Classroom News

Foundation: Mrs Mclay

Literacy 

In Literacy this fortnight, Foundation students have been busy learning new digraphs — wh, th, oo, ng and ay. We’ve also been exploring how to make simple sentences more interesting by including a who and do, as well as where and when. Students have been practising their handwriting to perfect letter formation and writing sentences to strengthen their sounding out skills. It’s been wonderful to see their confidence and creativity growing each day! 

Maths 

In Maths this fortnight, Foundation students have been busy exploring a range of topics! We began with Data, collecting and sorting information into categories to answer questions. We then investigated Location, using words such as next to, behind and between to describe positions and movement. Now, we’ve started our new topic — Counting and Place Value — beginning with ordinal numbers as we learn about first, second, third and beyond! 

Swimming Week 

This week, our Foundation students have loved taking part in Swimming Week! Students have been grouped and are learning a range of important water safety skills based on the Victorian Water Safety and Swimming Framework. These include water confidence, floating, safe entry and exits, and basic stroke development. It’s been wonderful to see everyone growing in confidence and having fun in the pool! 

Foundation- Grade 1: Miss Emmett

This week, students have been participating in swimming lessons at the Echuca War Memorial Aquatic Centre. These sessions have provided a wonderful opportunity for students to develop their water confidence and strengthen their swimming skills under the guidance of qualified instructors. 

Students have been learning a range of important water safety and swimming techniques, including floating, kicking, and stroke development. It has been fantastic to see their enthusiasm and progress in the pool each day! 

My favourite thing about swimming week is: 

Blake: Playing in the water 

Lara: Diving for the sinkies 

Lily: Using pool noodles 

Joe: Tornadoes off the wall 

Harriet: Just learning swimming 

Isabelle: Just learning everything 

Izabella: Blowing bubbles with the kickboard 

Angel: Using the kickboard 

Jennifer: Kicking on my back with the kickboard 

GD: Using the kickboard to kick with my arms out 

Billy: Diving for sinkies 

Jack: Kicking with the kickboard out in front 

Vanessa: Kicking on my back with the kickboard 

Lacey: Diving for the sinkies 

William: Doing a rocket 

Grade 2: Miss Wooden

This Term in our Grade 2 class, we've been diving into the exciting world of experiments! Our theme has been all about chemical science and the discovery of how different materials come together. The students have engaged in hands-on activities that spark curiosity and foster learning.

We kicked off the month by exploring what happens when you mix solids and liquids. The children loved mixing different powdered substances with water to see how they dissolved or reacted. Watching sugar dissolve,  sand turn to mud, flour turn into dough and how oil and water react to each other. 

One of our favourite experiments was mixing water with Smarties. The students were amazed as they watched the colours, and they learnt how to write up an experiment. Watching the colours move can be a delightful experience for the students!

In addition to our science experiments, we've incorporated some cooking into our lessons! The children had a blast making their cookies and cupcakes. It was wonderful to see the kids working together, measuring ingredients, and experimenting with new decorating combinations.

Thank you for your continued support! We can't wait to share more of our discoveries and delicious creations with you all.

Grade 3: Mrs Stock

Last week, the Grade 3/4s headed over to Tongala Primary School for Summer Sports. We were blessed with beautiful weather, and the students were fantastic! It was a great opportunity for them to mix with students from other schools and try a variety of fun games. Days like these are always a highlight.

Students also had a blast at the School Movie Night on Friday. K-Pop Demon Hunters was a big hit, with lots of fantastic costumes and exciting activities for everyone to enjoy.

This week has been a huge success at swimming! It’s certainly been a tiring week, but filled with lots of fun and positive feedback. The boys have been swimming in the morning session with F–2, while the girls have joined Grades 4–6 in the afternoon. It’s been wonderful to see all students enjoying the experience and growing in confidence.

We hope everyone enjoys the long weekend coming up for the Melbourne Cup, it's a great chance to recharge before the busy final few weeks of Term 4!

Looking ahead, next week we have an excursion to Tongala Nutrition, linking with our Inquiry topic: Physical and Chemical Science. The students are excited and ready for another great learning experience.

