What's Happening in our Classrooms

Prep

What’s Happening in Prep: Weeks 7 & 8

What’s been happening in Prep

Just call us... Superhero Preps! Over the last 2 weeks, we have been learning all about Super-Hero ‘e’ and the powers it has when we are reading and writing. We have also continued to explore our ‘Big Question’ in Inquiry through a ‘Brickworks’ incursion that incorporated design, construction, sharing and teamwork with LEGO. Additionally, we have been getting to know our own Beaumaris community. We have taken local walks to the Beaumaris Community Library. One of these visits was for National Simultaneous Storytime, where librarian Paige read us ‘Bowerbird Blues’. We have also enjoyed a special walk with our Year 6 Buddies to Banksia Reserve. 

What will be happening this fortnight in Prep

Wellbeing

• Recognising our strengths 
• Identifying future goals

Phonics

• Revising open/ closed syllables and Super Hero ‘e’
• Identifying and using digraphs /sh/ and /th/ in words 

Reading

• Making connections between texts and our own experiences
• Tuning into interesting words (adjectives) when reading 
• Asking ‘I wonder’ questions to support our understanding of a book 

Writing

• Using interesting words (adjectives) in our writing
• Writing the sounds we hear in words to communicate ideas 
• Using memory words correctly in our writing

Maths

• Comparing and ordering the duration of events using everyday language of time
• Matching number names, numerals and quantities 
• Practising addition in everyday situations

Inquiry

Big Question: How are we part of a community?

Over the next fortnight, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:

• What are the community essentials?
• What types of environments are important to a community?

Homework

Continue looking through Decoding Detective and Word Wizard book as well as take home readers.  Students are encouraged to participate in daily reading. If students record 100 nights of reading in their journal, they will enjoy a pizza party hosted by Mr. Tapp. Please encourage students to read the same book multiple times per week as this is valuable to their learning and assists with their fluency. Please note that reading pages from the Decoding Detective/ Word Wizard exercise book counts as a reading entry in the student journal. 

Optional: Mathletics and exploring the Prep - Year 2 homework rubric located inside the students reading pouch.

Reminders

• World Environment Dress Up Day – Thursday 6th June
• Grandparents and Special Friends Day – Friday 7th June 2:00 pm onwards 

Year 1

What’s Happening in Year 1: Weeks 7 & 8

What’s been happening

Our wonderful Year 1 students have been experimenting with formal and informal units of measurement during Maths. Additionally, students have been working on their adding skills through discussion, working with Numeracy resources and partitioning. 

Our history knowledge has been expanded through exploration of olden day toys. Year 1 students have compared many things from history to our modern lives nowadays. 

What will be happening this fortnight in Year 1

Wellbeing

• Students will continue their emotional check-ins and reflection on emotions throughout the day so students are more in tune with their feelings.  

Literacy

Literacy encompasses spelling, reading and writing. The following few weeks students will be focusing on: 

• Spelling: We will continue our exploration of diphthongs. A diphthong is two vowel sounds that combine to make one vowel sound. We’ll specifically be looking at <ou> and <ow> in Week 7 and <ai> and <ay> in Week 8.
• Writing: Students will be focusing on punctuation in their writing. Reviewing their work for capital letters, full stops, spacing, exclamation and questions marks. In addition, students will be writing facts about past and present artifacts. We will then be turning these facts into our own mini non-fiction books.
• Reading: We will be looking at and discussing the various features of a non-fiction text. Students will also look at Indigenous story-telling and exploring how stories are passed down through generations.

Maths

• Year 1 students will continue to look at measurement. Alternating lessons, students will build on their problem-solving skills by exploring different partitioning and their addition skills.

Inquiry

• Students will continue to compare past and present objects, experiences and surroundings during our Inquiry lessons, including how transport has changed. We will start looking at the information we have collected over the past 8 weeks which we will use for our final Inquiry unit presentation – we can’t wait to share this with you!

