Prep

Can you believe we are at the half way point of term 1 already? The time seems to be flying by. Our students are really showing great enthusiasm when learning the new ‘word of the week’ each Monday and it is so exciting to see them applying their new knowledge of letter sounds to read new words. This week we have been learning how letters work together to make words and how words work together to make sentences.

The highlight of our fortnight was definitely the visit from our local CFA brigade. The students learnt what steps to take if ever there is a fire at home or school and they practiced ‘stop, drop, cover and roll’ in addition to ‘get down low and go, go, go”. After a very practical classroom session, the students were then invited to explore the fire truck and experience using the fire hose. The trees behind the Boorai are now extremely well hydrated! We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Dean Blyth and the other members of the Mooroolbark CFA for taking the time to come and visit us.

We are all looking forward to a visit from a local Police officer next week. We will learn about the role a Police officer plays in our community and the ways in which they can help us. We are also very excited about the colour run next Wednesday afternoon! The Prep students will complete one lap of the oval course. They will have the opportunity to run with their buddies and the teachers will happily get involved! Families are invited to come and watch the fun.

A big thank you to all our families for supporting our inquiry learning by sending in family photos, we really appreciate it.

Until next time,

The Prep Team

Allie Harrison, Elyce Munnecke, Sally Newton and Alarna Creed

Grade 1 & 2

Dear Level 1 & 2 Families,

The students have had another fabulous couple of weeks! They have been working hard at completing their learning tasks and doing their Personal Best.

Thank you for coming along and meeting with your teacher last week. We loved chatting and learning more about your children! This information will help us to help them flourish over the year with their learning.

In reading, students have been learning various 'solving words' strategies. These strategies include blending, chunking and segmenting. When reading with your child at home, encourage them to use the strategies they have been using in class to solve tricky words.

In writing, students have been enjoying the topic of recounts. They completed a learning task based on their minibeast hunt, which is where they found lots of different insects such as bees, flies, butterflies, spiders and even a dragonfly! They have also been writing about places that are special to them.

In maths, students have been learning about number patterns and practising their skip counting. They have been doing some problem solving activities and applying their counting skills to real world problems. Students are encouraged to continue to practise skip counting when at home when counting things such as socks, shoes, Lego, toys and crayons.

Science has been very fun this week!

Students in grade 2 have been learning about animal life cycles to prepare for their stop motion video they will be creating over the term. They are very excited!

Grade 1s have been learning all about minibeasts and their features to prepare for their activity, where they will be creating their very own minibeast out of various materials!

The Level 1/2 Team

Llinos Poole, Kayla Hartrick, Rachel Boyle, Emma Wright, Sam Younes & Daena Hailey

Grade 3 & 4

Can you believe that we are already half way through Term 1! Was lovely to meet you all at the Getting to Know You Interviews last week.

In the last couple of weeks students have completed a few of their learning tasks. Each term students complete a learning task for Reading, Writing, Maths and Inquiry. These learning tasks are then marked and included in their student portfolios and added to their reports.

In Reading, students have been looking at chunking words they don’t recognise as a reading strategy to help them solve unfamiliar words. This is where they chunk together parts of words they do know how to sound out, like ‘un’ in ‘unfamiliar’.

In Writing students have been learning to write about their special place and their favourite memories as an introduction to learning how to write autobiographies.

In Maths, students have been practicing skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, recognising number patterns on 100s charts. We also started learning about skip counting backwards as well as forwards. This week they did a self-assessment on how they feel about skip counting and selected their own learning goal to work on throughout this unit.

In Inquiry, students have been bringing photos of themselves when they were younger and we will be putting them together on a timeline very soon.

Coming up….

Monday 6th of March is a Curriculum Day (No School)
Wednesday 8th of March is the Colour Run

Have a great weekend.

The Level 1/2 Team

Llinos Poole, Kayla Hartrick, Rachel Boyle, Emma Wright, Sam Younes & Daena Hailey

The 3/4 Team

Carolyn Allan, Tim Wilson, Hayley Peirce & Sarah Jones

Grade 5 & 6

The students and staff had an amazing experience attending camp at Sovereign Hill since our last newsletter. Although the weather was scorching (sunscreen, hats and water were a must!) the kids showed plenty of resilience and self-responsibility as they walked around the site, participating in many activities and watching many amazing demonstrations. Some of the wonderful activities included gold mine tours where we got to put ourselves in the shoes of miners from hundreds of years ago. The students were amazed at the information learned during the tours. Panning for gold at the creek was very popular (many students were lucky enough to strike gold – EUREKA!) as well as gold pouring and lolly making demonstrations, candle making and 9-pin bowling! The students were lucky enough to participate in an education session, called ‘Gold Fever’ where they role played various tasks such as miners, troopers and bankers. One of the many highlights was attending the sound and light show on Thursday evening. Thanks to Mr Van Haaster for organising the majority of camp, the Level 5/6 Teachers who attended and our extra helpers, John Hayes, Dean Blythe (parent helpers) and Jess Ploegsma (5/6V pre-service teacher)

In 5/6 we have got straight back into awesome learning across the curriculum since returning from camp. Learning about a variety of persuasive devices in writing, character analysis in Reading and working on our addition and subtraction problem solving skills in Maths have been some things happening across our classrooms.

The Level 5/6 Team

Damien Smith, Megan Pepprell, Brendan Van Haaster and Millie Pinney

Lost and Found