From the classroom

News from 5/6 Unit

Hello Families,

In Literacy, we are continuing to read City Spies, By James Ponti. We are coming to the crux of the story where our characters are beginning their mission. Students are continuing to answer comprehension questions to the text as well as creating Venn diagrams on characters and writing about their motivations. We have begun our unit on Poetry this week. Students are learning about shape poetry, haikus and cinquains. We are reviewing figurative language (onomatopoeia, similes, metaphors, alliteration and hyperbole) and learning how to include these into our poems.

This fortnight in numeracy, students will be focusing on patterns and algebra. They will be identifying, continuing and describing patterns involving fractions, decimals and writing rules for a range of different patterns. They will also be using their knowledge of equivalent number sentences to find unknown quantities and using algorithms to solve mathematical problems. We continue to spend time each week revising the 4 processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). 

Students were fully engaged in our Numeracy Day activities, last Thursday. It was wonderful to see them exploring Maths concepts through fun, hands-on activities. 

Last week some students went to Heathmont College and participated in Indonesian Day. Our day was busy from beginning to end. The students saw a shadow puppet play, made masks, performed some dances and learned some karate. Students enjoyed some delicious fried rice and Japanese salad, before ending our day by having a zoom meeting with Heathmont’s sister school in Jakarta.

Homework is due each Thursday and is given back every Friday. Homework consists of Essential Assessment tasks, a grid task from the Homework sheet and reading each night for 15 minutes. If your child is unsure of what needs to be completed the homework sheet  was emailed to all families at the start of the term.

The 56 Waratah Bay Beach Camp medical form needs to be returned to Miss Davis.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Kind Regards,

Pippa Davis and Sheena Cronin

What’s Happening in 3/4 unit

What a busy two weeks we have had in the 3/4 unit! Last Thursday we had an amazing day participating in a range of STEM challenges as a part of our Numeracy Day. The students were actively problem solving to use a fragile material (dry pasta) to create a bridge that either:

• spanned the longest distance
• could support the most weight

These constructions led to high levels of problem solving, exploratory talk and fun. This, as well as our amazing maths games and detailed tessellated designs, were the active ingredients for a sensational day of numeracy learning. (See some photos below)

This week we are learning about location and transformation - you should have seen the students faces when Mr B got the old Melways out! - with students practicing grid referencing through games of 'Battleships,' creating maps of familiar places using the BOLTSS principles (ask the kids, they will understand what it means) and giving directions using correct directional language.

Our literacy focus is on non-fiction texts and how we can incorporate different text features into our own information reports on Australian Explorers. 

We can confirm that Homework will be due this Friday - we extended it a fortnight after the House Sports day - and we can't wait to see how much effort has gone into completing each task. Remember, it is an expectation that students in 3/4 spend roughly 30 minutes each night completing home learning - this can be reading, homework, maths games with families etc. (It helps to build good routines for when they go to high school in a few years!)

Have a fantastic remainder of the week!

Alec, Anna, Lisa and Pete

The Adventures of the 1/2's

Hello Families, 

It has been an exciting few weeks with celebrations around our curriculum. In Literacy the Year 1 and 2 students have been exploring poetry, its purpose and different types. They have had fun writing rhyming poems based on the mentor text ‘One Wooly Wombat’ by Kerry Argent. It has been great to see students having fun editing their poems using synonyms and antonyms with some very entertaining finished poems. 

In Numeracy, we have started our unit on division with students exploring fair shares, equal groups and arrays. The Year 1/2 students enjoyed Numeracy Day and participated in the hands-on activities it involved. They had the opportunity to practice making equal groups and arrays with M&Ms for our unit on division. Other activities included addition and division based games as well as using triangles to make shapes. Next week, students will begin their unit on data in our numeracy lessons.

Recently in Drama students have begun reading short plays such as Hansel and Gretel, The Three Bears Return and the Billy Goats Gruff.  They will continue to hone their skills in using their voice, facial expressions and movement to show character feelings.  In our Inquiry unit we have been gathering materials ready for our building of our project to help wildlife in our school area. Thank you to all the families who brought in resources we have been inundated with materials through your kindness and no longer require donations.

Kind Regards, 

Helen Edwards, Adam Jarvis and Lisa Rosthorn

From the Sports field 

Athletics House Carnival

Friday 12th August 2022.

The week leading up to the House Athletics was wet, cold and miserable. No one could believe how lucky we were to get a beautiful, autumn, almost sunny day on 12th August. We had a great Marlborough House Athletics.

The students arrived all excited, keen and eager to compete. They dressed up in their house colours and the atmosphere was electric. Parents, grandparents, friends all turned up to cheer and support. Staff and parent helpers were invaluable in making the whole day run smoothly and successfully. Big thank you to all parent helpers and all staff.

I was so impressed with the effort and enthusiasm of all students, staff and parents. Lots of students did their personal best. (PB)  I really enjoyed watching the participation of all students who although exhausted were still giving it their all. 

A big thank you to everyone. Special thanks to behind the scenes helpers, Jane B, Natalie W, Christina P, Jenelle S, Mary Ellen D, Pippa D, Sheena C and Alec B .Thank you to Christine Pillot for your ongoing support and encouragement.  A huge thank you to all the parent helpers who came to the track early to set up and then stayed to help run events. Ebonie R,  Lyn E, Thomas E, Elisa G, Stefan R, Kate F, Rod S, Robyn R, Janet  K, Mark N, Tanya H, Diane C, Beck T, Natarsha M, Anthony F, Freya A, Paul H, Lange S, Simone B, Trevor E, Louise T, Erin V, Georgia A,  Kelli H, I and I apologise for the many helpers I have missed. 

Great news as Jones House won and their name is fourth on the new Marlborough House Athletics plaque. Kenny were second, Ford third and Cawley fourth.  There was half a point between Jones and Kenny, so it really matters that everyone who competed and got a point for their house contributed to the final score. 

For further information

District Athletics is: Tuesday 6th September all 5/ 6 students and selected 3 /4 students at Bill Sewart Track, Burwood.

Division Athletics: Thursday October 6th,

Eastern Region Athletics: Thursday October 20th

Bonny Chisholm

PE Specialist

 Indonesian

On Friday 12th of August, I attended the Indonesian State Finals Award Night at Memorial Hall, Melbourne High School. It was great to see Mabel C and Hannah D presented with their certificates from Kuncuro Waseso, Konsul Jenderal in Melbourne. What an amazing achievement! Congratulations also to Matisse M for receiving a Highly Commended Award in her division.

Heathmont College Indonesian Day – 17th August

On Wednesday 17th of August, our Grade 5 students and 8 of our Grade 6 students, who will be attending Heathmont College next year, went to Heathmont College to celebrate Indonesian Day. Three other local primary schools took part in the day and it was a great opportunity for the students to work together. The students participated in different workshops such as mask making, martial arts, Indonesian dancing and games. Another highlight was nasi goreng and Japanese salad for lunch, which was delicious. A big thank you to Bu Devathas and Heathmont College for providing such an amazing experience for our students.

Super Science

Marlborough Primary School celebrated Science Week from the 15th - 19th August!     To mark this occasion, several lunch time clubs were held for all year levels with a focus on science experiments. There were dyed flowers to showcase how water makes its way up through the stem of a flower to its petals, lava lamps to showcase density and chemical reactions as well as a fun science quiz where students worked in teams.