What's happening?
Foundation
We have been busy getting straight back into the swing of things and have enjoyed reading the student's weekly weekend recounts. It is great to see their confidence grow each week as they continue to improve. We are so blown away by how much they have improved this year.
Currently, in Foundation we are learning about ‘y as a vowel’. The letter ‘y’ can make 4 sounds - /y/ as in yum; long /i/ as in sky; long /e/ as in mummy and short /i/ as in gym (words borrowed from Greek language). This week we learnt that ‘y’ says long /i/ when it is the only vowel in the base of the word, and is the very last letter - e.g. my, by, sky, fly, reply. Soon we will look at words with more than 1 syllable - and then the ‘y’ says long /e/ sound e.g. yummy, baby, funny - when it is in a suffix and is the very last letter in a word.
In Maths Groups, we have finished our final unit of ’Place Value’ and have moved on to ‘Subtraction’. The students have enjoyed many hands-on activities to practice taking away. Our Friday sessions (in classes) are for assessment, My Numeracy tasks or Problem-Solving activities (which currently has a subtraction focus).
This term for Inquiry we are looking at all things animals. The students have so far learnt about animal coverings such as feathers, fur, and scales and we will learn more about animal groups over the term. We have begun looking at ‘Mammals’ and will learn about how they breathe, where they live, what their covering are, and what their babies look like.
This term is going to be another big one, please keep an eye out on Compass for any upcoming information.
Grade 1
Week 3 has commenced and hats, sunscreens and even umbrellas have been needed these last 2 weeks. The students have commenced writing Narratives and will be given an example of what a good one looks like to use as a structure for further writing. They have written some wonderful descriptive sentences about bugs as an introduction. Our last Red Flag Word for the year is “gone”, which follows on from done and none, we will be reviewing all the RFW until the end of the year. Our sound for this week is 'igh' and next week the six sounds of 'ough'. Please keep an eye out for your updated script in the homework folders, which we hope will help you with Sound Pack next week.
Maths focus for this week is fractions of a group. Students have been learning half of a collection and looking at arrays. Next week we move into reviewing 2D and 3D shapes.
Thank you for your quick response to our Incursion, we are also in the process of organising a second Virtual Minibeast Incursion so look out for that on Compass.
Grade 2
This fortnight, we have been exploring narrative texts and students are developing their skills with using different literary devices to begin their stories in a variety of interesting ways. Students are also aiming to include more descriptive language to engage their audience and help them to visualise characters, setting and events.
In our ‘Word Study’ sessions, students have been identifying two types of bases and recognising that bases carry the main meaning of words. Next week we move onto identifying the most common sounds for the following r-controlled vowels: ar, ir, or and ur.
In Maths, we are continuing our measurement topic with students investigating length, area, capacity, volume and mass. As always, opportunities to explore ‘measurement’ in everyday situations at home will be a great way to consolidate and build on your child’s knowledge.
As part of our Inquiry topic ‘Our Community Past and Present’, students have been identifying examples of changes in day to day lives of children by comparing the past and present. We have been having insightful discussions about the effects of changing technology on people’s lives and the significance of these changes.
Our wellbeing focus this fortnight is on emotional literacy and the ‘Zones of Regulation’, and then empathy and social skills.
Thank you for your support with homework: Regular reading aloud, sound pack practise and ‘Red Flag Word’ spelling. If students are reading other books from home, in addition to the coloured levelled readers, we’d love if these could also be recorded in reading logs, please.
Grade 3
Novel Study: Our Grade 3 students are really enjoying our class novel, ‘Storm Boy’. Students listen to several pages each lesson and participate in discussions and written responses to build and demonstrate comprehension, and develop skills such as writing summary sentences and paragraphs about the main ideas within the text, and using adverbial phrases to expand sentences.
Core Knowledge: For our ‘Earth Science’ inquiry unit this fortnight, students have investigated different landforms on Earth, with a focus on famous Australian landforms, tectonic plates and how earthquakes occur.
Writing: As part of our narrative writing unit, students have been learning more about the components of an effective introduction, and this week, are building their skills with writing an action paragraph, followed by a problem paragraph, both of which should include some tier 2 vocabulary, e.g. shrieked, scurried, anxious, terrified.
Word Study: Students have been reviewing the grapheme/phoneme correspondences for ‘x’ and ‘ei versus ie’, spelling conventions for changing y to i when adding a suffix, and ‘weird word’ spelling. We are currently learning more about Latin etymology, with a focus on parts of meaning (morphemes) in ‘port’ Latin base words like transport, import, export, deport, support and then adding suffixes such as -able, -ation, -ee, -ive, -ly.
Maths: We started our time topic this week. Over this fortnight, students are exploring the relationship between formal units of time, including days, hours, minutes and seconds, to estimate and compare the duration of events. They will continue developing the skills to describe the relationship between the hours and minutes on analogue and digital clocks, and read the time to the nearest minute. As always, we encourage opportunities to explore these concepts further at home, as well as ongoing practise of number facts (all four operations).
