Learning News

Literacy News Week 7

Lots of learning opportunities at St Michael’s this week. From narratives to procedures, and scientific explanations in between, the students have been applying their knowledge of text structure and punctuation to produce some masterpieces. Hopefully the parents of Year 2/3 have some nooks or crannies to send their harmonica wielding children to (or perhaps some cotton wool?). 

Enjoy reading about what all of our wonderful students and teachers have been doing in their classrooms.

Yours in learning,

Mrs Shepherd

Kindergarten

Kindergarten has continued to work hard to develop their writing skills. This week, we read the wonderful picture book Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughn. Students enjoyed the rhythmic repetition and rhyme of the book and its catchy tune “Wombat stew, Wombat stew… ooey, gooey, oh so chewy… Wombat stew!”. Students wrote the sentence, ‘It is a hot pot’, in their writing books. Students had to use their phonological knowledge to decode the words. Students got 3 stamps in their books when they used a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, a full stop at the end and finger spaces in between the words. Amazing writing Kindergarten-Miss Fraser is very proud!

Year 1

This week, Year 1 has been exploring the structure of a narrative. They have learned that a narrative has characters, settings and a plot. They were introduced to ‘story maps’ and how they help authors plan their narrative. Then they listened to the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and had to describe the main character Jack by saying what he looked like, what he felt in the story, and what kind of person he is. After that they were given their own character to describe and put into a story. What amazing descriptions this week Year 1! 

Miss Myers

Yr 2/3 

Over the past few weeks in Year 2/3 we have been writing procedures. As part of our learning we have been focusing on the structure of a procedure and looking at using verbs to describe how to complete something. We linked this to our Science unit, where we have been investigating the use of sound, by creating a Homemade Paddle Pop Stick Harmonica. Here are some of our great examples to guide you into creating these for yourself. Great Work Year 2/3! 

Mr Beaumont

Year 4

This Week in Creative Arts, Year 4 have been learning about the Drama elements of contrast, symbol and space. The students were introduced to the elements and then had to put this into practice through a variety of Drama games and activities. These activities included playing charades, being a mime and working in pairs to guess each other's emotions. The students thoroughly enjoy Drama and look forward to learning about more elements next week. Great Work Year 4! 

Miss McDonald and Miss Maunder. 

Year 5/6 

Stage 3 has been learning about digital technologies in Science this term. Students have learned about binary code, internal and external components of a computer and the inputs and outputs associated, different types of networks and their benefits and 3 different protocols involved online. To demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of digital technologies, students created a poster or a powerpoint to display information about digital systems. Amazing work Stage 3!  

Miss Summerell & Miss Rasche

Oliver Shorter

Chelsea Holden

Numeracy News Term 2, Week 8

Kindergarten 

Kindergarten have recently enjoyed exploring learning about addition, which is now termed in the new syllabus as ‘combining quantities’. Students have learned that when adding, the quantity increases. Kindergarten enjoyed using different concrete materials like counters and blocks to demonstrate combining quantities. One enjoyable activity we played was ‘Spill the Cup’.

Miss Fraser

Year 1

This week, the Year 1 mathematicians have been learning lots of different strategies to help solve subtraction problems. They first learnt how to use a number line to count back from the biggest number using single jumps, and even noticed we could count on from the smallest number to get the same answer! They then investigated the number bonds for numbers under 10 and I’m sure they could tell you that “a number bond is where you break a number into smaller parts”. They used blocks to physically ‘break’ a number to find all of the combinations it has. Finally they put their number bond knowledge to the test and were using a number line to solve subtraction problems by bridging to the nearest decade number. Outstanding work Year 1! I am very impressed with how hard you all worked this week! 

Miss Myers 

Year 2/3 

In Year 2/3 this week we have continued to build our knowledge and understanding of Subtraction. This week we have focused on using our knowledge of number bonds to create fact families of those numbers. We have also learnt that we can use these fact families to find  the missing number in a number sentence. Fantastic effort this week Year 2/3! 

Mr Beaumont

Year 4

For the past three weeks in Mathematics we have been learning about Multiplication. The students have been revising their times table facts, as well as learning new strategies. One of the new strategies they have learnt is using the vertical multiplication strategy. The students are able to solve multiplication questions that involve multiple digits. Great Work Year 4! For the next two weeks we will be learning about Area. 

Miss McDonald and Miss Maunder. 

Year 5/6 

Stage 3 has been learning to measure length and distance in Mathematics. Students learned to choose an appropriate device and unit to measure with and record using the correct abbreviations. Stage 3 enjoyed measuring with 30cm and 1m rulers, measuring tapes, trundle wheels and technology, such as Google Maps to find a variety of lengths and distances. Students practised recording measurements in whole number and decimal notations. Awesome measuring Stage 3! 

Miss Summerell & Miss Rasche