What's happening in our learning spaces? 

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

FOUNDATION 

Welcome back Foundation friends and families! We hope you had a wonderful and exciting holiday break. The students have returned to school with lots of stories about their adventures over the holiday period. They are so lucky to have these opportunities and keep such precious memories. 

The Foundation teachers are  very impressed with the maturity the Foundation students have shown in returning to school. They have all engaged in their learning with persistence and resilience and have shown great respect towards teachers when asked to follow instructions. 

As readers, the students have shown how well they can sound out their words and use picture clues when participating in a shared text during whole group discussions and in guided reading groups. We can tell that you’ve all been practising your reading strategies. 

As mathematicians, we are beginning to unpack and understand what subtraction is! We have already come up with a list of words that we can use when doing subtraction, such as: less than, fewer, minus, take away, subtract and how many more. Over the next few weeks, we will begin to learn about the different ways we can solve simple subtraction problems like counting back, using our fingers and crossing out illustrations. 

As a friendly reminder, please make sure you are continuing to practise your child’s sight words each day. We can see the progress everybody has made since the beginning of the year! 

We would also like to remind you of a few dates coming up this term: 

• Grandparents Mass  Friday 28th July 2023
• 100 Days of School Tuesday 1st August 2023
• 101 Days of School Dress Up Wednesday 2nd August 2023 
• Dance Performance Night Thursday 17th August 2023 
• Book Week Parade  Friday 25th August 2023 

Have a wonderful week!

Leanne Wenckowski & Alex Phillips

Foundation Teachers

YEAR 1/2

Welcome to Term 3! We are very happy to be back at school, ready to participate in lots of exciting  learning opportunities! 

As learners we considered the many strengths and talents that we have in the Year 1/2 learning spaces. Through dialogue, we had the opportunity to consider what our individual strengths are and how we can use them to help others in our learning community. Together we have created an expert display outside our learning spaces. Please feel free to come and check it out! 

As people of faith, some of us had the opportunity to listen to the story ‘Hope’ written by Corrinne Averiss. To extend our thinking, we made connections to our learning community and considered what we hope for this term. Congratulations to the students in 1/2VS who demonstrated their courage as they confidently led the school prayer about ‘Hope’ and read extremely well. An amazing achievement! Some of us also collaborated to write our own Prayers of the Faithful for Mass on Tuesday. Parents and carers are welcome to attend at 9:15am Tuesday morning. 

As mathematicians we have tuned in to the concept of subtraction. We have begun to explore simple number stories that require problem solving. As thinkers we are learning to match the story with a number sentence and use the count back strategy to find the answer. Below is an example: 

There were 11 people on the bus and 6 people got off. 

How many people were left on the bus?

11 - 6 =

As part of our Inquiry journey this term, we have been developing the understanding, ‘Designers consider the properties of different materials’. As curious researchers we have participated in experiments to find out what happens to materials when they are placed in water and which materials have a magnetic force. We have made lots of new discoveries such as:

• I discovered that after a while, when you pick the cardboard up from the water it breaks. It has absorbed the water - Vivienne 
• I discovered that a sponge and material are both absorbent. When you squeeze the sponge water comes out - Damien
• Eight materials in the experiment were non-absorbent and this means that they don’t absorb water - Abigail 
• I discovered that any items with metal in them stick to the magnet- Ella

As part of our Inquiry into Design and Creativity, we are looking for parent “experts” who have experience in the area of design or work in a design role to come and share their knowledge with us! This could be, but is not limited to, landscapers, architects, fashion designers, builders, artists, photographers, graphic designers or interior designers. 

If you or a family member fit the criteria and would be willing to volunteer some of your time to come and chat to the students about what you do, please email: amarsico@sfmoreland.catholic.edu.au

We hope everyone has a wonderful Term 3!

1/2 Team, 

Alycia Marsico, Vania Sparano and Vicky Karalis 

YEAR 3/4

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful break.

