PLC News
Professional Learning Community Foundation (Preps)
Our Preps have settled back into school beautifully this Term. Over the coming weeks, our Prep classes will be meeting with their buddy grade. We are looking forward to meeting some of the older students in the school.
Over the past two weeks in Prep, we have been focusing on some new letter sounds (x, z, y and q) and we have continued to develop our writing stamina using the Sounds Write Program. In Reading, we have been continuing to focus on solving words using different strategies such as looking at the picture, stretching out the sounds and looking for high frequency words we know. We have also been synthesizing in reading by combining what we already know about a topic with new knowledge we have learnt from a text. In Numeracy, we have been working on addition and subtraction. We are working hard to remember our friends of 10.
Just a friendly reminder, please cut up your child’s fruit for fruit break each day to make it easier for them to eat.
Thanks for your support,
The Prep Team
Professional Learning Community 1 (Grade 1 )
WOW, What a busy couple of weeks we have had in PLC 1.
Create, Imagine, Explore – We have been writing about a whole new world!
Over the last 4 weeks the Grade 1s have been writing about all kinds of worlds. Students have been exploring different lands, imagining a magic carpet ride and persuading their reader where the best place on earth is.
Students have been using rich vocabulary and focusing on how to enhance our sentences to make them engage the reader.
In Numeracy students have been busy making, breaking, adding and subtracting numbers. Students have explored the many different strategies they can use to add and subtract numbers as well as reading and solving worded problems.
In Respectful Relationships we have been looking at active, whole body listening. We encourage families to discuss whole body listening with their student and practise this at home.
We are looking forward to the next 2 weeks of assessment. We are excited for students to show us how much they have learnt and grown so far in Grade 1.
Grade 1's are going to have a ROARING good time at our dinosaur incursion on Friday and are excited to share with you our prehistoric findings.
Have a fantastic week,
Grade 1 PLC
Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2 )
Week 4 already! Congratulations Grade 2 on settling back into the term nicely. Over the upcoming weeks there will be many assessments that the students will partake in, where we ask that all students try their best.
In Reading, students have been summarising and retelling texts, where they have identified the important information in chronological order. Students have also participated in a portfolio task which required them to summarise a text using the ‘somebody wanted but so then’ template. We will continue to look at summarising Non-Fiction texts this week.
In Writing, students have continued to explore Mythical and Magical writing pieces. They are currently writing an exposition convincing their audience that a fairy tale ‘villain’ is a ‘hero.’ The students are including a range of powerful writing strategies and modality words to persuade their reader.
In Numeracy, students have been exploring addition and subtraction. They have been working on justifying and explaining their thinking and identifying the strategy used to solve the equation. Students will continue to explore different strategies to solve equations over the next few weeks.
Have a great week everyone!
Professional Learning Community 3 (Grades 3)
Congratulations PLC 3 students on your participation in the NAPLAN assessment. You all gave it a go with a smile on your faces and gave it your best! We are very proud teachers!
The weather has become cooler and lots of students are coming to school in summer uniform or with no jumper. Everyone should be wearing a named, DPS navy jumper with the school logo. Parents, please check this each morning and that students are wearing the correct coloured socks, plain white or navy.
In Literacy this week and have been working on our comprehension through summarising texts and answering questions. In numeracy we have worked on our place value knowledge and understanding of numbers. We have been loving PBL and learning about forces through experiments. Very soon we will be creating a project on a force and some of us may even want to demonstrate an experiment. If student do so, supplies from home will need to be used to showcase this. The next two weeks of school will be our assessment weeks so please arrive to school each day on time, unless obviously you are sick and too unwell to be here! FYI if you live in a house with a COVID positive case, please ensure processors are followed and that students are sent to school with a mask to wear while inside.
The term is quickly flying by and before we know it, it will be gone! Keep smiling and bringing a positive attitude to all of our learning tasks!
Professional Learning Community 4 (Grades 4)
PLC 4 Camp
I have loved all the different activities! - Leo 4C
I liked the canoeing, even though I got stuck in the reeds 3 times. - Max 4A
I loved canoeing and being with my friends! - Lexi 4B
Professional Learning Community 5 (Grades 5)
What a busy fortnight we have had. Firstly, I wanted to acknowledge and congratulate the effort all Grade 5 students have made with their NAPLAN testing in Week 3 as well as this week. Their attitudes have been exemplary and it has been wonderful to see how mature they have approached the past two weeks. Again, a big congratulations to them all and thanks to parents and carers for their support as well.
This week in Reading we are moving to analyse texts. We are reading the text ‘Wonder’ and our students are analysing the character traits of the main character August. It has been great to see the students monitoring these traits and articulating how they evolve through the story.
In Writing, students are this week writing a persuasive piece on nature being a playground of Earth. They began the week working on a quote to hook their audience in their introduction- most of them are superior than the Kmart coffee mug quotes.
Numeracy has seen the students work on collecting data and interpreting it through a range of graphs, tables and charts.
The next two weeks will be assessment weeks which is a vital period for us to gain data to inform us for mid-year reports. Please ensure students are well rested and come to school if healthy.
Have a great week!
PLC 5 staff
Professional Learning Community 6 (Grades 6)
Week 4 is almost over and we will be straight into assessments! This term is flying by! This week in Reading students are working on critiquing a text for its authenticity and consistency with their life experiences. We are encouraging students to make connections to school life and that of what is read in the class text – Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.
During Writing we are almost at the end of our Magic theme unit with students writing an exposition text around their thoughts on if magic is real. We have been encouraging students to form a strong opinion and arguments to support their stance while explicitly modelling to them powerful writing strategies that can enhance their writing. Writing stars will be chosen from this piece so keep an eye out for names announced at assembly and writing displayed in the classroom windows.
Numeracy this week has been centred around revising various numeracy concepts in preparation for assessment week. We have introduced worded problems to students so they can practise being able to comprehend what the question is asking and then choose the most appropriate strategy to use. It's been wonderful to see students really working hard to apply their knowledge to these problems.
A few reminders – all transition notes for high school need to be returned to the office ASAP. They are now overdue.
Some students will be participating in Winter Sports teams, if all notes and payment could be returned ASAP, that would be wonderful.
Have a lovely rest of the week - PLC 6