What's happening in our learning spaces? 

Students of the Week

Foundation

Welcome to Term 3 in Foundation. There is great excitement building as we continue to count towards 100 Days of School. Today is Day 88!

Foundation LW has a new student who began last week. A very warm welcome is extended to Sophie and her family who have arrived from Perth. Sophie has confidently joined our learning space and is enjoying school at St Fidelis. 

This term, as part of our inquiry, we will be exploring the big question ‘What makes it move?’  As curious thinkers, we activated our prior knowledge and shared our first thinking and wonderings. From this, we generated four questions. As scientists, we will find out about…

• How do things in the natural environment move? 
• How does transport move? 
• How do toys and objects move? 
• How does the human body move? 

We tuned in to each of these questions by engaging in a rotation of mini lessons with all of our teachers, where we explored the layers of the Earth and looked at different types of transport and shared our theories and wonderings about how they move. We also played with different toys and objects to see the ways they move and got active by moving our bodies in different ways and discussing how these movements are possible. 

As researchers, we will have time and opportunity to engage in various experiences over the coming weeks to help us build on our understanding, including circus lessons, Discovery Time, experiments, excursions to Essendon Traffic School and Scienceworks. 

Last Friday during STEM, we performed our individual animal concert using Lego Express. We created a loop using tracks, built our animals and placed the lego action bricks on the track to match the individual concerts we created. We then used the iPads to bring our concert to life. FLW are becoming quite the experts when using Lego Express and Mr Frazzetto is very impressed with our collaborating skills when we work in our small groups.

Looking forward to a great week of learning in Foundation.

Leanne Wenckowski

Foundation Teacher

Year 1/2

Welcome back to Term 3! It was wonderful to see everyone’s smiling faces as we walked in the doors last week after a well deserved break. We excitedly shared all of our adventures, getaways, family catch ups, play dates, parties, shopping trips and all of the fun that was had over the holidays before getting right back into some learning. 

This term, as part of our inquiry, we will be exploring the big question ‘What makes it move?’  As curious thinkers, we activated our prior knowledge and shared our first thinking and wonderings. From this, we generated four questions. As scientists, we will find out about…

• How do things in the natural environment move? 
• How does transport move? 
• How do toys and objects move? 
• How does the human body move? 

We tuned in to each of these questions by engaging in a rotation of mini lessons with all of our teachers, where we explored the layers of the Earth and looked at different types of transport and shared our theories and wonderings about how they move. We also played with different toys and objects to see the ways they move and got active by moving our bodies in different ways and discussing how these movements are possible. 

As researchers, we will have time and opportunity to engage in various experiences over the coming weeks to help us build on our understanding, including circus lessons, Discovery Time, experiments and excursions to Essendon Traffic School and Scienceworks. 

As inquirers, we found out about the First Nations people and Naidoc Week through different texts. As readers, we listened to different picture books and watched videos to find out the Indigenous culture. We explored how they tell stories and what a Welcome to Country ceremony is. As researchers, we also found out about the importance of their land, their dances and their different traditions and celebrations. As thinkers, we made predictions about the different texts, made text to self connections and compared the stories to other books and videos. 

As mathematicians, we tuned in to Subtraction. As researchers, we have been finding out about different strategies, such as counting back, counting down to and partitioning, and applying our knowledge of doubles and tens facts to help us solve different problems. As we continue to represent and solve problems, we are unpacking all of the different language connected to Subtraction, such as take away, subtraction, difference, fewer, less than, compare, how many more, how many less, count back, count up to, how many are left, number sentence. As thinkers, we are also beginning to explore the connection between Addition and Subtraction. We will use a range of tools, materials and resources, such as counters, unifix cubes, tens frames, think boards and number lines to help us build our understanding and make our thinking visible. At home, students might like to consolidate their Subtraction Skills by using cards and dice to make numbers and identify 1 less/fewer, 2 less/fewer, 10 less/fewer etc. Students can also practise counting backwards from different numbers. 

We can’t wait for all of the amazing learning opportunities this term! 

Alycia Marsico, Stefanie Carriera and Alexandra Phillips, 

1/2  Team.

Year  3/4

Welcome back to Term 3! The students settled well into school routine and shared their holidays experiences with each other. 

As writers, we engaged in NAIDOC Week where we showed our understanding of Indigneous culture to Indigenous people. We read and listened to many texts and reflected on each text through personal reflection. It’s important to embrace and acknowledge Indigenous culture. 

