PLC News

Professional Learning Community Foundation  (Preps)

This week has been a very exciting one as our Prep students have their Swimming Lessons every day. So far we have been so impressed with their confidence in getting themselves ready and in the pool. From all reports, the students are loving visiting the pool each day, with some deeming it ‘the best day of school ever!’. Hopefully there aren’t too many exhausted and cranky Preps come the end of the week! 

In Writing this week we have been writing different procedures. The students have enjoyed writing ‘instructions’ on how to brush their teeth and get ready for swimming. We have asked them to keep their eyes peeled for some procedures that they might find at home or out and about, so you might have some enquiring minds asking you about this. 

As we continue into this strange weather, please ensure all jumpers and hats are named. This helps us to keep track of them as they come on and off throughout the day. Please also ensure that students bring a drink bottle to school every day. This is very important as they aren’t able to access the bubble taps throughout class time. And lastly, just a reminder that we have asked that Preps leave all toys at home. We have had a number of instances with missing and broken toys, so to avoid this we appreciate your support in keeping toys at home. 

Have a wonderful week, only 3 weeks left!

The Prep Team 

Professional Learning Community 1  (Grade 1 )

Championships

In Week 6, Grade 1 students battled hard in our Numero Class Championships. While our Grade 1 students were knocked out early on in the tough schoolwide tournament (where they played against students in the upper grades), they gave it a red hot go. We are so proud of our Grade 1 champions and a big congratulations to all involved.

This week in Numeracy…

This week in Numeracy, students are learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. They have been using geoshapes to create robots, then consider how many different shapes they use. They are also learning how to recognise the vertices, sides, and faces of 2D and 3D shapes.

This week in Literacy

The students came into a shock on Tuesday morning when the chairs had decided to go on strike! Grade 1s are having to make do without and try their hardest to convince their chairs to come back with a persuasive letter to their dear, beloved, glorious, beautiful chairs. Students have already started writing and we’ll have to see if the chairs agree to come back soon.

Being good friends

Grade 1 students have been working on team building activities to help deepen the connections with their classmates and friends from other classes too. They learned about working together to achieve a difficult task and how to encourage friends when they're having a hard time. They had to try to pass a hula hoop around the circle (including passing their whole body through it!) without letting go of their partner's hands.

Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2 ) 

Dear Grade 2 Parents, Guardians and Carers, 

What a busy last two weeks it has been!!! We would like to congratulate all the students on getting through these assessment weeks. They all did a fantastic job, and all displayed a hard work ethic, giving everything a Red-Hot-Go. Throw the P-2 sports day into the mix and some teacher professional development (meaning teachers out of the classroom), the students have done an amazing job considering everything that has gone on. So once again, well done!

As we move back into the proper routine in the classroom, the students in Reading will be focussing on synthesising where students will read texts and locate and understand new information in fiction and non-fiction books.

In Writing, students will be focussing on persuasive writing with the topic of ‘Animals Enrich Our Lives’ discussing how animals and wildlife can improve, better, and strengthen our lives. We are eagerly awaiting to see how these writing pieces turn out.

In Numeracy, students are going back to basics and focussing on Place Value before taking on activities within the topic of Mapping and Directions. Our mapping unit will get the students moving around the school grounds which will be engaging and exciting for the students. 

As we look forward to the end of the year, we want to keep our students’ social and emotional well-being at the forefront of our minds. We want our students getting a good night’s sleep, eating as healthy as they can and giving 100% effort in the classroom and the yard. 

Thanks again, have a great week.

PLC2

Professional Learning Community 3 (Grade 3)

This week in Reading we have been analysing texts and paying special attention to how an author and illustrator construct a text and why they do things in particular ways. The students chose a book and wrote some things they have noticed about how the text is written.

In Writing, we are planning and writing a narrative set in the bush or a garden. This will be a nice lead up to camp next week and we look forward to reading about their amazing imagination adventures.

During Numeracy, we have been concentrating on fractions and building an understanding of equivalence and how many parts make the whole. We are doing this through lots of games based activities, small group work and direct instruction. 

