Learning In My Level

Level 1 Learning In My Level  

Literacy  

Students have been learning all about being persuasive.  

In Writing, students brainstormed ideas and identified strong reasons to justify their point of view about an animal they would like to be. They drafted and edited their persuasive texts to ensure they included the correct punctuation, interesting vocabulary and persuasive devices.   

 Students further developed their Speaking and Listening skills by presenting their ‘If I were an animal I would be…’ written texts to the class during Show and Tell sessions. One student was chosen to represent their class in the Level 1/2 Speaking Competition.  

The Little Learners Love Literacy program remains the focus for reading and developing phonics knowledge. Students are learning about the 

sounds the letter combinations ew, u_e, u, ui and ue make. For example, ‘new’ and ‘crew’ use the same letter patterns when written but make different sounds when spoken. 

Inquiry  

Bugs, bugs, bugs! 

In the inquiry unit this term, students are learning about Minibeasts. Yes, creepy crawlies are the name of the game. Each week, students learn about different minibeasts, such as butterflies, frogs, spiders, and bees. 

The students thoroughly enjoyed the IMAX Melbourne Museum excursion. They found out all about Micro Monsters in 3D during the movie session in the amazing IMAX theatre.  

Exclamations of awe and wonder were heard as students worked their way through the ‘Bugs Alive!’ exhibit.  

Students learned even more during the Museum-led ‘Living Things: Bugs’ talk, becoming entomologists for half an hour as they investigated and examined different bugs and their features.  

This is what they had to say about their big day out: 

• My favourite thing was the IMAX because it was fun when the bugs felt like they were coming close to me – Mukund. 
• I learned about minibeasts: bugs' bodies have a thorax, legs, eyes and antennae -YoYo. 
• I want to know more about bees and how they pollinate – Oliver 
• My best part was seeing the big elephant, it even had a mole on its leg – Isabella. 
• I Learnt about trapdoor spiders; they can come out of the hole really fast – Max.  

Learning in Level 2. 

What a productive start to the term we have had! The Level 2 students have begun the term full of energy, as they launched straight into their learning. We have already enjoyed a tremendous excursion to the Melbourne Museum and Imax, a sleepover and have started learning about Minibeasts. It feels like the term has just begun!    

Literacy   

We have continued with our persuasive writing unit this term and are using that piece of writing for our public speaking competition. The competition keeps improving every year.  

During our Reading sessions, Level 2 students furthered their application of comprehension skills using different reading strategies like synthesising, inferring, main ideas and summarising. This is something that the children can continue at home, as they enjoy their daily reader books. Students have continued doing Fluency Buddy Reading in class to work on their fluency. 

We have continued our phonics program in class.  The students are encouraged to continue their weekly Word Work homework to support their growth in this area.   

In News Time, we have been practising enhancing our public speaking skills leading up to our annual Public Speaking Competition. The students have worked towards maintaining positive eye contact, using an appropriate voice level for the context and utilising their notes effectively. Thank you for the effort put in at home, as you support your child to rehearse their short speech prior to arriving at school.   

Mathematics   

In Maths, we have continued to reinforce mathematical ideas and introduce new topics using The Building Thinking Classroom model. Building Thinking Classrooms is a teaching framework developed by Peter Liljedahl. It focuses on creating maths classrooms where students actively think, reason, and problem-solve—rather than passively follow procedures. Students have enjoyed some amazing learning with their Maths Specialist teacher as well as their classroom teacher. 

Inquiry   

In our Inquiry topic ‘Minibeast,’ the students had an amazing trip Imax to watch ‘Micro Monsters.’ Students came face-to-face with some of the natural world’s most incredible creatures - Australian Green Ants that build intricate nests, massive Goliath Beetles locked in an epic battle and a luminescent Scorpion who dances under the moonlight. The world of bugs exists on a completely different scale to our own, but specialist macro camerawork took the students into this three-dimensional world like never before.  

We had students observe and explore through a hands-on incursion. There was a bug tent full of butterflies, stick insects and other creepy crawlies where students were guided on how to safely handle, feed and interact with minibeasts.  During the incursion, students rotated through the tent and engaged with other minibeasts at activity stations. They caught water-bugs, studied bugs under microscopes, designed warning colour patterns and explored life cycles.    

Along with the rest of the school, we have enjoyed learning a new Indigenous Woiwurrung word each week.   

 Thank you.  

We extend our thanks to those family members who have generously given their time to support, whether it be to hear children read or for our recent excursion, sleepover and incursion. We anticipate further connection and continued growth as a class learning community together! 

 Level 2 Team.