Expectations/ Agreed Ways 

Children are reminded to consider the core values of St Fidelis Catholic Primary School these include, Relationships, Welcoming, Empathy, Kindness and Respect when engaging in learning and playing out on yard. To support children in making good choices we also have our agreed ways: follow directions, keep hands, feet and objects to ourselves, speak appropriately, listen to the speaker and move safely and treat property with care. 

Home Learning

Children will be receiving their first Home Learning opportunity today, this is to be returned on Friday 28th July. Please ensure your child has time to complete these learning opportunities provided, a reminder these are also posted on your child's Google Classroom. 

Reading/Diaries

Children will continue to be provided with a reading checklist, this was constructed with all the Year 3/4 learning community. It is an expectation that this is used weekly to ensure children are reading and documenting in their diaries. 

On Tuesday, we had a wonderful surprise! The Year 3/4 students had the opportunity to engage in a Billy Cart incursion facilitated by Supreme Incursions. Children had the opportunity to explore three different stations that replicated different parts of the design process. The stations were the Workshop, Making a Model of a Billy Cart and Testing/Driving Billy Carts and the EzyRollers.

As mathematical thinkers, this term we will be engaging in learning our multiplication facts. As you will see on our curriculum overview, it is an expectation that by the end of the year, our Year 3 students need to know their 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s facts and Year 4 students need to know their facts up to 10. We encourage students to practise their multiplication facts each night as part of their home learning. 

IMPORTANT TIMETABLE CHANGE

We have some timetable changes for the rest of Term 3, thank you for your flexibility.

*Full sport uniform must be worn on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

We will continue to place a weekly timetable on the window upstairs. Please pop your name on the timetable located upstairs in the Year 3/4 learning space window (use internal stairs) to share your availability (days and times). A current WWC is required, as well as, participation in the Parent Help workshop. We look forward to welcoming you!

Year 3/4 Teachers

Belinda Panzarino & Bianka Zorzut

YEAR 5/6 

What a great start it has been to Term 3 in the S.L.A. building. It has been a joy to see our students return after a refreshing break, brimming with energy and enthusiasm for learning. As reports went out last week, we would like to thank our students for the progress they have made and efforts of Semester 1, we would also like to thank our parents for their ongoing support with their children. We look forward to another exciting term ahead with lots more engaging learning to take place.

In the realm of writing, our students have been busy crafting their persuasive writing pieces for the upcoming Student-Led Parent/Teacher Learning Conversations. The students are excited to showcase their growth by explaining the process behind their final writing pieces, identifying how they met the success criteria and discussing their learning goals for the remainder of the term. The passion and dedication they have shown in honing their self assessment skills and preparing for these conversations has been amazing and does not go unnoticed! 

In Maths, multiplication has taken centre stage across the SLA building! Our students have been actively engaged in a range of activities to practise their times tables and explore various strategies for solving multi-digit multiplication problems. We strongly encourage continued practice of times-tables at home as it will greatly benefit their progress for the rest of the multiplication unit. 

In Reading to commemorate NAIDOC week, which occurred during the school holidays, our students delved into the book 'Come Together: Things Every Aussie Kid Should Know About The First Peoples' by Isaiah Firebrace. This eye-opening text allowed them to explore new aspects of First Nations culture, broadening their understanding and appreciation. They discovered the importance of learning about First Nations people and their contributions, fostering a sense of unity and respect among our students.

In Inquiry, we began our new design unit. This term we will be investigating the big question 'How does creativity help connect a community?' In order to begin this unit we began by asking students questions such as: 

• What is creativity?
• What does it mean to be creative?
• Where do we see creativity in our community?
• What kind of events do we see in our community?
• How do events bring communities together?   

It was wonderful to see the students be so engaged in this topic and use their prior knowledge to thoughtfully explore these questions. We then moved on to discuss 'How can we, as an SLA group, use our creativity to connect the St. Fidelis School community?' This sparked some great discussions. The students came up with some very interesting responses and ideas so stayed tuned for what's to come!

We would finally like to say well done and best of luck to our Senior Girls’ Soccer Team who has qualified to compete in the School Sport Victoria (SSV) Coburg District Winter Sport Finals Competition at Hosken Reserve this Friday 21st of July. Go on girls, you'll smash it!