Term Two Class Curriculum Overviews

Foundation     

                                                                   Term 2 Outline, 2023

Welcome back to another term at Sacred Heart! This term is going to be an exciting and busy one, full of learning and fun activities. Over the term, we will be focusing on building upon the skills and knowledge we learned in Term 1. We will continue to work on our whole-school ‘Learning Dispositions’ which are: Self Managing, Creativity, Respect, Resilience, Responsibility and Curiosity. 

Reminders: 

Punctuality - It is important that all students are at school by 8:45am to be ready to start the school day. 

Take Home Books - It is important for your child to continue the routine of reading to/with an adult each night, and writing a nightly comment in your child’s yellow home reader journal.

Show and Tell - Students will continue to participate in Show and Tell this time term. Each child will present an item of their choice on their allocated day. This could be a special toy, object or activity they have done on the weekend/after school. 

Please see the next two pages for an outline of the term’s curriculum areas.

Sincerely, 

Amanda & Ann

Contact 

Amanda Pacella (Foundation Teacher Monday Thursday) apacella@shpreston.catholic.edu.au

Ann O’Brien (Foundation Teacher Friday) aobrien@shpreston.catholic.edu.au 

Term Two at a Glance

Other Curriculum Areas

Below is the Foundation specialist timetable for your consideration: 

 Year One and Two     

Term 2 Outline, 2023

Welcome back to another term at Sacred Heart! This term is going to be an exciting and busy one, full of learning and fun activities. Over the term, we will be focusing on building upon the skills and knowledge we learned in Term 1. We will continue to work on our whole-school ‘Learning Dispositions’ which are: Self Managing, Creativity, Respect, Resilience, Responsibility and Curiosity. 

Reminders: 

Punctuality - It is important that all students are at school by 8:45am to be ready to start the school day. 

Take Home Books - It is important for your child to continue the routine of reading to/with an adult each night, and writing a nightly comment in your child’s yellow home reader journal.

Show and Tell - Students will continue to participate in Show and Tell this time term. Each child will present an item of their choice on their allocated day. This could be a special toy, object or activity they have done on the weekend/after school. 

Term Two at a Glance

Other Curriculum Areas

Below is the Year 1/2 specialist timetable for your consideration: 

Sincerely, 

Bethany Decunto bdecunto@shpreston.catholic.edu.au  

                                                                                YEAR 2/3 TERM 2 2023

            PARENT NEWSLETTER

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to term 2, 2023! We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and are looking forward to the new term. 

Diary / Reading

A reminder of the importance of getting your child to read nightly with you. Please remember to then  write and sign this in their diary. A written daily reflection from their time  at school is also a great way for them to improve their writing skills. And don’t forget that diaries are also a great way for any parent/carer to communicate with their child’s teacher.

Curriculum

Throughout this year, the students will continue to revisit, reflect and demonstrate the Sacred Heart Learning Dispositions. 

In Religious Education, the term began with students reflecting on the Easter Stories, concluding with Jesus’ resurrection. The main focus for our next topic My Community, students are exploring and comparing their community to Jesus’ community. They will have the opportunity to reflect and understand how they can show respect and christian values towards their community. 

Our Inquiry unit this term will focus on ‘Our Community’. Students will develop their understanding of the many different cultures of people that live and work in our community. They will travel to the city of Melbourne and explore different places and then identify their purpose. Their connection through community will also be explored. 

Our main Literacy focus this term in Writing will be information and narrative. We are continuing to use our Writer’s Notebook, which is a great place for students to store favourite quotes, random facts, ideas, dreams etc for future writing in class. As was mentioned in the first term Newsletter, students are encouraged to place objects or ideas in their notebook. For ideas, students can include things like photos, pictures, drawings, cinema tickets, magazine cuttings etc. 

During Reading sessions, students will continue to develop their reading fluency and comprehension strategies. Locating information within the text and interpreting the meaning of a text will also be a focus this term.

In Maths, we will continue to develop student’s knowledge on counting forwards and backwards, counting patterns and place value. We will also look at addition and subtraction when problem solving. Students will be developing their understanding of chance and data as well looking at 2 and some 3 D shapes. Year 3 students will continue to receive INLP (Individual Learning Plans) sheets as part of math's home learning. 

