SPOTLIGHT

YEAR ONE GRADE SPOTLIGHT

Welcome back to the 'Fun in Year One!'. Well we are off and racing with a busy start. 

Already, we have shared some amazing recounts of the holidays....from Northern Territory adventures, monster trucks, through to lovely lazy, warm sleep-ins at home!

Year One have put their scientists hats back on and are learning about the changes occurring in our world, then shared our observations. It was COOL!

We look forward to a fun-filled and happy term of learning.

YEAR 3 SPOTLIGHT

Year 3 started Term 3 with loads of fun, dancing, singing and some crazy writing. We are officially halfway through Year 3 and wanted to celebrate this half milestone. Teachers wore T–shirts in theme and we sang along to Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer, we changed the lyrics “woah we’re halfway there ... .woah lemon on a pear” (you just sang that didn’t you?). We explored a new concept of doing a “half write” in the literacy block. Students planned and wrote a narrative about a door that was halfway open, at the halftime mark we swapped stories with a friend and finished their narrative. This writing session was fun and exciting and tested our creative juices having to change our story and mindset at the halfway mark. The kids enjoyed the freedom and the change and it was lovely to see the collaborative writing in the classroom, with students working together to discuss their story plans before they finished each other's stories. 

We love starting the term with some fun, it gets the kids and teachers back into the swing and ready to hit the ground with learning. We congratulated the students on a job well done, halfway through their first year of Primary, the year will be over before we know it. 

We have had a great start to Term 3 and are excited for what is to come. 

MaST

CPA Model in Mathematics

As part of the MaST program and the implementation of new NSW Mathematics Syllabus at St Nicholas, staff and students have begun to engage with the CPA model. CPA stands for concrete, pictorial, abstract and is a researched backed approach to explaining and learning a wide range of mathematical concepts. All St Nicholas staff received professional development on this strategy from mathematics consultant Tracey Hughes Butters during Catholic Schools Week in Term 2. 

Concrete learning is the most physically active part of learning and involves students playing and working with mathematical equipment to explore a new concept or solve problems. It allows students to use equipment they are familiar with and that generally give a sense of quantity, shape or area tied closer to real-life than pictorial or abstract representations.

Here, we encourage students to move from manipulating concrete mathematical equipment to sketching representations and then on to familiar drawn models, such as bar models and part-whole models. By moving through various forms of pictorial representation, often blended with concrete equipment or abstract representations, students are able to draw and reinforce the conceptual links between physical objects, sketches, jottings and abstract mathematics.

Abstract is the “symbolic” stage, where students use abstract symbols to model problems. Students will not progress to this stage until they have demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the concrete and pictorial stages of the problem.  

Year Two have been learning about forming groups and the pictures below are an example of students exhibiting this progress of learning through the use of the CPA model.