Teaching and Learning Areas
Foundation
Dear Foundation Families,
As we draw closer to the end of the year, we hope you take some time to reflect on the wonderful things your child has accomplished over the past few months. Whilst the past fortnight has been a tiring one for the students because of swimming, they have continued to demonstrate a positive attitude towards school and we hope they’ve enjoyed the novelty of the daily walk to and from the pool.
Late this term we have provided students time to engage in ‘free writing’ and the creative ideas they come up with continue to amaze us. Please continue to encourage your child to write (and read!) over the holidays so that they come back confident and ready to go in Grade 1!
Their creative skills were once again out in full force as we constructed ‘trioramas’ to accompany their Christmas narratives. This is a fun craft activity you may like to try at home.
Our Maths lessons have included learning about money, which culminated in the students creating shops to buy and sell from. Various goods were made including Pokemon cards, paper bags, mini clothing items and fidgets. Students practised counting out money to match the price tags and some challenged themselves to try and start calculating change! The remaining lessons have focused on revising number concepts. To support your child, please continue to encourage them to practise counting, adding, subtracting and sharing at home over the holidays.
Next week we will enjoy a visit from Santa, our Family Museum and our final Assembly. We hope the students enjoy this very celebratory end to the term.
The four of us (Arwen, Joe, Rosa and Lexie) consider ourselves very lucky to have taught this cohort and we hope everyone (parents and kids) have a smooth transition into Grade 1 :)
Happy Holidays!
Arwen, Joe, Rosa and Lexie
Grade 1/2
As we approach the final week of the school year, it’s amazing to reflect on how much our Year 1 and 2 students have accomplished! The past two weeks have been particularly exciting, with students enthusiastically participating in swimming lessons. They’ve thoroughly enjoyed building their confidence in the water while strengthening their swimming skills.
In the classroom, students have been honing their mapping skills by designing their very own farms on grid paper. They’ve practiced using directional language to guide each other from one area of their maps to another, creating a fun, hands-on way to bring their learning to life. Our budding poets have also been busy crafting creative poems complemented by beautiful illustrations, while enjoying the opportunity to read books of their choice.
During the final week, students will take part in a range of enjoyable activities to celebrate the festive season and end the year on a high note. These activities include creating festive arts and crafts, practicing mindfulness through drawing, reading their favourite books, continuing to write imaginative poems, and solving fun and challenging Christmas-themed maths puzzles. Furthermore, on Tuesday, the students will meet their new teachers, and on Wednesday, a very special visitor—Santa himself—is stopping by for some holiday magic!
As part of packing up classrooms, we will begin sending workbooks and other belongings home with the students. To assist with this, we kindly ask that students bring an extra bag, in addition to their regular school bags, to school. A sturdy reusable shopping bag would be ideal.
The Year 1 and 2 team would like to congratulate all students on a fantastic year. It has been wonderful to see their enthusiasm for learning and their willingness to embrace new challenges. We wish everyone a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season and look forward to seeing you all again in 2025!
Warm regards,The Year 1 & 2 Teaching Team
Grade 3/4
Hello families and carers of 3/4,
We did it! Well done to all our 3/4s on completing another year of schooling. Please enjoy the pictures of the Grade 3/4 Sustainability Market, which was a great success! So many awesome products and such a good turn out with families coming along to see the hard work of our students. Thanks to all those who came to support as well as those who brought items in to be upcycled. Another big thanks to our amazing ES staff and parent volunteers who were so vital in ensuring the crafting process went smoothly. Finally, a great big thank you to Jennah Smith who did most of the organising. It couldn’t have happened without you! We raised a total of $1200 which is enough to buy our school colour-coded and labelled bins, making it easier to sort waste especially for younger students.
In the last few weeks even with the swimming program, we have still done so much learning. We finished off the year with revision about shape (symmetry, tessellation, 2D and 3D objects etc) in Maths. In Literacy, we have completed a unit on Life Writing where students looked at blogs and made their own entries on Google Sites. We also will round off our Health unit this coming week with a focus on healthy eating habits and safe use of medicine/drugs.
We’ve also included some photos of Grade 4s meeting their buddies as well as a couple snaps from the swimming program. Another highlight was Rae and Imogen from 3/4C and Stevie from 3/4D receiving letters from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in response to their outstanding persuasive letters on waste.
It has been such a pleasure as teachers to watch our students grow and learn over the past year. We wish you a safe and happy holiday break. Also a shout out to 3/4B teacher Keerththana McVilly as well as 3/4A teacher and team leader, Lina Ventura, both of whom won’t be joining us at Merri-bek PS next year, but who have poured a lot of time and energy into ensuring this year ran smoothly and students were cared for. We wish you both best of luck next year with your next chapters!
Grade 5/6
Happy end of term!
We cannot believe how quickly these past few months have gone and that we are at the end of 2024.
A couple of weeks ago, the 5/6 students had a very successful market afternoon with the school community. This past semester, the students have been learning about some global issues that are linked in with the Sustainable Development Goals. After exploring the specific issues of global hunger, fast fashion and girls’ education, students chose one of the SDGs to research and support. Students were allocated to groups where they had to find a charity to support and raise money for by designing, creating and selling a product. The afternoon was a huge success and altogether, the 5/6s raised over $1600 for various charities and NGOs across the world. What a great effort from all our students.
Weeks 9 and 10 have also been lots of fun and hard work for the students who have engaged with the whole-school swimming program. The students have enjoyed spending every day at the pool and learning essential life-saving skills in the water.
This week, our Grade 6s went to their Year 7 transition day at their high schools. We know it was a day full of nerves but that we have full faith in our students to have a successful and enjoyable start to their high school careers.
Coming up next week are a few exciting activities. On Tuesday, our Grade 5 students will meet their 2025 teachers and grades. Then on Wednesday is our whole school Santa visit and then our Grade 6s will have their graduation after school. On Thursday the whole 5/6 cohort are heading to Funfields for our end of year celebration. We always have such a fun time at Funfields and are really looking forward to the day.
We wish all the families a restful school holiday and to those who are heading to high school next year, best of luck! To those who are beginning Grade 6, we will see you in the new year. Happy holidays!
5/6 team :)