Classroom News

Foundation-Grade 1 Miss Bennett

Welcome back to Term 4 in the Busy F/1 Beehive! I hope you all had a wonderful two-week break with your tribe and that everyone has come back feeling refreshed and ready for a big term of learning and fun ahead. 

Since being back on deck we have had some highlights to share with you. Here is what we have been up to over the past two weeks: 

- We officially have CHOOKS back in the school yard and we are so excited for them to start laying eggs and even better... we get to help name one! Stay tuned for the big reveal. 

- Our wonderful F/1 SAC leaders- Tom and Madison- took us on a tour around the school to show us all of the new things that have happened over the school holidays. E.g the chooks, a new door in the specialist room and the cricket pitch on the oval. We feel very lucky to be at St Pats with all of these cool things. 

- Completing our Inquiry Tuning in for MUSIC: Especially getting to go into multi-age groups and learn a little bit about music with our buddies. 

- To help with our music knowledge we also got to tap into the expertise of our chaplain Morgan who taught us about 'High' and 'Low" Pitch. We loved going outside to make noise and sharing whether we thought it was a high or low pitch sound. 

- We have also begun our learning of 'Sharing and Grouping' in Mathematics. On Monday we used the counters to share equally. Miss Bennett thinks we might be able to use lollies next week to practice our sharing equally. 

 Grade 1-2 Miss Hayes

Literacy - Holiday Recounts 

At the start of last week the Grade 1/2 students focused on writing ‘Holiday Recounts’ about the two weeks that they had off. Students linked this learning with their text based unit from last term, ‘Gary’, as the students had to focus on using the time connectives ‘First’, ‘Next’ and ‘Finally’. We would love to share our writing with you: 

Social & Emotional Learning 

Last week the Grade 1⁄2 's completed a RRRR’s (Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships) lesson. This lesson focused on Facing Fearswhere we learnt that everyone has different fears and we all use different coping strategies. Below are some of our fears and the different coping strategies that we sometimes use: 

Grade 3 Mrs Stock

Welcome back to term 4!

The Grade 3's loved their first visit to the Tongala Aged Care last week. It was lovely to see the kids engaging with the residents. They said they enjoyed painting the rocks, helping them with their word searches and making new friends. They are all looking forward to our next visit.

The students were very excited to start our music unit for Inquiry this term. They have had a chance to listen to and explore with different instruments. We have also been lucky to have Morgan come in and work with us and share her expert skills and knowledge of music.

For Religion this term, we began our unit on Creation. We made the most of this beautiful weather during the week and went outside and explored what our 5 senses could tell us about God's creation around us. The students also had a chance to find images and make a poster of the things in creation that they appreciate.

Grade 4 Mrs Loughran

Inquiry - Music

For the first two weeks of Term 4, we have been getting to know and understand different musical instruments.  It was so much just being able to have some time to play them and try and play a tune.  We look forward to delving into the unit and working on something fantastic as a class. 

Maths

We have started on our new topic which is fractions and decimals.  This topic is an exciting one, there are many strategies that the students can access from their long term memories to help them with fractions and decimals.  We will be playing lots of games to help with their understanding. 

Grade 4 Liturgy

We had our Liturgy today - it was focused on our RE unit which is praising the creation of God.  The students were able to find and express what they thought the wonders of God’s creation meant to them:

Denzil: I chose the Tongala channel because it is so nice. I love go fishing in there and God made it

Noah: I chose this place because it is my farm and god has created a beautiful piece of land so that I can live on it.

Ella: I chose the Pink Lake in Western Australia.  It makes me feel happy and calm.

Parker: I chose Beachport in South Australia because it is a beautiful place to visit and it makes me feel excited. 

Lil: I chose this picture because it reminds me of when we went for a walk on a boardwalk during the four days we were at our aunt and uncle’s wedding. The picture makes me feel relaxed because the sun is going down, it makes me feel like another memory has been placed in my heart and it makes me feel like I'm never going to forget it.

Isla: I chose Greens Lake because I think it’s beautiful.  The sunset is amazing and every time I go there it would look like that and it makes me feel happy and relaxed.

Archer: I chose Fraser Island because the beaches are really beautiful and it reminds me of my family holidays.

James: I chose my farm because it has lots of beautiful animals and I want to look after it so it is in my family for hundreds of years!!!

Yohan: I chose this picture because the beach is beautiful and clean.  I would like to this place one day. 

Charlotte: I chose the Gold Coast beach because it makes me feel peaceful and it is my favourite place to go with my family. 

Cabe: I chose my picture because camels awesome animals, they are part of nature and my farm.  

Riley: I chose Fisherman’s Beach at Torquay because every time I go there I go with my family.  It brings happiness to me and give me wonderful memories. 

Grade 5-6 Miss Rasmussen

Our Grade 5/6 class has been busy with all kinds of exciting activities and achievements:

Restart a Heart Training: As part of the 'Shocktober' campaign, we took part in CPR and AED (defibrillator) training at Tongala Health, thanks to Ambulance Victoria. We learned just how vital these life-saving skills are, and practicing on CPR dolls really opened our eyes. Now, we know where to find defibrillators around Tongala!

Healthy Habits Day Coming Soon: Our Sport and Health Leaders are working hard to prepare for a fun day on Tuesday, 29th October. With Rachael from Kyabram District Health Service, we've chosen some delicious healthy smoothie recipes that we’ll be making on the day.

Regional Athletics Success: Congratulations to Zac, who represented our school at the Regional Athletics Carnival in Bendigo. He set personal bests in both triple jump and 200m. We’re all so proud of his amazing effort!

Making Music with Boomwhackers: We had a blast experimenting with Boomwhackers and learned to play 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.' It helped us improve our rhythm, pitch, and teamwork while having loads of fun.

Literature Adventures: We just wrapped up our unit on Number the Stars, which gave us a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and literary techniques like foreshadowing and imagery. Up next, we’re diving into The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, and we can’t wait to see where the story takes us.

Welcoming the 'What We Can Be' Group: We loved having the 'What We Can Be' group visit for some fun activities and lunch. It was a great reminder that a disability doesn’t stop anyone from achieving their goals. We enjoyed making sandwiches and chatting with our visitors – we hope they come back soon!

Maths Focus: We’ve hit the ground running in Term 4, tackling positive and negative integers using number lines and building our confidence in math.

Arts on Show Flashback: Last term, we proudly represented St Patrick’s at the Sandhurst Arts on Show with our performance of “A Million Dreams.” Zac and Riann blew everyone away with their solos, and all of us gave it our best, whether singing or delivering speaking roles.