Learning & Teaching 

LITERACY - Vira Pirrotta

SPELLING BEE  August 11, 2023

This National Competition is for students from Year 3  to Year 6. Students are required to spell 30 words and have 25 seconds to spell each word. Each student is ranked according to the accuracy of their spelling and speed. 

In the next week, a permission form will be sent home. If you would like your child to participate please complete the form and return it to their classroom teacher. 

NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK Monday 14th August to Friday 18th August (week 6)

During the week, students will participate in many different experiments. Each year level has some exciting experiments planned. Students will work as scientists and conduct experiments where they will predict, combine, observe, and explain their results. 

Please visit https://www.scienceweek.net.au/ and click the find event tab for more information and events around the community and Melbourne. 

BOOK WEEK Monday 21st - Friday 25th August 

https://cbca.org.au/cbca-book-week

Each year since 1945, the CBCA has brought children and books together across Australia through Children's Book Week®.  During this time our school will spend the week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators. The teachers will develop activities and the school will run competitions and have a parade where students can come as their favourite book characters or dress in the theme of READ, GROW, INSPIRE. 

Our Book Week Parade is happening on Friday 25th August. Parents are welcome to attend. Younger children are welcome to come dressed up.    

STORYTIME - Leanne Wenckowski

Storytime for Term 3 begins TODAY between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm for toddlers and preschool children.

NUMERACY - Colleen Monaghan

T3 W3   What learning is happening around the school? 

Juniors and Foundation students have been busy working on Subtraction this last week.

At the Foundation level, students are expected to be able to represent practical situations to model addition and subtraction.

At Year One, students are expected to be able to represent and solve simple addition and subtraction problems using a range of strategies including counting on, partitioning and rearranging parts. 

In Year Two, students are expected to be able to explore the connection between addition and subtraction and solve simple addition and subtraction problems using a range of efficient mental and written strategies.

The Foundation students had fun acting out the story, ‘Ducks Away”, reading the story, acting it out, making number sentences to match the story and then solving their own subtraction problems using the ducks.

Here are samples of students' work. The students were working well on using a number line to show their thinking with subtracting two-digit numbers. 

The middle and senior students are continuing their work on Multiplication. It is an expectation that students at the end of Year 4 will have automatic recall of all the table facts. There are many ways to learn table facts. Some students love to learn them with Music.

This free App Math Rockx is one they may love.  This is the Rock Star Teacher that everyone wants! Your children will learn their Times Tables by singing them to classic hits from some of the world’s best artists! One Direction, P!NK, Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams, will-i-am and more. They will love grooving away to the new Times Table lyrics while they learn. The awesome Quiz feature consolidates the learning, to perfect their rapid recall skills.

SUSTAINABILITY - Annette Gasbarro

What’s happening in Sustainability

Our learners are very excited to have taken part in establishing a Sustainability Hub.  As learners, we discussed the purpose of a Sustainability Hub and why it is important to have a Sustainability Hub at St Fidelis. 

During our focus groups, a group of Year 1/2 learners had the opportunity to design what a Sustainability Hub looks like and research various materials and tools that are needed in our Sustainability Hub. 

Our year 1/2 learners documented the following:

At Sustainability, I was excited to put the sign up in Saunder's yard. -Sam 

At Sustainability, we are learning all about gardening, so let me tell you.  The Year 1/2 children have done many things, we have researched pictures and equipment that we need for our sustainability hub. -Oscar

In Sustainability, this week we made a sign that said Sustainability and put it on a piece of timber under the shelter area in Saunders yard. That is where we will be doing our Sustainability learning. -Sebastian A

In Sustainability, we put a sign up that says Sustainability.  We have made a Sustainability area to do our learning. -Ruby

During Sustainability, this week we put up a sign up that said Sustainability Hub.  Last week we put the tubs in and put labels on the tubs. We are doing Sustainability under the shelter area. -Sophie

During Sustainability last week, we created a Sustainability hub with resourceful materials that we need for Sustainability.  This week during our focus group, we made a sign, we all joined in to make it and it turned out great.  This is where we will do our Sustainability learning. -Vivienne

In Sustainability this week, we made letters that said Sustainability.  Under the covered area is Saunders yard you will see it on the green timber.  I hope that you like it. -Orlando

During Sustainability this week, we researched different pictures to put on our tubs. We had letters that said Sustainability and we put it on a piece of green wood. We did this in Saunder's yard. -Emma

This week in Sustainability, we put a sign up at Saunders yard at St Fidelis. It said Sustainability.  I was the person that made sure that Ms. Gasbarro put the letters straight.  We eventually got it.  Then we took a photo in front of the sign. Adam. 

This week, our learners will continue to engage in learning about “How to grow strawberries.” The children will have the opportunity to document any wonderings they have about strawberries. They will continue by exploring the following:

• What soil is suitable for strawberries to grow?
• How much water do strawberries need?
• Do they need sun or shade?
• How big do they grow?

To explore these questions further we will contact Bunnings Coburg and ask a garden expert to answer any wonderings that the children have documented. 

SPORT & PE - Michael Jennings

SSV COBURG DISTRICT GIRLS SOCCER FINALS

St Fidelis Primary School’s Girls’ Soccer Team finished their season as equal premiers in 

their division and qualified to compete in the School Sport Victoria (SSV) Coburg 

District Winter Sports Finals Competition onFriday 21 July at Hosken Reserve.

At this event, the soccer players played Coburg West in the Semi-Final and won this

game 2 goals to nil. St Fidelis played St Oliver’s PS in the Grand Final and unfortunately lost this game 1 goal to nil.

Congratulations to our girls’ soccer team on their wonderful season and in particular, their efforts in the finals. They should feel very proud of their achievements.

Thank you to Ms O’Flynn for her efforts in coaching the team and guiding them to the finals. Special thanks also to Mr Pirruccio for making himself available to referee all our boy's and girls' soccer games throughout the season, including the finals.

STEM - Joe Frazzetto

At the beginning of the term, the Foundation students have been merging with STEM. The students were introduced to a new technological device called the MERGE CUBE! It was amazing to observe the students interacting with the technology exploring, investigating and discovering themselves as scientists, researchers and collaborators.  The students were in wonder and awe, it was beautiful to see them grow as learners using the technological device the MERGE CUBE!

The MERGE CUBE lets you hold digital 3D objects, enabling an entirely new way to learn and interact with the digital world. Students can explore a galaxy in the palm of their hand, hold fossils and ancient artifacts, explore a DNA molecule, investigate the Earth’s core, dissect a virtual frog, hold and share their own 3D creations, and so much more.

Foundation students will also be interactive with the MERGE Cube in their classroom and I cannot wait to see what they do next with the Merge Cube.