Class Celebrations

Prep

As always, we are so proud of our prep students for their ongoing resilience and hard work during this remote learning period. See below for some of their AMAZING work at home.

Grade 1

Grade One has really impressed us with their resilience and flexibility in coming back to remote learning. We are so proud of all of them! Our main focus this week in Maths has been learning about patterns - the children learnt about repeating patterns, ascending and descending patterns. See some of the great patterns they have made below.

Grade 2

We are so proud of the way the Grade 2s have transitioned into remote learning. They have tried their personal best and we have loved seeing their submitted work on Seesaw. Here are some examples of fractions students have found at home.

Grade 3/4

The Grade 3s and 4s have been working hard during Remote Learning! They have been working towards their Accelerated Reader and Mathletics targets. They have been having a lot of fun with their peers during their morning WebEx check-ins including some social scenarios.  

During Literacy sessions, Grade 3 and 4 students have been writing a biography on either a family member or someone of their interest. Many students have gone above and beyond expectations, ensuring their biography is factual rather than opinionated. 

Grade 5 and 6

As always, Grade 5 and 6 amaze us with their resilience. They appear on Webex with huge smiles and gratitude daily. We are very appreciative of their positive attitudes and mindfulness towards each other. 

We have heard some wonderful examples of the Big 10 this week. For example, Deon asked Param how to make his Scratch Sprite move in random directions on the screen. When Param demonstrated this for him, Deon used beautiful manners by saying 'Thank you so much, Param'. Aarav has been giving 'Words of Wisdom' to his class daily. This morning's Word of Wisdom was around doing your best and competing against yourself for better outcomes.  

Thank you to Ava who stayed behind on Webex to make sure her classmates didn't click on the incorrect AR quiz after she noticed a mistake - it shows such kindness that you thought of others and gave up your time to make sure your classmates used theirs effectively. 

Rose sent the most beautiful email needing help, but not wanting to disturb the learning of others, stating that she would read independently while I was on Webex with other students. It showed such lovely character that she thought of others' needs before her own. 

Here are Grade 5 smiling and using their manners this week. They were playing games and enjoying each other's company in their morning check-in:

Grade 6 have been learning algorithms in Maths and today they celebrated their learning by coding, using 'Scratch'. Unlike Miss Jo, Grade 6 are Scratch experts, so one of the lovely Grade 6 students taught this lesson, and demonstrated how to use coding to create a game. 

Well done to Gavin in Grade 6, who read one million words on Accelerated Reader last term. That's right - 1,000,000 words! Wow - Well done, Gavin! 

Well done to Shaurya and Roshan who have been among the first students in the school to achieve a gold certificate for Mathletics. They join Arushi in this milestone that means they achieved 1000 points every week, for 20 weeks. Amazing effort to you both - well done! 

Here are some Grade 5 Remote Learning celebrations:

• Most AR Points: Sai
• A huge effort on Maths Invaders: Alexy, Amir, Arushi, Chase, Chris, Cohen, Harsh, Hayden, Izzy, Janya, Jules, Mia, Omkar, Rayan, Reefand, Ryan, Sai, Shrivin and Will
• Top Mathletics Points: Arushi

We miss you Grade 5 and 6. Thank you for your hard work and we look forward to seeing your bright, happy faces on Webex on Monday! 

Inquiry:

Our Inquiry topic for Term 3 is 'Care for the Kids'. To learn about organisations that help children in Australia, we invited in Mark from 'Backpack for Kids'. Backpack for Kids are a non-profit charitable organisation, run by volunteers. They provide backpacks of essential items and toys for displaced children in Australia. The idea came to the founder of the company because she realised that often children have to move home very quickly and the foster carers may not have items they need for their age or interests. These backpacks are important, as it gives the students items of their own to keep. They can take their backpacks with them to different foster homes. 

Backpack 4 Kids relies on donations to enable them to keep helping children in need. They are always looking for donations of new clothes and other items for their backpacks. A list of items could include:

• Underwear
• Clothes
• Books
• Blankets
• Toys
• Backpacks

Backpack 4 Kids provide backpacks for children aged 0-17 both male and female so any items for any age would be much appreciated. Due to Covid-19, they are only able to receive new items. 

The other way you could support the organisation is via donations on their website:

Backpacks4vickids

Specialists 

PE

Grade 5/6 haven't had a PE lesson at school yet this Term but we have had 2 Olympic themed workouts so far. We have also reviewed the 6 events (100m Sprint, Hurdles, High Jump, Long Jump, Shot Put and Discus) that we will hopefully be taking part in for our Athletics Day on Friday the 13th of August. (If you haven't checked Compass yet make sure you give consent.)  

If you haven't already emailed to volunteer for Athletics Day and you'd like to, send an email through to Callum.Freel@southmelbourneps.vic.edu.au 

Here is the link for the Olympic Day workout if you are up to the challenge!

MANDARIN

Last week in Grade 1 & 2, we learned how to say the words “same” and “different” in Mandarin. We focused on writing the same and different in Pinyin with correct tones. This week during remote learning, we used the Seesaw app to practice our handwriting about the numbers. We traced the numbers in Chinese characters and some of us also challenged ourselves by writing them down on paper. Great work!

MUSIC

In the Grade ¾ Music Program we have been exploring emotion and expression in music. 

We have listened to examples of different pieces of music and analyzsed what we think the artist(s) is aiming to achieve in terms of representing emotions and moods with sound. 

We listened to various soundsrapes and discussed where they could be used in a soundtrack of a movie to enhance various scenes.

We are learning the difference between major and minor chords on the guitar and how the sound they product can be used to convey happy or sad emotions.

In remote learning, we have been developing a soundtrack to an imaginary videogame. Students have been composing music in a software program to fit the mood of the game.