Mount Pleasant Road Primary School & Kindergarten

Independence Centre

Curriculum

Selamat tinggal!

 

It’s hard to believe we only have 3 weeks left of the term! The 3/4 teachers are all looking forward to meeting parents, together with your children, during 3 Way Conferences this week. Students can bring along their iPads as they will be sharing their Term One goals with parents and teachers and celebrating their achievements so far. 

 

Even though last week was a short week, so many incredible things have been happening. Having finished our unit of Narrative writing, we began exploring Persuasive writing last week. We brainstormed ideas ‘for’ and ‘against’ a variety of topics, and worked on identifying our strongest arguments that could be used in our writing. As well as this, students worked together to learn about ‘persuasive devices’ using a ‘jigsaw’ protocol. Students grouped together to become experts on one particular persuasive device, such as rhetorical questions or emotive language. They then formed new groups with students that learned about other devices and shared their expertise. It was amazing to see students using a variety of these persuasive devices in their sizzling starts at the end of the week. This week, we will begin writing a full persuasive text on the topic ‘The Greatest Invention’. This was sent out to students and families as Home Talk on Thursday last week through Seesaw, paper slips and Google Classroom. We strongly encourage parents to discuss Home Talk with your children in order to assist your child in brainstorming and honing their ideas for writing. 

 

In Reading sessions across the week, students explored making text connections - text to self, text to text and text to world to help improve their understanding of the texts they are reading. When reading with your child at home, it is always beneficial to discuss with them any connections they make to other events, texts or situations to help them add context to their reading. Some sentence starters you could use in these discussions could be:

  • I am similar/different to the character because___________________.
  • If ___________________ happened to me, I would __________________.
  • The character _______ reminds me of another character _______ because__________.
  • The problem in this story is similar to the real world because ______.

After finishing the Time portion of our iFlicks Movie Projects in Week 7, students last week worked through the Data part of the project. Students collected data about the different movies that we watched and represented these on a variety of graphs including bar, line and even hand drawn pie graphs. They then had the opportunity to create a chosen graph digitally and developed questions to assist in explaining their data. It was excellent to see students challenging themselves with their chosen graph types and using problem solving to find fractions and percentages using the data. These projects will be appearing on Seesaw soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

 

Have a wonderful week, and see you all in 3 way conferences!

 

Mr O’Connor, Miss Chooi, Miss Richardson, Miss Wang, Mrs McCoy and Miss Honan 

NAPLAN - Year 3 and 5

To ensure a smooth transition for the upcoming NAPLAN tests in May, students in Years 3 and 5 will undertake a practice test in late March (date TBC). The data from the practice test will not be used for assessment purposes but to familiarise students with the format. Over the next week or two, please ensure all students in Years 3 and 5 have downloaded the NAP Locked Down Browser App or have updated it to its latest update. 

Student Voice

  • Wendy W - "I enjoyed Guided Inquiry where we can share our ideas and collaborate with our group."
  • Lewis T - "I enjoyed going to the Library because I found a good book to borrow and read at home." 
  • Tom M - "I liked 3/4 Sport because sport is my favourite. I liked playing basketball."

Reminders

  • 3 Way Conferences all week (21st - 25th March). If you do not have a session booked, please contact your child's teacher.
  • Seesaw parent access - if you have any trouble accessing ‘Seesaw Family’ application, please contact your child’s teacher.
  • Grade 3 students must have the “NAP Browser” app downloaded for our NAPLAN readiness check in the coming weeks.
  • Students need hats and water bottles each day
  • Students need their own pair of headphones at school
  • Please finalise and complete any Sentral consent forms
  • Please pack a spare mask in your child’s bag in case one breaks or is lost

Pupil of the Week

3/4C: Chace Q -

For forming great text to self and text to text connections. It was wonderful to see you using curiosity and your prior knowledge to make connections to our visual stimulus. Great work, Chace! 

 

3/4H: Angus H -

For demonstrating creativity and life-long learning when writing your persuasive introduction. You hooked your reading using persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions and interesting facts. Awesome work, Angus!

 

3/4M: Arav C -

For demonstrating a keen love of learning and curiosity in mathematics sessions last week when completing our graphing project. It was fantastic to see you use your knowledge of decimals and percentages to help you create a hand drawn pie graph. Amazing effort, Arav! 

 

3/4O: Jeremy K -

For demonstrating bravery and a love of learning. During our Time and Data project you have challenged yourself to create a hand drawn pie chart and you used your fractions knowledge to explain how you measured the different sizes. Great work, Jeremy! 

 

3/4R: Hinrich P -

For demonstrating creativity and a love of learning when calculating your pie graphs in your maths book. Well done on connecting your knowledge of angles to your graph work. Lovely work, Hinrich.

 

3/4W: Ryan R -

For demonstrating leadership and a 'love of learning' during Maths this week. You challenged yourself to present your data both on paper and using digital devices and supported your classmates positively as a 'mini teacher'.