Learning & Teaching

NUMERACY NEWS - Colleen Monaghan

Juniors this week are being assessed in Maths and Literacy using PAT R & PAT M assessements. Teachers have been analysing this to assist them with their report writing.

Students have been busy learning about Multiplication in the Foundation years. It is great to see the students I am working with match stories about multiplication with number sentences and some are recording multiplication using symbols.

I had the opportunity on Thursday to teach the whole Foundation group. We looked at how we can skip count to solve problems with our family and their features. We explored how many eyes are in our family, how many toes, how many hands and some found out how many noses and feet. Some were able to record as multiplication sentences. Here are examples of our work.

The juniors that have been working with me have been learning to identify fractional parts. We investigated pattern blocks and discovered if the Hexagon was one whole, the trapezium is one half, the rhombus is one third and the triangle is one sixth. Some students stretched their thinking and worked out that one half + one half makes one whole, and two thirds plus two sixths makes one whole. Some even noticed that one half plus three sixths makes one whole. We had fun investigating all the ways we could make one with the different fractional parts. Here are photos of us working with the blocks.

STEM News - Joe Frazzetto

STEM is BACK!

Students returned to STEM with excitement and enthusiasm! The Year 1/2 students were introduced to the LEGO WeDo2.0 Kit and Program. They collaborated in pairs to explore the kit, program and build a functional electrical fan. Year 5/6 students also collaborated in pairs to construct a robotic rhino and program it to start and stop before it hits something.

Here is a video for you to view what our students of St. Fidelis are capable of. 

Year 3/4 ACMI Excursion

Last Wednesday the Year 3/4 students went to an excursion to ACMI at Federation Square where the students discovered the magic of stop-motion animation, and were introduced to the collaborative animation process. The 3/4 students used the principles of shape, colour, and pattern by using LEGO Bricks to design and animate their own unique works.

By the end of the Workshop, the Year 3/4 students had a good understanding of the:

• Principles of animation

• The science and maths behind animation 

• Created a visually engaging stop-motion animation in a team. 

ACMI are sending through some of the students’ animations, so I will share their imaginative and creative works with you in the coming weeks. Please find a link below for two student films created in the Stop Motion workshop held on the 17th of November at ACMI. 

You will be able to view and download from this link using the corresponding passwords.

Stop Motion Workshop 17th November 2021:

https://cloudstor.aarnet.edu.au/plus/s/Rsnm1bWuOQqJ74U

Password: StopMotion@171121

ITALIAN - Rosa Fokianos

Salve a tutti!  (Hello everyone!) I hope everyone had un buon weekend and was able to go out and about with your famiglia and enjoy il bel tempo (the fine weather).

Something exciting is happening soon for Italian!... 

Many of you may already have heard, either by reading last week’s newsletter or by me telling your child/ren in class, that next week, il martedÌ 30 novembre (Tuesday 30th November), we will be having a mini Italian Day celebration at St Fidelis!! Evviva-Hurray!!

Firstly, I would  like to ask everyone if they could come to school on the day in something Italian themed, it can be an Italian character, an object, a place, or simply come to school wearing the Italian colours…(verde, bianco e rosso). Let’s see how creative you can be! Remember though, you will be in it for the whole day, so be creative but also practical for we will also be having a special incursion - A performing arts teacher will be coming to school and teaching you all la tarantella. 

For lunch, I would like you all to bring an Italian lunch, (which many children bring to school nearly every day already). It could be a slice of pizza, pasta, focaccia, un calzone, or even food that represents the Italian colours...totally up to you! The school will then provide each child with un gelato! We will have a dairy based gelato, (cioccolato) and a non-dairy based sorbetto (fragola- strawberry). I will check this week with your child and your child’s teacher if there are any dietary requirements and ask their preferences, if any, (for catering purposes). 

I’m looking forward to having this mini Italian day celebration next week, especially after what has been a challenging 18 months or so. It will be lovely to see something like this being able to happen at school again, so get those thinking caps regarding what your child can wear la prossima settimana (next week). Until then...

Buona settimana!

Signora Rosa  😃