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English – exploring stories, perspectives and themes
This fortnight, students have been diving deeply into Jeannie Baker’s beautiful books Mirror and The Hidden Forest. Through these texts, they’ve been learning that stories can communicate multiple layers of meaning — sometimes even telling two stories at the same time.
Across the unit, students have developed a rich set of comprehension skills, including:
- explaining story parts and understanding how layout can shape meaning
- comparing key events across different texts
- analysing illustrations to uncover messages and themes
- making text‑to‑self connections
- identifying themes such as caring for the environment
- exploring character perspectives and how feelings change across a story
finding the author’s message and using clues from both text and illustrations.
Students have been applying all these skills to create their own mini‑books, inspired by Jeannie Baker’s style. They have planned story events, crafted illustrations with hidden meaning, and written short texts that communicate a message about people, places or the environment. It has been wonderful to see their creativity shine as they experiment with layout, perspective and theme.
Mathematics – patterns everywhere
In Maths, students have been exploring the world of patterns — discovering how patterns help us make predictions, notice relationships and understand how numbers work. They have investigated:
- number patterns
- skip counting
- shape patterns
- repeating patterns
additive patterns.
To celebrate their learning, students applied all of these skills to design their own patterned jumpers. Each jumper is a little masterpiece, showcasing thoughtful choices in colour, shape and number. Some students created bold repeating sequences, others experimented with growing patterns, and many combined multiple pattern types to create something truly unique.
The finished jumpers are bright, joyful and beautifully show how mathematical understanding can be expressed through art and design. It has been a delight to see how confidently students now talk about the patterns they notice and the rules they’ve created.
