Learning & Teaching

LITERACY NEWS - Di Manthos

Student Readiness Test (SRT) NAPLAN

Last week Ms. Sargent and I conducted the School Readiness Test on some Year 5 and Year 3 students. The SRT was conducted to give our school the opportunity to confirm our Capacity and give us an introduction to the tests. The SRT is part of the transition program for schools moving from administering the NAPLAN as a paper test to an online test in May 2022. The results of students' tests are not published or used in any way. The purpose was simply to test our wifi and bandwidth. 

Students feedback after they completed the testing was positive. They compared it to their experience this year having sat the Naplan tests on paper. Some comments were that it was fun and they enjoyed typing their narratives instead of writing on paper. 

Learning Assets and Inquiry

Students across the school, whether it is Discovery in Foundation or designing a product to market and sell in Year 6, embed these assets in their learning. Students use them to reflect on themselves as learners.  Students in 1/2 have reflected on collaborating to design a new playground, the 3/4 students have been researching, communicating and designing how to effectively use the playground spaces in our school. Learning assets are not for children but reflect on how we can work and learn effectively also. 

Using rich literature to teach writing.

I've been lucky enough to work with students in 3/4 MM on Thursdays this year when we have not been learning remotely, as Mr Mac plans and organises the RE curriculum for the school. On Thursday, we read and reflected on the beautiful words and story by Margaret Wild The Stone Lion.  Students' thinking, inferences about the story and the language she used was reflected in their writing. As writers, we draw upon the words and themes of authors and use their knowledge of being wordsmiths to develop our own writing. The importance of using rich literature, quality books to develop children as writers cannot be understated. We came up with this checklist of what authors do and used it to revise and make edits. 

3/4MM Writing               NAME:- 

We are successful writers when we:

REVISE:

• REREAD as I write
• Catch the reader's attention
• I point and track my writing AS I REREAD 
• As I reread I can add OR delete WORDS
• Does MY writing MAKE SENSE?
• I try and use verbs to describe
• BEFORE my writing is up to the final edit - I read it to someone and get feedback

EDIT

• Punctuation- Full stops, Capitals, Talking Marks, exclamation mark, Question marks 
• Spelling -  I attend to Spelling after I have revised

NUMERACY NEWS - Colleen Monaghan

Our Middle Students this week starting investigating fractions. The Year Three curriculum standards states that students at the end of Year 3 should be able to model and represent unit fractions including 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 1/5 and their multiples to a complete whole. They should be able to locate these along a number line as well. The Year 4 curriculum states that students at the end of the year should be able to investigate equivalent fractions used in contexts, count by quarters, halves and thirds, including with mixed numerals, locate and represent these fractions on a number line also.

The students working with me this week worked on exploring different fractions that make up a whole. Here are photos of them working and some examples of the statements they made.

PE & SPORTS NEWS - Michael Jennings

Please read the attached letter regarding Sports Carnival Information.

STEM News - Joe Frazzetto

Moonee Ponds Community Christmas Trees

St Fidelis took part in the Moonee Ponds Community Christmas Trees' initiative. The Moonee Ponds Traders Association delivered two wooden Christmas Trees to be decorated by the creative students from St. Fidelis Catholic Primary School. The Moonee Ponds Traders Association asked us to help them to bring the Christmas JOY and SPIRIT to the Moonee Ponds area.

During the last couple of weeks, each student from Foundation to Year Six have designed and created their own Christmas Tree Ornament to display on the Christmas trees. The students used a variety of materials to produce their ornament. They used ice-pole sticks, magic clay, glitter, paint, felt material, etc. The students did an amazing job.

The trees have been collected and are now all on the streets of Moonee Ponds, either on Puckle Street, Pratt Street or in Moonee Ponds Central. Our Beautiful Christmas trees are located in Moonee Ponds Central, outside Kmart. If you have an opportunity to be at Moonee Ponds Central, find the Christmas Trees created by the artistic students of St Fidelis Catholic Primary School and take a photo with it and email the photo to joef@sfmoreland.catholic.edu.au

ITALIAN NEWS - Rosa Fokianos

MINI ITALIAN DAY TOMORROW

Don't forget tomorrow is Italian Day at school!

We will be having 

• an Italian costume parade (so don't forget to wear something in the Italian theme, eg. Italian characters, food, buildings, etc.)
• a Tarantella incursion for each grade 
• gelato at lunchtime
• Plus teachers will be having some Italian activities sometime throughout the day

Bring an Italian themed lunch if possible eg pasta, pizza or simply food that is in the Italian colours: green white and red.

Looking forward to seeing everyone getting into the Italian spirit tomorrow!

A presto 

Signora Rosa