Achilles Community Report

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The month of May has been a busy month while learning new areas within Maths, Reading and Writing. We had a great time in our Incursion with ‘Mad about science’ where we explored forces, specifically push and pull. We explored friction and got to make little rockets take off from a test tube. We enjoyed a great assembly celebrating our Mothers and guardians for Mothers day and wished them all the best and many thanks for supporting our students’ learning. Testing has begun with ‘Reading’ to determine new reading levels for mid-year report writing and creating new reading goals for the future, and hope you continue with support by reading to your children every night.

Reading

During this Month we have focussed on narratives and piecing them together from the beginning, middle and end. We explored inferences through books, short clips and pictures. We were able to use our knowledge and experience to figure out what was happening within these choices of media and explain how we knew that. We began working on the ‘Story Mountain’ concept where we read a book each day and fill out the beginning, build up, problem, solution and the end of a story.

Writing

In Writing, students began the Term by identifying and exploring the structure of a narrative by looking at selection of fiction texts. Students began the writing process by completing a plan of how their narrative will flow. This included what characters that would have, the setting, the build up, problem, solution and the ending to their narrative. Students then used their brief plans to help support them through the writing process and enable them to understand what they need to include in their stories. Students are now focusing on completing a new narrative based on a monster they created and making sure they have a sizzling start to their narratives. A sizzling start is an exciting opening to a narrative that grabs the reader's attention. We look forward to seeing what the students will come up with!

Maths

In Maths, students furthered their understanding of addition through new strategies. They used materials to support their working out as they explored written problems. We moved into subtraction and once again, the students explored different strategies and looked into the connection between addition and subtraction related facts. As a warm up, students explored the number of the day using tens frames, tally marks, place value, ten more, ten less, for example. This has improved their key thinking skills as they explore what a number is and how it can be represented in many different forms.

Inquiry

Inquiry has been interesting for the students this month. We have been looking into force and how it affects the way things move. Students have been exploring the difference between push and pull through exploring different objects and recording their observations. This unit was explored further with the Mad About Science incursion where students explored force through several hands-on activities. This was hugely popular, in particular, the experiment with popping test tubes!

Victorian Curriculum

Here is the link to the Victorian Curriculum if you would like to take a look at what we cover throughout the year.

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/level1

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/level2

Reminders

Doors open at 8:40am
Dismissal at 3:10pm
Ensure your child’s belongings are clearly labelled. This includes clothing, drink bottles, hats and lunchboxes (lids too)
Students are to come to school with a full water bottle each day (labelled)

What you can do with your child at home

Continue to read to and with your child each night.
Encourage your child to develop more independence. (Help pack/unpack their school bag/lunch, or get their uniform ready)
Encourage your child to take increased responsibility for their own belongings.
Establishing a regular routine helps students to develop a positive approach to learning and will benefit them as they progress through their schooling.
Encourage your child to practise tying their own shoelaces.
If you need to speak to your child’s mentor teacher, please contact the office to pass on the message or organise this before or after school.

Kind Regards,

1/2 Achilles

Holly, Scott, Britt, Michelle and Amanjot