We've had a fantastic start to the term filled with learning, creativity, and fun. Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to over the past two weeks.

English

Our first novel of the term is the captivating story of "Black Cockatoo" by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler. The book follows Mia, a young Aboriginal girl from a remote community in the Kimberley, as she explores the fragile connections of family and culture. "Black Cockatoo" ties in beautifully with our HSIE unit on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ traditional way of life. The story provides insights into the cultural heritage, family structures, and the deep connection to Country that are central to Aboriginal communities.

Apart from reading the book, we are following the Ochre program, which incorporates word level reading, spelling, morphology, vocabulary, grammar, literacy block, handwriting, reading fluency, text-level reading, and sentence-level writing.

This aligns with our syllabus codes EN3-SPELL-01, EN3-CWT-01, EN3-HANDW-01, EN3-HANDW-02, and EN3-RECOM-01.

Maths

Our current mathematics unit is centred on the concept of place value and the infinite nature of the number system, encompassing both extremely large and very small numbers. We have been utilising hands-on manipulatives and engaging activities, such as the Decimal Dash game, to facilitate a deeper understanding in an enjoyable and interactive manner. The students have been:

Reading, partitioning, renaming, representing, and ordering numbers up to 6-digits (Stage 2) or up to and including billions (Stage 3).

Recognising, naming, comparing, ordering, and representing decimals.

Identifying the relationship between addition and subtraction (Stage 2).

Applying place value knowledge and known strategies when solving addition and subtraction problems for whole numbers and decimals (Stage 3).

This comprehensive approach aligns with the NSW syllabus codes MA2-RN-01, MA2-AR-01, and MA2-MR-01 for Stage 2 and MA3-RN-01, MA3-RN-02, and MA3-MR-01 for Stage 3.

Science / Kitchen Garden

Our kitchen garden is surviving! In our recent science and kitchen garden lessons, students have been actively engaged in planning, planting, and maintaining our garden. They began by planning what to plant, considering the needs of their plants and companion planting principles. This was followed by hands-on activities where they planted seeds and seedlings, and learned essential garden maintenance tasks such as watering, weeding, and mulching.

Students have explored plant adaptations, researching how plants adapt to their environment to survive. Additionally, we covered organic pest control strategies and the role of beneficial insects in the garden, with students identifying potential pests and planning how to manage them, as well as researching plants that attract beneficial insects to support a healthy garden ecosystem.

These activities have provided a rich, hands-on learning experience, fostering a deeper understanding of plant biology and sustainable gardening practices. It is wonderful to see the students genuinely engaged and curious about researching how to plant and care for their own vegetables, learning with purpose … and a bit of dirt!

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