Learning & Teaching

LITERACY - Di Manthos 

‘Principal for the day’ inspired many students to write and draw in a meaningful way. Writing for an authentic purpose and audience showed students ability to create and imagine. 

Students took up the challenge and came up with creative suggestions of what they would do if they were principal for the day - some students even used the Olympic theme to portray Mrs Watson. St Fidelis students are great thinkers and artists! 

Mrs Watsion has enjoyed seeing and reading students' writing- she is going to be using the students' voices and ideas. 

Principal for the Day

If I was chosen to be a principal I would let the students have a movie afternoon every Friday after a pizza lunch. Once a term I would allow the students to wear their pyjamas to school because I like looking at different kinds of pyjamas. As a reward once a month I would allow the students to have longer recess and lunch breaks. As a principal's award I would let the students wear their own clothes to school  because they have shown good behaviour towards each other and the teachers. Once a year I would allow the students to learn in a fun way by using lollies and chocolates to work out their learning and if they do really well they get to eat the lollies and chocolates they work with.   Clea  

I would be buying and making new equipment. I would make the playtime longer and let the grade 1’s be able to be in Benny Playground. I would add a cafeteria to the school.

Jake 3/4

If I was the principal for a week I would let the children do all the languages and have cooking classes and of course some free time. Alana 3/4MM

If I was Principal for the day I would……..

• Hold a soccer tournament in Benny courts, teachers against students
• Have an extra-long lunch break
• Allow students to wear casual clothes
• All grades get to go camp

Luca

If I was principal...

I would let the kids play in any yard they want to and let them choose what class they want to be in. I would let them go to a water park or the beach. After that they would all have a sleepover  at the school. In the morning we would have dress up day and sports day.then they would have the rest of the day off. Mia 

 Principal Day

If I could be principal for a day, I would do so many fun things. For starters instead of starting school at 9am, I would start school at 10am and end school at 2pm. During that time, I would take students to a waterpark with a limo. Once at the waterpark they go off by themselves and enjoy a ride of thrill. Next we leave to go back to school and students set up a circus. They’ll do tricks and magic and perform a show full of animals. Parents come and see the show, and then, it’s time to go.  Christian X 

If Maya Was The Principal

If I was the Principal for a day, I would organise a Dance Day for the children. After the constant lockdowns, it would be good to get the children active for the day where they can learn new dance skills and have a lot of fun doing it. This day would include a variety of dance genres so that there is something for everyone to enjoy and learn. 

Each year level would rotate through each different genre for a short period of time. They would get to learn some basic skills and even a small routine. The dancing genres could include hip hop/funk, line dancing, tap dancing, and even the more classical dances like The Waltz. We may not even need an ‘expert’ to come into the school as I am sure we have a few teachers who know some of these dances. Who knows, we could have some hidden dancing superstars in our school.

NUMERACY - Colleen Monaghan

This week I managed to work with the juniors on Addition. They are working really well with this, using some of the great mental strategies of doubling, making to 10, bridging to 10 , compensation. This article below by Shelley Gray explains each strategy. We want our students to be flexible with number in order for them to have number sense. 

Louis P 1/2MDthis week sent this to me. He was trying to explain to his dad how to add these two numbers. His work shows great number sense and his explanation showed how much understanding he has of this strategy, Compensation.

Caleb 1/2MD showed his great understanding of the left to right strategy. He was given McDonalds' menu to choose 4 items and add.

Zita 1/2MD  Added the money amounts here left to right also, adding the dollars and then  adding the cents.

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING ADDITION FACTS

By Shelley Gray

All of our students learn at different speeds and in different ways. We can’t expect them all to learn the addition facts and strategies at the same time, but how do we ensure that each student is working to his full potential?

One last big challenge is the balance between mental math strategies and memorization. We know that strategies are important. We want our students to UNDERSTAND number, rather that simply memorizing the facts. However, automaticity is important too! How can we reach this balance? Fortunately, there are specific strategies that we can teach to make addition easier for our students, and accessible for all of them.

Alright, so let’s talk about addition strategies.

Strategies are ESSENTIAL, for all operations. We want our students to be able to think flexibly about numbers, and use strategies naturally. This means that understanding is key. Automaticity (quick recall) will naturally follow.

Here are some effective strategies for addition:

Plus 1, 2, 3 and Extensions

In younger grades, we begin with the Plus 1, 2, and 3 facts. We can teach Plus 1 as 1 more, Plus 2 as 2 more, and Plus 3 as 3 more. As our students are ready for more of a challenge, we can extend these facts into the tens, hundreds, and even thousands. For example, the fact 7+1 can be extended to 70+10, 700+100, or 7000+1000. Teach your students to look for familiar facts in these bigger problems, so that when they need to solve a fact like 50+20, they think, “I know that 5+2=7, so 50+20=70.” During the extensions, be sure to emphasize place value. For example, we can think of 500+200 as 5 groups of 100 plus 2 groups of 100 to make 7 groups of 100.

