Primary News

Grade 5W Self Portraits

Earlier this Term, the Grade 5 students learnt how to draw a self portrait.  They developed skills in drawing from observation. Looking at a photo of themselves, they identified the shapes, textures and lines of their facial features.  The challenging part was learning how to represent the contours of their face by shading and smudging areas with different tones.  They have done an amazing job and are very proud of their results!

All primary classes are now learning how to model using clay. They have been learning how different cultures have used clay for sculpture and pottery over time. Students are becoming familiar with using the clay tools, keeping their clay moist, manipulating their clay into shapes and having a lot of fun!  Over the coming weeks they will be learning a range of skills including rolling slabs and coils, forming pinch pots, coil pots and correctly joining pieces of clay.  Towards the end of term, each student will construct an item to be fired and glazed. This unit of work provides students with many opportunities to work together, problem solve, discover new things and let their imagination go wild!

Alex ‘I was really surprised I was able to do art like that.  I was ecstatic when I finished it’

Angie – ‘I really liked learning how to smudge and blend my work’

Deepti ‘All the things that I had previously learnt I recapped on and it made it easier to do’

Methuli ‘I really like learning how to do the shadows on my face’

Shenara ‘I am really happy about the shape of my eyes’

Sean ‘I was really surprised.  I didn’t think I would be able to do it.  And then, when I started to draw it looked good’.

Eva ‘I was shocked because I was able to do it quickly. The reflection was hard in the eyes.’

Mrs MacAleer - Primary Art Teacher

All students have been developing their typing skills. The beginning of each STEM class has been dedicated to practising and developing their skills using the website Typing Club. Touch-typing is an important skill for student to develop. Knowing how to accurately and quickly type will allow students to work faster and give them life-long skills. Primary school is the perfect time to learn these skills. Our time in STEM to continue practising these skills has come to an end as we will be changing topics soon. I strongly encourage all students to continue practising their typing by accessing www.tiny.cc/cckids.

Emma Braybon

Learning together in Science.

What a treat for the Year 9 students to have the primary students visit them during a science prac activity. 9B were very proud to explain that mass is conserved during chemical reactions.

They demonstrated just that and felt very proud that they had impressed their younger peers. Well done 9B. you make great ambassadors for science!!!

Mrs Christopher -  Science Teacher

The last few weeks in Prep L have been very busy but a lot of fun.

We really enjoyed decorating cupcakes with frosting and we had so many choices of toppings it was really hard to decide. Our cupcakes looked fantastic and were so yummy it was hard to wait to eat them!

We learned all about Anzac day and the soldiers who fought to protect us, we also learned about Anzac biscuits and why they used specific ingredients so that the biscuits would last. We practised measuring, stirring and taking turns and our biscuits turned out great!  

We have also been practising our speaking and listening, we were learning all about the home and what you find in each room. We made some posters and presented them in class. It was a lot of fun.

In Integrated Studies we have been learning about History, we had a visitor from the Greater Dandenong Library who brought a lot of interesting artefacts to show us what life was like 100 years ago. We saw photos of how much Noble Park North has changed and asked so many questions, we really learned a lot.

We are looking forward to our excursion to Heritage Hill to learn more about the history of our community.   

Ms Levy - Class Teacher

Students in Prep/1A have been working very hard and have made amazing progress in all areas of their learning. It’s so exciting to see our students excited about learning new things.

During our Reading sessions, we have been reading non-fiction and fiction books. Our students have been writing persuasive texts and were very eager to share their opinions. They certainly have strong opinions!

Our students have been very generous, bringing in gold coin donations for our recent Casual Dress Day.

We have been learning about the history of our local area, and we were privileged to have an incursion about the history of Noble Park. We saw some interesting things that were used in the past.

Our Mother’s Day Stall was a huge highlight for our students, as they got to ‘shop’ for gifts, without their mums or dads. Hope you liked your gifts, mums!

