Junior School News
Sacred Heart Parish School
Welcome Back to Our Final Chapter of the Year!
Can you believe we’ve reached the final term of the school year already? It feels like the year has absolutely flown by, and with so many exciting activities, special events and wonderful learning opportunities ahead, we have a feeling this term will zoom by in the blink of an eye!
We’ve certainly been enjoying the beautiful change in weather, making the most of the sunshine and taking our lunch breaks outdoors. There’s something lovely about enjoying a little fresh air with friends! ☀️
Prep Storytime Magic ✨
One of our favourite evenings of the school year was back, and what a magical night it was! Our Prep students returned to school dressed in their cosiest pyjamas, clutching their favourite cuddly toys and ready for a very special storytime adventure. 💫
Our wonderful Prep teachers transformed the STEM room into a cosy, enchanting space, complete with twinkling lights, special teddies and colourful cushions. It was the perfect setting for an evening filled with storytelling, singing, laughter and plenty of giggles!
The evening was a beautiful opportunity for our youngest learners to make special memories, strengthen friendships and nurture their love of reading. 💛
A huge thank you to our amazing Prep teachers, Miss Porter, Miss Wood and Miss Levy, for bringing this special evening to life! A special shout out also goes to Miss Allen and Oscar for popping on their pyjamas and joining in the fun! Their enthusiasm and warm smiles helped make the evening even more memorable for our Prep students, creating special memories they will cherish as they continue their learning journey at Sacred Heart. 🧸
Our Fluffy Friends Are Back!
We are absolutely eggs-static to welcome our little feathered friends back to Sacred Heart, and let’s just say… things have been getting a little clucky around here! Our Henny Penny Program has brought a wealth of joy, curiosity and an almost unbearable level of cuteness to our school. 🐥
From the moment those precious eggs arrived, staff, students and families have been eagerly checking the incubators, watching for the tiniest movements and celebrating every little crack, chip and cheep! The excitement has been contagious, with everyone eagerly waiting to welcome our newest, fluffiest members of the Sacred Heart community.
The learning doesn’t stop at the incubator! Our Junior teachers have been incorporating the arrival of our little chicks into classroom learning, creating engaging opportunities across the curriculum. Miss Allen has been teaching students all about the life cycle of a chicken, exploring how chicks develop and grow. She has also brought coding into the mix, challenging students to use their problem-solving skills to work out when a cheeky chicken might escape from its coop! Who knew chickens and coding could be such a clever combination? 🐔
If you missed out on the special moments from last Friday, head over to our school Instagram account to see how the Sacred Heart community came together to raise awareness for brain cancer. Thank you to everyone who showed their support and helped make the day so meaningful!
Prep News
In MSL, our Prep students have been learning about the different sounds the letter ‘y’ can make. They have explored how ‘y’ can make the short ‘i’ sound in words such as cry, spy and fly, and how ‘y’ often makes the long ‘e’ sound at the end of two syllable words, such as happy, funny and sunny. Check out some of the words they have been reading and writing below.
In Writing, our Prep students have been introduced to narrative writing through the use of a Story Mountain. 🏔️ They have been exploring familiar stories to identify the key parts of a narrative, including the orientation (who the characters are and where the story takes place), the problem (the challenge or complication) and the ending (how the problem is resolved). This is helping students understand how stories are structured and preparing them to plan and write their own exciting narratives!
In Maths, the Prep students have been learning about graphs and how they can be used to organise, represent and interpret information. They have been collecting data, creating simple graphs and using their mathematical thinking to compare results, identify patterns and answer simple questions about the information presented.
Year One News
In MSL, the Year Ones have been learning about the vowel team ‘ea’ and discovering that these two letters can work together to represent three different sounds! They have been exploring the long e sound, as in team and beach, the short e sound, as in bread and heavy, and the long a sound, as in break and great.
In Writing, students have been exploring the genre of narratives, engaging with a variety of texts to discover what makes a great story. They have been learning to identify the key elements of a narrative, including the characters, setting, problem and resolution. Using a story mountain, students are learning to organise their ideas and understand how a story unfolds. They have also been focusing on time connectives, such as first, next, then and finally, to help sequence events of the story in a logical order. With these skills in place, students are beginning to plan and write their very own narratives, bringing their creative ideas, exciting characters and imaginative adventures to life! ✏️
In Maths, the Year One students have been learning to read and tell the time, focusing on o’clock and half past the hour. They have been developing their understanding of the hour and minute hands, recognising that when the long minute hand points to 12, the time is o’clock, and when it points to 6, the time is half past the hour. 🕒
Students have also been exploring 2D shapes and 3D objects. They put their shape recognition skills to the test during an outdoor shape hunt, searching the playground for different shapes and recording their findings using tally marks. What a fun way for these students to make connections between their mathematical learning to the world around them.
Year Two News
In MSL, our students have been exploring less common vowel teams that represent long vowel sounds. They have been focusing on the vowel team ‘eigh’, which makes the long ‘a’ sound, as heard in words such as eight, weight, neighbour and sleigh. They have also been learning about ‘oe’, which can represent the long ‘o’ sound, as heard in words such as toe, goes, doe and foe.
In Writing, our Year Two students have been been learning about subjects and predicates and how these two important parts work together to form a clause. They have been learning that the subject tells us who or what the clause is about, while the predicate tells us what the subject is doing or describes what is happening.
Alongside this, students have also been exploring the subordinating conjunctions since and whenever, learning how to explain reasons, describe when things happen and connect ideas to create more detailed and interesting sentences.
In Maths, the children have been learning about money, exploring different denominations and practising how to recognise and count Australian notes and coins. To put their learning into practice, they brought in recycled items from their home recycling bins and transformed them into their very own classroom shop!
The children decided on a reasonable price for each item before being given a budget of $25 to spend. They carefully selected the items they wanted to buy, calculated their total cost and worked out how much money they would have left over.
Inform & Empower Session
The Year One and Two students participated in their final Inform and Empower session for the school year! Titled ‘Digital Detectives’, this session focused on developing students’ critical thinking and digital literacy skills, focusing primarily about being kind online. Students explored what it means to be kind online and discussed how they can make positive, respectful and responsible choices when interacting in the digital world.
Louise Bohannon,
Junior Leader
hwood@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
zporter@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
sprosser@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
kobrien@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au