What's happening?
FOUNDATION
Congratulations on a great start to our Foundation students! The students are doing such a great job at entering the classroom each day, completing their ‘morning process’ and settling into the classroom. Developmental play will continue, but may be moved to afternoon sessions. Most mornings we will have literacy, maths or fine motor rotations/activities out to align with what we are learning, this is to ensure that we are maximising the most of the morning.
This week students will begin to take home our class made books to share with you. This helps assist with setting up a daily reading routine at home. It is also a great way for you to become familiar with their classmates and the school.
Last week we introduced the phoneme (sound) /s/ and practised writing the corresponding grapheme (symbol). This week we are teaching them about /a/ and /t/. We continue to work on phonological awareness skills such as rhyming and syllables as well. The Maths topic on ‘Positional language’ will be completed this week, and we continue to practise oral counting each day. Social Skills are a big part of our day and students have enjoyed learning about our School Values of Responsibility, Respect and Resilience so far.
This Friday morning we will be making Tiger Toast in the classroom to celebrate learning the letter Tt. This will contain toast, margarine, vegemite and cheese. Please email your child's teacher if your child has any allergies or if you do not want them to participate. Look out for a photo of their Tiger Toast on SeeSaw!
Some reminders:
- Prep t-shirts are for Fridays only
- Blue satchels must be returned to school each day
- Please place your child’s fruit/vegie snack in a separate container
- Students should not be entering the school grounds before 8:45am
GRADE 1
Welcome back to another school year and welcome to Grade One! The children have settled in beautifully! It has been lovely getting to know our new classes and we are all looking forward to a wonderful year with you and your fabulous children!
Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on our ‘Learning to Learn’ program; setting up class expectations, getting to know each other and reviewing what it means to show our school Super 6 Values! We have also started Maths Groups this week. The children started by meeting their teachers and brainstorming what they think it means to be a good Maths learner. We then swiftly moved onto our first Maths topic of place Value.
This week we have been getting into the routine of reading in our classrooms each morning and you will have noticed that readers have started to come home each night. To assist us in setting up this daily routine, please ensure reader folders (with readers inside) and homework folders come to and from school each day. Information regarding take home readers, sound packs and Red Flag Words has been placed inside your child’s homework folder, we will also place any important notices in there in future, so please ensure it is checked regularly.
This term our Inquiry Focus is ‘Families Past and Present’ as an introduction to this unit we are asking all students to bring along a family photo that they can share with their new classmates. Lastly, a reminder that we are currently collecting baby photos for our ‘Guess the Baby’ game. We ask that all families please send in a photo of your child in a named envelope or via email, so that we can get our game underway!
GRADE 2
The Grade 2 students have made a wonderful start to the 2023 year. They are settled and focussed and have learnt about our school values through our “Learning How to Learn” week. They are also getting to know one another through the “What’s in My Bag” activity which has been a lot of fun.
This week students will be bringing home their take home readers. Students are given a colour band based on their final assessments last year and can make choices from our take home library. In Grade 2, we’d like to continue to encourage the habit of daily reading at home, signing the reading log, and bringing the reader bag back to school every day.
When listening to your child read our first focus is on FLUENCY and paying attention to how your reading sounds when you read aloud to an audience. This requires students to: try to make their reading sound ‘smooth - like talking’, loud and clear - easy to hear, pay attention to punctuation, use expression to add meaning where appropriate.
Students have been exploring narrative writing and are doing a terrific job of demonstrating their understanding of the structure and key features of a story. We will continue developing these skills next week, along with a focus on sentence types.
Our Maths groups began last week. Students are revising and building their NUMBER and PLACE VALUE knowledge and skills as well as understanding counting sequences by 2, 5, 10 and 3.
It was lovely to meet so many parents at our “Meet and Greets” last week. We are looking forward to a fabulous year ahead.
GRADE 3
Welcome back! We hope all our families had a fantastic break and are ready for an exciting and no doubt busy year in Grade 3.
Our Learning How to Learn focus for the first 2 weeks of school went well. Some of the things the students learnt about were the Super Six values, the expectations of being a Grade 3 student as well as activities aimed to better get to know one another and to create a positive classroom environment.
Reading: The students have chosen their own reading book according to their range and are striving to achieve their points goal by the end of the term. Please encourage your child to read 5 nights a week for a minimum of 15-20 minutes and record this in their diary. Diaries are checked by their classroom teacher every Friday. They have also completed five CARS pre-test assessments.
