Middle School News
Important Reminders
- School hats are required to be worn from now until the the end of the year. Students will be required to wear them outside starting from next week.
- Early dismissal- don't forget that school finishes for the term next Friday at 2.30pm.
- Homework- just a reminder of homework expectations: mathletics, regular reading, Talk Time (Grade 4 only). It is beneficial to maintain a homework routine now because the expectations become greater in Senior School.
- Grade 4 camp - 18th-20th October.
Information has been sent on Compass with all relevant details about camp.
Reminder: 'Calm Kids' program is available to any students interested.
Learning in Action
Literacy:
Grade 3:
This fortnight, students have been focussing on biographies. They have enjoyed reading biographies of famous Indigenous Australians ranging from artists to athletes. We looked at the structure and how the key information was presented in various ways such as in 3rd person and chronological order.
We continued developing our understanding of biographies through planning and drafting a biography on an Indigenous Australian of their choice. This included a focus on expressing their voice through sentence structure and powerful words.
Grade 4:
The students have continued with their Open Cycle for literacy. One writing style with which they experimented, was writing a letter of complaint. They were presented with some fake scenarios, and from those, chose an issue about which they felt the most passionate. The possibility of the council building properties on the school oval, and thus rendering it out of use for LPS, was a big motivator for making students want their voices heard. It was important for the students to get their point across, giving reasons and examples, whilst maintaining a polite, yet serious tone.
The grade 4 students also examined and began to write biographies. They looked at the format and organisation of actual biographies, and from there decided on relevant categories to include in their own writing. This made it easy to create some questions when researching the life of one of their classmates.
Now students will write a genre of their choice, using skills gained throughout the year, to draft and publish a final piece.
Preview:
Grade 3:
Next term we will begin with an author study by focussing on Australian authors via picture story books. To complement this learning, students will be revisiting narrative writing and will create their own picture story book.
Grade 4:
Next week the grade 4 students will continue with their final piece of writing in the Open Cycle. In reading, they will continue with the Literature Circles roles.
Maths:
Grade 3:
The Year 3 students have made great progress with their knowledge, understanding and recall of multiplication facts. This has been clearly visible during the last two weeks when we have been revising our knowledge of division strategies. The students have used known facts and fact families to help solve multiplication equations where there is a missing value in the middle of the sentence i.e. 6x______=30. By turning this into a related division equation i.e., 30 divided by 6 = and using their knowledge of the 6x tables, students can then take their thinking from the unknown to the known. Students have continued to work on worded problems using the different aspects of division – grouping and sharing. Students are reminded to visualise the scenario and look for clues in the language of the problem. The students have also extended their knowledge of multiplication and division to create several factors for various numbers ranging from 24 to 124. Using the nets of various 3D shapes, the students predicted the shape, constructed, and recorded the edges, faces and corners. Using mirrors and pattern blocks, the students made patterns and experimenting with finding the line of symmetry.
Grade 4:
The grade 4s have continued to work on their division strategies, whilst they work at their goals. They have practised bundling the divisor into groups of 10, to make the larger numbers easier to tackle.
e.g. 52 ÷ 4
can 10 lots of 4 go into it? (yes, that's 40)
so let's break it into 40 and 12 more
4 goes into 40... 10 times
4 goes into 12... 3 times
10 and 3 is 13... so the answer is 13
The students have also used their knowledge of tables facts to solve division equations.
An example of fact families:
3 x 5 = 15
15 ÷ 5 = 3
15 ÷ 3 = 5
*For this reason, it is a great idea to become fluent in all times tables.
If all else fails, they can skip count to find the answer.
The students have worked on solving worded problems with their division skills. They have also revised which strategies work best with which division problems.
Grade 4s have continued to explore and make 3D shapes, noting the edges, faces and vertices.
Preview:
Grade 3:
Next term, the students will start their study of fractions describing equal parts of a whole and of a group. Students will also start their investigation into Chance conducting various experiments and recording the outcomes.
Grade 4:
Next week the students will complete a post test on division.
They will also participate in activities relating to chance; a fun way to end the term.
Wellbeing
Students continued practising using the Friend -O-Cycle when addressing their own friendship fires. They also enjoyed creating their own version in their books.
Inquiry:
Grade 3:
Students have studied the importance of a possum cloak to Indigenous Australians and in response to this they have reflected on the significant events in their own lives. They then created symbols to represent these moments and will be designing their own 'possum cloak' to reflect these.
Grade 4:
Now that the students have covered various aspects of the lives of different people from Australia's history, they have chosen one fictional character that could have lived in that era. They are continuing to write a draft for a diary from that character's point of view, and will write it up properly this week.
Preview:
Grade 3: Students will finish their possum cloaks and enjoy sharing their stories through Celebration Morning and with their peers.
Grade 4:
Next week the students will finish their diaries. We hope to have time for a fun quiz to round off our learning.
Hooptime:
What a great day on Wednesday at Hooptime. To all the participants who made the journey to Dandenong Basketball Stadium, we hope you enjoyed the day. A special mention to our All-star girls team who won every game and have progressed through to the next stage. To our All-Star boys team, what a final you played in! To go into overtime twice was a credit to all who played. Unfortunately, the result did not go our way. To all the rookies that played, you demonstrated the Lysterfield spirit by giving 100%.
