Term 1 2023

Dear Ulysses Families,

It has been a marvellous term full of amazing learning within the Ulysses Community. Our students have been busily working on their Reading, Writing, Maths, Inquiry and S.E.L. skills. The students have produced some phenomenal work to demonstrate their understanding of these topics and should be proud of their efforts.

Our Learning

Reading:

This Term in Reading, we have been exploring “What is a procedure?”. Students have had the opportunity to read and listen to a variety of Procedural texts. We have learnt about the structure of a procedure text by identifying the title, materials required/ingredients and step-by-step instructions. Students have used their new found knowledge and have applied it successfully into their individual tasks. Students also explored the language features used in a Procedural text and developed their understanding of nouns, verbs and adverbs and the important role they play.

Writing:

In Writing this Term, students have focused on procedural texts and what steps we take to write a procedure. We have looked at the different features of a procedure and have included a title, ingredients/materials and steps in our own procedures. Students have also been using and developing their understanding of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs in their writing. This has made their writing more engaging to the reader and the students have found it enjoyable sharing their new found knowledge to their friends and teachers.

Maths:

In Maths this Term, we have been practising our skip counting by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s. We also continued to further develop our knowledge about place value, numbers and the significant role they play in our daily lives. The students also explored measurement using objects around the room. Students were able to find a range of different lengths using resources such as: paperclips. Gluesticks, scissors, hands, feet, rubbers etc. Students were able to share their different measurements and compare their findings as a community.

“I measured one side of the book, rather than measuring again I simply counted the 13 unifix blocks and added on to get to my total”. - Tegh

Here are some measurements we made:

Students have been investigating the topic of chance and below are some student quotes that display their understanding:

"Certain is 100%" Likely is 50/50" - Hamza

"It is impossible that we have a planet named "Pong" out in space and an astroid is going to hit it and explode and an alien named Zyross is going to come to planet Earth" - Tegh

"It is impossible that everyone that is human can fly to school" - Arzoo

"It is certain that we have lunch after sessions 3&4" - Adrina

"It is certain that if you eat a blue push pop, your tongue will turn blue" - Tegh

"It is certain that a bird can fly to school" - Hamza

"It is likely if you toss a coin it will land on heads" - Tegh

SEL-

This Term in SEL, students have continued to develop their understanding of maintaining and growing healthy friendships and how to be a good friend to each other. Students have learnt about ‘introception’ and how it is the way our bodies feel when experiencing an emotion, eg. When I am mad my hands become hot and sweaty. The Ulysses Community has continually added to our personal strategies when experiencing a negative emotion and how these utilised strategies can help our ‘readiness to learn’.

Ulysses Harmony Day display.

"We celebrate cultures" - Arzoo

"It represents all the different countries of the world" - Emmanuel

"We wear orange clothes" - Krishma

"It is when we wear orange to represent not judging cultures and what others believe" "We represent Harmony Day here in Australia because we have lots of different cultures here to celebrate" - Tegh

"We don't segregate different counties and celebrate different countries and wear clothes that represent our cultures" - Georgia

"All countries come together, wear our cultural clothes or orange" - Adrina

Inquiry-

In Inquiry this term, students have continued to develop their knowledge about what they consider to be ‘healthy food choices’. We explored foods which are healthy, sugar content in some popular foods and drinks we consume and what we deem to be unhealthy or ‘sometimes foods’. During an in depth discussion the students suggested that we need to have access to more healthy foods at our school. The Students and Teacher’s of the Ulysses Community sent an email to Woolworths Greenvale Lakes and they have agreed to donate fresh fruit to our school for the remainder of the term, this began in week 3. We advertised this success with the school and promoted the importance of healthy eating and good brain break foods by welcoming all students of the school Community to come to our class and collect some fruit to eat regularly. We also got our hands dirty and planted fresh fruits and vegetables. We are all very eager to see them thrive and grow to then produce healthy fruits and vegetables for our School Community to consume and share with each other and our families.

Big thank you to Woolworths, Greenvale Lakes for the kind donations and generosity. Our school have thoroughly enjoyed the fresh fruit weekly. It has filled our tummies and energised our minds during learning.

Important Notes to Remember

Please label all belongings.
Students bring blue reading folders, diaries and homework books daily.
Please ensure students bring their hats daily.
Please ensure your children are attending school as ‘It is not ok to be away’. If your child is away please notify the office or upload the absence into Compass.
Pack brain break (healthy snack) in their lunch box for our early morning break between sessions.
If you want to celebrate your child's birthday by bringing something small to share with the class, please do not bring food, if you want to bring something we suggest stationary such as, highlighters, pencils, gel pens rubbers etc.

Mental Health In Primary Schools