Classroom News

Junior School News

We had a great first week of term in the Junior school. It was so good to see how eager students were to get back into their learning and to reconnect with friends after the holidays! 

Literacy and Numeracy

Students are beginning a fascinating unit on Ancient China, learning about its history and culture over the next four weeks. They have already learnt the new vocabulary words; civilisation, archaeologist and ancestors. We had some wonderful discussions about our own ancestors and family histories. 

In numeracy, students are focusing on understanding place value, a key concept in building math skills. 

Skill in focus

This week we are learning about the split digraphs o_e and u_e. 

A split digraph contains two letters (a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e) but they are split between a consonant, for example; make, bike and pure. The vowel in a split digraph makes its long sound. 

Looking Ahead

After studying Ancient China, we'll start a novel study on Bungawitta, promising a fun literary adventure. We look forward to a term full of learning and growth! 

Middle School News

In the Middle School this week we have begun to read our new text: Storm Boy by Colin Thiele. Many parents may remember reading this book when they were at school! Storm Boy is our student choice novel - meaning that the students were given the opportunity to vote and chose this text. Whilst reading, we have continued to build on our note taking skills using symbols to record key facts and moments. Note taking is a complex skill that requires lots of practice. In Text Construction we are expanding sentences using When? Where? Why? questions. Using these questions supports students to build complex sentences. 

Numeracy 

In Numeracy we are continuing  to build our knowledge of fractions. Middle School students are exploring fractions of shapes and collections, as well as learning to convert between mixed numbers and improper fractions.

Reminders

Students should be reading for at least 20 minutes each night. When students read at home, please remind them to log it in their diary to receive a dojo point.

Please send a hat and drink bottle to school daily

Spotlight On Visual Art 

Juniors have been experimenting with acrylic paints and bubble wrap, as they learn about stamping. As we move into Term 2 juniors will learn about Chinese Art and the significance of the dragon in their culture. They will make 3D puppet dragons in the coming weeks. Seniors have discussed Australian landscape paintings and will complete a landscape art piece made with wool. Congratulations to all students on an amazing start to the year, looking forward to seeing some fantastic artwork in Term 2.   

Seniors kicked off the term working in small groups to design, plan and build a boat that could move on its own with a Lego pirate on board. Well done seniors, your designs were very effective and kept your pirate dry. We have learnt about Aboriginal rock art and created our own designs on small river rocks. Together we made salt dough and moulded fantastic easter creations. Students used water colours to make underwater scenes and complete their easter eggs.