Foundation

We had a wonderful time celebrating the mini Olympics last Friday. The students had an awesome day completing the different activities and showed great sportsmanship across the day. We also have loved our visits from the Fireman, they were very impressed with students knowledge and understanding on the topic of fire safety.

In Foundation, we have spent the first half of the term learning about digraphs (sh,ch,th,wh,ng, ph). The children have been excellent at using them to sound out words in their reading and writing. You may like to use your sound pack to practise building words at home.

Our current Mathematics topic is ‘Sharing’, which is early division. Students practise sharing objects into equal groups to see how many each group gets. We also use vocabulary words such as ‘one for you, one for me’ ‘fair share’, ‘equal and not equal’, and later in the topic what a ‘remainder’ is.

Each Wednesday after lunch (even weeks) we will continue with ‘Buddies’. In the alternate weeks we have started our ‘Foundation Developmental Play Rotations’. Each Foundation classroom has a different play focus and students are able to freely visit and join in. Currently the four rooms are: Construction, Sensory Play, Mindfulness, Dress Ups/shop play and Fine Motor. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to engage in activities that they are interested in, as well interact with students from different classes.

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Grade 1

Year 1’s had a fabulous time in the last 2 weeks gathering data on the Olympics, and keeping tallies of the Olympics. We all had a great day at our Mini Olympics!

In Literacy for the next two weeks the students are working on information reports, beginning with reading about their subject matter to collect the facts and then putting together a report.

We have commenced work on “r” controlled vowel’s, er, ir and ur. Our Red Flag work focus will see the students revise “after” and focus on the “r” controlled vowel ending and “very and every.” Next week will also see the students thinking and writing about their favourite character from a book, to coincide with Book Week. Dress up day is next Friday 23rd August.

In Maths we move into capacity, comparing shapes and sizes and ordering objects based on capacity. We will focus also on the vocabulary that is used. The following week we explore mass and look at everyday items, and vocabulary.

For Wellbeing are focusing on being “Kind, Safe and Fair” which is at the heart of being respectful and this week look at “What is fair play” and the following week we explore kindness.

Just a note regarding the Australian Favourite Holiday project, if for whatever reason your student is unable to share their project on their set day, they can do their presentation after the other students assigned days. No stress!

This week is Bullying Prevention Week and tomorrow we ask students to wear a “pop of purple”, something small if you can.

Grade 2

It is hard to believe we are nearly halfway through Term 3! Our Grade 2 students continue to work hard and demonstrate a positive attitude across all learning areas.

In Literacy, students are in the final week of writing Explanation texts with the focus on explaining how the water cycle works (linking with our Inquiry ‘Earth’s Precious Resources). Our reading focus for the next fortnight is on developing students' fluency by reading with a partner, as well as building vocabulary and comprehension skills by looking at the text ‘The Garbage Barge’. Students are learning to apply their knowledge from our ‘Grammar Project’ lessons by combining 2-3 short statement sentences using pronouns and conjunctions. As part of our ‘Word Study’, we are focusing on the vowel team ‘ow’. ‘Ow’ says /ow/ at the end of a word like cow, or when followed by a single l or n (like in growl and town).

In Maths this week, we finish up our ‘Location and Transformation’ topic. Further experiences at home identifying and describing turns using language such as: half-turn, quarter turn, left, right, clockwise, anti-clockwise, etc. will continue to consolidate students’ understanding. Next week we move onto multiplication.

We continue our inquiry into ‘Earth’s Precious Resources’, with a focus on water conservation and investigating why soil is a precious resource.

This fortnight our wellbeing and social skills focus is on Respect and Cooperation.

Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud, sound pack practise and ‘Red Flag Word’ spelling. Optional extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).

Reminders:

*Tomorrow (Friday 16th August) students are encouraged to wear a pop of purple for Bullying-No Way Week (could be a ribbon, pair of socks, a hat, a t-shirt, a wrist band) and bring a gold coin donation for the Kids Helpline.

*Friday 23rd August is our whole school Book Week dress-up day.

*Please keep a look out over the next week on Compass for a notice regarding our Grade 2 War on Waste Excursion.