Homework

• Keep practicing spelling and reading the memory words that were sent home. 
• Read every day to add to your 100 days of reading challenge and the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
• Additionally, students can choose a homework activity from the Prep - Year 2 homework rubric. 

Year 2

What’s Happening in Year 2: Weeks 7 & 8

What’s been happening in Year 2

The Year 2 students have loved the weather recently and have been making the most of being able to learn outside of the classrooms. The Year 2 cohort were fortunate enough to go on a walk to Long Hollow Heathlands where we were met by two guides, Matt and Will. The Year 2 students learnt all about the history of Long Hollow Heathlands and learnt lots of interesting facts about the Heathlands, including that there is a fungi that grows in the Heathlands called Ghost Mushrooms which glows at night. 

What will be happening this fortnight in Year 2

The Year 2 students are looking forward to welcoming in our Grandparent’s and Special friends on Friday the 7th of June. The students are looking forward to interviewing their special person on the day to find out about their lives and what school was like for them. We are also looking forward to hearing back from our Pen Pals!

Wellbeing

Students will be focusing on acts of kindness and how these can impact their peers, parents and other members of the community.

Reading

The Year 2 students have loved having the opportunity to read to the adults that have been coming in on a Monday and Thursday. We would LOVE to welcome more parents/ carers to come to hear the students read. Our reading focus for the next two weeks will be to read texts as the author would say it and show the meaning or feeling. To really emphasise this learning intention students will begin participating in Reader’s Theatre in the classroom. This will give the students the opportunity to read through a script as a group over several weeks and perform this in front of their peers.

Writing

Over the next two weeks the Year 2 cohort will be working on writing their own version of a Mr Men/ Little Miss story written by Roger Hargraves. If your child has a copy of a Mr Men/ Little Miss story we would love for them to bring in their copy (please ensure it is named).

Maths

Students will begin exploring the connection between addition and subtraction. Students will be demonstrating the range of strategies they have learnt to solve number-related problems in the classroom.

Inquiry

Big Question: How and why do people connect to different places? 

Over the next fortnight, students will be asked to begin working on their Special Place project in the classroom, that we will endeavour to share with parents and special friends at the end of the term. 

Reminders

Take Home Readers:

The Year 2 teachers have been eagerly awaiting reading journals on a Monday morning as we continue to tally the amount of nights each child has been reading for. In December the students who have read for 100 nights in total will receive a golden ticket for a pizza party with our Principal, Mr Tapp.

Library:

Please find below the timetable of when your child will visit the BPS library. Please ensure that your child brings their library book each week on this day. Students should bring their library book to and from school in a library bag (this can be the navy-blue BPS one or another bag of your choice). 

If you wish to contact your child’s classroom teacher for any reason, please do so using the beau box. Beaumaris.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

Specialist classes:

Year 3

What’s Happening in Year 3: Weeks 7 & 8 

What’s been happening in Year 3 

The students have been learning about Australia's history throughout many of our lessons. We have been reading many historical narratives and learning through story telling. The Year 3's have done an amazing job taking on the role as a reading buddy to their Prep partners. They are enjoying the experience of being a leader and sharing their love of reading together.  

What will be happening this fortnight in Year 3

Wellbeing 

• We will be looking at how we can identify our emotions  
• Additionally, we will be looking at the strategies in our toolkits and how we can use these to help us to be ready to learn 

Reading 

• We are utilising our summarising skills to record facts and details from the texts we read 
• We are reading historical narrative examples 
• We are learning to sequence the key events in texts we read 

Writing 

• We are focusing on sentence fluency, in particular varying sentence beginnings to create interest for the reader 
• We are beginning to plan and write a Historical Narrative for our Inquiry summative task

Maths 

• We will be revising and revisiting addition and subtraction 
• We will be introducing and building upon our skills when solving equations vertically, with and without renaming 
• We will be exploring mapping and the perspective of a bird’s eye-view when comparing our own houses to a map of McCrae Homestead 

Inquiry - History 

Big Question: How and why has Australia changed over time? 

