Learning Areas

Prep

A huge thank you to all the families who have supported their children in settling back into the school routine.

In Literacy, we have continued to work on segmenting and blending sounds in both Reading and Writing. We have been looking at different features of information texts; table of contents, headings, subheadings, purpose etc, and have been focusing on practicing our long vowel sounds. We will be practicing these long vowel sounds over the two weeks:

Long vowel A – ai, a_e, ay

Long vowel E – e, ea, ee

Long Vowel I – i_e, igh, ie, y

Long Vowel O – oa, o_e, ow

Long Vowel U – ue, u_e, ew

In other news, our home reader program has continued and thank you to everyone who is bringing their Blue Home Reading Bag (with their name clearly marked on the front) and reading diary to school every day. For those who haven’t purchase a bag yet, you can purchase the bag through the uniform shop and the diary can be purchased through compass. The students change their readers every day and bring home levelled books to share with you. In other news, Library borrowing will occur every Thursday. Each student will receive a free library bag from school, which they will use to bring their books to and from school in.

In Mathematics, we have been learning about the days of the week. We have been learning about all the names of the days, the order and linking familiar events to certain days of the week. We suggest families make a weekly calendar at home, so students can match events to the day. For example, on Saturday, I have swimming lessons.

Our Integrated unit on Jobs has begun and as part of this exploration, each Friday the students will be encouraged to dress up. Below there is a timetable to say what to dress up as each week. Dressing up is not compulsory and please do not go out and buy these costumes. 

We encourage students to make their own costumes with your help. This could be as simple as a badge or a hat or jacket that supports the theme. If students do not have a costume, then they are to wear school uniform. Please note: Students are to only dress up in costumes that support the weekly theme, it is not a free dress or fancy-dress day.

As part of the exploration of jobs, we are also inviting family members into the classroom to talk about their jobs. This is a highly valuable experience for the students, and we are happy to support you with your talk (it can be as informal or formal as you like).

In the past we have had carpenters, psychologists, advocates, comedians, stay at home parents etc

If this interests you, please email the Prep teachers so we can see what time works. 

Please make sure you have a Working with Children’s Check.

From Abbie, Joe, Lexie, Sengul, Jibril and Rhyarna

Grade 1

The Grade One’s were excited to share their holiday experiences with their class and catch up with their friends at the beginning of Term 3. 

In Maths, the students have been learning about skip counting sequences. They have practised counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s in many different ways. We have included some photos of the students working together to create skip counting patterns and see how far they can go. We encourage you to continue practising skip counting at home. 

In Literacy, we have talked about different types of speech including nouns, adjectives and verbs. The students have been finding these words in books and talking about their differences. You can play games to help your children continue to develop this by finding nouns, adjectives and verbs in their home readers or around the house. 

Grade 2

It has been a wonderful start to term 3 for the grade 2 students. 

In writing, the students have been given the opportunity to participate in Rocket Writing sessions. This has involved choosing a topic of choice and writing their ideas as fast as possible. Students have found this writing a lot of fun.  They have also enjoyed exploring acrostic and shape poems. 

In mathematics we have concluded our focused topic on Time and have started exploring Mass and Capacity. 

During Integrated Curriculum we have begun exploring the topic, ‘I Call This Place Home’. Our focus has been to identify why our homes are special places along with discovering and sharing things about our neighbourhood and suburb. 

In this newsletter issue, we would like to share and celebrate our wonderful minibeast reports from term 3. We hope you are proud of our achievements as much as we are. 

Grade 3/4

Grade 5/6

5/6 Learning Area - PBL update!

Simon and his son Ollie were lucky enough to holiday in Fiji over the break. They also visited three  Fijian schools and donated school supplies. Simon shared these experiences with the students and this became the launch of our new Project Based Learning (PBL) unit. 

The big inquiry question that students will be able to answer by the end is  “How can we, as global citizens, understand what all kids need to thrive?” 

The students have started off by  learning about energy poverty and what it means to be a global citizen. This unit of work will be focussing on two of the  17 United Nations’  Sustainable Development Goals - quality education & affordable and clean energy. 

Here is some brainstorming and student comments from this  initial stage: 

What does energy poverty mean?

“A place where they have no energy or  low  energy. It means that people aren't able to have things that need energy to run like phones, fans, ipads.” Raymond (5/6A)

“Somebody who has little to no energy which means that they find it hard to do day-to-day things.” Claire (5/6B) 

“People who don't have enough energy to do regular things past the time it gets dark and that help them have a more fulfilling life” - Jimmy (5/6C)

What does being a global citizen mean?

“Global citizenship  means contributing something to the world to make it a better place, even if it is the simplest thing.” Rahil (5/6A)

“Being a global citizen is being aware of all the decisions you make and how they can affect people in other countries or in your own community” - Will T (5/6C)

“Global citizenship is where you think beyond your country and you try helping out people in need. You can donate, but there are many more things you can do to be a global citizen” Moaaid (5/6B)

It has been so great listening to the rich discussions from the students about how they see the world and themselves in it. We have been able to link these ideas and perspectives with gratitude journaling, as they have a new-found perspective of all they have and what we need to be happy, healthy and thriving. 

Our much awaited Solar Buddy-making is up soon, as well as other ways for our students to demonstrate their learning - stay tuned!