Grade 3

Core Knowledge: This fortnight, we wrapped up our ‘Forces and Motion’ topic with a focus on magnetism. Students conducted activities with magnets to determine which materials are and are not attracted or repelled by a magnetic force. They experienced the push and pull of magnetic force and how distance affects this, establishing the idea that a force can act upon an object and make it move without even touching it. Students then completed a unit assessment to demonstrate what they had learned about forces.

Writing: Students have continued developing their procedural text writing skills by using relevant adverbs and adverbial phrases. They have also been learning about appositives, and how to use them to combine sentences. In our spelling lessons, we focused on the grapheme ‘ew’, the prefix out-, and spelling conventions for plurals.

Maths: Last week, we started to explore division. Students have been learning how to divide using concrete materials, visual representations, arrays, knowledge from fact families, and will continue to build on various other mental and written strategies throughout next week. Please continue to encourage your children to regularly practise their times tables facts and related division facts at home.

Wellbeing: Our focus this fortnight is on factors that contribute to positive relationships - how communication skills can enhance relationships for particular groups and purposes, and characteristics of cooperative behaviour. We are also participating in the ‘Bullying No Way - National Week Of Action’ as a whole school with the theme, ‘Everyone Belongs’.

Homework: Thank for your ongoing support with checking weekly homework, home reading, and signing diaries.

Special events: We are very proud of our Grade 3 students for both their effort, and behaviour, at our athletics day last week. We are now looking forward to ‘Book Week’ next week, and are very excited about our ACMI excursion in Week 7!

Grade 4

Literacy In writing, our Grade 4 students have constructed the action and problem parts of their narratives, building suspense and creating challenges for their characters. In reading, they have continued to deepen their understanding of the themes and characters in the story War Horse while building their vocabulary.

Numeracy During our maths sessions, we have begun exploring fractions. Students have been working on identifying equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, and comparing fractions while developing a strong foundation and understanding of this concept.

Inquiry As part of our 'May the Best Party Win' unit, we have looked at the different levels of government. This week, we focused on the local level and their responsibilities, helping students understand how government decisions affect their communities.

Keep up the great work, Grade 4!

Grade 5

The Grade 5’s had a wonderful time visiting Parkdale Secondary College and participating in Japanese and Science lessons. Students were able to experience what life would be like as a new student there and get a taste for the learning environment and teaching.

Last week we also had a very successful day at Athletics trials where the students got to participate in track and field events whilst showing off their skills! Good luck to those students who have made the Athletics team and will be representing Parkdale Primary at District Athletics later this term.

Literacy & Numeracy: We have nearly finished our reading comprehension unit of A Single Shard, our explanation writing texts, and fractions unit in Maths. Next week we begin our new topic of Decimals and Percentages.

Homework Update:

Literacy homework will be distributed to students on a Monday and will now be due the following Monday. This will allow students 2 extra days (over the weekend) to complete their homework. If students decide to take their copy of ‘A Single Shard’ home with them, they must be responsible for taking care of it and bringing it back to school at the start of each week. These copies are school property and will be used in Grade 5 for years to come.

Week 6 & 7 Reminders:

Thursday 22nd August - Leadership Incursion (full day)

Friday 23rd August - Book Week Dress Up Day: ‘Reading is Magic’

Friday 30th August - Fathers Day/Special Person Breakfast

Grade 6

Literacy: This week we have continued dissecting our novel ‘The Magicians Nephew’, focusing on juxtaposition and Omniscient Narration. The students have completed a mid-novel review and begun to set learning goals for them to focus on for the remainder of this term. We will continue to dissect the background knowledge of the Victorian Era and how this impacts the storyline.

Mathematics: The Grade 6 students have been working hard on length and area concepts, diving into creating their own scaled floor plans themed around The Block. We will begin to move towards Volume and capacity in the coming weeks, rounding out our recent focus on measurement.

Memory Books: Students have been consistently completing writing tasks focusing on Information reports, description and persuasive pieces of writing. Students have been asked to bring in a project book that can be used as their memory book for our upcoming projects. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher for clarification.

Camp: Camp is quickly approaching, we encourage all students to practice packing their own bags, re-packing their own sleeping bags and preparing themselves for our upcoming trip to Sovereign Hill and Log Cabin camp. This is an incredibly exciting time for our grade 6 students. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your child’s teacher.

Term 3 Dates: Please keep up to date with Compass and Focus, for any announcements regarding important Term 3 dates relating to Grade 6 students.

Thanks to our other sponsors