We will be heading to our excursion at McCrae Homestead to discover life back in 1840s and the McCrae family’s connection with the Bunurong people from that area. 

We are conducting research and collating all the knowledge we have gained over the term about the First Fleet in order to plan and begin writing our own historical narratives. 

Homework 

Students are asked to read each night and complete their 3 Mathletics tasks, with an optional homework grid in their homework books if they would like to do more. Students must record the book they read along with the time spent reading and the pages read in their diary to show their class teacher to work towards earning their 100 Nights of Reading ticket. 

Reminders 

McRae Homestead Excursion 

3GP & 3C – Monday 3rd June 

3K & 3S – Tuesday 4th June  

World Environment Day/Ocean Day Dress Up  

Tuesday 6th June 

Grandparents & Special Friends Afternoon 

Friday 7th June 

Year 4

What’s Happening in Year 4: Weeks 7 & 8

What’s been happening in Year 4

Over the past two weeks, Year 4 students have been working hard in all areas of the curriculum. They participated in a STEM challenge which tested their problem-solving skills and ability to work in a team. Students have been building their knowledge of vertical addition, including adding more than 2 numbers and have focused on homophones in their spelling sessions. For Inquiry, students have been focusing on social health and developing strategies for solving social problems. 

What will be happening this fortnight in Year 4

Wellbeing

• Understanding the importance of seeing situations from other people’s perspective
• Solving social problems and considering the positives and negatives of certain options

Reading

• Whole class reading and building vocabulary 
• Focus on fluency through a range of whole, paired and independent activities
• Analysis of characters, settings and events in stories using the class novel “The New Kid”
• Silent reading personal choice book

Writing

• Using a planning template to form single paragraphs
• Analysing compound sentences and correctly forming their own
• Correcting run-on sentences in writing

Maths

• Connection between addition and subtraction, and fact families
• Using a range of strategies to solve worded problems
• Exploring mental and written strategies for subtraction

Inquiry

Big Question: How can we educate younger year levels on the importance of creating a safe, fair and happy environment for everyone?

We will be exploring:

• types of health and ways to care for them
• social health and problem-solving social problems effectively.

Homework

Homework consists of 20 minutes reading a night, 3- 4 Mathletics tasks to reinforce the concepts being taught at school, and an optional choice board of activities to be completed at your family’s discretion. Diaries will be collected every Friday. Students also have personalised spelling lists on Literacy Planet (created in class) which they can use to practice spelling words at home if desired.

Reminders

• Grandparents and Special Friends Day Wednesday 5th June
• World Environment Day dress up on Thursday 6th June
• King’s Birthday Public Holiday Monday 10th June – no school

Year 5

What’s Happening in Year 5: Weeks 7 & 8

What will be happening this fortnight in Year 5

This fortnight, the Year 5 students will continue their Student Action Leadership Teams (SALT). The SALTs are Upstanders, Art, Biodiversity and Sport. Each SALT will be working on an agreed goal within their area of interest. The teams will continue for the remainder of the year and will be a fabulous opportunity for students to develop their leadership skills. The Mini Boss: Lead It incursion has been booked for later this term and will be another opportunity for students to develop their leadership skills.

BPS have a bye for Interschool sport in Week 7 (31st May). Students do not have to arrive early on this day as they will have training instead. Interschool sport resumes in Week 8 (7th June) and students are required to arrive at school no later than 8:45am on this day.

The Year 5 students will run the Grandparents and Special Friends Assembly at 2pm on Friday 7th June. Students from each class have also been selected to share memories, jokes and poems about the special people in their lives. The classrooms will be open after the assembly for the Year 5 students to share their learning with their family and friends. 

Wellbeing

• Students will work on resilience, respect, relationships and responsibility. 