Counting On

If students have been working with Plus 1, 2, and 3, they have technically already been working with the counting on strategy. Counting On is an introductory addition strategy that should only be used to add 1, 2, 3, or 4 to a number. Beyond this it gets confusing and can cause errors. To count on, we begin with the higher number and count on. For example, for 17+3, we think, “17…18, 19, 20.” For 2+34, we start with 34 and count on: “34…35, 36.” Dot patterns, ten frames, and number lines are all excellent tools for counting on. 

Extending the Doubles and Near Doubles

The doubles are typically facts that become automatic early on. The near doubles are facts like 4+5, where we encourage students to think, “I know that 4+4 is 8, and 1 more is 9.” We can also extend these facts. For example, when a student is faced with 30+30, he can think, “I know that 3+3 is 6, so 30+30 is 60.” Again in this level, we encourage students to think in groups of 10, 100, or 1000. For example, 200+200 can be thought of as 2 groups of 100 plus 2 groups of 100

Plus 7, 8, and 9

When we add 7, 8, or 9 to a number there are a couple of different approaches that we can use. First of all, we can add 10 and then take some away. Alternatively, we can make a 10 and then add the rest. 

Left-to-Right Addition

Left-to-right addition (also known as front-end addition or the partial sums method) is one of the most powerful mental math strategies for teaching addition of 2 or 3-digit numbers. However, many people are confused by why it is important and why it can be more effective than traditional vertical addition. With left-to-right addition we add from left to right. 

So in a two-digit equation we add the tens first and then the ones. For example for 25+34 we first add 20+30 to make 50, then 5+4 to make 9, and then 50+9 to make the final sum of 59.

Using Friendly Numbers

A friendly number is a number that is easy to work with. For example, multiples of 10 are “friendly” because they are easy to work with when we add or subtract. When we use the “friendly number” strategy for addition, it helps us work with big numbers. This is because we are essentially breaking the equation up into more manageable parts.

We begin by getting to a friendly number, which is typically a multiple of 10, 100, or 100 – depending on the numbers that we are working with. Then we add on the remainder.

For example, for the equation 27+9, we could first get to the friendly number 30 by adding 3, and then add the remaining 6 to make 36.

Breaking Up An Addend

Breaking up, or decomposing, an addend is a fantastic mental math strategy for addition that can be used in many different circumstances. This strategy involves breaking up one of the numbers in an equation into more manageable parts. Like many other mental math strategies, this encourages students to think flexibly and to manipulate numbers in different ways. This is the big goal of mental math!

Compensation

Compensation is a mental math strategy for multi-digit addition that involves adjusting one of the addends to make the equation easier to solve. Some students may prefer this strategy as an alternative to left-to-right addition or the breaking up the second number strategy. Compensation is a useful strategy for making equations easier to solve. More importantly, it encourages students to think flexibly about numbers.

Let’s solve the equation 34+49 using the compensation strategy. First, since 49 is so close to 50, we will add 34+50. This is easier to solve. Then, since we added one extra to the original equation, we have to subtract one from the final answer.

PE & SPORTS - Michael Jennings

SPORTS NEWS

SSV Coburg District News

Winter Sport Finals

Unfortunately, SSV Coburg District Winter Sport finals have been postponed again until restrictions indicate the allowance for interschool sport to recommence. Hopefully, division and region winter sport finals will be rescheduled so that our mixed football and girls’ soccer teams can compete at the Coburg District finals.

Stay tuned for further updates!!!!

SSV Coburg District Athletics Championships  

The School Sport Victoria (SSV) Coburg District Athletics Carnival is scheduled to be held at the Coburg Athletics Track, Outlook Rd, Coburg, on Wednesday 25 August 2021, commencing at 9.50am and concluding at 3.00pm. Obviously, this event being conducted will be dependent upon Government COVID 19 restrictions. There is a back-up day scheduled for Wednesday 1 September 2021.

During Physical Education and Sport sessions, Years 3-6 students have been involved in athletic trials in field and track events in preparation for this event. Unfortunately, due to lockdowns and school closures, preparation and selection of a St Fidelis Athletics Team has been delayed.

Hopefully, all students will resume school on Friday 13 August so that a team can be selected as soon as possible.

STEM - Joe Frazzetto

Year 5/6 ACMI Excursion

Last Wednesday and Thursday, the Year 5/6OS and Year 5/6VC went on an excursion to ACMI (Australian Council for the Moving Image) at Federation Square, where the students discovered the magic of stop-motion animation, and were introduced to the collaborative animation process. 

The 5/6 students used the principles of shape, colour, and pattern by using LEGO Bricks to design and animate their own unique works.

By the end of the Workshop, the Year 5/6 students had a good understanding of the:

• Principles of animation
• The science and maths behind animation
• Created a visually engaging stop-motion animation in a team.

ACMI will send through the students’ animations, where I will share their imaginative and creative works with you in the coming weeks.