Round the classes 

Reception class: Katie 

Over the past two weeks we have been busy consolidating our sounds in literacy. We have been learning how to read and write words. We have even had a go at writing basic sentences. 

In maths we have been learning about patterning and grouping. We have learnt how to group and regroup objects in accordance with their common attributes. 

As part of HASS we have started learning about timelines. We made our own timeline looking at how we have changed over time.

 We have also been busy doing some fun Easter craft and getting ready for Sports Day. We are super excited to have almost completed our first term of school 

Year 1 class: Kelly and Troy

The Year 1s completed their second Big Write task this week and what a great job they are doing. They have been working on their writing goals of using capital letters, full-stops and finger spaces. We have been discussing interesting openers for their stories and ways to make their sentences more interesting by using WOW words (adjectives) and use connectors (and, also, but, because). In phonics we have continued learning sounds, writing words and making sentences. They focused on ai (as in rain) and ay (as in play).

In Maths we have continued our focus on skip-counting, looking at skip-counting by 5 and 10. It has been great to see the students challenge themselves with the activities and games. They have been learning how to model (make), represent (draw) and explain how they worked out their answers. The children are continuing their goal of making sure they write their numbers the correct way - this is a work in progress.

For a maths lesson, the students completed an abstract art activity where they had to listen, follow instructions and draw shapes on a piece of paper. It was great to see how everybody interpreted the instructions. Not one piece looked the same - which was a great discussion about how people think differently in maths.

Year 2 class: Sam and Suzie

In mathematics, our class made a GIANT number line on the cricket pitch. We practised placing numbers on an open number line with approximate accuracy. We discovered that numbers need to be equally spaced. We talked about greater than, less than, counting forwards and backwards. It was a wonderful way to spend our lesson outside while the sun was still shining! 

Before Easter, our Big Write involved writing a persuasive text to the Easter Bunny to convince him that we would be the best helper. We then typed our letters using the Pages App on the iPads and inserted our illustration from the Sketches App. Please see some examples of our wonderful efforts below:

In Design and Technology we have been designing our very own vegetable garden and we are very excited to use these ingredients as pizza toppings when we cook some of our own pizza this Friday. What a fun way to end the term in Year 2! 

Enjoy your school holidays everyone.                                                                                                                      

Year 2/3 class: Stephen and Henry

In maths we have started learning about fractions, focusing on the 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 fractions.  We have used concrete materials to help with our thinking, ensuring we have a solid understanding of what the whole is and how it can be partitioned into equal parts.

We have also started looking at mixed numbers and have made some connections between them and money amounts.

We have enjoyed using the Pages app to word process our written texts.  For writing we have started to learn about the basic language features of the information genre, focusing on titles, sub-headings, using facts and using topic specific vocabulary. 

Year 4/5 class: Alex

In writing this fortnight students have been celebrating their narrative writing skills by participating in a Big Write on the topic of ‘flight’. Students have thought through their plot, character and setting ideas and discussed these with family members. They have been applying their knowledge of the Seven Steps to structure stories in a way that engages the reader. Students will analyse their own piece of writing to find evidence of their progress toward their individual writing goals and their current use of punctuation.

In mathematics students have been participating in targeted online maths learning and problem-solving challenges in the area of place value. They have been using evidence in their work to demonstrate whether they have achieved their place value goals.

Through their HASS learning students have been further exploring the use of map features. They have been practising using cardinal and intermediate directions on a compass rose in conjunction with a grid reference system to give and follow directions to different locations. 

Year 5/6 class: Sallie

In the 5/6 class we have been busy finishing off work so we can be ready for the start of a new term. We enjoyed getting back into guided reading and unpacking the different vocabulary choices the authors make and really looking closely at the imagery that has been created so that we can see what the author sees.  We have been marking our own Big Writes and seeing if we have completed any of our goals and setting new writing goals. 

In maths we are investigating fractions and becoming masters at improper fractions and mixed numbers.  

To complement the work we are doing in HASS we have started a BIG research project comparing a place in Australia with a country or city in Europe or North America. 

District Athletics Day was fun and wheelchair basketball was a really unique experience.  (See the reports and photos below).

Happy Holidays everyone!

District Athletics Day

On Tuesday (28th of March) students from Alex’s class and Sallie’s class were selected for the district athletics team. The athletics took place at Cornerstone College in Mt Barker. These students competed in lots of events including: Long jump, high jump, long throw, 100m sprints, 200m sprints and 800m sprints. Some of these students won ribbons. These students: Ila, Nilah, Elsa and Edith won third in the relay final. Callum came second in long jump and 200m. Innes came third in high jump and  Benji came third in the shot put. All of the students competing did a fantastic job, they tried their best and that is all that matters. There were lots and lots of other  schools competing, all from the Adelaide Hills region. We thank all teachers and parents for putting in the time and effort organising this.

By Ila   

PE: Henry

The postponement of Sports Day has meant that each class has had an extra session to practise the events that will be run on the day. These events have included relays, hurdles, egg and spoon races, three-legged races, long throws, and a new Indigenous game called Kolap. 

We also had a visit from Wheelienet, a disability awareness program that had the students having a go at a range of wheelchair sports. This was a fantastic experience for the kids to develop empathy for wheelchair users, as well as learning about inclusion and sporting opportunities for those living with a disability.

Indonesian : Ibu Susan

We have been finishing off our topic on Keluarga (Family). The students have done a wonderful job describing their family and what they like to do. We also had the chance to do some Indonesian Easter activities and traditional Indonesian dancing!

Gardening : Jo

Bean and pea trellises have been planned and constructed by the 4/5 students. Moving from the plan on paper to see the end result of the trellis was an interesting exercise. The students reviewed the difficulties as well as the successes in the construction process. Extra worm castings were added to the planting site to give nutrients to the seeds. If you look closely you’ll see some have sprouted already. We are hoping the tendrils will find the trellis as they grow.

Science : Troy

In Science the Year Twos have been learning about sound and how it travels. They have done lots of mini experiments including making rice dance from music and this week students created string telephones and held the strings to feel the vibrations that sound made.