Literacy

• Students are practising reading fluency (accuracy, rate, prosody) through repeated oral strategies through information texts related to natural disasters in Australia and around the world. 
• Through study of our mentor text ‘Spark’ by Jackie French students will identify language choices that help move the text forward and aid comprehension of the reader.
• Students will will use descriptive language to describe a setting.
• Students will use literary devices from mentor texts to capture emotion.
• Understand when to use diphthongs and silent e to spell words. 
• Spell Words with Common Letter Patterns but different pronunciations.

Maths

• Students will list the possible outcomes of chance experiments involving equally likely outcomes and compare to those that are not equally likely. 
• Students will conduct repeated chance experiments, including those with and without equally likely outcomes, and observe and record the results.
• Students will use mathematical strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems.
• Students will use problem solving strategies to solve worded problems.

Inquiry

Geography

We are starting a new inquiry unit investigating how regions are predisposed and respond to natural disasters. 

Big Question: How might we reduce the impacts of natural disasters? (human, environmental, economic)

Lines of Inquiry:

• How do the environments and culture of Europe, North America and Asia, compare to Australia? 
• What are the factors and how do they influence the way people adapt to the climatic conditions in these regions? (culture, technology) 
• What impact do we as humans have on the environmental features of places? 
• What can be learnt from traditional land management techniques? 
• How can the impact of natural disasters on people and places be reduced? 
• How do sudden geological changes or extreme weather conditions can affect Earth’s surface? 

Homework

Students are expected to be reading every night and completing assigned Mathletics activities over the fortnight.

Please refer to the Year 5&6 Homework Rubric for optional additional tasks. 

Reminders

27th May - Boys District Volleyball Playoffs

31st May - Bye for Interschool Sport

6th June - World Environment Day- dress up day. Gold coin donation

7th June - Grandparents and Special Friends Day 2pm

Year 6

What’s Happening in Year 6: Weeks 7 and 8 

We had a fantastic afternoon heading out into the community with our Prep buddies last week. We spoke about different community services and places in our community that our buddy’s might go. The Year 6’s did a fantastic job helping to get their buddies there safely and playing some fun games at the park! Congratulations to all students who competed at district and division cross-country. We represented the school with pride and placed 3rd overall in the district.  

What will be happening this fortnight in Year 6 

Grandparents and Special Friends afternoon is scheduled for Friday June 7. A special assembly will take place and then students will host their guests in their classrooms for 30 minutes. Auditions for the musical commence. A lot of excitement is building around this. 

Wellbeing 

Courage to Care Incursion: Tuesday 4 June. The focus is on being an ‘Upstander’ and making a positive difference by standing up for ourselves and others.  

Literacy 

Students are practising reading fluency and comprehension with a variety of text types focusing on natural disasters and community responses. We will be doing a range of teacher lead, paired and independent activities to work on reading rate, prosody and accuracy.  

We are continuing our work on sentence structure, writing compound and complex sentences using Jackie French’s ‘Drought’ to inspire our writing.  

Spelling – suffixes and Latin bases.

Maths 

Students will be revising multiplication and division strategies and applying these skills to problem solving tasks.

Maths Olympiad 2 will take place in the week of the 10th of June.

Inquiry 

Big Question: How do people respond to the geographical challenges of their region? 

Our focus for the next 2 weeks will be working on the end of topic project. 

Homework 

Students are expected to be reading every night and completing assigned Mathletics activities over the fortnight. Diaries with reading recorded will be checked weekly and Mathletics tasks should be completed by Friday June 14th.  Please refer to the Year 5&6 Homework Rubric for optional additional tasks. 

Reminders 

Dress up day Thursday 6th of June for World Environment Day, gold coin donation.  

Grandparents and Special Friends’ afternoon 7th June 

Auditions for the musical start this week! Reminder to not photocopy and materials provided.  

Monday 10th June – King's Birthday public holiday