The year 2 students from 2/3, will continue joining the P/1/2s every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for Discovery sessions upstairs. 

For Specialist Programs, please refer to the table for when your child will be participating in these activities. 

    Please refer to the next page for this semester’s Italian and P.E. Overviews

Healthy Lunches

We want all students to be nice and strong in body & mind so we encourage all to have healthy lunches each day! All students should also have a water bottle that can be kept in the classroom for them to drink throughout the day. Students will continue to have ‘Brain Food’ time at 9:50 am every day. Brain food includes any fruit or vegetable such as apple slices, carrot sticks, celery sticks, strawberries, etc. Please continue to put items to be eaten in a separate container, so it can be placed on each student’s table, in the morning. 

As we have a couple of students with nut allergies, we aim to be a nut-free classroom, which means not bringing in nut products including peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches. 

We shall be meeting for the Whole School Assembly on a couple of occasions each term. See dates below. 

Please remember that it is very important that if your child is going to be absent from school, you notify the school on that particular day or alternatively, email the teacher, or use the skoolbag app before 9.30am on the day. 

It is also important that if you wish to meet to discuss any issues you may have about your child, you need to make an appointment time. 

Looking forward to another great term ahead!  

Sincerely,

Marie

mpetrie@shpreston.catholic.edu.au

Italian Overview - Grade 3

In Italian classes this term, your child will continue to participate in singing and learn songs related to the days of the week, the alphabet, greetings and numbers. The students will engage in activities involving aural comprehension, pair and small group interactions, games and writing. Your child will also be exposed to the reading of class books to gain an understanding of Italian expressions and vocabulary. Students will continue to introduce themselves and ask other students what their name is- “Come ti chiami?” and how they are feeling “Come stai? The students will identify and use words of the week like “Per favore”- please and “Posso”- can I and identify and match numerals and number names from 1-20, extend their knowledge of colour names, family members and animals. The children will learn some points of grammar, such as definite articles, noun and adjective agreement and some verbs. Students will be given the opportunity to use some of this language when writing simple sentences and phrases.

Sport Overview

During the second term, students will engage with activities and exercises that explicitly develop their movement skills  With a soccer focus, students will be able to enhance their ball control, passing and shooting ability, while also gaining an understanding of soccer rules and strategies through exercises and modified games.  

Music Overview

Students will focus on listening and matching the pitch of music when singing and performing action and partnered songs.  They will learn how to hold the ukulele correctly and play C and A minor chords on the ukulele. Students will take part in structured dances such as the La Raspa and Syncopated Cyril and will experiment to create their own dances. Students will play simple rhythms using cups and tapping sticks to keep in time with one another to create a musical piece.

Ye

ar 3/4 T                                                       

Dear Parents and Guardians

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. Term two is only a nine week term and will fly by. Georgio, whom we had known for only one term, has left our school for family reasons. We wish Georgio and his family well. 

This term our Religion and Inquiry topics will compliment each other, as we will be exploring ‘Our Community’. This will involve learning about the historical and geographical aspects of Melbourne. The students will also explore the different cultures and Indigenous people who have lived and worked in Melbourne. We will also explore Jesus and his community, reflecting on how our community is similar and how we show respect and christian values to the people in our community. As part of these units we will be going on a couple of excursions to the city to learn more about Melbourne. 

In Literacy, students will participate in activities to continue to develop their comprehension skills and will also explore  different graphic organisers to respond to what they have read. The students will also be given the opportunity to write book reports to express their feelings about books they have read.

In Writing, the students will continue using their Writer’s notebook to develop their writing skills. Students will have the opportunity to learn different types of poems, such as Limerick, Cinquain, Haiku and Shape Poems. They will also have the opportunity to learn more about the structure and language features of information reports. 

The students will continue to have a Library session on Wednesdays. The students will also have the opportunity to borrow from the library on Fridays. Please encourage your child to return library books on Thursday or Friday so they can borrow a new book on Fridays. 

