Prep News

The past couple of weeks have been very busy for the Prep students. Last week the students visited the Life Education Van where they met Harold the giraffe. They participated in many activities which were linked to our current inquiry unit How Can We Make Good Choices? The students sorted food into healthy and unhealthy choices, helped Harold to make good choices about being healthy and they found out information about some of the main organs in the human body. Continuing with health, each of the students decided what they could put on a healthy sandwich. Last Thursday there was much excitement as the preps made their own lunch. Together they had a picnic lunch in the Saunders yard.

Friday was the culmination of raising money for Socktober. There was a great assortment of 'Crazy Socks' worn by the students and the students are to be congratulated for bringing in all those gold coins to assist the children in Cambodia. This week a couple of guest speakers are coming to share their knowledge about their professions. We are really looking forward to finding out about what a nurse does and how they can assist all of us. And we will also find out about what an optometrist does and how they can keep our eyes healthy. Welcome to Yvonne and Mike!

This week in Literacy the students are formulating questions to find out information from the guest speakers and they are continuing with Read to Self and literacy groups. In Mathematics, the students are beginning to discover what area is and how they can all measure the surface of an object using a variety of concrete materials. They will also be looking at place value and breaking up numbers into tens and ones. For example 15 is one group of ten and five ones.

Hopefully there will be a little sunshine this week as we are all getting a bit tired of the rain and cold weather!

1/2 News

The Year 1/2 students have had an exciting and busy two weeks! On Thursday, October 13th, the Year 1/2 classes went on an excursion to CERES Community Environment Park. The students, teachers and parents had a fantastic day participating in a range of activities.

We investigated the world of worms and minibeasts and learned about bees and their unique dance. It was fun netting for water bugs and learning how to identify them. The final activity was a game called ‘Animal Shelters’ where we learned how the different shelters of animals help them to survive.

Last week we attended an incursion by ‘Hands on Science’ called ‘Minibeasts’. There were ‘hands on’ activities such as sorting small animal specimens into different groups according to their external features and making worm farms. Two of the 1/2 classes (1/2 KO and 1/2 CC) also had a special visitor in the form of a python!! It was great to see so many curious, inquiring and brave students, in both our ‘CERES’ excursion and science incursion!

In Writing, the Year 1/2 students have been learning how to write a report. The focus has been on the structural features of a report, including a title, classification, description and conclusion. The students have used both their existing knowledge and research about minibeasts to write interesting and informative reports!

A reminder that the Reconciliation family night for the Year 2 students and their parents is tomorrow night at 7.00pm in the Senior Learning Area.

3/4 News

Last week the Life Education Van came to visit the students of St Fidelis. The Year 3/4 Students participated in the bCyberwise program which highlighted the importance of being safe, respectful and considerate online. Each class was lucky enough to spend a 90 minute session in the Life Ed Van to help us understand why being a responsible digital citizen is vital for our own safety and of that of our friends and family. We also learnt about safe and respectful behaviour online, strategies to deal with face to face and cyberbullying, responsible behaviours when using communication technology and strategies for keeping personal information safe online. We encourage you to discuss these important topics with your child.

We have begun our Inquiry unit by tuning into our new big question ‘How Does it all Connect?’. We have started looking into ‘Scientists’ and the processes they go through including asking questions, making predictions, conducting experiments and recording observations. We have begun this investigation by asking the children to draw a scientist and label what their scientist is doing. It was great activity which the children really enjoyed and gave the teachers an interesting insight into the children’s preconceived ideas of scientists; mainly being of Einstein looking characters with test tubes and white lab coats!

Although we have now finished our unit on multiplication and division in the classroom, we encourage you to continue to practise the quick recall of multiplication facts and related division facts with your child. Fun games such as ‘Goodies and Baddies’ which we have been playing in class make this learning process enjoyable and exciting for children. Goodies and Baddies can be played at home as all you need are two snap lock bags and a set of multiplication or division flash cards (which can easily be printed from the internet). For more information about this game ask your child or their classroom teacher.

5/6 News

It was great to see so many students wearing bright colourful socks on Friday to support the fantastic cause of Socktober.

For our inquiry unit this term ‘Who Has the Power?’ we will be looking at the decisions we make in our everyday lives can affect those around us in both positive and negative ways. We we will also be learning about the structure of government in Australia and how it differs to governments around the world. In weeks 6 and 7 the students will have an opportunity to visit Parliament House and participate in role plays to pass their own laws. This topic links very closely with our religion unit ‘How do we contribute to a more fair and just world?’

In Numeracy we are currently working on our unit on number and algebra. We are focussing on finding patterns in a systematic way and the relationship between numbers in equations. Our next unit will have a focus on measurement with a specific focus on length and area.

In week 6 we have a guest speaker coming to talk to the Year 6 students regarding their transition into secondary school. This is a very exciting time for students but it can also be quite daunting for many students. Amanda has been working with many of the secondary schools in the area and will discuss with the students what to expect and strategies they can use to make it the best transition possible.

Good luck to all the students who are playing in the softball finals today.

Come and see how creative out kids are!