Achilles Community Report

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The Achilles teachers would like to congratulate all of the students on a wonderful semester . Everyone has settled into the community positively and we have established great routines and expectations, while working in our mentor groups. A special thank you to all of the families who have supported the students throughout the semester. We look forward to sharing our learning with you next term.

Reading

During this semester we have looked at the differences between fiction and non-fiction, learnt strategies to help with summaries, making connections and inferring, these are all important skills we use to help us with our comprehension while reading. We had a great time exploring poetry where we read poems that rhyme, some on animals and others about our seasons. We enjoyed our reading groups where we discussed our own opinions of texts and had time to independently read our favourite books from the library.

Writing

During writing this semester, students have been busy working on publishing a narrative. Their narratives consist of a sizzling start, beginning, middle, and end. Students worked on developing their characters inside and outside traits.

The students also worked on creating poems. Students explored acrostic poems, colour poems, sensory poems and haiku poems. The students enjoyed being creative when writing their poems and were happy to read their poems to the class.

Maths

In Maths, students have been learning a variety of strategies for addition and subtraction and using their understanding of these strategies to solve problems. They explore the relationship between addition and subtraction and how this knowledge can expand their understanding of numbers further.

The students worked on 2D and 3D shapes, learning the attributes and classifying them according to the similarities and differences.

Students explored time using digital and analogue clocks to the hour, half past and quarter to and past. We also looked at the calendar and the seasons of the year.

Inquiry

This has been a busy semester with many exciting things we explored during inquiry. We began by looking at healthy foods which then connected to healthy eating and what these foods give us in the case of ‘fuel’. We then explored how to grow your own healthy foods and everyone was able to grow a herb, fruit or vegetable to great success. We then investigated forces and learnt about push and pull. This was helped along by an exciting incursion hosted by Mad About Science where we performed many experiments looking at these forces. We also had the opportunity to create our own air rockets and look at objects that may sink or float.

SEL

The students have explored their emotions this month. As a class we have identified the different events that can make students angry and how students can deal with their anger. The students generated strategies such as counting to ten, belly breathing, ripping paper, drinking water and walking around.

Victorian Curriculum

Here is the link to the Victorian Curriculum if you would like to take a look at what we cover throughout the year.

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/level1

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/level2

Reminders

Doors open at 8:40am
Dismissal at 3:10pm
Ensure your child’s belongings are clearly labelled. This includes clothing, drink bottles, hats and lunchboxes (lids too)
Students are to come to school with a full water bottle each day (labelled)

What you can do with your child at home

Continue to read to and with your child each night.
Encourage your child to develop more independence. (Help pack/unpack their school bag/lunch, or get their uniform ready)
Encourage your child to take increased responsibility for their own belongings.
Establishing a regular routine helps students to develop a positive approach to learning and will benefit them as they progress through their schooling.
Encourage your child to practise tying their own shoelaces.
If you need to speak to your child’s mentor teacher, please contact the office to pass on the message or organise this before or after school.

Kind Regards,

1/2 Achilles

Holly, Scott, Britt, Michelle and A