The Maths focus this term is on Multiplication and DIvision, Area, Two Dimensional and Three Dimensional Objects and Chance.  Students will work in small groups, pairs, individually or in a teacher group to develop their understanding and skills. For Maths home learning see below. 

In Music this term, students will focus on listening and matching the pitch of music when singing and performing action and partnered songs. They will learn how to hold the ukulele correctly and play C, F and  A minor chords on the ukulele and be introduced to more challenging chords and strumming patterns. Students will experiment with percussion instruments,  cups and tapping sticks to play simple rhythms and songs.

In Italian classes this term, your child will continue to participate in singing and learn songs related to the days of the week, the alphabet, greetings and numbers. The students will engage in activities involving aural comprehension, pair and small group interactions, games and writing. Your child will also be exposed to the reading of class books to gain an understanding of Italian expressions and vocabulary. Students will continue to introduce themselves and ask other students what their name is- “Come ti chiami?” and how they are feeling “Come stai? The students will identify and use words of the week like “Per favore”- please and “Posso”- can I and identify and match numerals and number names from 1-20, extend their knowledge of colour names, family members and animals. The children will

learn some points of grammar, such as definite articles, noun and adjective agreement and some verbs. Students will be given the opportunity to use some of this language when writing simple sentences and phrases.

During the second term Sport lessons, students will engage with activities and exercises that explicitly develop their movement skills  With a soccer focus, students will be able to enhance their ball control, passing and shooting ability, while also gaining an understanding of soccer rules and strategies through exercises and modified games. Some Y4 students also have an interest in the Interschool Sports and are participating on Friday’s, as well as practising with their team during lunchtimes. 

Home Learning: Students are expected to read for 20 - 30 mins each night and to write this in their diary. Diaries will be looked at on a Friday. Study Ladder (online) will be used for grammar and spelling home learning. 

Please encourage your child to use their diary each week. Students will also receive Essential Assessment INLP (individual learning plan) for Maths home learning. 

Local Community Involvement: This term we have had our first visit from the Kindergarten children from Nino’s Early Learning Centre. The Nino children were very excited to be here and had lots of fun with the Y3/4 students. We will continue to alternate visiting the Early Learning Centre or hosting the children here at Sacred Heart, each month. 

Healthy Lunches: We encourage students to bring healthy food for their playlunch and lunch, with minimal plastic or paper wrappings. Students should also have a water bottle.  As we have a couple of students with nut allergies, we aim to be a nut-free classroom, which means not bringing in nut products including peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches.

Specialists - Wednesday

This term there will be Whole School Assemblies on Thursdays in Week 4, week 6 and week 8. 

Dates are included in the weekly newsletter.

If you have any questions or need to contact us please do not hesitate. 

James Doolan - jdoolan@shpreston.catholic.edu.au

Denise Esposito - desposito@shpreston.catholic.edu.au 

                                                                        Year 5/6  2023 

                                                              Term 2 Outline                                                 

Welcome to Term Two which is possibly my favourite term of the year. It’s always a busy time with lots of deep learning taking place. Autumn is with us (although winter is letting us know it’s coming), Inter-School sport is in full swing and the students have settled back really well.  Lots of work ahead and lots of exciting activities planned. 

Home Learning and Diaries

As part of the Year 5 /6 classroom, all students are expected to do some learning at home

during the week, which involves reading each night, as well as working in other curriculum areas. We understand that students have extra curricular activities (swimming, karate, football etc), but the purpose of Home Learning is for students to get used to organising their time and making connections with their learning from school. We believe these are good habits for young people to become successful learners.

Each child needs to have their diary signed each night by parents, as well as                            ensuring all notices, lunch order forms etc are placed in their school bag ready 

for the next day.  

8.45am Start

It is important that all students are at school by 8:45am to be ready to start the school day. The morning is an important time for developing self managing skills, one of our Learning Dispositions at Sacred Heart.

What Are You Reading? Wall          Word Wall               Writer’s Notebook        Inquiry ~ Geography and Ethics                                           

Curriculum Areas

Religious Education

In Religious Education this term, the focus will be on the notion of discipleship and what it means to serve others. As well as looking at the story of the Good Samaritan, students will explore the lives of three people who chose to be disciples of Christ; Mary the Mother of God, Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first Saint, and St Patrick, whom our cathedral is named after. Also, through our Inquiry Unit on ‘Is the World a Fair Place?’, students will be invited to interpret local and global decisions in light of Catholic Social Teaching. The ethical ideas of fairness, equity and justice shall be explored.

