What's happening in our learning spaces?
Foundation - Year 1/2
The fun and excitement of Term 3 continued last week with the celebration of Book Week and our much anticipated Scienceworks Excursion!
Tuesday morning we all walked in with big smiles on our faces, ready for our Book Week Parade! This year’s theme was Dreaming With Eyes Open. We paraded around the hall, singing and dancing and admiring each other's amazing costumes! There were lots of Harry Potters, Minnie Mouses, Disney princesses, superheroes, magical unicorns and Where’s Wally’s. We even had David Attenborough, Ash Barty, the BFG, Willy Wonka and Little Miss Chatterbox! We then had time and the opportunity to design a new book cover for our character and they looked fantastic…check them out below.
As readers, we began exploring some of the amazing shortlisted stories throughout the week. We focused on describing and comparing the different characters and making connections to them.
As inquirers, we had time and opportunity to go to the Scienceworks Museum to explore our big question ‘What makes it move?’ As researchers, we engaged in two education sessions where we found out all about movement! In the first session, we looked at lots of different toys to investigate how they use forces and gravity to move. We had to push some toys, pull others, use different parts of our bodies, and some also needed air. The next stop was the lightning room, and that definitely raised some hairs…literally! We found out all about how clouds, rain, thunder and lightning are formed. Did you know that cold water and ice particles in the clouds rub together to create electric charges? We discovered that when this happens and there are too many electric charges in the cloud- lightning occurs! A tesla coil was used to produce lightning and we learnt how to stay safe in lightning. As curious learners, we explored the Sportsworks and Think Ahead exhibitions and learnt all about how our bodies move. It was an amazing day!
As people of faith, we have been unpacking the new St Fidelis vision statement and core values. As thinkers, we explored the value of Kindness and spoke about what it looks like, sounds like and feels like. We discussed the ways staff, students and families within the St Fidelis community show kindness and then shared ways in which we can demonstrate kindness at school.
As we edge closer to the end of term, we wonder what fun the next few weeks will bring.
Foundation to Year Two Team,
Leanne Wenckowski, Alycia Marsico, Stefanie Carriera and Alex Phillips,
Year 3/4
On Tuesday 23 August, we celebrated Book Week with our whole school Book Week Parade. This year’s theme was ‘Dreaming with eyes open’. It was great to see the students share their costumes with each other and the wider community.
Throughout the week, we read four of the shortlisted stories, such as Jetty Jumping, Iceberg, The Boy and the Elephant and Stellarphant.
Take a look at our creative costumes!
Year 3/4 Teachers
Belinda Panzarino, Katarina Davidson and Graham Troy
Year 5/6
Week 7 was an exciting week for our students as they continued developing their circus skills, dressed up as their favourite book characters and began exploring ways they can contribute to our community through our Inquiry unit!
On Tuesday the students eagerly participated in our Book Week celebrations. We were overjoyed to see our students dressed up as their favourite book characters and enjoyed getting to know a bit more about their favourite books. As a school community, we participated in a parade where the students had the chance to show off their amazing outfits. In class, we read two of the shortlisted stories this year, “The Inheritance” and “Walk of the Whales”. Our focus when studying these books was to find the author's purpose/message. Each of the stories touched on our human impact on the environment and it provoked many questions in our learners as to what is happening in our world and what we can do to try and stop it.
In Inquiry, the students have been set the challenge of designing and creating a product, event or action that can contribute to a healthy and active community. The students first chose an area of science we have studied - environment, mind, sport or food - to explore further and then paired up to come up with some ideas. They have then pitched their ideas to their teachers on how their product would benefit our community. The students also learnt about fair testing and variables, so that they can create their own scientific experiments to test out their products' effectiveness. We can't wait to share with you what our creative students come up with!
In Numeracy, the students have begun to explore multiplication and ways to solve challenging problems. They have been learning different strategies they can use to solve equations such as arrays, the box method and a vertical algorithm. Using this knowledge the students have been set some challenging tasks such as working out how many legs there are in the classroom (not just human legs!) or how many books there are in the SLA. The students have had to use their problem-solving skills to come up with efficient ways to find the answer to these questions.
We look forward to another great week of learning and circus tricks!
Have a wonderful week!
Olivia Sargent, Michelle Casamento, Viviana Clarke, Annette Gasbarro
5/6 Teachers