What's happening in our learning spaces? 

Students of the Week

Foundation

It has been another challenging week for everyone, but despite the challenges of lockdown and remote learning, the Foundation students have continued to demonstrate responsibility, persistence and resilience. 

As communicators, we are continuing to listen respectfully and confidently share our thinking in our Google Meets. We enthusiastically jump online every afternoon to collaborate with each other, share our learning,  talk about our days and have some fun. This week we had a dance party and shared some of our favourite books. 

As readers, we tuned in to Fiction and Nonfiction texts. As researchers, we explored different texts by looking closely at the front cover and the title, and identified the features that make them Fiction or Nonfiction, before sorting out different book covers into two groups. We began reading and listening to some of the amazing stories that have been shortlisted for Book Week. As thinkers, we used our new knowledge to identify if they were Fiction or Nonfiction and what makes us say that. A reminder that this Friday students are invited to dress up for Book Week celebrations online. This year’s theme is ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’. 

As researchers, we listened to an expert from Melbourne Museum to gather new information about Bugs in celebration of Science Week. We continued the celebrations with Fun Friday, where we had time and opportunity to explore the science in nature, the science in cooking, and lots of other chemical and physical science. Some of us engaged in different experiments to find out what happens to milk and food colouring when we add soap, or to rice in a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Others used objects around our homes to explore what floats or sinks in water and why, and what is magnetic or non-magnetic or why. We had so much fun being scientists with our parents and siblings. 

We would like to thank all of the parents and carers for their continuous effort and support during this time- you are all doing an amazing job. Please reach out if you need anything, and stay safe!

Foundation Team, Alycia Marsico and Leanne Wenckowski. 

Year 1/2

The wonders of science, a world of ‘ologies and isms’. Last week we paid tribute to some of the minds with astonishing vision. The scientists who persevered, had a go, inventing, discovering and shaping the world we now know.  It was amazing to see the students become scientists/experimentalists and dabble in water filters, slime, insects, fact finding and much more. Thanks Ms Di for organising a fabulous week!

Science works Incursion ‘The Light and Colour Variety Show’

What we found out:

• Red + Green + Blue = White light
• When light passes through something dense and transparent, it bends the light
• White light is made up of colours of the rainbow
• Why do we see rainbows in the sky?  When it’s sunny and raining at the same time it creates a rainbow
• We see rainbows in bubbles, CD’s and oil stains
• CD’s are made up of tiny grooves and when the light is shone on the CD rainbow colours are shown
• How do we see?  Our brain merges images together to make 3D objects that we see
• Tones in the back of our eye help us to see colour
• Shorter shadows occur in the afternoon
• Longer shadows occur in the morning
• You can shine a torch on a wall and use your imagination to create puppets or animals

As readers and writers we responded to the learning activities that Ms Di planned from the short listed book ‘No Never!’.  We discussed the story, summarised the story, wrote a snapshot about the story, wrote a snapshot about the main character, drew and wrote about our emotions using our yellow hats to outline the good things in the story. 

In Mathematics, we have been identifying, ordering, matching, and sorting money.  As mathematicians, we are applying the addition strategies that we have learned to add money.  We have been using grocery shopping catalogues to add amounts of money. We have learned that making a number to the nearest ten is easier to add. 

In May, the discovery garden group planted lettuce, broccoli, carrots, peas and spinach. Mrs Watson noticed our delicious produce and harvested some lettuce for her dinner one night! Yum! 

Have a wonderful week with your beautiful families. 

Happy Book Week!

Miss Carriera, Miss Filipppone and Mrs Delaney

Year 3/4

We would like to congratulate the Year 3 and 4 students for displaying “Yellow Hat thinking” and positivity towards Remote Learning. The Year 3/4 students have continued to be resilient learners and to work hard. We are so very proud of what the children have been producing and the way in which they have participated enthusiastically in all our whole class and small group Google Meets.

Last week, the Year 3 to 6 students were fortunate to participate in an online incursion, to celebrate National Science Week 2021. The incursion, facilitated by Scienceworks, was called ‘Secrets of the Sky’. It was a  presenter led guided tour of the Melbourne sky using Stellarium, an open-source star gazing program. The students learnt lots of amazing facts about stars, constellations and the Earth’s Atmosphere.  On Our Fun Friday Wellbeing Day, we continued with the theme of Science and the students dressed up as scientists and completed lots of fun activities at home, such as science experiments, cooking and lego building.  Thank you to the students who shared videos and photographs of their learning. 

As mathematicians, we continued to explore the concept of Perimeter. We found out  that the perimeter of a square is easy to calculate if only one side is given as all sides are the same length. We also discovered that the perimeter of a rectangle can be easily calculated by adding the length and width together and doubling it. 

We continued to focus on our big question in Inquiry: How have people of diverse backgrounds and cultures contributed to our community? As researchers, we asked questions to find out about people and their unique stories. We surveyed family members or friends about their arrival to Australia. This week we will continue exploring people’s personal stories by introducing the case study of Faith Bandler. We will also complete a word inquiry by unpacking the meaning of the word ‘contribution’.  

In Literacy, we read the story ‘My Two Blankets’ by Freya Kobald. It is the story of a young girl who is trying to transition between her old world and new world. We connected to this text by thinking about our own feelings and stories of coming to a new place, starting in a new club, a new friendship group,  a new classroom or school. 

This week to celebrate Bookweek and Reading we will read and respond to some of the shortlisted books for the  2021 CBCA Book Week Awards. We will also listen to online stories and participate in an Indigenous Online Storytelling Session. At the end of the week we will dress up as our favourite book characters from ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds or Other Worlds’. This is a perfect opportunity to make a book character costume at home to fit in with this theme and you can create one out of pretty much anything you may have lying around. We are super excited  for Book Week and can’t wait to see all our students in costumes on Friday!

Have a great week!

Katarina Davidson, Mark Mac Gregor and Graham Troy.

Year 5/6

What a great week of remote learning it was for the 5/6 students last week!  

On Friday, the students participated in our Science Day by dressing up as ‘Mad Scientists’ and trialling all sorts of experiments. From DIY lava lamps to using coding to animate their name, students lived like scientists for the day. It was amazing to see students dressing up and participating in the activities to celebrate Science Week! 

In Literacy we have been reading a range of texts about different migrants, and how they came to Australia. The students learnt about the life of Rosina and Marino Casamento (Mrs Casamento’s husband's grandparents). They explored just how tough life was for Italian immigrants during the 1930’s and 40’s in Melbourne.

We have also begun reading/listening to a whole class text called “The 39 Clues”. The text is about two children who are given an intriguing choice. Either they can take 1 million dollars now and walk away or accept the 1st of 39 clues that will lead them on an adventure around the world, that results in them becoming part of the wealthiest most influential family in the world! The students were asked to consider the question themselves and explain what choice they would make. What would you do?

In Numeracy, we are continuing to work on solving challenging division problems and identifying the best strategies we can use to solve these. The students are also beginning a new unit based on volume and capacity. They were tasked with finding different items at home that have a range of different capacities and converting its units!

In Religion, we have been looking at the qualities of what makes an effective leader and identifying some of these qualities in influential leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and Mother Teresa. 

In Inquiry, we are looking at “Change Makers” this week. The students will be looking at a range of examples of different influential people in Australia who have made significant changes for the better of our community. 

The 5/6 teachers are still so proud of all the amazing learning our 5/6 students are doing. Well done to you all!

Stay safe and well.

Olivia Sargent, Michelle Casamento, Viviana Clarke, Cherrie Arnold.