What's happening?
Foundation
We are very impressed with what superstar swimmers our Foundation students have been! They were very eager to begin the swimming program and have been wonderful in and out of the pool. All of us teachers are very proud of how independent the students have been with keeping their belongings together, getting changed and being responsible travelling to and from the pool. We have had some very tired Preps in our classroom, so I am sure they have been extra tired at home. Thank you to the parents who have come to assist each day, we really appreciate your help.
We have now begun our writing unit of ‘information reports’ and the students have enjoyed relating them to our ‘Animal’ Inquiry topic. They have been busy learning about all the different features of the report and creating class reports about many different mammals, marsupials and reptiles. We look forward to seeing them write their own information report in the coming weeks.
In Maths, Students have been working in their own classes to complete activities exploring ‘statistics’. They have enjoyed working with different peers to survey each other and create class graphs. Our Friday sessions (in classes) are for assessment, My Numeracy tasks or Problem Solving.
Thank you to the parents who have come to assist each day with swimming, we really appreciate your help. Please do ensure if you are coming to help that you have a valid WWCC and you have shown your child’s teacher prior to the swimming sessions.
Grade 1
Week 5 and there has been a lot of excitement in the air as the year 1’s participates in swimming. They have been showing their independence and organisation in the way they have conducted themselves, around bus rides and getting changed. We have been making a splash and improving our strokes, listening to our instructor and having fun.
We have been investigating our Minibeasts like bees and ladybugs to compose an information text. Students have taken notes and created designs using a directed drawing process. They have really been enjoying talking about the facts and their interests in bugs.
On Compass you will find a post for our Incursion 16th November, where the students will get close up and personal with live bugs! Rest assured these bugs will not being going home with your child…
Please ensure you consent and pay and contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions surrounding the session.
Grade 2
We’d like to congratulate our Grade 2 students on their terrific effort and behaviour during their swimming lessons this week and thank parents for your support with the program.
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 are learning about the meaning of the suffix -er when added to makes nouns, indicating ‘that which’ or ‘one who’ (like in ‘printer’ and ‘buyer’).
In Maths this fortnight, students have been building their understanding of time, focusing on telling the time, months and seasons, and using a calendar. As always, opportunities to explore these concepts 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, ‘Animals and their Habitats’, students have been learning more about animal adaptations and how these help them survive in their habitat.
Our wellbeing focus this fortnight is on empathy, building respectful relationships, and demonstrating our Super Six Values throughout our swimming program.
Reminder: Next Thursday 9th November, we will be heading off on our excursion to Moonlit Sanctuary. Please ensure you have read all the information on the notice (sent out via Compass) and consented/paid.
Thank you for your ongoing support with homework: Regular reading aloud and ‘Red Flag Word’ spelling.
Optional extras: ‘Nessy Reading and Spelling’ and ‘Sunset/Jetpack Maths’ (Essential Assessment).
Grade 3
Camp is less than two weeks away! A reminder that consent and payment on Compass is due by Monday 6th of November. Now would be a great time to organise a sleep over with a friend or family member in preparation for camp.
Reading
Over the last two weeks, we started to read Storm Boy as our novel study. Storm Boy is a 1964 Australian children's novel written by Colin Thiele, about a boy and his pelican. The story, set in the Coorong region of South Australia, which links in with our inquiry topic ‘Amazing Australia’. The students have responded to comprehension questions and learnt new vocabulary words from the story so far.
Writing
We have started to explore the writing genre of explanation texts. Last week we learnt about the text structure, language features and practised note taking on how rivers are formed. This week we have collaboratively written an explanation text on how rivers are formed. In our grammar lessons last week, we learnt how to use the determiners an, a, the (articles) within sentences. During our spelling lessons, we looked at the grapheme ‘ue’, ‘gn’ and ‘kn’.
Maths
Last week, the students finished up the concept of time with a post test. Please continue to encourage your child to practise reading an analogue clock at home. This week, we have started to look at money and financial maths. The students will be representing money values in multiple ways and counting the change required for simple transactions to the nearest five cents.
Inquiry
The students have been learning about the natural features of Australia. They have explored rivers, deserts, rainforests, and mountains in Australia and located them on their map of Australia.
Grade 4
Our hub has been full of life this week with the arrival of our chickens. At this stage we have welcomed 8 happy chicks, with 5 eggs still incubating. Each day the chicks are being weighed to link to our maths unit focused on data. We can happily report our chickens are healthy and putting on weight daily. This week saw our students venture to Pearcedale to visit the Moonlit Sanctuary. We had 4 rotations focused on different animals and their life cycles.
Literacy
Our 'Wonder' study has continued and the kids are delving extremely deeply into the book and are being exposed to some complex topics such as genetics and identifying various perspectives. We are continually seeing the students strengthen their ability to use evidence to support their conclusions. The students are publishing their explanation reports and have done an incredible job articulating the life cycles of various plants and animals.
Numeracy
The Time unit has come to an end and we saw some very pleasing results across the cohort. We are now looking into Data and how different data can be represented. The students will be working within their grade with differentiated group tasks to challenge every student. The lessons have been designed to replicate real life situations.
Inquiry
Our “Friends or Foes’ unit is coming to an end and out students have made excellent connections between the relationship of plants and animals and how our ecosystem relies on both to work together. In the coming weeks will be beginning our next science unit focused on chemical sciences.
Grade 5
The Grade 5 students have been incredibly busy over the last couple of weeks with Travel Expo booklets, leadership speeches and much more.
Literacy
In Literacy this week, classes have finished our incredible mentor text, ‘A Single Shard’ by Linda Sue Park. Students continued responding to the final few chapters of the text by answering some philosophical and complex comprehension questions and used evidence from the text to support their answers. Students have also completed an information report assessment based on a landmark from their Travel Expo country. Students researched, took notes, summarised their information and drafted detailed and informative information report that will be published as part of their project.
Numeracy
In Numeracy this week, maths groups are wrapping up our unit on Location and Transformation. Students rotated, reflected and translated shapes, learned how to use the Cartesian scale and reduced and enlarged shapes using scale factors. Students will begin our new topic of Patterns and Algebra next week.
Inquiry - Travel Expo
The Travel Expo has continued to be a hit in our Grade 5 classrooms. Students have worked on creating a section dedicated to mapping their country as well as identifying a select list of countries and labelling them accurately on a world map. Students also learned about the features of a map.
Grade 6
Literacy
We have continued reading our novel Treasure Island. As a class we have focused on comprehension of the text as well as exploring vocabulary, grammar and morphology elements that relate to the book. Students have been reading each chapter closely to develop a deep understanding of the text.
In writing, we have been focused on describing our characters considering both their physical and personality traits. We have been working on using high level adjectives and figurative language devices to help our readers develop a picture of the character in their mind. This will assist students when they write their adventure narratives later in the term.
Mathematics
This week we will be finishing our unit on Patterns and Algebra. In our maths groups, we have focused on exploring algebraic rules to express a pattern or relationship, identifying unknown values in increasingly challenging equations, and using our knowledge to solve problems.
Inquiry
Students have continued working on their Market Day stalls. They have reflected on the data they gathered from the Grade 3 students and made some changes to their product plans. We have looked at effective advertising and customer service elements and have considered how they can include these elements to attract customers to their stall.
Transition Sessions
Over the last three weeks, we have had staff from Kingston City Council Youth Services come and run some sessions focused transitioning to secondary school. The sessions have focused on communication, friendships and discussing any concerns around what high school will be like.