Our Prep students are looking forward to our excursion to the Casey Safety Village, where they will learn about safety as pedestrians, riding their bicycles safely and fire safety. We will also be going to the Heritage Hill Museum and Gardens.

Thank you parents and carers for attending our assemblies and participating in our activities at school.

Mrs Abraham - Class Teacher

The highlight of this month was our incursion from Rhonda Diffey who is the Collections administrator from The City of Dandenong.

She showed us slides about the life in Noble Park from Early European settlement to the 1960s.

Students enjoyed seeing and touching some of the objects that she brought with her including a wooden bucket, a slate, an egret, a telephone from the 1960, an old football and other interesting things.

Students of the Week:

Congratulations to Riley, Sahman and Anveer,

Belma, Hanuj and Cherish.

Mrs Lilburne -Class Teacher

Grade 2/3M have been busy reading for information in both fiction and non-fiction books. We have been enjoying different texts and discussing the information we gain. We have made many lists of new and interesting vocabulary.

 In writing, we have been publishing and sharing fabulous persuasive writing pieces. Students have been using persuasive language to persuade us to buy a pet spider, visit Greece, go to the beach and travel around the world. We have also been publishing our Narratives. The ideas and descriptive language used has been amazing. Students have been eager to share their writing with other grade levels and at assembly.

In Sport, we have been running to build up stamina for Cross Country trials. It has been fabulous to see so many students succeed and go on to district Cross Country this Friday.

In Science, we have been learning about the topic, ‘Heating Up’ where we are investigating how we keep warm and how heat can be transferred from one item to another. Students enjoyed holding ice blocks in their hot little hands and watching their body heat melt the ice.

We are very proud of all the students who won awards doing wonderful things in their learning and sporting endeavours.

Mrs McPhie - Class teacher

Grade 4/5B have had a great first half of the term with lots of learning and lots of fun. Our Science unit, ‘Heating Up’ has given students the opportunity to look closely at how things warm up and provided plenty of opportunities to work collaboratively with their peers. In Maths we have focussed on Addition and Subtraction and Shape and are moving in to Fractions and Decimals next. Students have been developing their goal setting skills. Ask them about their Writing goals and the strategies they will use to achieve them, maybe they can practise at home!

The Learning Dip incursion for the grade 5 students was a highlight this term, teaching them about a positive growth mindset and how to get manage a learning dip.

A big congratulations to all students for their efforts at the cross county last week. Everyone should be proud of their effort and well done to the many students who go through to Dandenong District Cross Country. Best of luck to you all!

Ms Bishop - Class Teacher

We have had a busy start to Term 2 in Grade 3/4N. Our students have been working very hard in Writing and are very proud of the stories and persuasive pieces that they have been coming up with. Our favourite thing to do is make long lists of fantastic vocabulary and use it in our writing! We love sharing and working in partners and groups to help improve our writing too.

Our Science topic this term is Heating Up! We have been exploring what happens when an object’s particles are heated and then what happens when they cool down. To do this, we each held an ice block in the Science Lab and observed what happened to not only the cube, but to our hands and our faces when we touched them!

We were lucky enough to participate in the 2-6 Cross Country this term as well. We are very proud of everybody who participated and particularly those who have made it to District Cross Country. The District Cross Country will be held this coming Friday and we are very excited to see how the students in our grade go on the day!

Miss Naylor - Class Teacher

5W have hit the ground running in term 2 with all students sitting the NAPLAN test. We are all proud of their positive attitudes and efforts.

This term in Integrated Studies we are learning about the causes of earthquakes and how they change the Earth’s surface. The Grade fives and sixes were lucky enough to participate  in a fantastic incursion earlier in the term called The Learning Dip. In this incursion they learnt all about having a growth mindset and how to overcome the ‘learning dip’, which is when you are struggling with your learning. We also learnt how to write effective goals.

Our Maths focuses so far have been fractions and decimals and location and transformation. In writing we are learning to write persuasives.

