Professional Learning Community Foundation (Preps)

Professional Learning Community 1 (Grade 1)

Wow! What a busy few weeks we have had in Grade 1.

We started off the fortnight with Fete and what an amazing night it was! We loved seeing all of the students smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves. We would like to thank all families who donated mugs for our Plants in a mug stall. We hope that lots of you will have tasty herbs for home in the weeks to come. The students are excited to make their very own plant in a mug at school using the leftover mugs and materials.

Last Monday we were fortunate enough to have representatives from the 5 Emergency Services to come and teach us about the work they do in our community. Thank you to the member from Sebastopol CFA, Members from Ballarat SES, Josh from Ambulance Victoria, Shaun from Forest Fire Management and Brendan from Vic Police. The students loved learning about all things Emergency Services, playing with the gear, dressing up in the uniforms and asking lots of questions about the work they do.

Over the next few weeks, students will be using their new found knowledge to write a description on an ‘Emergency Service Worker’, a narrative about ‘An Emergency,’ and a persuasive piece titled ‘We can all be heroes.’

In Numeracy this week we are exploring money and adding collections of money. This will be followed by a week on clocks. At home you can help your students to read the time on an analogue clock, beginning with reading time to the hour and half hour.

Some of our students reflect on the Emergency Services Excursion:

“I loved seeing how all of the lights and sirens worked.”

“Firefighters are as brave as superman and as strong as hulk.”

“The Police are here to look after us, we shouldn’t be scared of them.”

“The SES rescue people when they need help because their house is flooded. They can even get you off your roof.”

“I loved how Shaun let us have a go at the walkie talkies like real firefighters.

Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2)

Who can believe we are already 8 weeks into our school year in PLC 2. We would like to give our many thanks to all of the families who kindly donated to the DPS Fete Bake Sale last week! What an amazing turnout it was and we can happily say that we sold all of our products so many thanks to you!

In Reading we are currently reading a variety of texts and learning how to search for and use information. Students have been enjoying reading for purpose and are becoming amazing at summarising and locating key information from a text. During take home reading this week it would be amazing to see students answering questions about their take home book!

After completing a persuasive text about “The school fete enriches our school” we completed a descriptive piece about our ‘Big Day Out’ at the Fete. It has been amazing to witness just how good our students have become at descriptive writing and making the reader feel like they are at the Fete. Our ability to utilise Powerful Writing Strategies has been a real focus point and we are becoming great at it. Keep an eye out for our Week 9 Writing Stars next week.

May the odds be ever in your favour! Yes chance is our current topic in Numeracy and students have participated in many engaging chance games such as Greedy Pig, 21 and Card Corners. Students' ability to use the language of chance and justify their responses has been incredible. They may be asking what the chances are of having KFC for dinner tonight!

Keep up the good work, Grade 2!

You're all doing an amazing job!

Thanks,

PLC 2

Professional Learning Community 3 (Grade 3)

Who can believe that we are already in Week 8 and there is still so much more to come for the remainder of the term!

A brilliant start to NAPLAN testing this week with Grade 3s completing the Writing component today and reading for tomorrow. Just a reminder for parents to ensure that students are going to bed early so that they can function at their personal best. Students will be competing NAPLAN testing on 4 separate days and will need to be ready and fully charged to give it their all. With all the preparation and discussions about what to expect for NAPLAN, we feel that the students are completely ready and should not feel anxious or worried about how they perform. If they still do, please come and speak to your child’s teacher. The last thing anyone wants is for students to worry about this process.

Next week, the 2 other components of NAPLAN testing will be completed. Monday, being the Language Conventions and Tuesday will be Numeracy. If your child is absent for any of these days, there will be several opportunities for them to complete catch up tests.

Sports Day will also occur next week Thursday, so get your House Sports Colours ready for the day!! The following week after that (Week 10), Grade 3s will also be having swimming lessons at Shayne Reese. If you have a Working with Childrens Check and have some spare time in the afternoons, speak to your child’s teacher as they may need some volunteers to walk with the class to these lessons.

Have a great rest of the week!

The PLC 3 team.

Professional Learning Community 4 (Grade 4)

We hope you all enjoyed the long weekend, and everyone is ready for the run to the Easter school holidays.

This week students are going to Earth Ed to dig for fossils and learn more about dinosaurs. We have linked this to our writing over the next few weeks, so we hope to get some amazing pieces of writing with lots of interesting and useful words.

We have our House Sports on Thursday 23rd March. Students are encouraged to dress in their house colours and try their best at all the different events throughout the day. It is always a highlight of the year. If you are unsure of what colour your child is in, please ask your child’s teacher.

In Numeracy, we have been looking at measuring length using different formal and informal measurements. We will be moving on to angles in Week 9, where we will name and compare angles to right angles.

Camp notes will be coming home soon, as our Grade 4 camp is fast approaching (May 15th-17th). Another exciting time that builds memories to last their lifetime.

Kind Regards,

PLC 4 Teachers

Professional Learning Community 5 (Grade 5)

Our kitchen program has been incredible this term. The recipes we have been making have challenged our skillset and pushed our flare for combining ingredients and enhancing flavours. We have made everything from delicious healthy soups with dipping breads to mouth-watering scrumptious muffins. We are also eternally grateful for the helpers who are able to come along and support this session. With your help our students have a wonderful time in kitchen as well as a greater connection to our school community.

Our kitchen program is greatly supported by our work in the school garden. The produce we have been growing is absolutely phenomenal. Check out Noah with this zucchini. Our garden produced several just as big and impressive.

NAPLAN is upon us and our students are well and truly tackling it head on. Grade 5s have worked incredible hard this term. We have managed to pack in so much and know that we can walk out of each assessment with our heads held high.

Athletics Day is coming up fast. Next Thursday we will stick on our running shoes and our teams will battle to the end.

The Grade 5 Sovereign Hill experience is also on the horizon. It’s going to being an exciting time playing the role of a student back in the Gold Rush era.

Professional Learning Community 6 (Grade 6)

Hello PLC 6 families, We have been busy learning and growing over the past few weeks. Here are some of the upcoming topics we will be covering in class:

In Reading, we will been exploring the different text connections we can make, in particular how the different texts we have been reading about government and Aboriginal history are connected. different texts are connected. We will also explore text-to-self connections, where we reflect on how the texts relate to our own experiences.

In Writing, we have been exploring the concept of freedom and how we can describe it. Next, we will then be working on creating interesting and cohesive narratives by using powerful writing strategies, and ensuring our narratives follow the correct narrative structure to hook and interest our reader.

In Numeracy, we will be focusing on order of operations and learning the importance of following the correct sequence when solving equations, as well as practising using brackets in our calculations. We will also work on real-life problem-solving skills, applying what we have learned to practical situations.

We hope you enjoyed this update on our Grade 6 class. If you have questions please contact your child’s classroom teacher. We look forward to seeing everyone dressed in their house colours on Thursday 23rd March for 3-6 Athletics Day!

DPS Cafe

DPS Café will be open 8am to 2pm for Sports Day on Thursday 23rd.