News from our Classrooms
Prep News
The term is certainly zooming by very quickly in the Prep level!
A fun day was enjoyed by everyone as they participated in their first Sports Day at Shore Reserve.
In the classroom everybody has been working hard in all subject areas. Last week in Maths, the Prep students revised 2D shapes and they were introduced to 3D objects. They enjoyed making 3D objects out of play dough and completing many activities about shapes. This week our focus will be on looking at area and how they can find out the area of things in the classroom.
Last Friday the Prep to 2 levels participated in an incursion run by the Royal Life Saving Association. Coming into the summer season, the presenter Tahlia reminded the students about how to be safe in and around water such as in the pool, at the beach or by a river or lake. She also encouraged the students to never swim alone and to be supervised by an adult at all times.
Year 1/2 News
The students have been enjoying our Inquiry “How Does it Grow?”. They have planted beans and watched them grow under various conditions in the classroom. They have grown ‘Grassy Faces’ and are comparing the length of the ‘hair’ grown. They have planted various vegetables in our school tubs and watched them grow in the yard. In the remaining weeks, the students will be sorting and recording their findings.
In Literacy, the students are focussing on finding the main idea in texts and learning about information reports. In Numeracy, they will be learning about money, time and data representation.
In Religion, the students are continuing to learn about the importance of forgiveness. The Year 2 students have visited the church in preparation of making the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Best wishes to the students making their Reconciliation this week and the following week.
Year 3/4 News
Our classrooms are very busy places at the moment with lots of exciting things happening. The students have been exploring the Jesse Tree and researching the characters and events that are used to tell the story of the Bible from Creation to the birth of Jesus. Each character or event is depicted with a symbol drawn on an ornament and placed on the tree. The Jesse Tree represents Jesus’ family tree and shows that our faith traditions and shared stories connect us all as members of God’s family.
Our Sports Day was a great success. The students enjoyed the activities, had lots of fun and showed good sportsmanship. It was nice to see students encouraging the efforts of their teammates and showing resilience when their team did not win a particular event. Having a positive attitude and growth mindset helps us to appreciate the opportunities we have and helps us to bounce back when things don’t go as planned.
Last Wednesday we had our rescheduled Science incursion presented by Science Discovery Dome. It was an amazing incursion and a fantastic experience to crawl inside the inflatable dome to see how the Sun, Earth and Moon are all connected in our Solar System. The students thoroughly enjoyed consolidating their learning about how the tilt of the Earth causes night and day and the seasons.
On Friday we had the opportunity to attend Life Saving Victoria's Education program, “Sink or Swim” where the students were reminded about keeping themselves safe around water.
Year 5/6 News
The 5/6 students have been working hard and making good choices in the classrooms and in the yard of late.
In Inquiry, the students are enjoying creating creatures on line, naming them and explaining how their adaptations help them survive in their chosen habitat. They have also been using technology to produce a short advertisement with persuasive slogans, pictures and moody music depicting how we can help to protect endangered species. Some of the advertisements have been about buying palm oil free products so that palm tree forests are not cut down and orangutans have a habitat to survive in and other advertisements have been about recycling old mobile phones so the coltan can be recovered and less mining for coltan occurs in the Congo, which is the gorillas habitat.
In Literacy, the students are completing information reports about an endangered animal, are learning about what subjective language is, which is the writers opinion and could contain bias and objective language which just reporting the facts without opinion. The students have also started writing a fantasy narrative creating an imaginative fantasy creature and setting, ensuring they use the seven steps to writing success process that we have studied this year.
Magnificent Maths work is also occurring in the SLA, as students estimate and measure the area and perimeter of various shapes and objects and learn the difference between them. Perimeter being all of the outside boundary of a shape or object, therefore students need to measure the length and width of all sides of an object and add them up in the unit of measurement they are using e.g. cm or m. And area being the surface area inside a shape or object, which is measured in square centimetres or metres. To find the area the students need to count how many square cm or m were used or used the rule Area=length x width. The students are also discovering how to read analogue and digital time and are completing various time related problems involving counting on to a time, elapsed time and using timetables such as a school subject timetable and a train timetable.
General reminders - On Thursday the Year 6 students are attending Bounce and then going to Queens Park in Moonee Ponds. They need to wear their P.E. uniform and bring a small back pack with their snack, lunch and water.
This Friday 5/6AB is conducting assembly, which is a re-cap of this year. This will especially be special for the Year 6 students and all parents are encouraged to attend, in particular if your child/children is in year 6.
Year 6 Graduation Mass is on Saturday the 15th of December at 6pm, followed by a short ceremony in the hall and dinner at Firenze straight after for those that are attending. Students are required to wear their full school uniform to Mass and the ceremony in the hall and can get changed after that for celebrations at Firenze.
We look forward to spending the last few weeks of school with our students with lots of learning and fun to finish of the year at St Fidelis.