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Foundation News

What a crazy yet wonderful week it has been in Foundation. It was lovely to jump onto Google Meets each morning and see the smiling, positive faces of everyone ready for learning. It was even more exciting to see everyone back at school on Friday as we reconnected through our wellbeing day! 

Today, we celebrate 79 days of learning in Foundation, an amazing achievement in our first year of school. We have come so far, and our ability to be communicators, collaborators, researchers, thinkers and self-managers both at school and online is something to celebrate and be proud of. 

We began each day on Google Meets, connecting with each other and engaging in whole class learning, followed by smaller group sessions. Our meets involved costumes, silly hats, singing and dancing, and a whole lot of fun! As collaborators and communicators, we actively participated in our sessions, listened respectfully and shared our thinking, As readers and writers, we continued to learn our letter sounds and apply them to our writing. Some of us focused on identifying the initial sounds of words and objects and finding things that started with that sound, and some of us began exploring digraphs, which are two letters that make one sound, such as /ch/, /s/, /th/ and /wh. We also continued stretching out and writing CVC, CVCC and CCVC words. We engaged with lots of different stories, but especially loved ‘Monster Chef’ by Nick Bland, where we focused on identifying the beginning, middle and end of the story. We continued to practise our letters and sight words each day, and even made them using natural materials, playdough, chalk and other items around our house such as pasta and blocks. 

As mathematicians, we tuned in to time by exploring ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’ by Eric Carle. We found out about the days of the week and the different times of the day, such as morning, afternoon and night. We identified what the caterpillar ate each day, and what the ladybug did in the morning, afternoon and night. As 

thinkers, we connected familiar events and actions to each day of the week or time of the day. In our small group sessions, we continued ordering numbers, matching numerals to collections and words and identifying before and after numbers. As researchers, 

some of us began finding out about two digit numbers using tens frames and identifying how they are made up of tens and ones. As thinkers, we used this to help us read and write different numbers.  As part of our Discovery Time  at home, we made tall towers out of lego, cups, blocks and other things in our house and counted how many items in our creation. We baked cookies, brownies and cupcakes and made pizza, pasta and rice. As 

writers, some of us made our thinking visible by making books and information texts. It was a wonderful week of learning at home. 

On Friday we returned to school and were all so excited to see our friends and teachers. As communicators, we checked in with each other and talked about how we felt during remote learning and how we felt about being back at school. We did yoga and meditation, mindfulness colouring and even had a dance party, before engaging in some of our favourite games and puzzles with our friends. It was definitely a fun Friday!

We are excited to be back at school this week and ready for all the amazing learning that lies ahead. 

Thank you to all the parents and carers for all of their support and hard work during this time. We are so proud of the effort and engagement from all the Foundation students.

Foundation Team, Leanne Wekckowski and Alycia Marsico. 

Year 1/2

Welcome back, Year One and Two students!

In Year One and Two this week, we all did a fabulous job during remote learning. We were resilient self-managers who took responsibility for our learning. We attended Google Meets with lots of questions, ideas to share and smiling faces. As communicators, we shared our thinking confidently, and listened thoughtfully to others.

As readers, we made mental images while we were listening to a description from our teachers. A good reader always pictures what they are listening to. Our visualizations were very detailed and reflected what we were picturing in our minds.

As mathematicians, we continued to investigate measurement in our homes. We explored different formal and informal units to find out and compare how long objects are. 

We arrived back to school for Wellbeing Day! This day was all about settling back into school and reconnecting with our friends. In circle time, we shared our feelings about returning back to school and brought along a special object from home to talk about.

We engaged in STEM where we collaborated with one another to create a shared project. Check out these pictures of us working with others as part of a team during our session! 

Year 3/4

Some highlights of our Wellbeing Day last Friday - we played board games and had fun with all of the Year 3/4 students.

Year 5/6

It was lovely to be back at school! We would like to give a big thank you to all our 5/6 students for their amazing effort during lockdown.  They attended Google Meets, whether they were at home or at school and completed their learning online with enthusiasm, persistence and pride.  We would also like to emphasise how respectful the students were online with the teachers and their peers.  Well done to our parents who supported their children and for juggling many jobs in and out of the home during this time.  

We asked our students what they were proud of during lockdown...

I am proud of keeping up with all of my work, joining all the google meets and challenging myself. At the same time I have been helping other members of my family. Erica C. 5/6VC

I am proud of being focused during my work and finishing all my work. Nicholas C . 5/6VC

I am proud of staying positive during the lockdown and finishing all the work I am assigned. Charlie 5/6VC

I am proud of getting all my work done on time and not giving up on it when it gets difficult. Erica L. 5/6VC

I am proud of being able to finish my work early and being early for meetings. Cynthia 5/6VC

Getting my work done on time and managing my time well. Andie 5/6OS

The way I wrote my writing pieces on the picture prompts. Leah. 5/6OS

I am proud of doing my work on time. George 5/6OS

I’m proud of completing all of my work on time and not having many problems with it. Nakita 5/6OS

I am proud of  being able to survive lockdown. Zachary 5/6OS

I am proud of the shelter that I have and the family I get to be with. Alejandro 5/6CF

I am proud of learning how to do a lot of cool and interesting tricks on the computer and being a teacher as I taught my family how to do them. Jessica 5/6CF

I am proud of making a new friend from another class. Luca S 5/6CF

I am proud of the narrative we did in the second week of lockdown, called ‘The helicopter that saved us’. Nicholas 5/6CF

I am proud that Victoria went through this together and we did it, Just like when we had 11 cases in Victoria we all did this together and made it to 1. Simon 5/6CF

I am proud that I looked after my pets instead of my parents doing the work. Sofia 5/6CF.

I am proud that my family went for walks. Tiana 5/6CF

Last Friday the students enjoyed a Wellbeing Day with their peers back at school.  They were involved in a variety of activities which included meditation, circle time, origami and different games in and out of the classroom.