Junior Level

Hello Families,

We hope you had a happy Mother’s Day on Sunday and enjoyed some TLC and perhaps some kinds words in a card from your special people.

Thank you to all children for their fabulous behaviour at the excursion last week to Scienceworks and for the parent help. The teachers were impressed with the engagement and focus of all students and can’t wait to continue with our Inquiry unit - May the Force be With You. This week we continue the immersion by accessing existing knowledge and skills and finding out what the children are wondering more about. We are preparing for an industrious ‘creating’ session in the Art room in Week 5.

This week in Maths we will be post testing our Time - Clocks unit. Our next units will be Addition, Subtraction and Shape.

In English we have moved on to learning about procedural texts and how there are many different forms. The children already have some prior knowledge and experience in this genre, and will be viewing and creating their own instructions, recipes and directions. This week Nonno Dino will be

demonstrating to us his amazing gnocchi making skills so we can see just how a recipe is meant be be followed.

In Religion we continue to investigate the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection. The children are learning about ‘Doubting Thomas’, the Road to Emmaus and the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples while they were fishing.

Have a great week,

Naomi, Tracey, Julia, Renee, Bethany and Jason

Senior

Last week, the Year 5 and 6 students enjoyed an exciting time in Canberra. They got the opportunity to visit many tourist attraction, including Old and New Parliament, the AIS, War Memorial and Government House. At the Government House the students were lucky enough to have the privilege to meet the current Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove. A highlight for most students was our final session at Questacon, where they got to play and explore many scientific concepts. Whilst the the Year 5 and 6’s were on camp the Year 4 students went to Captain Cook’s Cottage and the Melbourne Museum. Both of these experiences formed part of our Inquiry Immersion.

In Literacy, the students have been finishing off their narratives, making sure to include suspense and write a quality ending. Students have also been learning about the roles of reciprocal reading, including the questioner, summariser, predictor and clarifier. They enjoyed making connections between the texts we read and the camp trip to Canberra.

In Religion, the senior students are studying the Sacraments of Initiation, with the focus on Eucharist and Confirmation. They have defined what Confirmation is and the meaning behind the Nicene Creed. The year four students looked at the symbols and meaning of Eucharist and made links to examples in the New Testament of the Bible.

During art, the students have begun a unit of work starting with drawing ‘Still Life’ 3D objects whilst focusing on Shadows cast by light. The principle of shadows created by changing light will progress into their study of nature and perspective found in landscape painting. Albert Namatjira (aboriginal artists) will be studied as being the first to paint the Australian outback landscape in a western style, focusing on perspective and shadows cast from the Australian nature.

Have a great week,

Sally, Stephanie, Stephen and Anne-Marie

Prep

Hi families,

We have had a busy fortnight in Prep filled with lots of wonderful learning experiences.

In Literacy, we have continued learning about syllables. We Have been looking at the text Silly Billy by Anthony Browne and Edwina the Emu by Sheena Knowles. We are continuing to use the names of characters in the text to practice saying and clapping the syllables. We are so excited to hear about all the excitement and enthusiasm about the M100 words that have been sent home.

In Maths, we have been learning to count two groups together to find a total. We have started talking about the ‘+’ and ‘=’ signs and have had a go at writing some simple equations. We are enjoying participating in hands on activities to support our learning.

In Religion, we have been learning about the story of ‘The Great Catch’ and relating this to our lives. We have reflected upon this story and thought of how we can help one another like Jesus did with his disciples.

In Inquiry, we have been looking at different texts with a focus on food such as Oliver's Vegetables and Oliver's Fruit Salad by Alison Bartlett and Vivian French. We have used these texts as a platform for our discussions about healthy food. The preps have enjoyed using their knowledge and understanding of food to have a go at packing their own healthy lunchbox.

We hope all our Mums and families had a very special Mother’s day! The preps had a wonderful time creating their gifts.

Have a lovely week,

Hayley and Amanda

Middles

Can you believe we are almost through 4 weeks of Term 2 already. Time flies when you’re having fun! And we hope that all Mums enjoyed a happy, enjoyable and restful Mother’s Day on Sunday! It has been a busy start to the term, with expos, excursions and class masses just a few of the things we have been up to.

Expo

We enjoyed celebrating our learning the other Friday in the Hall showcasing our learning at the Health Expo. Thank you to all the parents and family member who were able to come along and see what the students had put together.

Writing

In writing students have been learning about the structure of narratives. We have focused on beginning with a hook to get the reader interested, beginning with a problem and building to a solution. Students will develop their editing skills, drafting and redrafting before publishing. We look forward to sharing these stories with you in the coming weeks.

Excursion

Last Monday our students went on an excursion to the Melbourne Museum and Cook’s Cottage as a part of their Immersion into our new history-based unit of work called ‘We have landed.’ The students had a great time and learnt a lot about the First People here in Australia. We look forward to getting into the unit and finding out about the history of Australia, and of our local area. Thank you to those parents who were able to assist us during this excursion.

NAPLAN

This week the Grade 3 students have taken part in the NAPLAN testing. They have completed tests in the areas of Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, punctuation and grammar), Reading and Numeracy. We look forward to comparing this data with results from Grade 5 (in 2 years time) and making sure that student growth is evident.

Thursday Morning Mass

Both classes have now enjoyed celebrating mass with Fr Shabin and the parish on a Thursday morning. This is a great opportunity to attend church and receive religious education from Fr Shabin himself through his ‘student-centred’ homily. Students lead the singing and Prayer of the Faithful during these masses, and the parishioners enjoy this as much as we do!

Thanks once again for your ongoing support, and if you have any queries or questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Jarrod, Tania, Carla, Vicki and Sophia

St Mary's School

Issue 7 · 16 May 2019

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