As inquirers, we are focusing on our big question “Who decides and how?”. Our Inquiry unit encompases the decision making process, rules and laws. We tuned into our unit through discussion about the difference between rules and laws, and the consequences if a rule and/or law is broken. Take a look at our learning!

In STEM, the Year 3/4 students collaborated to build a car using LEGO. Students followed a set of instructions to build their car and later participated in a race. The race was on to finish first!

Year 3/4 Teachers

Belinda Panzarino, Katarina Davidson and Graham Troy

Year 5/6

Welcome back to term 3! The students have settled back into the learning spaces extremely well and it is full steam ahead!

As part of The Resilience Project, the students had the opportunity to become ‘Human Cameras’ by taking a walk around the school and noticing the things happening in the environment that they may not have mindfully noticed. The purpose of this activity was to focus on the present moment, to reflect on how they felt and what they saw and to appreciate the environment.  Students noticed a bent tree; a bird’s nest made of twigs; the breeze moving the Australian flag…

This week, the Year 6 students preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation attended a workshop hosted by Maria Forde.  They explored the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and how they can use these gifts in everyday situations.  The students have chosen a saint’s name and are researching the saint with a particular focus on how they used their gifts. Those students not receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation are researching a spirit filled person who has used their gifts for the benefit of others.

In Literacy, students have been studying a variety of texts and focussing on the comprehension skills of inferring, making connections and finding the author’s main message. The students are learning to respond to questions using evidence from the text.  They have been involved in snapshot writing where they use the five senses + 1 (I see, I hear, I touch, I taste, I smell + I feel-emotion). 

In Numeracy, the unit is ‘Pattern & Algebra’. Students are creating growing and repeating patterns using concrete materials, and describing the rule involving whole numbers, fractions and decimals. 

As Inquirers, the students are Tuning In to our Term 3 Big Question: How does Science contribute to a Healthy and Active Community? They undertook a Chalk Talk thinking routine to explore questions like: 

• What is a scientist? 
• What do they do? 
• Where have you seen science? 
• Where is science in the community? 
• What benefits does science have?

Have a wonderful week.

Viviana Clarke, Olivia Sargent, Michelle Casamento and Annette Gasbarro. 

5/6 Teaching Team

Examples of our ‘Snapshot Writing’

The Best Pizza Ever

By Hunter FitzGerald  5/6/VC 12/7/22

I see the amazing colours of the pizza when I walk in the door. As I walk closer to the pizza there are even more smells of strong tomato sauce and fluorescent green coriander on top it draws me closer making me taste a slice. I bit into the crust of the top of the pizza and it was the worst thing I have ever had . I kept biting hoping it would get better but it didn't. I got to the centre of the pizza and there is a burnt circle on the bottom. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever had . I spit the disgusting food out of my mouth not noticing that I am allergic to CORIANDER! And now I am going to explode.

Gourmet Pizza Royalty

A review by Ava Piotti 5/6VC

As I enter the restaurant, a sensational scent fills the room- a delectable pizza cooking on a wood fired oven. I hear people chatting casually, then smiling as they eat their pizza. Finally, my order arrives, and I excitedly pick the cheesiest slice with the most toppings. I take a bite, and immediately finish the slice before taking another bite. I taste a whirlwind of flavours- the stretchy cheese, the crunchy crust, and the flavoursome tomato. I pick up another slice, and smell the immaculate flavours of the pizza, and taste the delicious toppings, all made from scratch and mixed together to make one amazing pizza slice. I look behind me and see a man wearing gloves as he sprinkles homemade cheese and tomato incredibly evenly, and carefully places the delicate delight in the burning oven. This is truly gourmet pizza royalty! 

 Unknown Mansion

Giselle C 5/6CG

As I approached the mansion I felt nothing but goosebumps all over me. I felt cold, foggy air against me as I climbed up the stairs towards the door. My hand gripped onto the cold, slimy handle and pushed open the door. Inside the house it was all cold and covered in vines, climbing up the stairs and up on the ceiling. The mansion was silent and  abandoned, you could hear a pin drop. I could smell the rotten carpet in front of me and the old food that was left here. I walk in further and smell the cold air in my nose and I start sneezing from the old dust I was breathing in from this old, abandoned mansion.