatly appreciated. We are very lucky to have such a supportive school community and I look forward to another exciting few weeks ahead!

Upcoming & Reminders

• AFL Auskick: F–2 students will participate in an AFL Auskick session next Thursday from 1:00–3:00pm. Students are welcome to wear their sports uniform on this day.
• Father's Day: We look forward to welcoming our families for our Father's Day Mass, lunch and sock parade on Friday 4 September.
• Readers: Please continue to return reader bags each Mondaymorning so they can be checked and sent home again that afternoon.
• Sport: Sport continues every Tuesday and every second Wednesday (even weeks). Students are welcome to wear their sports uniform on these days.