English 

In English, the focus in Reading will be to explore a variety of texts that convey information about particular social, cultural and historical contexts. Students will focus on Informational Non-Fiction texts related to our Inquiry unit. Reading groups will also explore the strategy of Reciprocal Reading, whereby students take on different roles in small groups in order to deepen their understanding of the text. Writing, this term builds on the good work done in Term 1, with our Writer’s Notebook program up and running. Students will be creating a variety of genre pieces and being supported throughout all facets of the program; seed building, shaping writing, planning, drafting, editing and publishing their writing.

Serial Reader  ~ One of the reasons I love teaching is because I get a chance to share my 

love of literature with the students I teach. If I can instill in each child I teach a love 

of reading I’m pretty stoked, to be honest. We’ve already read a range of easy texts 

from crowd favourites Paul Jennings and Roald Dahl. This term we enter the classics, 

with the great adventure of Treasure Island being enjoyed by us all.

Maths 

In Numeracy, this term’s topics are Chance, Data and Statistics, 2D and 3D shapes, Time, Multiplication and Division and Area. Now that’s a mouthful! After each assessment on these topics,, students will be provided with INLP’s (Individual Numeracy Learning Plans) which will have learning goals for your child in this area.  These activities will form part of their Home Learning. 

Inquiry                                                                                                                                                    This term’s Inquiry unit is called “'How Fair is Our World’, looking at the imbalance of                                                     the worlds resources. Students will think about needs and wants and will research                                                                                                                        their country of origin to highlight the issues surrounding their country.

As an action based research, students will explore ways in which we can help people

less fortunate than us around the globe. 

Specialists 

In Italian, Grade 5 / 6 students will write personal descriptions in a unit

of work called “Conosciamoci”. The students will then be asked to write a letter to a secret

pen-pal about themselves using vocabulary lists, models and dictionaries. The students

will read some short and / or modified texts for meaning and for use as models in their

own writing. In PE, students will engage with activities and exercises that explicitly develop their movement skills with a soccer and netball focus. Students will be provided opportunities to 

enhance their passing and shooting abilities, while also gaining an understanding of soccer 

and netball rules and strategies through both teacher and student-led exercises and modified games.   In Music students will revise how to play C, F, G7 and  A minor chords on the ukulele and be introduced to more challenging chords and strumming. They will improve playing in time with a group to perform with each other and for an audience.  They will experiment with different body percussion sounds and techniques connected to wellbeing concepts. Students will experiment with complex rhythm and drumming techniques using cups, body percussion and bucket drumming to play a 

range of musical pieces.

Wellbeing           Jigsaw Puzzles are a great calming activity.

To continue supporting the wellbeing of our senior students, we continue to work through the RRRR (Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships) program. Last term we looked at respectful ways (and disrespectful ways) we can interact with each other. Students listed their top ten in each, which is now displayed in our room. This term we will look at Positive Strengths and Caracteristics of the students and recognise and celebrate each individual.     

Assemblies

Each Monday we meet as a school community to discuss the focus for the week, give shout outs to people, sing happy birthday to those who have recently celebrated their birthday and spin the wheel to see which 2 lucky children win a prize. 

We shall çontinue to meet as a school on three occasions this term on Thursdays for larger assemblies. We would love you to attend these assemblies as we celebrate our learning and highlight our ‘Good Samaritans’ at our school. 

Absenteeism

We would appreciate it if you would let us know before 9am if your child is going to be absent. Please do this via email / phone call / School Bag App or in person if you are at school. A direct email to the class teacher would be the most efficient way of doing this. 

Have a great term!

Marty and Rose-Lee

Marty Fitzpatrick (4/5M Teacher) mfitzpatrick@shpreston.catholic.edu.au 

Rose-Lee (LSO ~ Learning Support Officer) rlucchesi@shpreston.catholic.edu.au