Professional Learning Community Foundation (Preps)

In Prep, we have had a fantastic 2 full weeks at school. We are so proud how students are adjusting to the longer weeks and how their independence has grown.

In Reading we have been working on recognising CVC words (consonant vowel consonant) students have been working hard to stretch out the letters in a CVC words and reread it, for example C-A-T Cat . Remember students need to read their home reader each night and diaries are being signed every night too. We love hearing that students are increasing their confidence reading at home each night .

In Writing we are working on writing accurate sentences – about what we can see, hear and feel. We love seeing our students giving their writing a 'red hot go'.

In Numeracy we have been learning about 2D shapes. Students have been practising recognising, drawing and identifying features of different shapes.

Just a reminder on icy pole days please bring money in a labelled zip lock bag or in their lunch box. Please also remember to make sure students have labels on all of their belongings including jumpers.

Professional Learning Community 1 (Grade 1 )

It’s hard to believe that there’s only two weeks left before the Easter holidays! The Grade 1 students have been as busy as ever and we couldn’t be prouder of the fantastic attitudes they have displayed towards all learning tasks.

In Reading, we have been analysing texts by paying close attention to features such as illustrations and photos, contents pages, titles and sub-titles and the overall layout of books to help determine whether the text is fiction or non-fiction and categorising them into their correct genre.

In Writing, the students have been focusing on figurative language strategies such as power of 3, similes, hyperboles and alliterations in preparation for this week’s description about their excursion to Sovereign Hill. We’re very excited to see the finished product at the end of the week!

In Numeracy, the focus has been on counting, organising and recording numbers based on collections of counters, icy pole sticks and MAB blocks. It’s been terrific to see students working through their zone of confusion and successfully problem solving throughout numeracy lessons.

The PLC 1 team look forward to a strong finish to Term 1!

PLC 1 Teachers

Professional Learning Community 2 (Grade 2 )

What a busy few weeks it has been in PLC 2! The year 2 students had a great time at Sovereign Hill, learning about how people lived in the 1850s. The students had a blast when panning for gold, with some students being very lucky and finding some little specks of gold.

Within the classroom, there has been some gold standards across the whole PLC cohort! Using Sovereign Hill as our overall topic, students have written some great narratives, descriptions and expositions all while focussing on connections they made during the excursion to Sovereign Hill. We have seen some great alliteration like ‘glittery glistening gold’, some fantastic metaphors such as ‘the gold was as bright as the sun’, and a lot more figurative language within the students writing. The teachers are loving what we are seeing!

In Numeracy, who can forget such an amazing subject? Over the last couple of weeks, students have been learning about chance and probability. We have looked at the language of chance, such as certain, likely, equal chance, unlikely and impossible. Students have used this knowledge to understand outcomes that may or may not happen. Who can forget our Smartie lesson too! Students were able to learn about recording and representing data all from using a box of chocolate Smarties! What a fun way to learn. The teachers were very happy that there were a few leftover boxes of Smarties… they didn’t last long.

Just a quick reminder that PLC 2, next term will be investigating Chemical Science and will require 60 jars with lids. If you have spaghetti bolognese and are not sure what to do with the jar, please send it to school with its lid so we can reuse it and have fun experimenting.

Have a great week from the PLC 2 Teachers!

Professional Learning Community 3 (Grades 3)

Who can believe that it’s week 8 and the end of the term is getting closer and closer? Well this has not deterred Grade 3 students. They have been working so hard. In Reading, we have been reading John Marsden’s book ‘The Rabbits’ and have been digging deep to analyse the author’s craft. In Writing, students have begun their PBL topic and are writing a description of what ‘Life is like at sea’.

In Numeracy, students are continuing to develop their quick mental strategies and are now focusing on subtraction so keep asking those subtraction questions at home to practise, practise, practise! In the last couple of weeks we will be starting to focus on our multiplication strategies – so we are looking forward to delving into this!

Keep up the great work and have a wonderful week.

PLC 3 Teachers

Professional Learning Community 4 (Grades 4)

Wow, week 8!! Can’t believe this term is nearly over.

In Literacy this week students have been working on summarising in Reading, which gets trickier when we are reading chapter books and writing expositions about whether it was fair or unjust to be sent to Australia as a convict in Writing. We are really amazing learners in PLC 4!

In Numeracy we have been working on addition and subtraction strategies we use to solve these equations. We have played a lot of different games to practise this and made notes about the strategies we prefer to use and learnt some better ones too.

Next week swimming will start on Monday 22nd to Wednesday 31st. Please remember to bring a waterproof swim bag, googles, bathers and towel. Also make sure these items are clearly named. The swimming times for each class is below:

Classes	Leave school	In the pool	Back to school
4B	12.30pm	1-1.30pm	2pm
4A	1pm	1.30-2pm	2.30pm
4C	1.30pm	2-2.30pm	3pm

Professional Learning Community 5 (Grades 5)

We are so proud of how well the Grade 5s have settled into this term and we hope they have enjoyed their long weekend and energetic sports’ day.

This week in Literacy we have continued to research information about our chosen person who has shaped Australia for our PBL topic. We have also been practising our stamina writing including persuasive texts and using three clear and concise arguments. In Reading we have studied the F&P reading goals and strategies to use in leaving effective tracks. We have continued our class text ‘Wonder’ and it has been so wonderful to see students’ enthusiasm and passion for the text.

In Numeracy students’ have been practising the partition strategy for subtraction as well as exploring different language associated with the symbol and word problems.

Just a reminder to return your Sovereign Hill notes for our excursion in week 9 on Thursday and Friday. It will be a great experience for students. Also this week students will experience a work shop in ‘Cops in Schools’.

Professional Learning Community 6 (Grades 6)

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks we have had in Year 6 and things are not about to slow down now!

Students have completed a 2 week intensive swimming program at Shayne Reese in which they also learnt about water safety, getting the opportunity to test out their skills with the additional weight of clothing. It was great to see students’ skills and confidence develop throughout the weeks.

During this time students also took part in Cross Country; this was a blast and we were so proud of everyone that gave it a 'Red Hot Go' and received points for their house. House Athletics Day was no exception with everyone once again putting in a phenomenal effort. Somehow with all of this, we also completed an exposition arguing that either a BBQ or a roast is the superior meal, we worked on our multiplication and division skills as well as learning about genre.

We have been working really hard on setting the scene for our Sovereign Hill Schools’ experience by creating characters and telling our story of how we came to be at the Goldfields. We are very excited for the experience next week and are ready to throw ourselves into the 1850s. Please remember that you must have a pair of non branded black lace up shoes and that girls must wear their hair in 2 plaits. You will receive a letter at the end of this week with final details.

Today we started our first session of Cops in Schools and are really excited for future lessons with Des.

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