Classroom News
PREP
We have been very busy since our last Marian News. So let’s fill you all in.
Last week we completed our learning of stage 2 for Little Learners Love Literacy. We will slowly introduce stage 3 in the last few weeks of term before we hit the ground running in Term 3 with lots more sounds.
This week in our stage 3 book we met a new character Ned. Ned is Tim’s ram. We did lots of activities to explore our sentence, book and new sounds. Our new focus sounds are “Rr, Ee, Yy, Zz, Qu/qu”.
For writing we have been doing weekend recounts, colourful semantics, handwriting for letter formation, book responses and big writes.
We have continued our learning for subtraction with the use of concrete materials, using accurate vocabulary and by listening to interactive songs/dances.
We wanted to say a massive thank you to all our family and friends who came along to our Prayer Gathering. It was so wonderful to see how much support our Preps had. They all did such a great job and it’s amazing to see how far they have come in such a short amount of time.
Today we had our Braveheart’s incursion - we learnt from Ditto all about private parts and how they are just for us. We also learnt the steps for when we get uncomfortable feelings - we can run and tell an adult.
Tomorrow we have our whole school VCOP day. A friendly reminder for your child to wear green - as Preps are the P (punctuation) in VCOP. You can go all out or just wear a green ribbon or socks.
In the morning we will be in our classes making up dances, songs about punctuation and playing VCOP games. In the middle block the school is being mixed up and we get to be in a classroom with all the other grades for our big write experience - it’s going to be a fun one.
Gemma Blake gblake@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Dani Conheady dconheady@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
GRADE 1/2
Last Friday the Year 1/2s had a fabulous time on our excursion to Flagstaff Hill. The children participated in some olden day games and had a doll making session. We spent quite a bit of time looking around Flagstaff Hill and imagining what it would be like to live in the olden times.
Today the children participated in a Bravehearts session. This was aimed at helping the children to be aware of their personal safety and to recognise the warning signs when they are feeling unsafe or uncomfortable and to tell a trusted adult on their safety team.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to our VCOP day! The Year 1 and 2 children are encouraged to wear something YELLOW tomorrow as our focus is on Vocabulary.
No homework for the Year 2s for the rest of the term as the focus will be on revision of what we have learnt this semester.
Emma and Kerryn's Year 2 class will have their Prayer Gathering on the last day of Term (Friday 23rd June). Parents and families are invited to attend.
Don't forget - NO SCHOOL on Monday. King's Birthday holiday!
Kascha Popping kpopping@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Leah Martin lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Miriam Collins mcollins@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Matt Absalom mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Emma Roberts eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Kerryn Williams kwilliams@smcolac.cathlolic.edu.au
GRADE 3/4
This fortnight we have been continuing with our hard work!
We have just wrapped up our Maths unit looking at Addition and Subtraction, everyone did a wonderful job! Why not have a chat with your child about a strategy that they learnt? We will finish up our term by completing a short unit focusing on Chance.
We have been spending lots of time talking about different emotions, how they may be triggered and what response our body may have from this emotion. We have been able to recognise all of these things whilst we have been reading ‘Mr Men’ & ‘Little Miss’ books. In Literacy, we have even begun writing our own ‘Mr Men’ & ‘Little Miss’ books. We cannot wait to see how these turn out!
This Friday we are celebrating ‘VCOP Day’. This year we have been using ‘VCOP’ to support our Writing. We will be having lots of fun with lots of different VCOP based activities and even a whole school ‘Big Write’. All Year 3/4 students are invited to dress up in the colour blue - the colour of ‘Openers’.
We have two upcoming Prayer Gatherings in the 3/4 area. Tomorrow - June 9th is Year 4 Meg’s Prayer Gathering and next Friday - June 16th, is Year 3 Elissa’s Prayer Gathering. We invite all parents to come and join in prayer with us on these days.
Have a fabulous long weekend, and remember no school on Monday!
Elissa Rodger erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Deb Holland dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Lauren Ryan lryan@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Meg Knight mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Judy Carr jcarr@smcolac.catholic.edu
Jodie Hassett jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
GRADE 5/6
We have certainly had a busy couple of weeks in the senior school! Teachers have been busy report writing and assessing this week so students have been busy completing some testing and assessments. It is a really rewarding time for teachers to be able to reflect on how far students have come from the beginning of the year.
In Inquiry, students have started their assessment piece, ‘An Immigrant’s Perspective’ . This task is asking the students to place themselves in the shoes of someone who has immigrated to Australia and share some of the challenges they may have faced, why they immigrated and any historical facts around the time or event that they chose to base their story around. Students can choose to present this as a story, a diary entry, a letter etc to make the learning authentically feel like it is from ‘An Immigrant’s Perspective.’ They look forward to sharing these at Learning Conversations.
In R.E., we are coming to the end of our ‘Gratitude’ unit of work. This week, students will be exploring the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Next week, students will complete their assessment for this unit reflecting on John Marsden’s ‘A Prayer for the 21st Century’.
In Literacy time, students are preparing oral presentations for next week. Students are able to pick a topic (to either persuade, entertain or inform) and write a speech and share that speech with the class working on their oral presentation skills.
Children are still making their way through Multiplication and Division in Maths; Grade 6s are looking at the formal algorithm and lattice method for multiplication and Grade 5s have started looking at the formal bracket algorithm for division.
This week we were lucky enough to attend COPACC to see ‘Junklandia’; a performance showcasing circus and musical skills with a focus on repurposing rubbish to make instruments. The students particularly enjoyed being involved in a ‘Jam Session’ at the end using recycled rubbish instruments.
In Sport news, last Monday we had some students represent us in the Greater Western Cross Country. Well done to all who participated and gave their best. Today we have students who are representing St. Mary’s in Lightning Premiership Football and Netball. We hope they had a fun and successful day and were able to keep dry as much as possible!
Rachel Downard rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Paula Parish pparish@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Jade LoRicco jloricco@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Dan Cannon dcannon@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Susie Scott sscott@smcolac.catholic.edu.au
Maegen Potter mpotter@smcolac.catholic.edu.au.