What's Happening at OLA!
Pre-Primary
In PPG, we have been focusing on prepositions, such as; left, right, on, under, between, in front and behind. We have drawn pictures, used cubes and animal beanbags to help us learn and reinforce concepts. We even had beanbag animals hiding BEHIND trees, IN our bags and sitting ON our LEFT and RIGHT elbows!
In PPM we have been focusing on Australia. In English, we have been reading Australian stories while learning about the comprehension strategy of comparing and contrasting. We have started using the iPads to help us compare and contrast the main characters from these stories. When we read Koala Lou we made personal connections with the text and identified an activity we would like to compete in if we were in the Bush Olympics. Our classroom travel agent has also been a BIG success as we learn about Australia's place in the world.
Mrs Noonan, Miss Smith and Mrs Durkin
Year 2
In Year 2 this week we have been extremely busy. On Monday, 27 August, we participated in the Catholic Performing Arts Festival at the Morley Recreation Centre. The Year 2 teachers are overjoyed by the feedback from the judges as the children put on an amazing performance of the poem, The Shark by Roald Dahl. On Wednesday, 29 August, we were fortunate enough to have a tennis session with Anthony from the Tiny Tots program. The Year 2s looked like they were having an amazing time and have learnt some valuable tennis skills.
During literacy, we have been busy writing narratives. We have started our good copies which will be turned into a book that we will be sharing with our parents on Seesaw. Also, in numeracy, we have been learning about data and we had the opportunity to conduct a survey. We collected data from our classmates and translated that data into a picture graph. We have had so much fun conducting and analysing our surveys that we are eager to do this activity again.
We have also been super busy making our fathers presents for Father’s Day. We are not going to share what these presents are as they are a surprise for our fathers on this special day. We have been learning about how special our fathers are and how we need to always listen to their wise advice.
Miss Rotondo and Miss Croft
Year 4
In our Protective Behaviours Program, we learnt about gender stereotyping. We are surrounded by this in many aspects. The class discussions have generated a myriad of ways that this is presented to us, from advertisements to everyday shopping. The major shop chains categorise girls' and boys’ clothes and toys according to colours. As results of this, it has captured our interest and we have lots to say on the subject. At home, we have been looking for advertisements that show gender stereotyping and were excited to present our findings to the class. All of our presentations were different. We were given the opportunity to spend time with our parents to discuss the task and they, in turn, provided feedback to our class teachers.
We were very excited about Book Week. So many books to read and so little time. What favourite book to choose to ‘Find the Treasure Within’. We came up with some novel ideas and unusual costumes. The hunt for the ‘Find the Treasure’ cards, had us put on our ‘thinking caps’ and decipher the clues our teachers gave us. Some of the clues were challenging but we found those yellow cards in the end. A brilliant idea Mrs Durkin and Mrs Dale. We were so lucky to have Mrs Erskine read to 4G and Mrs Noonan read to 4M. We enjoyed the stories and they had an enthralled audience.
In reading, we are learning about ‘determining importance’. To discover the main ideas or the important facts versus the interesting facts. We were given the opportunity to discuss these in our reading groups and it was interesting what some people thought was important and what others thought was important. After much discussion, we finally agreed on what was important or essential to understand the text.
Ms Dean, Mrs McCarthy, Miss Mannas and Mrs Peters
Year 6
We were very fortunate this week to have seen our fellow classmates present an oral presentation speech of their choice. This was a great opportunity for us to learn about our friends’ interests and about experiences, with topics ranging from the ‘History of Converse Shoes' to 'Albert Einstein’s Brain’.
The Arts is an area that we all love and we must say, we have some Leonardo Da Vinci’s among us. We looked at a one-point perspective piece of work and have created an amazing art piece that demonstrates a road that meets the city and the water.
In Numeracy this week, we have looked at different items of choice and have worked out discount percentages. What we thought would be a difficult concept has proven to be something not too difficult but quite enjoyable…..now we know why people love a sale!
Miss Figueira and Mr De Pietro