Mount Pleasant Road Primary School & Kindergarten

Leadership Centre

Curriculum

This week plans to be another busy one with Book Week activities, extra zooms and the School Disco all planned and raring to go.

 

Our Wellbeing night was held Last Thursday and saw a number of teachers present the range of activities that are offered from Foundation-Year 6 at MPRPS. The night included presentations about Gratitude, the Zones of Regulation, character strengths, the effectiveness of circle time, having a growth mindset, the Let’s Talk Program and an overview of the MPRPS Wellbeing Community Hub. All of these strategies and approaches are ways in which students at MPRPS can help communicate their feelings and think more positively as well as regulate their emotions. You are also invited to use the Wellbeing Hub to find out more information about our Wellbeing Programs and further access resources. 

https://sites.google.com/education.vic.gov.au/mprpscommunitywellbeinghub/home

 

 

In Maths last week, we focused on multiplication and chance tasks. In multiplication, students focused on (according to their need) reviewing the vertical, lattice and grid strategy, applying the ‘Three Acts of Maths’ (see image to the left) and multiplying negative numbers. Other sessions gave students the opportunity to multiply decimals and investigate prime numbers and factors as well as triangular numbers. Toward the end of the week, students focused on recognising probabilities that range from 0-1, using tree diagrams to help identify all possible outcomes or events in chance experiments and investigating 2 step chance tasks and experiments. All of the sessions in Maths are differentiated to ensure that all students are working at their own level of skill and confidence. Teachers use the small group Maths Zoom sessions to practise and consolidate the skills and understanding which is required for that particular group of students.

 

In Writing, we have continued to analyse a range of song lyrics and identify the themes and messages. As part of the analysis, students highlighted and expanded on key words and phrases that stood out and wrote in their own words their thoughts and conclusions about the lyrics. With the song ‘Beds are Burning’ by Midnight Oil students were also given the opportunity to research facts about the Pintupi tribe as well as the Papunya Settlement. The small group Zoom sessions were a highlight and allowed discussion to take place about other songs and their messages. During this time on Zoom, students were asked to elaborate (and sometimes justify) on their answers, providing evidence from the lyrics. It was wonderful to see students build on other’s ideas and as a group ‘unpack’ the lyrics to identify the intended messages and meanings.

 

 

Reading tasks saw students access the listening post podcast ‘Did Carl really see a UFO?’ (from the ABC website) and answer questions on their given slides. The learning intention for this lesson was: ‘we are learning to use evidence and prior knowledge to form an opinion about whether an event is true’. Every lesson that is planned has a learning intention and focus that gives a purpose for the session. The success criteria is displayed for students to access and reflect on when gauging the level of success that they had in any given lesson. If they are asked ‘How are you going?’, instead of ‘good’ they should refer to the success criteria and what they achieved when answering the question.

Opportunity was also given to view the latest episode of Behind the News and research to then write a biography on an Australian scientist. Viewing Behind the News also allows students to be aware of relevant events that are not only occurring locally but around the world.

 

Students are strongly encouraged to read at least 30 minutes a day to further build their vocabulary and comprehension skills, make connections and deepen a love of learning and in particular of reading. Students are still making their way through the Term Three Athletics Reading Challenge (see image) and also had time to work on their reading goal.

 

 

In Guided Inquiry, students investigated the concept of ethical dilemmas and were given the opportunity to think critically when investigating different examples. Students learnt that an ethical dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more options, especially ones that are equally undesirable. The second session focused on investigating and researching the rights of children and then applying the knowledge to create an infographic to share their information. One human right is that all children have a right to an education. Did you know that more than 67 million children worldwide didn’t go to school today.

 

On top of the already planned Zoom small group sessions in Literacy and Numeracy we will be introducing Masterclass support meetings that will run between 12:30-1:30pm. These are optional for any students to attend if they have a question about their work or would like some help getting started with a particular task. Students do not need to attend for the whole hour but can just pop in even if they have a small question about their work. If students do not need to log into the Zoom then they just continue with their set tasks.  Look out for the links on Google Classroom this week!

 

Have a great week!

 

The Leadership Centre teachers

Student Voice

  • "I enjoyed analysing the song 'Times like these' because we got to write our thoughts on it" - Kevin
  • "I enioyed the maths chance tasks because it was fun learning how to determine chance" - Wahaj
  • "I liked how we were able to write a message to our heroes or our teachers because it's a great way to thank someone" - Angelina

Reminders

  • See updated timetable above to weekly Zoom schedule
  • Maths Zoom 9:30am and Literacy Zoom at 10:00am
  • Disco this Friday via Zoom between 6:00pm-6:30pm
  • Wear Book Week costumes to Zoom on Wednesday. We look forward to the many varied costumes! I wonder if the teachers will have a theme this year?

Pupil of the Week

5/6B: Pearl J -

Well done Pearl for displaying a great understanding of how to analyse a song. Your Song Analysis of "Beds are Burning" showed the inferred information you interpreted and was a highly insightful piece of writing displaying love of learning and judgement. 

 

5/6C: Kaleb W -

For displaying a love of learning and perseverance when solving challenging multiplication equations. Well done Kaleb, for never giving up and working hard to practice your newly learnt strategies. Keep up the awesome effort! 

 

5/6SB: Lucas S -

For challenging yourself by choosing three-star tasks in Maths and completing all set work in Literacy. Lucas, well done for your wonderful effort and displaying pleasing results. Keep it up!

 

5/6W: Leo M - 

For demonstrating initiative to extend yourself in Maths to complete the ‘3-Acts of Maths’ task. You very clearly recorded your mathematical thinking and justified your reasoning to prove your strategy was the most efficient. Keep up the amazing work, Leo!