School News
Prep
Prep Newsletter Week 4
What an amazing fortnight the Preps have had! Whilst the rain was coming down in Mooroolbark, we were blessed with beautiful sunshine as we travelled to the city for our day at the Melbourne Zoo. Some of our highlights included seeing the lions, visiting the butterfly house and listening to the Zoo Keepers talks. Thank you to our group of fantastic parent volunteers who helped on the day.
We have also shared some wonderful experiences in class. We enjoyed a visit from one our canine friends at school, Ms Pepprell’s dog Alfie, and made jam sandwiches when our word of the week was ‘jam’. We also meet with our Level Five buddies and shared a picnic lunch.
In Inquiry we have started to grow our beanstalks, as we learn about ‘Our Changing World’ and explore living things and their needs – like water and sunlight. We are having lots of fun observing, measuring and recording our beanstalks growth.
Grade 1 & 2
It has been really busy in Level 1/2 during the last couple of weeks! The children have been completing learning tasks and assessments and working diligently to show growth in their learning. They can't wait to share their portfolios with you in two weeks time!
The Level 1/2 students are loving participating in a range of Science investigations and are learning to record their results carefully. We are focusing on carrying out investigations safely and using our senses to make observations about different materials and their properties. We have been investigating floating and sinking, absorbing and repelling and even Walking Water!
Next week is the National Simultaneous Storytime, focusing on the book 'The Speedy Sloth!' by Lauren Young. Children all around Australia will be reading the book and completing fun activities on the same day.
The SRC (Student Representative Council) are organising a 'Pink Day' to raise money and awareness for the Breast Cancer Foundation. Students are encouraged to wear pink or add a pop of pink to their clothes, such as ribbons or accessories. If they could bring a gold coin donation on Thursday 25th May, that would be fantastic!
The Level 1 and 2 Fun Night/Sleepover is coming up next month! It will be held on Friday the 16th of June. Please look out for details, which will be available on Compass shortly. Have a great weekend everyone!
The Level 1/2 Team
Daena, Emma, Kayla, Llinos, Rachel and Sam
Grade 3 & 4
It's been a busy time in Level 3/4 this week, with students working hard to complete their learning tasks for the term. This has involved a myriad of things, including:
- Brainstorming, planning, writing and editing a realistic fiction story based on a mentor text of choice, The Terrible Suitcase or The Magical Do Nothing Day.
- Using text clues and prior knowledge to make inferences about a family from a given text.
- Researching information about Mooroolbark, including the name, population, geography, indigenous vegetation and history, including details about settlement.
- Applying maths to real life situations, with students surveying their peers across the level to gather data on a question of choice, before graphing (both by hand and using technology) and interpreting these results.
We're very proud of their efforts and they're all excited to show off this work when portfolios go home in a couple of weeks!
Have a wonderful weekend,
The Level 3/4 Team
Carolyn Allan, Tim Wilson, Hayley Peirce & Sarah Jones
Grade 5 & 6
Grade 5 & 6
The past two weeks have been big ones for our 5/6 cohort! Students have been hard at work completing this term’s learning portfolio tasks.
In Reading, students have been using the specific skills related to comprehension, summarising a text, and interpreting worded questions that they have learnt throughout term 2 so far, to respond to questions for non-fiction texts. Students explored a magazine about the Gallipoli Campaign, and wrote detailed, full sentence answers to a range of questions that required them to search for meaning within and beyond the articles.
Writing this fortnight has been jam packed with using all our new understanding of the narrative writing process to write a Sci-Fi story for portfolios. We have been focusing deeply on being able to begin our stories with ‘Sizzling Starts’, ‘Tighten the Tension’ in our writing, and write an ‘Exciting Ending’.
Students have explored using the Seven Steps Narrative Writing Graph to plan their narratives and write action-packed, engaging stories for you to read very soon!
In Inquiry, Students have been hard at work researching their chosen notable Australian, in order to create a timeline of their life. The 5/6 level has practiced ‘good’ research skills, sourced information and created timelines to explore the impact and contribution these people have made to shaping Australia as a nation. This acts as part of a bigger research project, with more exciting things to come!
In Maths, students have absolutely loved using their knowledge of length, perimeter and area to design their very own ‘Battle Bot’. The designs have been so creative, and we can’t wait for you to see them!
The Level 5/6 Team
Damien Smith, Megan Pepprell, Brendan Van Haaster and Millie Pinney