Senior

It has been a lovely start to the week with the long weekend. Students from the senior level represented our school at the District Cross Country. Well done to all those who competed and ran their best. These students displayed perseverance and resilience and we are very impressed by your efforts.

In Maths the students have finished off a unit of work on addition and subtraction. They focused on developing their mental and written strategies and some students expanded these skills into working with negative numbers. They have now been focusing on multiplication and division. We would encourage any students who do not have a quick recall of times tables to be practicing this at home.

In Inquiry the students have begun the building phase of our unit. The year 5 and 6 students are participating in workshops that focus on the areas of Australian Federation, Australian Government and Immigration. The year 4 students are participating in workshops with the 3/4 students that focus on the areas of Local Government, Sea and Land Explorers and Indigenous Australians.

We were very lucky to have a guest speaker last week to share their story on immigration to Australia. You may like to talk with your child about your families history and how they can to Australia.

Sally, Stephanie, Stephen and Anne-Marie.

Middles

We hope you enjoyed the long weekend with your children and made the most of the sun that was shining.

Last week, 3-4TM enjoyed their day at the NGV visiting the Bark to Neon Exhibition and learning more about Indigenous Art. They also created clay sculptures of animals. 3-4C will visit the NGV on Monday 17th June. This exhibition links in with our Inquiry unit, Art lessons and Literacy through our writing of Dreamtime stories.

Literacy

In Writing, students are finalising their Dreamtime story which they are writing with a partner. We look forward to hearing the stories told orally next week.

In Reading, we are learning about reciprocal reading and the roles within it. This reading approach happens in small groups and each student takes on the role of either summarising, predicting, clarifying or questioning.

Maths

We have commenced our new units on subtraction and location. In subtraction we are learning diverse strategies to solve problems. In our location unit we have explored symmetry and will learn about maps and directions.

Inquiry

Students are concluding their history workshops. We have had workshops on explorers, local government and Indigenous culture. We will finish the term by thinking about how they will personalise this topic. We look forward to some interesting work next term.

Religion

In Religion we learnt about Pentecost and are now exploring some Old Testament stories. We are continuing to learn how to find stories in the Bible.

We ask that you continue to send in items for the Fete and toiletries for St Vincent de Paul. These items will be offered at the Mass on last day of term.

Enjoy your week.

Jarrod, Carla, Tania, Sophia and Vicki

Juniors

Hello families,

We hope you all enjoyed your looooooong weekend having had fun and rested well, while we were busy updating our First Aid qualifications!

In our Inquiry unit, May the Force Be With You, as part of our Building Phase, students have attended workshops and explored the topics of Movement, Push and Pull, Gravity and Friction. They have experienced a Toy Design workshop with one of our parents, a big thank you to Rosie for sharing her knowledge and time with our level. We look forward to moving on to the Personalising Phase where the students have the opportunity to creatively showcase their understanding of forces.

In Maths we are learning about Shapes and we have commenced workshops in the area of Addition and Subtraction. It has been great to see students identifying different shapes and their properties. They are trying different strategies to solve addition and subtraction equations, such as counting on from the larger number and using number lines.

During English students have been enjoying opportunities to experience free writing time and demonstrate and develop their editing skills by following the ‘Am I really done?’ process. Our reading sessions have incorporated texts and activities related to forces.

In Religion students have demonstrated their understanding of the post Resurrection appearances of Jesus, with a focus on the events of Pentecost. Today, 1/2C attended Parish Mass, where the Feast of St Anthony was celebrated.

We hope everyone has a great weekend and week ahead.

Renee, Tracey, Jason, Bethany, Julia, Naomi, Michelle and Poppy.

Preps

Hi Families,

We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable long weekend.

In literacy, the Preps have continued their learning on the beginning and end of a story as well as identifying what happens in the middle of the story. We have been using familiar texts such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little pigs to identify the beginning, middle and end and talking about the events that take place throughout the text.

In Maths, we have been focussing on number formation. We are working hard to ensure that our letters are formed facing the right way and we are using correct posture, pencil grip and start and end points in our writing. We have also introduced our new topic Time, and students have started discussing, comparing and ordering the duration of events using the everyday language of time.

In Inquiry, the Preps have been learning about different organs in our bodies, how they function and ways to keep them healthy. The Preps personalised their learning by choosing an organ to investigate and write about. After their writing the Preps had a great learning experience where they made a clay model of their chosen organ.

In Religion, we have been learning how to say the ‘Our Father’ prayer and what it means. We have also continued to talk about the Holy Spirit and the symbols that are associated with this and Pentecost.

Lastly, we would like to remind parents that the Preps will be hosting assembly this Friday and it would be fantastic to see many families attend.

Have a fabulous week,

Hayley and Amanda

St Mary's School

Issue 9 · 13 Jun 2019

In this issue