Camp is fast approaching. By now you should have your packing list and it might be good to chat to your child about how important a good night sleep is for everyone on the camp so they can fully participate in all the activities without feeling tired. Perhaps give them some strategies for what they might do if they cannot sleep like deep breathing or counting backwards by 1s from 100. It is also a good idea to involve them in the packing of their things so they know where everything is. Please ensure everything is named also. If you have any questions please contact your teacher this week.

Have a great week everyone and keep up the wonderful home reading. You could try asking your child questions about what they have read to check they have understood it.

Professional Learning Community 4 (Grade 4)

Dear Parents/Carers,

PLC4 teachers are as proud as punch after analysing students’ assessment results from the previous few weeks of testing. Some amazing achievements have been made with academic growth shown. We are currently using our data to help write reports and provide comments that will be available on Compass at the end of the year.

This week in Reading students are searching for and using information of non-fiction texts. As our Science topic is Biological Science – Plants in Action, students are identifying how graphics and text work together to help us understand information. Examples of some simple graphics are about photosynthesis and the structure of a plant. In Writing students will sprinkle powerful writing strategies throughout their texts and practise different sentence types. They will put on their thinking caps and include idioms. Let’s hope writing is a piece of cake this week!

In Numeracy students will be telling the time on analogue and digital clocks. It would be wonderful if parents could ask their child, '‘What is the time?” during different parts of the day. Some students might be able to also give you the 24 hour time and calculate time duration such as in cooking and how long it takes to get to school.

Just a few reminders:

- Students get quite thirsty during the day so require a named water bottle. 

- Summer is nearly here so maybe have an easy application sunscreen such as a roll-on for top ups during the day could be popped into a student’s bag. (Sunscreen is also available in the classroom.)

- Don’t forget to come and buy a sausage to support our Grade 6s for their Graduation. This fundraiser will be at school this Saturday during the Victorian State Election.

Have a lovely week, 

PLC4 Teachers

Professional Learning Community 5 (Grade 5)

We are simply blown away by the dedication and hard work students have put in this semester and we are extremely proud to see this reflected in their outstanding results from Assessment Weeks. 

Since this period has come to an end, please take the time to discuss students’ strengths and reflect on just how far they have come this year!

As we adjust back into our normal routine, students turn their attention back to Julian’s Chapter where they learn to synthesis their growing understanding of this character and begin to realise the reasons for his actions. Why not ask students to share their new found understandings with you. In Writing, students are beginning to apply their learning of micro-organisms to explore the disaster that is their lunch box and the mysteries that may lie within. This may be a good reminder to students of the importance of cleaning out school bags every once in a while! In Numeracy, students are applying their knowledge of chance and probability to conduct an experiment, collect their own data, represent it accurately and then begin to analyse it. Students will apply their knowledge of fractions, decimals and percentages and discuss observed frequencies compared to the expected results.

On Friday of Week 9 students will begin their last Health day for the year, where they explore the impact of puberty and delve into the changes that occur throughout this time. Please keep an eye out for more information about this unit in the coming weeks.

It truly is an amazing achievement to make it to the tail end of the term in one piece (well, some of us); not long to go now until students begin their transition into their final year of primary school. 

Professional Learning Community 6 (Grade 6)

Hello everyone, welcome to Week 8. With assessment weeks done and dusted we are all on the downhill slide to the end of the year – can you believe that there are only 4 weeks of the school year left! We have been busy settling back into the routine of our learning.

In Reading, we are making our way through the class text ‘Holes’ – we are learning to critique the authors purpose and credentials. We have also been reflecting in writing on our primary school journey, we are enjoying talking and sharing our experiences. These experiences will serve as a rich platform to create a reflective writing piece, a piece of work that we will cherish in years to come! We look forward to sharing these with you at Graduation. 

In Numeracy this week we are learning to investigate the surface area of various objects! This is challenging our thinking as we grasp the rules of both the surface area and volume. Ask us at home to calculate on object!

Over the next 3 weeks, we will be busy getting organised for graduation. We have lots of surprises in store and can’t wait to share this special event with you all as we celebrate and say goodbye to one another!

PS – Don’t forget to come and support our graduation and purchase a sausage on Saturday – we will be there all day from 9am to 3pm!