Writing: We are beginning to focus on the narrative writing genre. The students have been learning about the text structure and practising their ability to plot and plan a story line on a narrative planning template. We have also been revising nouns and verbs as well as the difference between a fragment and sentence in our grammar lessons. In our spelling lessons, we have revised the grapheme 'oi/oy' as well as open and closed syllables.
Maths: Last week we commenced with our math groups. Our topic is Place Value. This involves understanding that digits have a different value depending on their place in a number.
Inquiry: Our Sustainability inquiry topic has commenced! The students have started off the unit by watching the movie ‘The Lorax’. This week the students have discovered which of Earth’s resources can replenish themselves naturally and which cannot.
GRADE 4
Welcome to our new Grade 4s! We hope all families had a lovely break and are excited for a big and busy year in Grade 4.
Students have made a brilliant start to year, settling in nicely and the teachers have been very impressed with their efforts in Learning How to Learn. We have explored the Super 6 Values, what an active learner looks like at Parkdale, how to take on feedback and how to have a growth mindset.
We are very excited to see what the students choose and research for their ‘Passion Projects’. Students will have uploaded their question to seesaw and should be starting to get their ideas formed and chosen a way to present their project. We cannot wait to see how they come together! If you have any further questions regarding this, please get in contact with your classroom teacher. We will begin presenting our projects in week 4!
Literacy: Students have enjoyed writing about themselves during our ‘Read All About Me’ getting to know you activity. We have now begun learning about different types of poetry, and commenced our spelling program with MSL and Morphology practice. Our students should be bringing home a book to read each night from our Grade 4 library or a book from home and recording it in their student diaries.
Numeracy: We have now commenced our Maths groups and students have been learning about ‘Whole Numbers’. In our next topic we will be exploring ‘Measurement’. Please feel free to ask your child who their Maths teacher is.
Reminders: Please ensure your child is bringing their diary with them each day, and recording their reading each night. Students should be dressing accordingly to the weather, keeping in mind that classrooms must have windows or doors open for air circulation. We are looking forward to the Swimming Program coming up in week 5.
GRADE 5
Welcome back! We hope all our families had a fantastic break and are ready for an exciting and no doubt busy year in Grade 5.
We kick started the year with a focus on Learning How to Learn. We discussed the importance of our Super Six values, the expectations of being a Grade 5 student as well as activities aimed to better get to know one another and create a positive classroom environment.
In our maths groups we have begun with number and place value. We have been focusing on rounding numbers and identifying prime and composite numbers. We have also explored factors and multiples of larger numbers. For writing, we have been reviewing our writing skills and exploring the importance of figurative language and other techniques to engage readers and allow for deeper understanding when reading.
The students are very excited about our Inquiry unit ‘Why is it so’. Over the course of the unit, students will be exploring science, what it is and how it is used in everyday life. They will be learning all about the scientific method and processes involved within it.
We are all very excited for the Beach Program coming up next week.
GRADE 6
English Students have been writing descriptive texts over the last two weeks with the aim of using shape, texture, position, size, doing (verb), colour and numbers to describe what they see. .
In Reading we have completed our CARS pre-tests and focused on making predictions based on a text. We have also looked at using apostrophes to show possession in a singular word and plural word as part of our grammar focus.
Mathematics In Mathematics, we have been working on Number and Place value comprising of factors, prime numbers, square numbers, triangular numbers, square roots and index notation. Next week we will be beginning work on the four operations.
Inquiry The Grade 6 classes have been working on their ‘May the Best Party Win’ theme covering our nation’s system of government, democracy and the constitution. Students have been learning about the Magna Carta, Westminster system of government and federation. Children have taken a Civics and Citizenship Quiz which they will complete again at the end of the unit.
Beach Swimming Program
Students will be taking part in the Mordialloc Life Saving Club Open Water School Program on Friday 24th February. Please ensure you have made payment and provided consent via Compass. We still require an additional parent helper on the day to travel to and from school by bus and assist with the supervision of students from 9:00am until approximately 3pm.
In order to be considered as a parent volunteer you must provide a copy of a valid Working With Children Check (WWCC) to your child’s classroom teacher or present your WWCC, in person, at the school office.
Please contact your child’s classroom teacher by Friday 17th February if you are interested in assisting. Any expressions of interest received after this date will not be accepted or considered.
Interschool Sport
Interschool sport commences this week. We will be playing St. Patricks at home this Friday 17th February.
Term Dates and Events
Please check Compass for further information regarding Term 1 dates and events relating to Grade 6 students.