Reminder of upcoming events (please complete/return relevant documents):
- Swimming – Week 6
- Camp – Week 7
We have been encouraging students to try a sleepover at a friend’s house (if they have not done this before/often), to help prepare them for camp.
Homework: Students are reminded to ask a grown-up to check their homework with them and fix errors or make changes as needed, before submitting. Also, to continue regular home reading, record in diary, get it signed by a grown up, and bring it to school every Friday. Thanks for your ongoing support with this.
Grade 4
Another wonderful fortnight has passed in Grade 4 and the kids are making terrific progress across the curriculum.
Literacy:
Students have continued their study of our novel ‘Wonder’ and are further developing their ability to use evidence found in the text to add depth and reasoning to their responses. They have completed the first part of the book which was focused on the perspective of August. The grade 4’s have been forced to reflect on the concept of kindness and the acceptance of different anomalies people have. They are making wonderful progress in planning narratives, brainstorming ideas for characters, settings and complications for stories.
Numeracy:
It’s that ‘Time’ again where our students further explore the concept of Time. Each group has been focusing on different elements of time ranging from: telling the time on analogue clocks, converting and ordering 12 and 24 hour time to calculating elapsed time. It is encouraged that children are exposed to opportunities to use time at home to help plan outings etc. to give them chances to apply their learning in the real world.
Inquiry:
We have been exploring countries in Africa and South America in relation to Australia, looking at geographical features, as well as comparing weather and climates and discussing why these might be similar or different to Australia.
Reminders:
Students should continue to read at least 5 times a week at home & record their reading in their diaries. Books can be be borrowed from the Grade 4 Hub or students may read their own personal books too. We are also sending printed homework sheets weekly. These tasks are a great opportunity for your child to review and apply our vocabulary focus words introduced in our literacy lessons on ‘Wonder’.
Grade 5
The Grade 5 students have had a wonderful start to their last term of 2024. They have been extremely mature during their Health Ed sessions, where they have learnt about the Reproductive System. They enjoyed a visit from the Melbourne United basketball team last week and some were lucky enough to participate and even win prizes!
Reading
Students have loved reading ‘A Long Walk to Water’, our mentor text novel this term. Last week they learnt about the different tribes within Sudan, the civil war between North and South Sudan, the meaning of family, and the dangers of the African desert. The students have shown a great understanding of the novel and written detailed answers to questions during comprehension lessons.
Writing
The Grade 5’s have still been working on narrative writing the last few weeks, where they have unpacked a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like) and understood the correct structure of a narrative. Grammar lessons have been embedded into our writing sessions to help students work on their dialogue when writing. This week the students are upskilling the WAGOLL and enhancing their writing by mimicking high level examples.
Maths
Patterns and Algebra has remained the current maths topic, and the students will complete a post test on Friday to consolidate their knowledge. Students have been busy learning about algebraic expressions, order of operations and completing number sequences. Next week we will be moving onto our next topic, Location and Transformation.
Inquiry:
The Grade 5’s have been absolutely loving the Travel Expo project and theory lessons during the last few weeks. They have participated in wonderful group work where they have negotiated roles with their team members and worked together to produce work of a high standard. They have learnt all about weather patterns, natural disasters and plant and animal adaptations.
Reminders
- Information regarding payment options for your child’s Grade 6 jumper will be issued via Compass next week, so please keep an eye out for it.
- The Grade 5’s have their ‘Money Talks’ incursion coming up in week 4 and 5, where they will learn about financial education. There is no cost for this incursion.
- Please ensure your child is completing their literacy, maths and 4 x 20 minutes of reading a week, as this is their required homework.
Grade 6
Literacy
We are into our novel study of Rivet Boy which is based on a true story based in Scotland in the late 1880’s and focuses on the main character, 12-year-old, John Nicol having to start work on the Scotland’s famous Forth Rail Bridge as his family’s main breadwinner. The last few weeks have been exploring one of the themes of the book which delves into child labour.
Writing
The grade 6 students are finalising their memory book writing. The students have been given feedback on their pre-assessment writing piece and have identified 3 goals they which to focus on improving within their narrative writing. We have also explored what makes a good orientation in a narrative writing.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, students have been working on a Zoo Project which entails designing a zoo based on a budget of $500,000. They have been applying their learning in financial maths to include percentage discounts on zoo entry, running costs and working out profit and loss based on information given.
Inquiry
The students have been learning about the basics of how an economy is run. The key features of an economy including needs and wants, the use of raw materials, capital and resources needed and the difference between goods and services, consumers and producers.
Interschool Sport
Congratulations to the girls basketball team who made it to the next round of interschool sport. We have a lot on with sport at the moment with many teams making to finals. We wish them all the best.
Thursday 24th: Division Finals for volleyball
Friday 25th: Rugby Gala day - Lawn Bowls Finals
Tuesday 29th: Girls Cricket Division Final
Thursday 31st: Girls Basketball Regional Final