Ms Warburton - Class Teacher

What a start to Term 2 for 6Z!

The Learning DIP Incursion was a great experience for students to learn about their brain’s potential. The presenter Drew, taught us all about the power of our brain and its ability to change and develop new pathways for us to create great new habits!

We explored the importance of focus and a distraction-free environment by playing Jenga in 2 rounds. In the first round, students had to distract the players in the group when it was their turn to take a Jenga piece. They had to count all the times the tower fell down – which was 38 in total for all teams. In the second round, students were able to concentrate during their turn, which dramatically reduced the fall count to 11 in total. Students were able to link this to their learning and understand the importance of a quiet, distraction-free environment.

Two of the main things students took away from the day were:

1. The power of YET – turning ‘I can’t do it’ to ‘I can’t do it YET’ is a powerful tool to change our mindset
2. We are a team. My success does not mean someone has to fail. The only person I need to beat is myself.

The day was very interesting and students really enjoyed themselves!

This term, students have worked incredibly hard on planning, composing and publishing a persuasive text on a topic of their choice. There will be some pieces of work on display in the E Block corridor for anyone who is interested in having a look.

Ms Zelazo - Class Teacher

May has been a very busy month in grade 6. We started the month in a very positive way with our “Learning Dip” Incursion. Students spent the day learning about neuroplasticity and how they can re-train their brains. They also learned about how much easier it can be to complete tasks with the support of others. To do this they had to complete two different tasks; the first was to play a game of Jenga.

Initially their focus was to win, and whilst they were trying to win, the rest of their group could try to distract them. They then had to work as a team and were encouraged to offer their teammates support, help and encouragement in order to keep their Jenga tower intact for as long as possible. This also showed students how distraction can prevent them from achieving their goals. 

One of the other tasks involved following each other through a predetermined, but unknown path. They had to try to find their way using trial and error. Once they had found a portion of the right path they had to encourage and support their classmates to build on their knowledge. It was great to see the students work together to achieve a common goal.

The final part of the Incursion involved students focussing on setting their own goals. They were encouraged to think about their Goal (Target), obstacles that might prevent them from achieving their goal and to make plans for how to tackle the obstacles that might get in their way. The incursion was very timely as we were just in the process of setting Writing and Personal goals for the remainder of the term. In the coming term we will be adding Maths and Reading goals as well.

Students have also been very busy learning about key migration events in Australian History. We have learned about the arrival and migration across the continent of the Aboriginal peoples as well as the impact of the arrival of the First Fleet. Recently we learned about the influx of people from many different nationalities during the Gold Rush and we have just been learning about how the constitution of the newly federated Australia made migration of people with a non-European background very difficult. In coming weeks we will learn about migration events during the 20th century.

Students have also been asked to interview someone they know who has migrated to Australia, to find out about their experiences. We look forward to hearing some interesting stories about why people made the move to Australia, and what challenges they faced when they moved here.

In our Literacy program, students are focussing on Making Predictions and Connections in Reading. In Writing the focus for the first part of term has been on persuasive writing. Students brainstormed a variety of current issues and then researched their chosen topic. Once that was complete they chose their point of view about the topic and wrote a persuasive piece. They are in the process of finishing a second persuasive piece of writing.

In Maths we have been learning about Shapes – both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional, Place Value, Fractions and Transformations. We have also introduced students to Sunshine Maths, which will enable them to use an online program to practise and build their basic number skills.

Finally in Science we have been learning all about the causes and impact of Earthquakes. This has involved students completing an investigation moving the egg shell on a hard-boiled egg in different ways to mimic the different ways tectonic plates move. Some of the new language students have been learning includes: tectonic plates, magnitude and epicentre. If students have internet access at home, they are encouraged to look at the following website to see when and where in Australia earthquakes are occurring: https://earthquakes.ga.gov.au/

Mrs Elias - Class Teacher