What's happening in our learning spaces? 

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

FOUNDATION

We have finally reached 20 days of school! During this time we have participated in so many new and exciting learning experiences. 

As curious thinkers, we explored our surroundings outside and took a moment to have a look at the things we could see in the Hawthorn Yard. We then drew these in our learning journals and some of us even had a go at writing the initial sound the word we wanted to write made. As writers, we then used our findings as inspiration to write a sentence. We selected one of the things we drew from our exploring and then wrote an “I can see” sentence. We have been using our Cued Articulation song to help us write the words we need to tell our story. Some of us even started using full stops at the end of our sentences! 

As mathematicians, we are learning about directions and location. We have been playing some fun games inside, positioning ourselves on top, next to and behind our chairs. As explorers, we played a Foundation version of ‘hide and seek’ in Saunder's yard, going around the playground and finding different ways to tell our friends where we were located. We even made a book about it! We have also noticed that there are directions in the books that we read! As readers, we read the book “Rosie’s Walk” and discovered that Rosie the Hen goes to all sorts of places on her walk around the farm. She walked around the pond, over the haystack and under the beehives. That cheeky fox is always right behind her! We drew our favourite part of the story and our teachers wrote a sentence underneath which included the directional language.

This week we have our AFL Clinic on Wednesday 8th March, your child may wear their sports uniform on this day. We have our Footsteps experience beginning this week, we are looking forward to dancing and learning some new moves. Please remember to bring back any library bags by Tuesday 7th March so that we can borrow a new book on Wednesday. 

Have a lovely week. 

Leanne Wenckowski and Alex Phillips

Foundation Team

YEAR 1/2

What an exciting week we have had in Year 1/2! We have been researchers, communicators, thinkers, collaborators and self-managers as we engaged in various learning opportunities. 

The week began with a trip to Melbourne Museum for an excursion, to find out about the concept of change and continuity and how life was in the past and how it is different today. As researchers, we engaged in an educational workshop where we explored toys passed down through generations. We listened to a story and looked closely at different toys and games, including a possum ball, toy soldiers made out of lead, paper dolls and an old video game called ‘Caveman’. We also went to many different galleries, including Bugs Alive, Dinosaurs and Melbourne Story. As researchers, we looked at artefacts, pictures, real insects, and fossils and even read signs and watched videos. In the Melbourne Story workshop, we saw so many things from the past, and made lots of connections to our understanding, ‘Some aspects of daily life have changed over time and some have stayed the same’.

As curious thinkers and communicators, we unpacked the excursion by sharing and documenting all of our discoveries and wonderings about daily life over time. We looked at pictures of all the things we saw and sorted them into categories to identify what things have changed, including furniture, houses, clothes, toys and games, transport and technology. This week, as researchers, each learning space will further explore one aspect of daily life that has changed and how. 

Here are some of our discoveries from Melbourne Museum…

• Transport has changed over time because in the olden days, they used horses and carriages or trains, but now we have cars and they look different to the old cars- Adam 
• A long time ago the Earth was covered in Lava, then it cooled down and made land- Oscar
• In the past, you used a camera where you had to hold it near your belly button and look down to take a picture, then go to the chemist to print it- Giorgio 
• Toilets have changed. People use to use a hole over a bucket and they had to empty it out- Ruby
• Phones have changed because they were on the wall like my grandma’s one- Sascha
• A long time ago, people used to use a gramophone to listen to music - Veronica
• I saw a really old radio. People used to listen to the news on the radio because TV’s were not invented yet - Hunter

As readers, we have been learning about some of the skills required to be good, fluent readers. We listened to lots of different stories, where our teachers modelled how to read smoothly, how to read with expression and intonation, how to use punctuation, how to read at a steady pace and how to change our voices as we read. As communicators, we listened carefully, before joining in for some of the pages and showing off our new skills. We had time and opportunity to read independently, with our teachers and with a buddy and practise applying these skills. 

This a friendly reminder that all 1/2 students are expected to read for at least 10 minutes each night. They have their take-home books which are at their level of instruction, as well as books they have picked from the library. Please support your child to apply some of the above skills. 

1/2 Team, 

Alycia Marsico, Vania Sparano and Vicky Karalis 

YEAR 3/4

Wow! March is already here!

In preparation for our Year Three students engaging in the sacrament of Reconciliation, parents and children were invited to engage in an online workshop last Tuesday night. We thank you for the success of this session!

This week within our Resilience Project learning we engaged in learning about Gratitude. As a way of finding out students had the time and opportunity to identify things they are grateful for in their everyday lives. As a way of gathering all of our information, we created class word art which displayed all of the different things we are grateful for. Students then documented their thinking in their resilience project workbooks, children documented three things that have gone really well for them today or over the weekend.

Over the past two weeks, students have had the opportunity to explore the WeDo 2.0 Lego sets. In pairs, they have had the opportunity to create and program a racing car. Once constructing this, students were invited to design and innovate on their design to create the fastest and most effective race car.

Enjoy your week!

Year 3/4 Teachers

Belinda Panzarino & Bianka Zorzut

YEAR 5/6

Another fantastic week down for our 5/6 students last week!

In Literacy, we have been focussing on a variety of reading comprehension strategies such as questioning and making connections. The students have engaged in reading a range of different text types such as Koala Lou and The Yo-Yo Caper to practise and refine these skills. We have also begun preparing our Year 5 students for the upcoming NAPLAN tests by looking over the previous year's reading material and looking at the structure of the questions they will be faced with. We will continue this preparation in the forthcoming weeks leading up to the testing period. 

In Numeracy, our students have been focussing on number lines and their connection to the place value system. We have been plotting different numbers, identifying where we see number lines in real life and when we might use them (eg. a car speedometer) and have also introduced students to negative integers. We will continue to develop our skills in place value this week before moving forward with a new mathematics unit next week!

In Religion, the students have been engaging in reading and responding to a range of scriptures centred around Lent. The focus and message of Lent is about forgiveness and preparing ourselves for God. With this message in mind, the students read the Parable of “The Lost Son” and discussed how we might use the teachings of Jesus in our own lives. Currently, the students are creating their own script/role play for the parable of “The Lost Son” that demonstrates their understanding of its meaning and will present these to the class this week. We look forward to seeing their acting skills come to life!

On Friday, the Year 5/6 students participated in the second round of InterSchool sports playing at home against Newlands Primary School. Once again we would like to commend our students on their sportsmanship and for demonstrating a positive ‘can do’ attitude throughout their matches. We had some very thrilling games and can't wait to play again this week! It is a very exciting experience for all students involved. 

We look forward to another wonderful week of learning and the commencement of the ‘Footsteps’ program this week where our students will get to show off their dance moves!

Have a lovely week!

Olivia Sargent, Graham Troy and Aoife O’Flynn  

5/6 Teachers