Classroom & Curriculum News

Senior STEM

A very BIG thank you to Mr Rosario Paglianiti and the entire team at S&D Car Care in Yarraville. They kindly opened up their workplace so some of our Year 6 students could interview Mr Paglianiti for our school documentary. Filming onsite allowed the students to gain a more realistic understanding of what occurred historically. 

The students and I would also like to extend our thanks to all of the interviewees who volunteered their time over the past year. These included grandparents, aunts and friends of our school community. We hope that our documentary, which examines the collapse of the Westgate Bridge in 1970, will be completed by the end of next term.

Ms Loretta

Assembly of 2023!

Let's congratulate our hard working students for week 5 & 6 

And wish a Happy Birthday to our February/March students!! 

Prep

Pesky possums and Wild things in Prep J 

The last two weeks our book focus has been the classic favourites 'Possum Magic' and 'Where the wild things are'. During our week with Possum Magic we had some very cheeky possum mischief in Prep J. We did a class survey on what was the best Australian food, we made possum masks and we also wrote in our books " What could you do if you were invisible" The most favourite answer was untying shoelaces (Lucky teachers on duty!) 

This week when we did WTWTA we discussed and then wrote in our books " What do you get up to when you are feeling wild?" We then made our own wild thing monster puppets. We have been talking all about the functions of a book including: Authors, Illustrators, capital letters, fullstops and directionality of how we read the sentences. We have been also spotting our Red star words in our books to help us remember them. It has been amazing to see the creativity and resilience when attempting to write our own words. 

Year 1/2-

In Year 1/2 we have been exploring the concept of length and how we can use different informal units of measurement. We have measured and ordered socks (don't worry they were all clean!) from longest to shortest and have measured our arm spans. In Religion we have been carefully designing and creating our prayer clothes. We have started our report writing about our growing kidney beans. We cannot believe how fast some of kidney beans have grown.

Year 3/4-

In Respectful Relationships we have been learning about different personal strengths. These help us to learn new things, to be fair and to get along with others. This week we looked at different personal strengths in small groups and presented to the class to teach each other and give examples of each strength.

Class Visit from Fr John

Last week Fr John came to visit the Year 3/4WS students. The students asked Fr John lots of interesting questions about Lent, making good choices, forgiveness and Easter.

It was lovely having Fr John in our class. We also learnt that Fr John was an electrical engineer before he became a priest. 

CHRISTIAN MEDITATION

We also did Christian Meditation which takes place twice a week in the classroom.  Students take it in turns to set up the room with candles, cloth and religious items.  Once the class is sitting in a circle in silence the meditation process takes place. 

Through whole class mediation students have the opportunity to reflect to god in silence which provides a chance to enter into the present moment.  Christian Meditation helps us to become calm and relaxed to be more productive for classroom learning.

Year 6 'Youth Leadership Academy Australia'

The Year 6 students began their leadership journey for 2023 by attending the 'Youth Leadership Academy Australia'. With the support of Will Massara (Academy Leader) and the Academy Team, over 1400 students from all over Victoria learnt great skills to support them in their leadership positions. The Year 6 students listened to guest speaker who shared their tips and tricks to help guide junior students at school. 

Wishing the Year 6 students all the best in their Leadership roles for 2023!

MUSIC/DRAMA LEARNING

The students have been working on scripts; learning to read from scripts and how scripts an integral part of communicating with an audience.

Ciao A tutti!

Check out what is happening in the language classroom.  The preps are learning the language through song and dance.  The 1/2's are writing in Italian and speaking the language. The middles and seniors are working hard writing their personal profile in Italian. BRAVI, FANTASTICO!!

TREEHOUSE

The Treehouse room is a calm space that has been created to provide multi-sensory activities, resources and support to enable our students to focus and engage in learning. 

Our learning support staff and teachers use this space to help our students calm, reflect and develop strategies enabling them to focus on their wellbeing first, in order to be in the best headspace for learning.

Students are actively supervised and engage in specific learning goals and strategies to assist them in re-engagement back to the classroom. Students are in the treehouse room for a scheduled amount of time which enables them to use the space in the most effective way.  

The space is also used to run our social groups. These are run by our school Counsellor and Wellbeing leader who works with small groups focusing on the specific needs of the students in consultation with the classroom teacher.