Grade 4: Miss Dove & Mrs McKiernan

We have had a busy couple of weeks in Grade 4 with the Summer Sports and Swimming week. Students did a fantastic job in representing our school at this event, some of our Grade 4 students were even acknowledged for their respect, encouragement, inclusion and participation on the day. Well done to Hudson, Ben and Carter who received a special mention. Swimming week has started off great, and it was fantastic to see the students being organised by remembering to bring their bathers and showing respect by listening and participating in their lessons. It was great to see everyone trying their best and most importantly, having fun! 

In Mathematics, we are learning about three-dimensional objects. We started off by identifying the 2D faces on the 3D objects, then looked closer at the features of 3D objects including edge, face, surface, and vertices. After this, we sorted and compared the shapes onto Venn diagrams based on their properties. We even had a go at sketching some of the shapes on isometric paper, which was trickier than it looked! 

In Literacy, we are still reading The Wild Robot by Peter Brownwhich the class is really enjoying. We are learning how to summarise what we have read, giving students the opportunity to show their understanding of the text. We have also been looking at tense and identifying words that show if something is written in past, present or future tense. In spelling, we are looking at contraction, a short way of writing two words together by combining them and adding an apostrophe.  

In Inquiry, have been exploring the three types of matter, solid, liquid and gas. Through lots of fun and engaging lessons, students have been able to explore properties of these three states of matter.  Students have been interested in exploring how the types of matter can change, for example a solid can turn into a liquid and then that liquid can turn into a gas. They have been interested to learn about the atoms and can describe the differences of the atoms that make up solids, liquids and gases. They have enjoyed being able to do their own research and create posters or slideshows to share their learning with the class with confidence. 

Just a reminder, we have a short week next week with Monday 3rd November being a Curriculum Day and Tuesday a public holiday for Melbourne Cup. We hope you enjoy an extra-long weekend. 

Grade 5-6: Miss Rasmussen

In Maths, we have finished our unit on Time, where students developed their skills in calculating elapsed time and reading various timetables and schedules. We have now begun our new unit on Data Investigation, exploring different types of graphs and discussing why some graphs are better suited to display certain data than others. Students have also been learning how to phrase questions carefully to collect fair and purposeful data.

In English, we have been captivated by our class novel The Grandest Bookshop in the World. There has been so much action that it has kept us on the edge of our seats! The children in the story are fighting to save their beloved Pa, their book arcade, and the memories within it from the mysterious Obscurosmith who is desperate to take it all away.

We have also begun writing our text for this unit – an imaginative narrative (magical realism). Students are creating their own narratives inspired by The Grandest Bookshop in the World, incorporating elements of magic, wonder, and emotional growth. We have completed our introductions, written our foreboding action scenes that warn the reader something bad is coming, and developed our complications. We can’t wait to see how the stories unfold over the coming week!

This week, we also started our swimming program. The Grade 5/6 students have shown some terrific skills in the water – we certainly have some beautiful swimmers amongst us!

Last week, the Grade 5/6 students did an amazing job representing our school at Tongala’s 3rd Cavalry Regiment (Vietnam) Association Annual Service of Reflection for the Fallen. Jack, James, and Dusty helped MC the event alongside students from Tongala Primary School, while many others took on important roles such as marching to the memorial with Australian flags bearing the names of soldiers who lost their lives in battle, carrying banners, and laying a wreath on behalf of St Patrick’s. The respect shown throughout the service was incredible. Students particularly enjoyed chatting with soldiers from the Puckapunyal Army Base who attended the event and took part in the march and ceremony. A highlight for many was exploring the impressive Abrams M1A2 tank – the latest armoured vehicle used by the Australian Army – which was also featured in the parade.

Students also took part in their final Inform & Empower online session. The focus was on being a critical consumer of media and learning strategies to evaluate the credibility of online sources. We explored ways to protect against scams and hackers and discussed the importance of thinking critically when we’re online. Students were encouraged to ask questions like: Who made this and why? Could it be AI-generated? Is it misinformation or disinformation? Is it trying to sell me something? We also looked at how to spot suspicious signs of scams such as offers that seem too good to be true, requests for personal information, uninvited messages, urgency, or links that just don’t seem right.