Prep

Hi families,

We are finding it hard to believe that we are already in Week 4. It feels like the Preps have always been here. We are so pleased with how well they have settled in and all their hard work this term.

In Literacy, we have been learning how to write our names using correct pencil grip as well as looking at the different letters that make up our names. We have also been focussing on the text ‘I Love Animals’ by Brian Wildsmith. The Preps were able to share their opinions about the text and talk about their favourite animals from the story.

In Mathematics, we have been playing the game ‘Buzz’ to develop our skills in counting to ten. The Preps are enjoying participating in group work and hands on activities to help deepen their knowledge of numbers to 10.

In Religion, we visited the St Mary’s Church. We have been learning about why we go to Church and the different things that we might see in the Church. The Preps were able to share what they saw and talked about their experience on our visit to the Church.

Thank you to all those parents who came in for the Parent Teacher Chat earlier this week, it was great to see so many of you there!

Have a lovely week,

Emilie, Hayley and Amanda

1/2 Classroom News

Hello everyone,

WOW! We have started the year with a bang and we are well and truly settling into homeroom routines.

Firstly, we would like to thank all the parents for attending the meet and greet. It was an invaluable opportunity to connect with you personally and have an informal chat.

So here’s what’s happening in the 1/2 Level...

In Literacy, we are writing recounts and focussing on the 5 W’s - Who, What, When, Where, and Why. During reading we are predicting what the text is about using the features of the book. Home reading gun and it is terrific to see how smoothly the students are managing their responsibilities!

One of the best gifts we can give to the students we teach is the ability to communicate with God through prayer. Our Religious Education focus for part of this term is prayer. We have been setting up a homeroom prayer space and we are understanding there are many different ways to pray.

In Mathematics, we are honing in on our counting skills and learning about place value. All students should have their Maths Online passwords so that they can utilise this resource at home. If you don’t have this, please see your child’s teacher.

A positive mindset when learning is hugely important to us so we are teaching the children about ‘growth mindset’. This involves fostering a love of learning and ensuring the student understands the need to challenge the brain, make mistakes and move out of their comfort zone. When chatting to your child about school, it would be great if you could ask them about their ‘elastic’ brain.

The 1/2 assembly is scheduled for Friday March 8th so you might want to put that in your diary. This term 1/2C and 1/2JR will be hosting. In term two 1/2NT and 1/2B will have the honour!

Thank you for helping make the beginning of the year such a successful one!

Kindest regards

Jason, Bethany, Julia, Renee, Naomi and Tracey

Senior

The senior school students have been off to a flying start this year. Their imaginations have been challenged and we have been setting up classroom routines and expectations. As well as this, students have been learning about their roles and responsibilities as users of technology.

In Literacy, the students have been learning the structures and features of persuasive writing, including exploring the emotive language and writing a formal introduction that outlines their arguments. Each homeroom has been enjoying their class novel, they are learning to think critically about the text and its characters. They have made predictions based on what has already happened in the story and have started to infer how characters are feeling and the reasons why characters act the way they do.

In Maths the students have been working in workshops to build their knowledge of place value. They have been working on rounding numbers, working with decimals and positive and negative numbers. Students have also been working on their problem-solving skills, with our first lesson focusing on teamwork and collaboration.

In Inquiry, the students were immersed in our unit ‘Being a Tween’. They watched and analysed the film Suddenly Thirty and were involved in dissections of various organs. From this, students developed a wide range of questions about human development, body systems and changes. Our ‘Building Phase’ has begun and students have begun learning about the development and growth of babies and our body systems.

In Religion students have started to explore building a connection through prayer. They have had a go at writing different types of prayers and analysing The Our Father. In small groups they used different verses to find scripture that linked to prayer in the Bible.

Have a wonderful week

Anne-Marie, Stephanie, Stephen, Amanda, Sally

Middles

Hi families,

What a great (and busy) start we have had to the year! We thank all families for your support in ensuring your child’s transition into 3/4 has been smooth and successful.

We also thank all the parents who came to our parent teacher chats, it was an excellent opportunity for us to get to know you and find out more information about your child.

So far in Literacy we have been focussing on talking about and writing clear and succinct retells about texts we have read. We have also been working on our reading comprehension and ensuring we answer questions in proper full sentences.

In Maths, we have begun in the area of Number and Algebra. We have focussed on identifying odd and even numbers, including talking about what makes a number odd or even, ordering numbers from smallest and largest and identifying numbers that are greater than or less than. We have completed a number of Mathematics tests which will help us in developing future workshops.

In Religion, we have set up our prayer space and have drafted and edited our own prayers. We talked about the 5 different kinds of prayers and made decisions about which kind of prayer we would like to write. We were then able to publish our prayers on our Chromebooks by using a Google Doc and practised inserting pictures, changing font, size and colour.

Our Inquiry ‘Inside Out’ unit began with an exciting immersion day last week. After watching the movie Inside Out we participated in a number of workshops related to our social, emotional, spiritual, mental and physical health. We began by making healthy smoothies and we say a big thank you to Angela Madafferi for donating a generous amount of fruits and vegetables for this. We have critiqued these smoothies and will be discussing how a ‘design process’ works when inventing new products. We also participated in the beep test and other physical testing, collaborated during team building activities and reflected in a prayer space. Thank you to all parents who helped on this day.

The 3/4s are very excited to be hosting assembly this Friday! We hope to see many of you there.

Lastly, in 3/ 4 we encourage students to think about ‘good fit books’ and to choose texts that interest them. Therefore, we will not be sending home readers from school. Students are encouraged to read a range of texts at home (fiction, nonfiction etc) and record their reading every night in their diary. If you have any questions about this please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Have a great weekend,

Tania, Jarrod, Carla, Vicki and Sophia

St Mary's School

Issue 2 · 21 Feb 2019

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